Wairarapa in good position

Wairarapa were well enough placed at the end of the first day's play in their Hawke Cup qualifying senior men's cricket match with Manawatu at Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton over the weekend but they should have been better.

On a greenish pitch which did give some assistance to the bowlers Wairarapa were sent into bat first and looked set for a score well in advance of 300 when they reached 193-3 but a middle order collapse, which included two stumpings in the one over, saw them lose 5 wickets for just 19 runs.

In the end the home team was all out for 275, a useful tally but one which selector-coach Mark Brown readily conceded was somewhat less than what should have been achieved. "We should have got well over 300 with the start we had, we just weren't patient enough."

Captain Greg Todd was the mainstay of the Wairarapa innings with a well-made 71. He focused on playing every ball on its merits and it was just a pity some of his teammates didn't show the same level of application.

Matthew Stringfellow unleashed some fine attacking shots in his 54, top order players Henry Cameron and Jamie Holmes both looked in good touch in getting through to 31 and there was some heady batting from tail-ender Ben Foster, who made 37.

A highlight of the Manawatu fielding effort was the tidy wicketkeeping of NZ under-19 rep Dane Cleaver.

There were late changes to the Wairarapa squad with Wairarapa College spinner Martin Reisima drafted into the side for what will be his debut for the province at this level.

Manawatu started their first innings poorly but recovered from 18-2 to 54-2 by stumps. And had not the dangerous Cleaver been dropped they would have been in even greater strife.

The accuracy of the Wairarapa attack was evidenced by Manawatu managing only 18 runs in the first 14 overs. Daniel Ingham picked up 2-18 off 6 overs while Dean van Deventer conceded 17 runs from his 10 overs and Greg Todd 10 runs from his 9 overs.

Flight Centre Lansdowne dominated the first day of their Bidwell Cup match with Wairarapa College but it was one of the students, Tane Workman, who provided the highlight.

The medium pacer claimed a hattrick (all clean bowled) while taking 4 wickets in the space of five balls in one over as Lansdowne reached 271 in their first innings.

Alex Treseder (63) and James Adamson ()53)top scored for Lansdowne and Workman finished with bowling figures of 4-48. Wairarapa College was struggling at 87-6 at stumps, Hayden Barrett having taken four for 25 for Lansdowne.

In the other Bidwell Cup match on Saturday Rathkeale made 130 against Turkey Red Greytown and the latter were 110-5 in reply at stumps.

Marist Old Boys became the only undefeated side in the open grade cricket competition when they beat Greytown by 67 runs at the Park Sportsground.Colin Jones top scored with 50 as Marist Old Boys made 187-5 with other useful knocks coming from Ben Harlow (39) and Elliot Bird (20). Greytown were all out for 120 with Marcus Howie (5-18) and Adam Stephens (3-23) spearheading the Marist Old Boys attack.

Two matches in the More FM Cup Twenty20 competition were played last Thursday evening and results were: Wairarapa College 140-6 (Peter Borren 40, Andrew Williams 31, Nick Griffith 21; Jared Watt 2-24, Peter Sigvertsen 2-34) beat Red Star 131-9 (Dean van Deventer 29, Nic Karaitiana 27, Chris Wenden 23; Williams 4-7, Borren 1-23 and Martin Reisima 1-21); Greytown 154-5 (Tim Lucas 75 not out, Seth Rance 31) beat Lansdowne 130-5 (Robbie Speers 24 not out, Jamie Holmes 22, Daniel Ingham 20, Matthew Stringfellow 31; Hayden Spierling 2-19).