Giants taking nothing for granted in season opener

Cross Country Rentals Giants are taking nothing for granted when they kick off both their Hutt Valley premier league and Inter-City series men's softball campaigns with a double header against Hutt Valley Marist at South Park, Masterton tomorrow.
Going on last season's form Giants, who are the defending Hutt Valley champions, would start a warm favourite to win both games but with rumours suggesting Marist have strengthened their playing resources in recent weeks coach Tony Nixon is wary of the challenge they pose.
"It's one of those situations where you have to be careful you don't get caught on the hop, they could be a lot tougher than people think," he said. Nixon was pleased, however, with the early-season form shown by Giants at a tournament in Kapiti last weekend.
They beat the country's second highest ranked club side, Miramar, 1-0 in their opening match before losing narrowly to Kapiti and then giving Poneke-Kilbirnie a good old-fashioned walloping.
Nixon said both pitchers, Ritchie Clarke and Justin Karaitiana, were in fine form and the batting had improved game by game.
"Obviously there is still work to do before we get right up to scratch but it was an encouraging start, probably better than we expected," he said.
With Giants having no overseas "imports" this season the pressure is on their local players to step up to the mark with Nixon expecting big things from acquisitions like Richard Carroll, Tommy Davidson, Nathan Shannahan and a duo who have been at a national development squad training camp at Auckland this week, Danny Brown and Campbell Gaunt.