Giants not put off by loss

Giants are undeterred by their 7-3 loss to Porirua City United in their top-of-the-table Intercity series men's softball match at Porirua on Saturday
The defeat left Giants still in second place on the competition table and there was enough scope for improvement in their performance for coach Tony Nixon to express confidence in their ability to turn the tables the next time the two teams meet.
"I think they (Porirua) played as well as they can whereas there are certain things we can improve," Nixon said. "Obviously we wanted to win but it wasn't what you would call a disappointing loss, nothing like that at all."
Giants had gone into Saturday's match wary of Porirua's star-studded battling line-up and while the home team did manage three home runs, one of them to Black Sox Thomas Makea, Nixon said both Giants pitchers, Ritchie Clarke and Mark Quinn had done a good job. Clarke pitched the first six innings and Quinn the seventh.
"It's hard work keeping the pressure on such a quality batting side and I thought we did well in that respect," Nixon said.
Giants's own batting display might have lacked the consistency of some of their previous efforts but there were at least couple of high points with Mark Quinn and Blair Thompson both hitting automatic home runs.
"We are capable of better with the bat and that's the area where we should improve the most next time we play them," Nixon said. "They have a good pitching staff but we probably made them look a little better than they are."
Starring for Giants in what was a solid all-round fielding display were Murray Brown and Michael Grant, both of whom pulled off brilliant catches in the outfield.
The Giants under-15 boys team moved to a clear second place on their Hutt Valley competition table with an enthralling 5-4 win over Wainuiomata, but both the Giants premier twos and the President's grade teams were beaten by their Wainuiomata counterparts, the premier twos by 4-2 and the Presidents by 17-6.