Lansdowne, Greytown to meet in Umpires Cup final

Greytown and Flight Centre Lansdowne will contest the final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpires Cup competition next Sunday after both semi-final matches on Saturday were affected by adverse weather.
The game between Greytown and Rathkeale College at Greytown was cut short by rain but not before enough overs (20) had been bowled to constitute a game.
When play was called off Greytown were 123-4 after 24 overs chasing Rathkeale's 181 runs made in 46 overs.
And with Rathkeale having scored 118 runs in their first 24 overs Greytown were declared the winners.
A blistering 67 made of 66 balls by George Falloon highlighted the Rathkeale batting effort. Usually a lower order batsman he was promoted to number three and given a license to hit out and he responded splendidly to the challenge.
There was a solid knock too from Matt Stringfellow who made 43 while McEwen was unbeaten on 29.
Bowling for Greytown Blake Lyford continued the good impression he has made this season by taking 3-34 off his 10 overs while Nash Patel took 2-36, Brian James 3-38 and Seth Rance 1-20.
Greytown's innings was dominated by Mark Childs who slammed 10 fours in his unbeaten 53.
Dean Southey made 26 and Wal Tatham 17.
The pick of the Rathkeale bowlers was James Hurley who finished with 2-31 off 6.1 overs.
The other semi-final between Lansdowne and Red Star had to be decided on the basis of run rate over the whole of the Umpires Cup competition through not enough overs being bowled on Saturday to constitute a game and no action possible yesterday because of a damp pitch. Both teams were equal on competition points at the end of the preliminary round.
Lansdowne had run rate in their favour and will now have the chance to add the Umpires Cup to the Bidwell Cup two-day trophy they won a couple of weekends ago. Greytown were their opponents there as well.
In their rained-off game on Saturday Red Star batted first and made 190 with Troy Burling (41), Nick Karaitiana (33) and Joe Hull (26) the main contributors. Robin James, Mark Scully and Joel Macklin all took two wickets for Lansdowne who were 70-2 when the weather broke. Gunveer Swingh was 30 not out and Sam Curtis 17 not out while Henry Cameron had earlier made a quickfire 23. His first two scoring shots were a four and a six.