Giants have say in Hutt Valley success

Masterton-based Giants had a big say in Hutt Valley's success in the NPC men's softball tournament played in Auckland last week.
Giants provided five of the players skipper Michael Grant, Blair Thompson, Richard Clarke, Justin Karaitiana and Terry Waitere in the Hutt Valley squad along with the coach Tony Nixon, assistant coach Russell Thompson and manager Bryan Hourigan.
And they had also plenty to celebrate when the tournament team was named with Blair Thompson and Richard Clarke among six Hutt Valley players to be selected, the others being Jerold Lajpold (Cardinals), Charlie Red-Putaka (Hutt City), Kevin Stockford (Cardinals) and David Butler (Cardinals). Chosen to share the coaching duties of that side were Nixon and his Wellington counterpart Thomas Makea.
Nothing impressed more about the Hutt Valley effort than their resolve under pressure. The came from behind to win several of their games, notably their opening match against Wellington which they won 7-5 after trailing 5-0 going into their last innings, their last preliminary game against North Harbour a must win affair were they to make the final which they won 6-5 after being behind 3-0 and the grand final against Wellington again which saw them down 3-0 before scoring a massive eight runs in their fifth innings to lead 8-3.
To Wellington's credit they did fight back strongly over the closing stages of the tournament decider and, in the end, Hutt Valley had a solitary run to spare, winning 8-7.
Both coach Tony Nixon and his assistant Russell Thompson could not speak highly enough of the manner in which Hutt Valley dug deep when staring defeat in the face.
"We didn't always play up to our potential but when the stakes were at their highest everyone rose to the occasion & their attitude under pressure was magnificent," Nixon said.
Giants pitcher Richard Clarke became a special hero for the Hutt Valley by pitching 13 of the 14 innings in the vital last two games against North Harbour and Wellington.
In matches of this importance it is usual for pitchers to throw no more than four innings but with the other two specialist pitchers in the Hutt Valley team, Justin Karaitiana (knee) and Jareld Lajpold (ankle) both battling injury, Clarke's workload was significantly increased.
"He (Clarke) was just about out on his feet at the end of it all & he was absolutely outstanding," Russell Thompson said.
For Tony Nixon this was his debut effort as Hutt Valley coach and he was "over the moon" that the national title had been achieved.
"I don't think anybody outside the team expected us to do it but we always thought it was possible, it all boiled down to consistently getting up for the games which counted most and we managed to do that," he said.
Nixon said the standard of play throughout the tourney was excellent with all of the participating teams quite capable of beating anyone on a good day.
"There was never a chance of any side going through the preliminaries unbeaten, it was one of those tourneys where who made the final was always going to be in doubt right up until the last minute,' he said.