Greytown's Didsbury brought into team for Taranaki Cup clash

Greytown wicketkeeper Duncan Didsbury has been brought into the Wairarapa senior men's cricket team for their Hawke Cup qualifying and Chapple Cup matches against Taranaki at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval in Masterton this coming weekend.
Didsbury will be the third wicketkeeper tried by Wairarapa in as many matches this season with Greytown clubmate Paul Lyttle having the gloves against Nelson and Wairarapa College youngster Alex Treseder likewise against Manawatu.
Convenor of selectors Dermot Payton said Didsbury's inclusion for the game with Taranaki, who are the Hawke Cup holders, was based purely on form behind the stumps.
"Wicketkeeping is a specialist position and right now we believe he (Didsbury) is the best man for the job," Payton said.
Taranaki will go into this weekend's clashes as firm favourites but Payton considers Wairarapa only have to play to their potential to put them to the test.
"There is absolutely no reason why we can't be very competitive in both forms of the game, it's just a case of players knuckling down and doing the business to the best of their abilities," he said.
Payton said Wairarapa's eight wicket defeat at the hands of Manawatu in their Hawke Cup qualifying match played late last month came after a much better performance than the final result might indicate.
He said Wairarapa had in fact measured up to a Manawatu side boosted by the inclusion of three Central District State championship representatives for five of the six sessions, the only blot on their effort coming in the last of them when Manawatu scored the 195 runs required for the outright win for the loss of just two second innings wickets.
"We probably made life a bit too easy for them then but before that we were right in the game, there was nothing in it," he said.
Payton said it was frustrating that two "pretty bizarre" second innings dismissals had probably stopped Wairarapa from setting Manawatu a much stiffer target for the outright win.
Chad Yates, batting at number four, was going along nicely on 18 when a well-struck shot rebounded off a player fielding at silly point and was caught at short leg.
And in-form middle order batsman Brock Price was on 40 when he was finally given out leg before wicket after the umpire had previously seemingly upheld an appeal by Manawatu for a caught behind despite the wicketkeeper spilling the catch.
The lbw decision came after the umpire in question had conferred with the square leg umpire and justifiably caused some consternation in the Wairarapa ranks because Price was convinced he had got bat on ball & something which seemed to be confirmed by the umpire's original response.
Payton said Price had been striking the ball so well that a big score for him appeared in the offing and to lose his wicket in such controversial circumstances was a big blow for Wairarapa.
"Obviously we weren't happy but there wasn't a lot we could do about it," he said.
Perhaps the most positive factor from the Manawatu game for Wairarapa was the solidity of the top order batting with the introduction of Brad Edwards as the opening partner for skipper Sam Curtis and the placing of Willie Tatham at first drop giving much needed stability there.
The Hawke Cup encounter saw Edwards score 12 and 38, Curtis 22 and 42 and Tatham 23 and 18 while Curtis with 34 and Tatham with 30 were also the top scorers in the Chapple Cup match which Manawatu won by two wickets.
In the bowling department Seth Rance was back to something like his best form in snaring four wicket in Manawatu's first innings of the Hawke Cup match and could be considered unlucky not to make the Central Districts A squad, which will meet their Wellington counterparts in Masterton on January 15, 16 and 17. Curtis is the only Wairarapa player in that side.
Meanwhile, a Wairarapa XI was beaten by five wickets by Wanganui B in a limited-overs match played at Victoria Park, Wanganui last Sunday.
Wairarapa batted first and made 260 with the major contributors being Alex Treseder (27), Brock Price (43), Joe Hull (29), Jeremy Anderson (55) and Robbie Anderson (51).
Wanganui reached their target for the loss of five wickets with first drop B. Smith top scoring with 73. Bowling for Wairarapa, Tom Adamson took 1-42, Willie Thompson 1-38, Daniel Ingham 2-50 and Brian James 1-52.
On the club scene matches in the Umpires Cup senior competition continued last Saturday with Wairarapa College beating Greytown by 21 runs and Red Star beating Lansdowne by two wickets.