Over the 108 years of Southland Crickets' history there have been many memorable performances that have established the region as one of the highly respected District Associations in the country and this has been created through its tenures defending the District Associations' Hawke Cup.

Southland was the first holders of Lord Hawke Cup when it was first played for in 1910. Then it was competed for on a tournament basis until 1913 when South Auckland lost it to Wanganui in the first of the challenge based series.

In 1924, elimination matches were introduced to decide who were to be the challengers each year, and this format has remained.

Southland has had two significant periods with the Hawke Cup. Between March 1973 and February 1977 Southland defended the Cup on 14 occassions and again between February 1989 and February 1992 it withstood 15 challenges for what was then the U-Bix Cup. Nelson who managed 28, over the years 1958-65 has only surpassed this number of consecutive defenses.

In 2018, Southlands dominant 10 wicket victory over Counties Manakau ended a 26 year drought, when they claimed the Hawke Cup for the first time since 1992. Southland defended their first challenge from Mid-Canterbury in February 2019, but then were beaten by 36 runds in a first innings victory by Nelson on 17th February 2019.