No-one can accuse Rathkeale College all-rounder Andy Dodd of not leading by example when he skippered Central Districts to the runners-up position at the national under-17 cricket tournament in Napier. Dodd made the New Zealand under-17 team, which doesn't actually play a match, after being the star act of the entiretourney with the bat and having a good measure of success with the ball as well. Batting at No.3 in the order Dodd had scores of 48, 67, 105, 61 and 38 and his aggregate of 319 runs was 70 more than any other batsman there. Rathkeale College coach Dick Kendall was not at all surprised by Dodd's run-getting spree. "He has everything going for him as a batsman. He plays straight, he has superb timing and while he never slogs he does have the knack of putting the loose ball away,' he said. "And his work ethic is fantastic. He'll do anything he can to improve his game." Dodd, who is due to leave for England in April where he will attend Dulwich School, was one of three Rathkeale College players in the Central Districts line-up and the other two, Doug Bracewell and Dean van Deventer, also made a decent impact on proceedings. Meanwhile, matches in the Wairarapa association's Bidwell Cup senior competition will continue this weekend with Red Star up against Academy at the Pugh Sportsbowl, Lansdowne playing Wairarapa College at Wairarapa College and Rathkeale at home to Greytown. Red Star had been struggling to make much impression on the Bidwell Cup series before their outright victory over Rathkeale last weekend but the points gained there have seen them charge up the leaderboard and their clash with Academy promises to be a close-fought affair. In Academy's favour is that they do have a number of free scoring batsmen and the fast outfield at the Sportsbowl will suit their style of play in that regard. Their greater experience will perhaps give Lansdowne the edge over Wairatrapa College although the latter are usually a handful on their home patch and if Greytown are at full strength they would probably have the edge on a Rathkeale side missing some of their leading players from last season after the holiday break.In fact, two of them-Andy Oldfield and Simon Clinton-Baker- could be among the opposition here. The first day's action of the Greytown v Rathkeale game will actually be played on Sunday with the other two matches getting under way tomorrow.
