Lansdowne hunt payback

Flight Centre Lansdowne will be looking to exact revenge on Red Star when they meet in an Umpire's Cup senior men's inter-club cricket match at Park Sportsground in Masterton tomorrow.
These two sides met in the grand final of the Bidwell Cup competition last weekend and, while Lansdowne appealed as the stronger of the two teams on paper, it was Red Star who won by a crushing innings and 17 runs.
That victory gave Red Star their second title of the 2010-11 season, as they had picked up the More FM Cup Twenty20 series earlier on. But whatever happens tomorrow they won't complete the trifecta because they are already out of the Umpire's Cup reckoning.
Lansdowne, on the other hand, are still a chance for the one-day trophy and they will be seeing tomorrow's match as a royal opportunity to get themselves in top shape for the semifinals. They will also be keen to erase the memories of last weekend, when they failed to perform with anything like the required consistency with bat and ball. For a side of their calibre to score only 62 runs in their first innings was a dismal effort.
Red Star won't make it easy for them though. Their incentive will be to complete their season on a high note and, with nothing other than pride at stake, they will have the luxury of being able to throw caution to the wind. Whether they will have star all-rounder Dean van Deventer on deck was, however, a matter of doubt at the time these notes were penned.
The other Umpire's Cup match tomorrow will see Rathkeale College and Wairarapa College do battle at Rathkeale.
Their last meeting was a two-day affair, which ended in a draw after the second day was washed out, but it is fair to say that Rathkeale did have the better of what play there was on that occasion.