Lansdowne poised for win

Flight Centre Lansdowne are poised for an outright win when their Bidwell Cup senior men's interclub cricket match with Wairarapa College enters its second day tomorrow.

Wairarapa College will resume their first innings at 87-6 in reply to Lansdowne's 271, and if the latter can take the four remaining wickets at a small cost it seems certain they will enforce the follow-on.

The onus then would be on the students to not only bat time in their second innings but also score enough runs to set Lansdowne a challenging target for the outright win. The chances of them achieving both those objectives could only be rated as slim, of course, providing the weather man does not intervene.

The Wairarapa College cause would be helped immensely if star allrounder Peter Borren was back from his Central Stag duties but whether that would happen was not known at the times these notes were penned.

Even Borren, however, would probably find it impossible to match the bowling deeds of medium pacer Tane Workman last Saturday, when he ground the Lansdowne innings almost to a halt by taking four wickets in five balls, including a hat-trick.

Workman is one of those bowlers prepared to run in hard all day, if need be, and his enthusiasm is matched by an ability to maintain a decent line and length.

The Wairarapa College attack will be bolstered by the return of promising young spinner Martin Reisima, who was a late call-up for Wairarapa for their Hawke Cup match last weekend and did his reputation no harm with a short spell at the bowling crease. He will have learnt plenty from that experience and looks sure to develop into a very useful performer on the representative scene.

Lansdowne will benefit too from Wairarapa not playing this weekend, with in-form allrounders Jamie Holmes and Matthew Stringfellow returning to their squad. They invariably get on with the job when batting, a big plus if Lansdowne are needing quick runs in their second innings to secure the maximum points.

Both teams will be eyeing the first hour's play as vital in the other Bidwell Cup fixture between Rathkeale College and Greytown, being played at Greytown.

At stumps last Saturday, Greytown were 110-5 in their first innings chasing Rathkeale College's 130.

With rep players Mark Childs, Paul Lyttle and Tim Lucas coming back into the fold, Greytown will be looking to use that first 60 minutes to build a sizeable lead while Rathkeale would dearly love to pick up those last five scalps for less than 20 runs, thereby giving them first innings points at least.

Leading the charge for them will be medium pacers Ben Foster and Josh Mann, both of whom have also been part of this season's Wairarapa line-up.

Sunday will see the Umpires Cup match between old rivals Red Star and Lansdowne being played at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval, and this should be a very interesting encounter. On paper, Lansdowne would look to have the edge, but the Joe Hull-led Red Star side have been going great guns lately and they will be fancying their chances of an upset.