Lansdowne look for double

Flight Centre Lansdowne will be out to complete the double when they meet Greytown in the final of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpire's Cup limited-overs competition at Queen Elizabeth Park Oval in Masterton tomorrow.
The same two sides clashed in the Bidwell Cup two-day final just a couple of weekends ago with Lansdowne 's first innings lead being enough to give them the title.
That victory did not come without its share of hiccups though with Greytown claiming the first five Lansdowne first innings wickets for precious little before Robin James, Chris Jefferies and Brock Price steadied the ship enough to get them through to a respectable 228.
And then when Greytown batted the Lansdowne fielding effort was well below par with several catches being spilled and the southerners, thanks in the main to Josh Doherty, Wal Tatham and Mark Childs, coming to within 11 runs of reaching their target.
It was paceman Hayden Spierling who did most of the damage with the ball for Greytown then and the big "what if" at the game's end centred around the absence of Seth Rance, Greytown's gun all-rounder who was on duty with the Central Stags.
Whether Rance's brilliance with bat and ball would have produced a very different result will, of a course, always be a matter of conjecture but there is no doubt that if he and Spierling share the new ball for Greytown tomorrow the Lansdowne batsmen can anticipate some torrid exchanges.
The two scalps Greytown will prize most at the top of the Lansdowne order will be those of Henry Cameron and Sam Curtis, both of whom have a wide array of attacking shots and the confidence to play them under any conditions.
Unlike the ever-consistent Curtis, Cameron hasn't had the most productive of seasons in a run-getting sense but there have been signs lately that his luck could be about to change and if he gets into full stride Greytown will be in trouble.
Greytown, for their part, will be hoping that Rance doesn't only shine with the ball but with the bat as well. He is probably the sweetest timer of a cricket ball in Wairarapa and boundaries tend to come on a regular basis when he is at the crease.
Encouragement too for Greytown will have come from the recent batting form of the experienced Mark Childs who, like Rance, scores his runs at a rapid clip and with a minimum of fuss and bother.
Whatever the result of tomorrow's clash though it should provide an entertaining end to what has been a season which will probably be remembered more for the fickleness of the weather than anything else & a point which suggests having Sunday as the reserve day for the Umpires Cup final if tomorrow is wet might prove to be a very good idea!