Lansdowne win nailbiter

Lansdowne scored an exciting one-wicket win over Greytown in the grand final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Bidwell Cup competition played at the Park Oval on Saturday and yesterday.
On a wicket which made life difficult for the batsmen because of the uneven bounce, Greytown batted first and after being 14-2 and 68-5 struggled through to 146..
Just two batsmen got into the 20's with Mark Childs making 23 and Hayden Spierling 22.
Choi Jackson did most of the damage with the ball for Lansdowne,taking 5-56 with his medium pacers, while Doug Johnston took 3-14 and Robin James 2-44.
Lansdowne lost in-form opener Sam Curtis off the first ball of their innings and only D.Buchanan (27) and tail-enders Nathan Cottle (19 not out ) and Doug Johnston (17) got amongst the runs to any degree.
Opening bowlers Hayden Spierling and Ben Hodder both took three wickets for Greytown, Spierling's coming at a cost of 26 runs and Hodder's for 34 runs.
Greytown's second innings started badly with the first wicket falling with just two runs on the board, and while Willie Tatham livened proceedings up by hitting two sixes and three fours in his 35, and Glen Jonas hit three fours in his unbeaten 23, their total of 140 was hardly an imposing one.
Jackson again starred with the ball for Lansdowne, taking his second five-wicket "bag" of the match, this time from 23 overs at a cost of 59 runs.
The other five wickets went to his fellow opening bowler Robin James at a cost of 64 runs.
They were responsible for all but one of the 48.2 overs bowled by Lansdowne in that innings.
Lansdowne were therefore left to score 159 runs for the outright win and with Wairarapa senior reps Curtis and Aaron Bidlake remarkably being out on the first ball they faced for the second time in the match they made hard work of it, finally scoring the winning runs with nine wickets down.
Opener Henry Cameron was out for 50 and his knock illustrated just how difficult it was to score runs because of the pitch conditions.A noted stroke maker his first eight scoring shots were all singles and he hit just the three fours in all.
More belligerent was John Hannam who struck four fours and a six in his 31, and important knocks later in the innings came from Robin James whose 26 included the four which won the match and Choi Jackson who completed a fine all-round game by scoring 17.
Bowling for Greytown Hayden Spierling took 3-46 and Shane Mellor 3-37.
Short scoreboard:-
GREYTOWN 146
(Doherty 7, Ross 5, M.Jonas 13, Childs 23, Tatham 10, Osborne 9, Mellor 18, G.Jonas 9, Spierling 22, Hodder 9 not out, James 7, extras 14; R.James 19-3-44-2, Jackson 20-7-50-5, Bidlake 9-2-12-0, Johnston 7-2-14-3, Bunny 1-0-8-0.) and 140 (Tatham 35, Ross 0, M.Jones 4, B.James 21, Doherty 7, Childs 12, Melleor 12, Osborne 0, Spierling 14, G.Jones 23 not out, Hodder 0, extras 12; R.James 24.2-5-64-5, Jackson 23- 8- 59-5, Curtis 1-0-7-0)
lost to
LANSDOWNE 128
( Curtis 0, Cameron 11, Bunny 4, Hannam 11, Bidlake 0, R.James 4, Buchanan 27, Lenihan 9, Jackson 13, Cottle 19 not out, Johnston 17, extras 14; Spierling 9-1-26-3, Hodder 11-3-34-3, Doherty 7-0-18-0, B.James 4-0-21-0, G.Jones 8-3-12-1, Tatham 6-0-11-2) and 161-9 (Cameron 50, Curtis 0, Bunny 0, Hannam 31, Bidlake 0, Buchanan 6, Lenihan 9, James 24 not out, Jackson 17, Cottle 1, Johnston 0 not out, extras 21; Spierling 13.5-0-52-3, G.Jonas 9-1-12-1, Mellor 17-4-37-3, Hodder 3-0-25-0, Doherty 5-1-17-2, Tatham 2-1-1-0).