Giants make no excuses

The Giants might have won the bottom eight section at the national men's inter-club tournament in Wellington last week but they are not exactly blowing their trumpets over the achievement.
In fact, experienced pitcher Ritchie Clarke said the Giant's overall performance was "forgettable".
"We were poor, very poor ," the typically forthright Clarke said. "It was rubbish, you can't put it any other way. Forgettable pretty much sums it up."
Heading into the tourney on the back of making the semifinals of the Inter-City series and the Hutt Valley premier men's league, the Giants were optimistic about their chances of finishing in the top two of their pool and qualifying for the main championship play-offs.
But they lost all five of their pool games, going under 0-5 to Auckland United, 3-5 to Wainuiomata, 0-3 to Waitakere Bears, 1-2 to Johnsonville and 6-7 to Howick.
Clarke admits he can't put a finger on why the Giants failed to get out of second gear in almost all of those games.
"It wasn't a lack of trying, it was just that virtually nothing seemed to go right," he said.
"There's no room for excuses when you play like that, and we're not making any. It was very average stuff."
If there was any bright note for Giants it came when they edged out Fast Pitch of Hawke's Bay 6-5 in the bottom eight final, but Clarke wasn't in a mood to laud that effort either.
"I guess it was nice to finish with a positive result but you can't be happy with ending up where we did - bottom eight isn't where we wanted to be."
For Clarke and at least three other members of the Giants squad - Corie Karaitiana, Terry Waitere and Ryan Shannahan - the national tourney was very possibly their swansong in Giants colours.
Karaitiana and Waitere are contemplating retirement and Shannahan is heading to Australia.
Clarke leaves in May to live in Canada.