Greytown relying on skills to win

Greytown certainly won't be suffering from a surfeit of cricket when they meet Flight Centre Lansdowne in the grand final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Bidwell Cup competition next weekend.
Remarkably the southerners have had no more than one and a half day's play in 2009, and that takes in Umpires Cup limited-overs games as well as the Bidwell Cup two-dayers.
It's a situation which has been created by a mix of the inclement weather which has seen at least two matches washed out, and defaults but fortunately for Greytown they have still been able to accumulate enough points along the way to keep them in the reckoning for both titles.
Club stalwart Brian "BJ" James yesterday expressed optimism that while Greytown will be seriously under-done in terms
of preparation for next
weekend's decider they have enough experience and skill in their squad to produce their best form.
"The lack of play has been really frustrating but one thing about it, we will be fresh," James quipped.
Flight Centre Lansdowne, for their part, haven't exactly been over-burdened with cricket in 2009 either but, weather permitting, they will be involved in the only senior match to
be played this weekend, the
last of their Bidwell Cup preliminary round fixtures against Red Star.
It will be played at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval in Masterton with tomorrow's action getting under way at 12 noon and Sunday's at 11am.
Lansdowne skipper Sam Curtis makes no secret of the fact that his wish list includes winning the toss and batting first so as to give his batsmen much needed batting practice leading into next weekend's grand final.
"Some of us haven't had the chance to have a decent bat for something like a month and you can't beat time out in the middle to get yourself into some sort of form," Curtis said.
"Ideally then we would like to bat first and go from there."
Red Star are out of the running for the Bidwell Cup but they too will want a good performance this weekend because they have the semi-finals of the Umpire's Cup to come, and they are the defending champions in that competition.
Their batting has been inconsistent this season, to put it kindly, but if the likes of Brad Edwards, Joe Hull, Daniel Stonely and Troy Burling get going
they could make matters interesting.
Lansdowne, of course, have the luxury of having a number of very useful performers with the ball, especially in the medium pace department where Mark Scully, Robin James, Brock Price, Dane Buchanan, Joel Macklin, Choi Jackson and Doug Johnston give skipper Curtis plenty of options.