CRICKET - Taking on the best club sides in country

THE cricket season officially finished last weekend in Northland but for the in-form team of the season, City club's premier side, there is still one challenge remaining.
City travel to Auckland today for the week-long National Club Championships, hosted every year by Cornwall Cricket Club.
It is just the second time the club has reached the competition's finals, which features the top teams from the six regional associations, with City earning the right to represent Northern Districts.
Only two players survive from the squad that won third place in the 2000 competition, with City veterans Darron Goodwin and Joey Yovich providing the experience in a strong looking City side. Play starts tomorrow and City captain Owain Hopkins said the aim is to improve on City's 2000 result.
"We're just going to try and play our game as well as we can and if we do that then I don't see why we can't make it through to the final on Sunday," Hopkins said.
"We don't know too much about the other teams, I mean we've seen the squad lists and there don't seem to be that many first class players in them, we've got Joey (Yovich), so that's an advantage," he continued.
City have been the team to beat in the Whangarei club competition this season, winning the first one-day competition and the two-day final, before losing traction slightly in the second one-day competition, which was claimed by Maungakaramea.
Hopkins said that the side had raised their level of intensity while playing against other Northern Districts sides for a place at Cornwall Park and he expected that attitude to continue this week against some of the country's top club sides.
Otago's Green Island have dominated the modern format of the competition with five titles since 1995, they will start as competition favourites once more this week.
Naenae Old Boys were beaten finalists last year but the loss was the only one they have suffered in two seasons of one-day cricket. With form like that they will again be expecting to feature in the final but they have been weakened by the loss of Grant Elliot and BJ Crook, who will instead play for the Wellington provincial side against Canterbury in the State Championship final.
Cornwall must be considered a strong chance to win their own tournament, even though it is the first time they have qualified for five years.
Auckland batsman Rob Nicol and former Ace's player and Cornwall Club stalwart Alan Barnes will spearhead their squad's campaign.
Canterbury side Sydenham has not enjoyed the best form in club competition this season. Unlike the other regions, they qualified for the tournament by virtue of winning the 2006-7 Canterbury club competition but few teams will take them lightly this week.
City and Central Districts representative Hawera are regarded as the competition dark horses and will hope they can use that to slip past some of the more highly rated teams.
Tournament director Adrian Dale said the competition has been sanctioned by New Zealand Cricket for the first time this year after shrugging off its earlier image.
"It was just seen as a good reason for an end of year trip by some of the clubs but now because of the increase in prize money and the endorsement by NZ Cricket, the tournament has grown into a far more serious thing - the feature event for club cricket in New Zealand," he said.
Each team plays each other in a 50-over game in the five first rounds, with the top two playing off in the final on Sunday. Matches to decide third and fourth and fifth and sixth are also held on Sunday.
All games will be played on Cornwall Park's three grounds. The size of the grounds varies and everyone will look forward to taking their turn on the picturesque number-one ground.
• The City team is: Owain Hopkins (capt), Brad Chard, Bert Horner, Joe Yovich, Mark Tulloch, Kurt Wilson, Jamie Matthews, Josh Matthews, Darron Goodwin, Andrew Pratt, Tim Anderson, Jarred Ridling, Matthew Matthias.