Red Star must shine

Greytown will start hot favourites to retain the Childs-O'Gorman Trophy when they meet Red Star in a Bidwell Cup senior men's competition two-day match at Greytown this weekend.
The southerners have held the trophy, contested by the two clubs, for two years and early form would suggest it will take a massive upset for Red Star to carry off the spoils this time.
The problem for Red Star lies in their batting, with captain Shay O'Gorman the first to admit application has not exactly been a strong point.
"It's been hard to get the season going with two byes out of four but we certainly can't use that as an excuse for our poor batting," he said.
Often the batsmen have been guilty of soft dismissals through inept shot selection, and against a Greytown attack likely to be headed by in-form Blake Lyford, Seth Rance and Steve Coleman they will be in strife if it happens again.
On the other hand, Greytown have shown solid-enough batting form, though captain Paul Lyttle noted they, too, had thrown away wickets during a hard-fought win over Wairarapa College last Saturday.
No doubt the likes of Lyttle, Mark Childs and Tim Lucas will look to spend long periods at the crease this weekend, particularly in the first innings, where they will be keen to build a score big enough to make outright points possible.
Red Star will take comfort, though, from the fact that in Jared Watt, Nik Karaitiana, Dion Field and skipper O'Gorman they have a group of bowlers capable of restricting the run flow.
They will need to have a huge influence if their team is to make a close game of it.
The other Bidwell Cup fixture sees unbeaten Lansdowne taking on Rathkeale College at Rathkeale, a quirk of the draw meaning they are facing off for the third successive week.
Lansdowne have a powerful batting line-up on paper, with skipper Henry Cameron leading by example in that department.
Brock Price, too, has been in good touch and Sam Curtis was quickly among the runs when he returned from injury last weekend.
Cameron says the aim for the Lansdowne team is simply to get better each week, and he's looking forward to playing on a Rathkeale wicket that has been in "great nick" despite the unpredictability of the weather.
Rathkeale College have made sound progress since the start of the season and their effort to manage a score of 198 against Lansdowne last Saturday was a good one.
Harry Greenwood took the eye there with a well-made 75 and with his wicket-taking abilities with the ball is shaping as an all-rounder with a bright future.
Anything less than a first-innings win to Lansdowne would be a huge surprise but if Rathkeale continue their improvement maximum points could prove difficult to obtain.
Play in both Bidwell Cup matches will start at noon tomorrow, with Sunday's play getting under way at 11am.