Coach confident of win

Wairarapa cricket selector Dick Kendall is taking a very positive stance on the merits of the team he has selected to play Wanganui in the first of the Hawke Cup qualifying games at the Park Oval in Masterton tomorrow and Sunday.
Not only is Kendall confident he has team to win this particular game, but he considers they are capable of going the whole way and bringing home the Hawke Cup itself.
"I honestly believe that potentially we will be as strong as any team in the competition," Kendall said. "What we have do is play to that potential on a consistent basis, do that and the results will follow."
The obvious feature of the line-up Kendall has named to play Wanganui is the youthfulness of the attack.
Of the four bowlers named Greytown paceman Hayden Spierling is the oldest and is in his early 20's. Sharing the new ball with him will be either Rathkeale College's Doug Bracewell, 15, or Wairarapa College's Seth Rance, 17, while the specialist spinner Simon Clinton-Baker, also of Rathkeale College, is just 16.
Kendall is not the least concerned that the inexperience of his bowlers at the top level might be a problem.
"They are all very talented players with a competitive attitude and I can't see their ages being a worry at all," he said. "They certainly won't lack stamina or enthusiasm and that's a big plus for starters. And they've all got enormous natural ability?they are there because they deserve to be there."
It's not as if Wairarapa's bowling resources start and end with the abovementioned quartet either.
Another youngster in Andy Dodd, 16, is a more-than-handy spinner as is vice-captain Ngatai Walker while veteran Chris Jefferies is a medium pacer who has had his share of success on the rep scene in the past.
The selection of Jefferies will raise a few eyebrows in the sense that he actually announced his retirement from rep cricket at the end of last season, but with Jay Newdick not considered for this weekend's match he was persuaded to have a change of heart.
Newdick, an all-rounder who plays for the Taita club in Wellington, is keen to play for Wairarapa and Kendall is keen to have him, but his clearance from the NZCC had not arrived by mid-week and so Kendall had little alternative but to delay his debut appearance for Wairarapa.
That will almost certainly come the following weekend when Wairarapa will be without their Rathkeale College players for their next Hawke Cup assignment against Nelson at Nelson.
On the batting front it will be in-form Lansdowne player Henry Cameron?already the scorer of two centuries in club cricket?who will open the Wairarapa innings in partnership with Cameron Stone of Wairarapa College.
At No.3 will be John Peters, who, as expected, will captain the Wairarapa side for the second successive season and who has just returned from a hugely successful season with English minor league club Westinghouse
Peters will be followed by Eddie Hopkins (Academy), Walker, Dodd,Jefferies and another Academy player Will Rist, who got the nod for the wicketkeeper's job ahead of Andy Roberts in what must have been a close go. At just 18, Rist is another in the youthful category.
Selector Kendall is "more than happy" with the depth of his batting line-up and agrees the onus is on them to score enough runs in their first innings to basically take Wanganui out of the game from a winning perspective.
"First innings runs are just so vital in a two-day match, and we simply have to perform in that area," Kendall said. "The bigger the lead we can establish there the easier it should be to push on for the win."
UMPIRES CUP
Matches in the Umpires Cup senior men's inter-club competition continue tomorrow, and with all teams except Red Star missing key players through rep commitments much will depend on the capabilities of their replacements.
If past form does happen to count then Lansdowne will probably have the edge on Rathkeale College in their match at Rathkeale, Greytown might edge out Academy at the Sportsbowl and Red Star could sneak in against Wairarapa College at Park Sports No.2.