Hawke Cup side to be named

The naming of the Wairarapa senior men's team to play Hawke Cup elimination games against Nelson at Nelson and Hawke's Bay at Napier over the next two weekends will be the highlight of local cricket tomorrow.
Selectors Robin James, Dick Kendall and Brendan Bracewell will finalise their side at the conclusion of club games and announce it at the Lansdowne club rooms at 7.30pm.
James, who will also coach and captain Wairarapa this season, believes they will come up with a competitive unit.
Top order batting has been a problem area in the past but the availability of Sam Curtis, who has been playing his club cricket in Wellington, should be a major assist there.
And the number of competent middle order batsmen in contention was such that it was more a matter of who to leave out rather than who to select.
"There are going to be some players who will be unlucky to miss out but then that's a healthy sign, isn't it ?," James said.
As to the bowling James is confident Wairarapa will be well served in both the medium pace and spinning departments.
"We don't have anybody who is going to blast the opposition out but we do have bowlers capable of maintaining good line and length and that's what we will be looking for," he said.
The one worry James has is that Wairarapa is going into matches against teams of good calibre with a very limited diet of two day cricket behind them.
"Most of the cricket we have had has been limited-overs so getting into two day mode will be a test," he said. "You often need to be more patient there in both batting and bowling but hopefully we can adjust without too many hassles".
Meanwhile, tomorrow's Bidwell Cup senior games will take on a different look than originally intended.
With last weekend's action rained out they will now be played under the one-day format and consequently results could change quite dramatically from those predicted earlier.
The form of Red Star, for instance, would suggest they are more suited to the one-day game and so the edge Wairarapa College could have expected to have on them over two days may no longer be there. The students do have more depth in their batting though and that could be a decisive factor in the final analysis.
Lansdowne and Greytown should have an interesting duel with the former, like Red Star, probably more of a threat in one day matches than in the longer version especially if the versatile Robin James gets going with bat and ball. Nullify his influence and Greytown should win.
Academy could find life tough against a Rathkeale College team buoyed by the fact they have made it through to the national finals of the Gillette Cup national secondary schoolboys competition for the second successive year.
It is a fact, however, that Rathkeale are still to produce their best form on the club scene this season and Academy have enough individual talent in the likes of Jamie Perkin, Richard Lewis and Matt Young to capitalise if that happens again.
The draw for inter-club cricket tomorrow is:
Senior (12 noon start): Rathkeale v Academy at Rathkeale Oval, Lansdowne v Greytown at Queen Elizabeth Park oval, Wairarapa College v Red Star at Wairarapa College.
Open grade (Chairman's Cup): v Rathkeale 2 v Red Star 2 at Sportsbowl at 12 noon (50 overs), Rathkeale colts v Wairarapa College No.2 at park Sports No.2 at 12 noon (50 overs), Greytown 2 v Greytown 3 at Greytown at 1pm (40 overs), Lansdowne No.3 v Cossie at Park Sports No.1 artificial at 1pm (40 overs).