Red Star's outright win over Lansdowne at Rathkeale College this weekend may have earned them a place in the final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Bidwell Cup competition.
Points won't be confirmed until tomorrow but by attaining the maximum 10 points Red Star seemed likely to edge out Wairarapa College in the battle to see who plays Greytown for the premier two-day title.
Lansdowne batted first against Red Star and were all out for 79.Top scorer was Robin James with 24 while Scott Coulson made 18.
A newcomer from South Africa in Kyle Williamson took 5-21 off 6.1 overs with his spinners for Red Star while Willie Thomson finished with 3-26.
Red Star made 137 in their first innings, thanks in the main to Corey Burling's 51. Bowling for Lansdowne, Brock Price took 5-56 and Robin James 4-55.
Lansdowne could hardly have made a worse start to their second innings with the first four wickets falling before a run had been scored.At that stage Stars medium pacer Carwyn Caffell had 3-0 and Jarod Watt 1-0 and their team were well on top.
To Lansdowne's credit though their middle and lower order put up a decent fight and they finally got through to a respectable 207.
The experienced Lindsay James with 76 led the way with good support from Doug Johnson 44 and Robin James 35.
Caffell finished with the impressive bowling figures of 6-31 off 21 overs and Watt took 2-49.
Needing 149 runs in their second innings for outright points, Red Star got there with just three wickets down, Corey Burling again being the mainstay with a well-made 61.
Meanwhile, Rathkeale College had a slight edge over Wairarapa College at the end of the first day's play in their combined McBride-Peterson trophy and Bidwell Cup senior men's cricket match played at Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton on Saturday.
Batting first, Rathkeale managed just 116 in their first innings with the major contributors being Central Districts under-17 skipper Andy Dodd, who made 35 and C. Linton 25.
Medium pacer Joel Macklin was the destroyer for Wairarapa College, finishing with the excellent figures of 6-43.
Wairarapa College, too, found runs hard to come by and were all out in their first innings for 102.
Only James Anderson with 22 showed much in the way of resistance against a Rathkeale attack, in which Dodd with 4-32 and Dean van Deventer with 3-31 did most of the damage.
Academy made a respectable 190 in their first innings against Bidwell Cup leaders Greytown who were 70-2 when stumps were drawn on Saturday.
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