Young guns join big boys

Talented youngsters Mark Cummings and Blake Lyford have been included in a 14-man Wairarapa senior men's cricket squad to prepare for the Hawke Cup elimination fixture against Manawatu.
Selector Mark Brown sees Wairarapa College first XI player Cummings - son of former Wairarapa-Bush rugby captain John Cummings - as a batsman with the skills to make a decent fist of the opening role while Lyford is an all-rounder who has been performing consistently well for Greytown with both bat and ball.
Finding two opening batsmen capable of spending long periods at the crease has been a headache for Wairarapa over a long number of seasons and Brown is optimistic that Cummings' willingness to play each delivery on its merits will serve him well on the representative scene.
"He (Cummings) is a good leaver of the ball, he has the patience needed to construct an innings," Brown said. "The first priority for openers is not to throw their wickets away through loose shots and Mark doesn't do that. He will graft out his runs and that's what we want at the top of the order."
Reflecting on Lyford's selection, Brown said he was the perfect example of someone who had forced his way into the reckoning by producing good form at club level.
"He is doing everything right and, quite frankly, we couldn't overlook him. He puts the ball in the right places when he bowls and he's got a pretty good range of shots when he bats."
Brown sees the depth of their batting as perhaps being the main strength of the Wairarapa squad with one proviso, that players don't fall into the trap of trying to push the score along too early in their innings.
"Shot selection is the key, if the guys are willing to play within their comfort zones there's no reason why we shouldn't run up some big scores," he said.
"We have plenty of batsmen who have the shots to take most attacks apart, it's just a matter of them playing the right shots at the right time".
If Cummings is selected in the starting XI against Manawatu the decision as to who will open with him probably rests between Greytown's Tim Lucas and Lansdowne's Henry Cameron, who have been in good touch on the club scene. The odds may be more in favour of Lucas opening with Cameron at three and his Lansdowne clubmate Sam Curtis at four.
Another Lansdowne player in Brock Price did open the batting on occasions last year but a shortage of pace bowlers - with the emphasis on pace - in the Wairarapa region almost certainly means he will have to take the new ball in 2010-11. If that is the case then Brown will probably opt to bat him in the middle to lower order where his aggressiveness could come in very handy.
Making Price an even more important component of the bowling attack is the very real possibility of Greytown quickie Seth Rance being called up to the Central Stags, as he was with such notable success last season. Indeed it could be argued with some justification that he should no longer be considered a "fringe player" for the Stags so well did he perform then in both the shorter and longer versions of the game.
The absence of Rance would not only place greater pressure on Price but also on medium pacers like Daniel Haxton (Greytown), Daniel Ingham (Wairarapa College) and Lyford.
And it could also mean whoever captains Wairarapa this season - a decision yet to be made by Brown - could find themselves relying on the spinners to take on a heaver than usual workload, a prospect actually made to look rather inviting by the good number of players able to take up that role.
Wairarapa should benefit from the all-round qualities of Robbie Speers who has been named as the first choice wicketkeeper.
Squad: Tim Lucas, Paul Lyttle, Henry Cameron, Sam Curtis, Matthew Stringfellow, Robbie Speers, Brock Price, Seth Rance, Jamie Holmes, Daniel Ingham, Daniel Haxton, Mark Cummings, Steve Coleman, Blake Lyford.