Cricket final spots on line

Favouritism will rest with Greytown and Lansdowne when semi-final matches in the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpires Cup limited-overs competition are played tomorrow.
Greytown will face a Red Star side coming off a humiliating loss to Lansdowne in what was a virtual Bidwell Cup semi-final game.
Billed as a highlight of Red Star's 75th jubilee celebrations that game was meant to be a two-day affair, but so poorly did Red Star perform with bat and ball, that Lansdowne took maximum points within the first day's play.
It will be interesting to see what reaction the extent of that defeat has in the Red Star camp tomorrow.
Pride can be a great motivating factor in any sport and one suspects they will see this game as a royal opportunity to show that loss to Lansdowne provided little indication of their true capabilities.
Against a Greytown side which in the likes of Hayden Spierling,Shane Mellor, Glen Jonas, Josh Doherty and Ben Hodder has quality bowlers to burn, Red Star will need to show considerable improvement in their batting to make a decent game of it.
Their acquistion of Academy player and Wairarapa senior representative Will Rist will be a welcome boost in that department, but it will be important that others like Shane Tyacke,Daniel Stonely and Corey Burling come to the party as well.
The Red Star attack has been depleted by the loss of the reliable Nick Moorcock with a knee injury, and without him the onus will be on Carwyn Caffell, Peter Sigvertsen and Jared Watt to pose problems for a Greytown battling line-up likely to be spearheaded by Mark Childs, Mark Jonas, Willie Tatham, Jason Osborne, Doherty and Mellor.
Lansdowne will meet Wairarapa College in the other Umpires Cup semi-final, and while Lansdowne are the logical pick, victory to the students wouldn't exactly be a huge surprise.
The college side have some steady performers with the bat in Cameron Stone, Tim Butler, Jeremy Anderson, and Jason Keane and Seth Rance, Joel Macklin and Stone are no mugs in the bowling category either.
Lansdowne's trump cards promise to be all-rounder Robin James, who was such a significant contributor in their Bidwell Cup win over Red Star, and top order batsman Henry Cameron and Sam Curtis, who have both been in grand form at club level, and whose willingness to go for their shots always makes them a threat in the one-day game. Others like Choi Jackson, Aaron Bidlake and Gerard Smith are players to be reckoned with as well.
Plans are for tomorrow's matches to be transferred to Sunday if weather intervenes and if that's the case the composition of the Wairarapa XI to play the Doug Catley invitation XI on the Park Oval also on Sunday would be drastically altered.
This too will be a limited-overs game with the Catley XI including a number of players who have performed on the international stage and also a bevy of promising youngsters, mainly from the Wellington area.
Wicketkeeper Ervin McSweeney, pace bowler Richard Petrie and spinner Evan Gray have all played for New Zealand while Paul Jarvis is a former England player.
They will be joined by national under-19 rep Ashley Newdick, Ross Ormiston, Andy Wilson, Duncan Murray, Lee Edwards and Robbie Kerr.
Wairarapa selector Dick Kendall is hopeful of being able to field close to a full strength side as he sees the game as an ideal chance to showcase local talent against what should be formidable opposition.
Among his line-up are likely to be the talented Rathkeale College trio Doug Bracewell, Simon Clinton-Baker and Andy Dodd and Seth Rance, Tim Butler and Cameron Stone from Wairarapa College.
Kendall is also hopeful of having Lansdowne quartet Choi Jackson, Sam Curtis, Henry Cameron and Robin James on hand along with Greytown paceman Hayden Spierling but whether they will be available will be dependant entirely on the weather man.