Kaipara aim at second title

Northland skipper Brett Hood is hoping that a good batting performance will see Kaipara Flats pick up their second title of the season when they play City in the Lion Red One Day Final at Cobham Oval tomorrow.
The match should be a good one between the two best teams of the season to date - each of them packed with representative players.
"We've got most of the Northland seam attack in action for us this weekend," Hood said.
The Kaipara stalwart, who has returned to the club he started playing cricket at, after two seasons away, said a lot will be expected of him during the final. Hood has hit form with the bat at the right time to contribute in the final, last week top-scoring for Northland in their match against Bay of Plenty.
"Probably where we don't match up so well against City would be in the batting department. So those of us who masquerade around as batsmen occasionally - like me and Tas Satti - are going to have to score runs if we want to compete during the final," he said.
The loss of another Northland seamer Kevin Forde - who is out recovering from an elbow operation - is a double blow for Kaipara.
"He'll be missed all right, we'll really miss his pace with the new ball but he's a very handy club batsmen as well. But Matt Taylor has filled in well for him over the past few weeks and bowled well for Northland against the Bay of Plenty," Hood said.
Taylor will again be a big factor in the match bowling alongside Kaipara skipper Jake Phillips as he did for Northland last weekend, with Tas Satti, Kieron Dill and Dexter Buchanan a handy bowling attack.
Hood lives in Whangarei and because of work commitments decided to play the last two seasons for Maungakaramea - but now he's back at Kaipara with a big role to play this weekend.
"I love it at Kaipara Flats, my parents live 100m down the road. I played all my youth cricket there and most of my senior cricket there so and it's good to be back, it's a great club," he said.
His younger brother Shane captained the team to victory last week in their Mark Cromie Holden Premier One-day win over City but the brothers won't be joining forces this week.
"Unfortunately he broke his thumb this week, so he won't be playing in the final but he did really well with about half of our second team last week."
City won't be short of ideas on how to tackle Kaipara. The City side is a young one with Rory Darkins captaining the side but they aren't short of talent and have several older players like Bert Horner, Richard Atkins and Kurt Wilson to givethe side some balance.
City lost to Kaipara in the T20 final but Darkins said tomorrow's match is bound to be closer. The two sides have yet to meet in the Lion Red competition