Giants players dominate reps

Masterton-based Giants will have huge representation in Hutt Valley teams to contest the national NPC men's softball tournament in Palmerston North from January 7 to 10.
Named in the Hutt Valley A side have been their Canadian catcher Curtis Ames, pitcher or first baseman Justin Karaitiana and outfielder Corie Karaitiana, all of whom are prolific run getters as well.
And in the HuttValley B line-up are a host of Giants players?.Mark Quinn, Richard Clarke, Terry Waitere, Jared Lambert, Ryan Shannahan and Blair Thompson.
Assistant coach Russell Thompson is justifiably "very proud" of the fact that so many of his Giants side will be performing in the NPC, which is just one tier down from the NPC, and is confident they will do justice to both Wairarapa and Hutt Valley.
"Every one of the nine players selected deserves to be there," Thompson said. "The competition will be intense but they will handle it, no question of that."
Thompson said the recognition given Giants by the Hutt Valley selectors was obviously due in large part to the excellent pre-Christmas form shown by the club in both the Lexington Trophy Inter-City series and the Hutt Valley premier men's competition.
Giants are currently competing in the Inter-City for the sixth season and have yet to make the top six playoffs in an event which attracts the top 11 premier men's teams from within the powerful Wellington and Hutt Valley regions
This season, however, a top six spot is well within their capabilities, as evidenced by their second placing on the points table going into the holiday break.
Sure, they have played nine out of their 10 preliminary games while some other sides have had just four or five because of clashes with national league commitments but it seems very unlikely that when all matches are completed they won't be part of the top six for the first time ever.
"It looks certain we will make it and that's just huge for the club," Thompson said. "This competition is as tough as you would get in this country and for us to be up there amongst the big guns really is something special."
The highlight of this season's Inter-City series to date for Giants was their victory over a club which is still a household name in New Zealand softball, Cardinals, and. what's more, they have beaten them in the Hutt Valley competition too.
"If someone had suggested even a couple of seasons ago we would beat Cardinals a couple of times in any one season you would have thought they were mad," Thompson said. "But it's all a mark of the progress we have made, and are continuing to make."
There are just five teams in the Hutt Valley premier league and Giants have played the least number of games of all of them but are lying a close fourth, a position which Russell Thompson expects to see them enhancing before the top four play-offs get under way.
Their catch up games, which won't be played until about the end of next month, are against Dodgers and Hutt Valley Marist and Thompson is "pretty confident" Giants can win both of them.
"I'd like to think we could be lying at least second going into the play-offs," Thompson said. "It's certainly a possibility and that's what we will be aiming for."
The current Hutt Valley points table is (in the same order as the Inter-City): Hutt City United 6, 5, 1, 31, 12, 1, 16; Cardinals 7, 4, 3, 21, 32, 1, 13; Dodgers 7, 3, 4, 37, 41, 3, 12; Giants 5, 3, 2, 34, 21, 1, 10; Hutt Valley Marist 7, 1, 6, 21, 38, 3, 6.