Anderson holds key to strong Wai Col showing

Promising batsman Robbie Anderson holds the key to a strong Wairarapa College showing on the second day of their Bidwell Cup senior men's inter-club cricket match with Red Star at Wairarapa College tomorrow.
Anderson will resume on 48 with the Wairarapa College first innings score standing at 110-6 in reply to Red Star's 145 and the longer he stays at the crease the better the chances of the students building a handy enough lead to push for the outright win.
Conversely, of course, if Anderson goes early then the tables will be turned with Red Star in the box seat.
Anderson was one of a few players who looked at all comfortable on a pitch whose lack of pace made stroke play difficult last weekend.
Only Daniel Stoneley (49) and skipper Joe Hull (26) got amongst the runs for Red Star and Anderson has been pretty much the lone star ranger for Wairarapa College to date.
On the bowling front young medium pacer Sean Jarvis did a fine job for his side in Red Star's first innings by taking 6-66 while for Stars Peter Sigvertsen trundled away for 20 overs and was very economical in taking 3-41.
It would not surprise, however, if the pitch starts to turn tomorrow and both sides are well served in the spinning department, Paul Bracewell doing the honours for Red Star and Aaron Wilson and Brad Edwards for Red Star.
Flight Centre Lansdowne will be in a confident frame of mind when they go into the first day of their Bidwell Cup match with Rathkeale College at Rathkeale tomorrow.
Lansdowne completed a comprehensive nine-wicket win over Greytown in their opening Cup game last weekend with their dominance on the second day being the catalyst to victory.
They actually trailed by nine runs on the first innings, and it would have been a lot worse for them but for the contributions of Sam Curtis (73) and Robin James (64).
The next highest scorer in their tally of 170 was John Hannam with 7, batting at No.9!
It was medium pacer Mark Scully who did the damage when Greytown were dismissed in their second innings for just 77, a paltry total but one which could have been a lot worse considering they were 6-22 at one stage.
Scully took the first five wickets to fall and finished with 6-28 from his 12 overs
Left 87 runs to get for outright points Lansdowne lost just the one wicket in reaching their target, and pleasing for them was that this time. Curtis and James didn't even need to bat. Instead it was a couple of youngsters in James Adamson (51 not out) and Simon Butler (37 not out) who led the way.
Pleased as they would have been with that successes Lansdowne would be wise not to count their chickens against a Rathkeale College team which had the bye last weekend after beating Red Star on the first innings in their opening Cup game.
The highlight of that latter performance was the eight-wicket haul by opening bowler Dion van Deventer in Red Star's first innings and those fortunate enough to witness it are still talking about the sustained fire van Deventer extracted from a pitch which was not unusually fast paced. In anything like the same form tomorrow and the Lansdowne batting line-up will be tested to the max.