Butler the new face in Wairarapa squad

Lansdowne middle-order batsman Simon Butler is the new face in a 13-strong Wairarapa senior men's cricket squad named to prepare for their Hawke Cup elimination and Chapple Cup fixtures with Hawke's Bay at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval in Masterton later this week.
The Hawke Cup match will be played on Friday and Saturday and the Chapple Cup limited-overs game on Sunday.
Butler owes his selection in large part to his unbeaten 133 for Lansdowne in the latest round of the Bidwell Cup inter-club series. It was a knock which set up an outright win for his side over Rathkeale College and followed hard on the heels of a 37 not out against Greytown.
Convener of selectors Dermot Payton said Butler's early-season form virtually made the former Wairarapa College first XI player impossible to overlook.
"He's got the runs on the board, no one can argue with that," he said.
Against a Rathkeale College attack spearheaded by another very much in-form player in Dean van Deventer, Butler faced 165 balls and hammered 22 fours and one six while against a Greytown side whose attack was led by another prolific wicket taker in Seth Rance he struck three fours and one six.
The Hawke's Bay games also signal the return of Henry Cameron, Robin James and Paul Bracewell to the Wairarapa squad.
Cameron is a hard-hitting top order batsman who has rejoined the Lansdowne club after living away from the region for the last couple of seasons,
James, also from Lansdowne, is a lively new ball bowler and reliable middle-order batsman who has not been available for representative play in recent times and Bracewell is an off spinner who last played for Wairarapa in the mid-1990s while a student at Rathkeale College.
He has repped for North Harbour, Auckland A and New Zealand Universities in the interim and is now playing as the lone adult player in the Wairarapa College side in the local competition.
Two other Wairarapa College players are also in the reckoning to play against Hawke's Bay, batsman Robbie Anderson, who was a regular last season, and all-rounder Daniel Ingham and they are joined by a third student in van Deventer from Rathkeale.
Payton expects stern opposition from a Hawke's Bay side which could contain several Central Districts representatives but is optimistic that captain Sam Curtis will have a team capable of competing strongly in both the two-day and limited-overs forms of the game.
"There is a good mix of youth and experience and we have a reasonable amount of depth in both batting and bowling & if we take our chances anything could happen," he said.
Payton said there was "some chance" of the line-ups for the Hawke Cup and Chapple Cup matches differing slightly in personnel with the state of the Park Oval pitch, which has not been played on this season, perhaps having a big say in that respect.
"It is disappointing that we haven't had any play on the oval for at least the last two or three weeks so we could gauge how it is likely to perform," Payton said.
"It's nice for the home team to have that advantage up their sleeves but this time we'll be no better off than our opposition in that regard."
Even allowing for the pitch conditions though Wairarapa will have several options available to them in the bowling department. The odds are on Rance and van Deventer taking the new ball with James at first change but Ingham and Brock Price are very useful seamers as well.
And if spin is considered the order of the day, Bracewell, Brad Edwards and even Curtis himself could all take a heavy workload.
Curtis, Edwards, Cameron and Butler will be expected to take up the first spots in the batting order with the remaining places very much dependent on who of the 13 misses the bus in the selection process.
One certainty to be among them, however, is Greytown wicketkeeper Duncan Didsbury although Lansdowne's Alec Treseder is a useful performer with the gloves too.
THE FULL WAIRARAPA SQUAD: Sam Curtis, Brad Edwards, Henry Cameron, Simon Butler, Robbie Anderson, Brock Price, Alec Treseder, Robin James, Seth Rance, Dean van Deventer, Duncan Didsbury, Daniel Ingham, Paul Bracewell.
Two regular members of last season's squad not to make the baker's dozen were Red Star batsmen Daniel Stonely and Joe Hull, both of whom have been in good touch at club level.
Payton labelled both players as "unlucky" and emphasised they, and any others who came up trumps there, would very definitely be considered for future assignments.
"The door is not closed, not by a long shot," he said.