Howzat?

Wairarapa have protested the result of their Hawke Cup qualifying cricket match with Horowhenua-Kapiti played at Levin over the weekend.
The rain-affected game ended in a draw with Wairarapa being 219-9 in their first innings when stumps were finally drawn on the second day, still 19 runs in arrears of their opposition's first innings tally of 236.
The Wairarapa protest is based around the late removal of the covers on both days of the game, plus the fact that the covers were so inadequate that the pitch was dampened to the extent that the hours of play had to be shortened on the Saturday and the Sunday.
Wairarapa selector Dick Kendall described the batting conditions when the Wairarapa's first innings commenced after 3.30pm on Sunday as "farcical".
He said whilst one end of the pitch was dry and batsmen could play shots from there with confidence the other had wet patches which saw the ball often pop and become virtually unplayable.
"Basically what we had to do was concentrate on just trying to keep our wickets intact at one end and try and score the bulk of the runs from the other,"Kendall said. "In that sense it wasn't a fair contest and that, I suppose, is the real basis of the protest."
The draw meant the two teams ended the game with three points apiece and while Wairarapa would obviously like to at least be given the seven points for a first innings lead by the NZCC they are not counting their chickens in that regard.
"The protest has gone in and the rest is up to those who make these decisions," Kendall said. "We thought we were unjustly treated and we've done what we needed to do to get that point across."
Kendall was not particularly happy with the Wairarapa bowling despite them restricting Horowhenua-Kapiti to just 236 in 96 overs.
"Honestly we should have them out for less?quite a bit less," he said.
"We weren't as consistent as we needed to be in line and length, too often we were trying to blast them out rather than be patient and let the wicket do the work."
The most impressive of the Wairarapa bowlers was veteran Chris Jefferies, who officially announced his retirement from rep cricket at the game's end.
In his three Hawke Cup appearances this season he has made an impression with bat and ball but his decision to quit did not surprise Kendall who knew it was coming.
"He (Jefferies) was initially going to play just the first two games to help us out and then made himself available for a third. He's been a huge assist and obviously his experience and skills will be missed," Kendall said.
With just 55 overs left to in the game when Wairarapa finally got to bat the onus was on keeping the scoring rate ticking over and with the state of the pitch that was never going to be easy.
But after opener Sam Curtis had turned in a superb knock of 79 and Wairarapa reached 110-2 a first innings lead looked a strong possibility.
However, wickets fell with regularity after that and with a little less than a couple of overs to play the decision was made to give up the chase and settle for a draw.
Kendall was in awe of the manner in which Curtis played shots all around the wicket with his dominace being shown by the fact that when he was out the score stood at 114 and he had made 79 of them.
It was the first time he had made a half-century in a Hawke Cup qualifying game and he could not have been more impressive.
"It really was a terrific knock considering all the circumstances. Everything seemed to be coming right out of the middle of the bat," Kendall said.
Wairarapa's next Hawke Cup game is against Taranaki at New Plymouth on January 14 and 15 and, apart from Jefferies, Kendall expects to be able to select from a full strength squad .