Giants celebrate reunion in style with big win

Giants gave their 40 th reunion celebrations a flying start by outclassing Kapiti 7-2 in their Inter-City series men's softball top six playoff match at South Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Watched by a big and vocal crowd Giants were keen to apply early pressure on the well-performed Kapiti line-up and they couldn't have scripted it better with Ritchie Clarke slamming a three-run home run at their first turn at bat.
"We wanted to set the standard with the bat right from the word go and he (Clarke) did exactly what was required," Giants coach Tony Nixon said. " It put us on the front foot and from there it was just a matter of doing the basics well and the win would come."
Clarke may have grabbed the limelight with his batting heroics but this was also an outstanding all-round performance by Giants.
Their pitcher-catcher combination of Justin Karaitiana and Curtis Ames provided an almost faultless exhibition but even they were overshadowed in the field by young short stop Ryan Shannahan who was dynamic in that crucial role. And there was some fine work too by outfielders Terry Waitere and Blair Thompson.
Unfortunately the inclement weather meant that the other three Giants teams scheduled to play at South Park yesterday had their games postponed but there was time to reminisce yesterday when eight players from the original Giants team of 40 years ago played the club's current under-15 team. The "originals" consisted of Allan Clarke, Reg Namana, Bo Namana, Dennis Russell, Billy Edge, Vin Oswald, Colin Archibald and Doug Fake and considering they had all enjoyed the festivities at the reunion dinner the night before they were surprisingly spritely in their play.