First hour's play might dictate Bidwell Cup result

The first hour's play could dictate the end result when Flight Centre Lansdowne and Wairarapa College continue their Bidwell Cup senior men's cricket match at Wairarapa College tomorrow.
Lansdowne initially went into the game as firm favourites to secure an outright win but with the first day's play being shortened to 54 overs by damp weather and the students showing stubborn resistance in getting through to 121-6 at stumps a draw is now the most likely result.
That could change, however, if Lansdowne were able to grab the remaining four Wairarapa College first innings wickets in little time and at little cost tomorrow.
Do that and their powerful batting line-up will have the chance to pile on runs quickly enough to take a first innings lead, declare and then allow their bowlers to dismiss Wairarapa College for a second time.
The odds are though that Wairarapa College will do better than that.
In Leighton Calkin they have a promising middle order batsman who will resume his first innings knock on 33 and he has the temperament to relish the challenge of putting the Lansdowne attack to the sword.
If Calkin gets into full stride it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Wairarapa College themselves could not only avoid outright defeat but perhaps even take first innings points.
After all Lansdowne won't be wasting any time at the batting crease and while that makes them dangerous it also makes them vulnerable to accurate bowling and sound catching.
The other Bidwell Cup match between Rathkeale College and Greytown will be played at Rathkeale tomorrow and Sunday and Greytown will no doubt be eyeing this particular match as a royal opportunity to secure an outright win, and perhaps close the gap on Lansdowne at the top of the points table in the process.
The big question here will centre around the ability or otherwise of the Rathkeale batsmen to cope with Greytown's proven pace attack and they will obviously be hoping for a better-friendly pitch in that respect.
Rathkeale College will though have taken confidence from their 50-run win over St Peters (Cambridge) in a inter-school fixture last weekend.
Sent into bat Rathkeale benefited from a good knock of 47 by Matthew Stringfellow at the top of the innings but were struggling at 147-5 until a good partnership developed between Ben Foster and Harry Clinton-Baker.
Foster was on 89 not out when the first day's play ended with the score at 210-7 while Clinton-Baker made 29.
Unfortunately for Foster he added only one run to his overnight total when the second day's play commenced and Rathkeale immediately declared at 216-8.
St Peter's made a solid start to their first innings but with medium pacer Alec Morrison tying up one end Rathkeale took the upper hand and they were finally all out for 149.
Morrison's splendid figures of 6-54 from 26 overs were a testimony to his sustained accuracy.
Time was now running out if Rathkeale were to press on for an outright win and their second innings lasted only 13 overs from which they scored 95-5 before declaring.
Matthew Stringfellow completed a fine double by being 45 not out and Jamie Holmes livened proceedings up with his 27 off 16 balls.
The Rathkeale declaration left St Peter's a target of 134 runs in 34 overs and going into the last hour they needed only four runs an hour to achieve it.
However, the Rathkeale bowlers picked up some key wickets in quick succession and they were dismissed for just 114.
Rathkeale coach Shay O'Gorman was delighted with the way victory was obtained, saying the second innings declaration was made with the idea of encouraging St Peter's not to set up shop and chase hard for the win themselves.
"We had to risk losing to set up the victory, it was simple as that" O'Gorman said.
This week also saw Rathkeale play a combined Kuranui-Chanel side in the first round of the Gillette Cup national secondary schools knockout competition.
Kuranui-Chanel won the toss and batted first, being all out for 68. Bowling for Rathkeale, Jacob Smith took 5-28 off six overs.
Rathkeale lost just the one wicket in scoring the 69 runs required and again skipper Matthew Stringfellow led the way with an unbeaten 34.
CULTURE CUP
There should be some entertaining cricket at Park Sportsground No.3 on Sunday when the inaugural Cultures Cup tournament is played.
It will involve a Pacific Island XI, Maori XI and an Indian XI in what could be the first event of its kind to be held in regional New Zealand.
The first game, that between Indians and Pacific Islands, will get underway at 11.am with the Pacific Islands playing the Maoris at 3.15pm.