Shift to next level excites Curtis

Wairarapa skipper Sam Curtis has been drafted into the Central Districts Stags squad for their four-day cricket match with Wellington, starting at the Basin Reserve on Saturday.
Curtis, 29 , received the news on Tuesday and is "stoked to bits" at the prospect of making his debut at first-class level after a lengthy career on the provincial scene which has seen him develop into Wairarapa's premier batsmen and a mainly part-time leg spin bowler with a knack of taking key wickets.
The first hint he could be in the reckoning for the Stags came on Monday when a source close to the Stags camp rung him to say he was under consideration but, having come close before ,any excitement was tempered by the prospect his hopes could be dashed at the last minure.
However, this time things worked out well with Stags coach Dermot Reeve telephoning Curtis the following day and asking him to join the squad for the Basin Reserve fixture, a squad which also includes Wairarapa paceman Seth Rance, who has made every post a winner in his two four-day appearances for the Stags this season., both with bat and ball.
Rance and Curtis have, of course, played numerous times together for Wairarapa over recent seasons and it was actually Rance who was responsible for a hand injury suffered by Curtis when he batted for Lansdowne against Greytown in a club match earlier in the season.
He was struck there by a delivery from Rance with a broken bone being the end result but after missing one Wairarapa fixture Curtis was back in the thick of the action, sore hand and all.And a string of consistent scores-he is averaging 60 for Wairarapa- is ample evidence he is well recovered from the blow.
For Curtis playing for the Stags at first-class level has been very much a prime objective since he first came into the Wairarapa side in 1997.He was at Wairarapa College at the time and he soon showed he had the talent, and the drive, to make a decent impact in the representative scene.
"I guess I've always been competitive, I don't like failure," Curtis said. "Obviously you are always going to have your lean trots but you have to keep the spirits up, once you start thinking negatively that's how things will go."
The last three seasons have seen Curtis averaging over 50 with the bat for Wairarapa and in a brief stint with the Oxted and Limpsfield club in the Surrey league in England during our winter this year he finished with an average in the 90's.
Curtis believes the Surrey experience aided his chances of breaking into the Stags for the first time because he returned home confident he was in good form and looking forward to getting on with the job here. "Mentally I was on a high and that's the best way to be.".
A top order batsman for Wairarapa-often at opener - Curtis believes that if he makes the playing 11 for the Basin reserve match he will probably bat in the middle order, possibly as low as six, and that he could also be used as a second spinning option.
The part Curtis plays in the four-dayer will also dictate whether he can join the Central Districts A team for three-day and limited-overs matches against their Wellington counterparts in Nelson next week. He has been named captain of that side but if he avoids the 12 th man duties at the Basin he will have to miss at least one day's play there, and possibly more.
Meanwhile, another regular member of the Wairarapa senior men's cricket squad, all-rounder Dean Van Deventer, was yesterday named in the Central Districts under-19 team to play in their national tournament in Auckland from December 15 to 21.