Rance stunned by late Stags callup

Greytown pace bowler Seth Rance was shell shocked when called into the Central Districts Stags cricket team to play Wellington in a State championship four-day match starting in Napier tomorrow.
Rance, 21, admits being caught totally by surprise when told the good news by Central Districts selector Scott Briasco in a phone call yesterday morning.
"Honestly, I didn't even have any idea I was in the running, I thought it was too late in the season for something like this to happen," Rance said .
"I was hoping I had done enough to maybe get the call up next year, that was about as far as I had gone.".
Not that Rance didn't have cricket on his mind though. He was building up to spearheading the Greytown challenge in their Bidwell Cup inter-club final against Flight Centre Lansdowne at Queen Elizabeth Park oval on Saturday and Sunday, and is disappointed his first-class debut in Napier will have him missing that match.
"That's a bummer, a real bummer," he said. "Obviously the rest of the Greytown boys will understand but I was really looking forward to helping them win the big one."
Literally minutes before Rance received his call from Brisbane he and Lansdowne captain Sam Curtis had exchanged some good-hearted verbal banter about the Bidwell Cup final with both players predicting they would have bragging rights at the game's end.
Curtis, for his part, had suggested that after facing Rance for more than a decade his adversary wouldn't be able to surprise him with anything new.
"He's always more dangerous early in his spells when his energy levels are up," he said of Rance. "Get through that period and he'll always give you some loose ones to hit, and that's what we intend to do&.and a long way too!".
Rance's response to those sentiments was as rapid-fire as his bowling. He said he wasn't intending to divert from his usual game plan to have Curtis back in the pavilion at little cost.
"Sam is no worries, you either get him by bowling quick and straight and going through the gate, or you move your line a little outside off stump and he nicks it behind.Simple as that", he said.
When told that Rance wouldn't be playing against Lansdowne because of his Central Districts call up Curtis, was understandably quick to have a change of heart.
"Seriously, I'm absolutely rapt for Seth, he's been in terrific form all season and he's ready for the next level, he'll do himself and Wairarapa proud," Curtis said, adding that the two had worked together well over the 2008-09 season as captain and vice-captain of the Wairarapa senior representative squad.
"He (Rance) was the deputy, probably because he was second best," he joked.
Typically, Rance himself would not have a bar of the argument that his absence would irretrievably harm Greytown's chances of Bidwell Cup success.
He said that with experienced campaigners like Hayden Spierling and Glen Jonas to call on Greytown would still be very formidable in the pace bowling department, formidable enough to get the required result.
"We are not a one-man side, nothing like it," he said.
Rance does agree though that the pre-match nerves will very probably kick in to a greater extent in Napier.
'Hell yes, there will be plenty of nerves there but that's something which tends to go away pretty quickly when you get the ball in your hands," he said. "Then you focus on the job in hand, that's all you are thinking about."
Helping Rance ease the tension will be the knowledge that he was one of the best performers for Central Districts A at their national tournament in Christchurch, taking eight wickets in the five matches they played there and that his form for Wairarapa with bat and ball has been in recent times has been consistently outstanding.
That and the fact that playing first-class cricket had been a personal objective for some seasons and now that he had attained it he was keen to make every post a winner.
"I don't want to be a oncer. I'd like to think I can play at this level regularly and I suppose this weekend is the chance to show I am good enough to do that." he said.