Three Giants change teams

Three members of the Masterton-based Giants men's softball side will be playing in the second round of the national league competition at North Harbour tomorrow?but for different teams.
Terry Waitere is part of the Hutt Valley line-up, Mark Quinn has been drafted into the Southern Pride line-up and Richard Clarke likewise for Canterbury.
Of those three sides it was Hutt Valley who fared best in the opening series of matches in mid-January.
They won three of their five games then while Canterbury had two wins and Southern Pride, which mainly consists of Southland and Otago players, have still to open their account. the only unbeaten side was Wellington.
That Giants have just the one player in the Hutt Valley line-up could be seen as a surprise considering they won their premier division title last year and are at the head of the points table again this season but at least two others, Justin Karaitiana and Curtis Ames, were late withdrawls from their team for personal reasons.
The national league games mean action in the Hutt Valley competition has been suspended for this weekend but Giants will still be holding a training session to keep them tuned for the first of the semi-final fixtures against Cardinals next Thursday.
A win there would take Giants straight through to the final while a loss would see them having a second "life" in a match against the winner of the encounter between the third and fourth placed teams, Hutt City United and Hutt Valley Marist.
Giants's win over HCU in the premier division decider last season was regarded as an upset in many circles but their form in the preliminary rounds has them rated as very serious contenders for a repeat effort this year.
They finished top of the Elbe Cup points table with 20pts after winning six of their eight games, two ahead of Cardinals and Hutt City United who had to be seperated by run differential for the semi-final seedings. Hutt Valley was well back in fourth place with just 7pts.
The depth of their batting order has been a huge part of the Giants success story this year. They have already posted 59 runs in Hutt Valley premier division matches, a staggering 23 more than the next highest scorer in that department, Cardinals.
Coach Tony Nixon said the fact practically all players in the Giants line-up were capable of putting bat to ball with telling effect, no matter what the strength of the opposition pitching staff, often become a winning advantage.
"Honestly, I would say there wouldn't be a club in New Zealand with greater depth in batting than us?we can rely on just about everyone to do a job for us there," he said.
Nixon said there was no secret recipe for Giants's batting prowess other than hard work.
"We spend a lot of time at training honing our skills there and it's paying off," he said.
Nixon has also been delighted with the overall performance of his team in the field.They have conceded more runs -18 - than Cardinals (10) and Hutt City United (13) but he believes their pitching staff, which is headed by Justin Karaitiana and Richard Clarke, is as potent as any in the Hutt Valley competition.
"When you have two pitchers of that calibre it means that the worry of one having an off day doesn't really come into it," he said. "And the greater the pressure the better they seem to play, they don't get upset easily."
But all this doesn't mean Nixon is taking a second Hutt Valley title as a given?far from it in fact.
He is well aware that teams like Cardinals and Hutt City United have a number of players who are past or present Black Sox and that the success of Giants last year means they won't be able to get under their guard again.
"They don't under-rate us now, they expect a hard game every time they play us," he said. "So you can't take anything for granted, not by a long chalk."