Coach reasonably happy with Giants run

Giants coach Tony Nixon was "not too disappointed" with his team's tenth placing at the national men's inter-club softball championships which ended at Fraser Park, Avalon on Saturday.
A quarter-final berth had been the original objective for Giants but that became a no-go when they failed to finish in the first two in their pool, a pool which included eventual tournament winners in Ramblers of Auckland.
Attention then turned to making the final of the second section for teams ranked from nine to 16 and they did that, losing to Metro of Auckland by just 6-5 in that particular match.
It was a typically gutsy display by Giants for after trailing 1-0 early on they actually found themselves down by 5-2 and facing a defeat similar in size to the 8-0 beating given to them by the same Metro squad the previous day.
This time, however, Giants showed greater resolve and with Blair Thompson and Jason O'Leary both hitting home runs and Ritchie Clarke in good pitching form they fought back to drawl level at 5-5,
only for Metro to score their vital sixth run at their last turn at bat.
"?t was tight, very tight," Nixon said. "We finished strongly but just not strongly enough"
The semi-finals had also seen Giants in an enthralling struggle with Wellington-based Newlands.Here too they started slowly to be down 3-0 and here too they mounted a a spirited comeback, levelling things at 5-5 before scoring the run which gave them a 6-5 winning advantage. Michael Grant struck a home run there and pitcher Justin Karaitiana kept his cool under pressure.
Nixon said Giant's tenth ranking despite them playing some excellent softball through most of the tourney highlighted the quality of the 23 teams which participated in the event.
"Honestly, you could probably say that any of the teams in the top 16 had the ability to win the main title, that's how even it was," he said. "? guess tenth might not sound that good but it wasn't a bad effort, not bad at all."
For Giants's stalwart Mark Quinn the national event very possibly signalled the end of his time with Giants as he is planning to further his teaching career overseas and Nixon said his absence would be sorely felt. "Mark is one of those guys who can be relied on to do anything you ask him to do, both as a batter and in the field," Nixon said. "Players like him don't come along very often and obviously we are going to miss him."
Happily though it seems that most of the other Giants players will be on deck again next season , hardly surprising considering their successful 2007-08 season which included winning the Hutt Valley premier men's league title, making the semi-finals of the Inter-City series for the first time and providing about half of the Hutt Valley side which won the NPC competition.
Whether they will again have the services of Nixon as coach,however, is still up in the air with the man - who also coached Hutt Valley- himself preferring to make no comment on his plans for another week or so.
"We'll let the dust settle a bit before we go there. You'll just have to wait and see on that one."