In-form Pioneer to the top

The fairytale continues for Pioneer in the Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition.
Winless last season, they have returned to form with a vengeance, so much so that their 10-try 62-10 thumping of Masterton Red Star at the Park Sportsground on Saturday elevated them to the top of the 2011 Chris Kapene Memorial Cup points table.
It was in the last 20 minutes that Pioneer ran a severely depleted Masterton Red Star combination ragged, scoring tries almost at will as a defence which had battled bravely through all the first half and the opening stanzas of the second finally cracked.
With talented first-five Tipi Haira cleverly calling the shots the pacy Pioneer backline relished the mountain of quality possession coming their way and launched some spectacular attacks as a consequence.
Haira looked every inch a leading contender for representative honours with his deceptive running and passing skills and with his ability to find open spaces with his tactical kicks.
Impressive too was the flair and speed of wing Charlie Brown, who seldom failed to make considerable ground whenever the ball came his way, while midfielder Tommy Davidson was a powerful runner and sturdy defender.
Up front Pioneer were solid in the set pieces and particularly dangerous in broken play where the aggressiveness of No8 Lee Ewe stood out.
Invariably it took at least two, and usually three or four, defenders to stop his progress.
Masterton Red Star were without the bulk of their experienced campaigners and promoted a number of their senior reserves side to fill the gaps. Their first half effort was a gutsy one, especially in the forwards where they broke even in the possession stakes, but unfortunately they could not maintain it for the full 80 minutes.
Halfback Callum Buchanan was the pick of their team.
Tipi Haira (2), C Gray, Tommy Davidson, Charlie Brown (2), Tommy Harmon (2), T Loule and Treveli Rimene scored tries for Pioneer and Haira also landed six conversions.
Jamie Fraser kicked one penalty and one conversion for Masterton Red Star and S Davies scored their sole try.
The other premier division match played on Saturday saw Marist run in three tries to one in beating Carterton 20-7 at Memorial Park. Lively hooker Leuma Wilson along with Rhys Severn and Liam Devine scored the Marist tries and James Goodger kicked one penalty and one conversion.
Carterton's points came from a Brock Price try converted by Jono Hurley.
There was a good crowd at Gladstone on Thursday to watch the home team beat Greytown 43-13 in a match played under the impressive new lighting system at the Gladstone sporting complex.
Gladstone started strongly and got out to a decent lead and while Greytown did manage two tries of their own they were never really in the hunt.
Front rower Bevan Morland has been making a habit of scoring tries for Gladstone this season and he got one on this occasion, along with Tim Fleming, Charlie Bargh, Joe Naivalu, J Coffey and Baden Stevenson.
Michael Vuicikau kicked four conversions and John Bailey one conversion and one penalty.
Tavitia Isaac and Hamish Meyrick touched down for Greytown and Rhys Lett kicked a conversion.
On Easter Friday Martinborough hosted Featherston and while Martinborough got the expected win the 29-13 margin was perhaps a little closer than most pundits might have predicted.
Te Kani, Hurnell, Dennes and O'Neale scored the Martinborough tries and Greg Dennes also kicked three conversions and a penalty. Sami scored a try for Featherston and John Spicer kicked one conversion and two penalties.