Poor weather cheats Giants

The weather man possibly cheated Giants from overall success at the men's softball tournament hosted by the Kapiti club last weekend.
With four wins from their five previous games Giants's last appearance was a virtual grand final against unbeaten Poneke-Kilbirnie and after the scores were tied at 1-1 at the end of ordinary play the game went into a tie-breaker.
And Giants had one run on the board and two runners on bases when the thunder, lightning and heavy rain came to call an early stop to proceedings.
"We were looking good when the weather broke & it was just one of those things, Giants coach Tony Nixon said.
"You can't say we would have won but we were in with a big hope, that's for sure."
The calling off of that game left Poneke-Kilbirnie as the tournament winners with Giants as runners-up, a result which still thrilled Nixon as it showed they were in the right form to make a strong showing in their opening Hutt Valley premier league and Inter-City series matches against Hutt Valley Marist at South Park this Saturday.
"We batted well, we pitched well and we fielded well & you can't ask for a lot more than that," Nixon said.
Giants faced hosts Kapiti in their opening match and with Jason O'Leary hitting two runs and Richie Clarke, Ryan Shannahan, Mark Quinn and new Canadian "import" Michael Grant also showing good batting form Giants got home 4-3.
Clarke excelled as a pitcher too, giving away only three hits while taking seven strikeouts.
Next up Giants fronted up to Newlands and again they put bat to ball with telling effect, winning 14-4.
O'Leary and Shannahan both recorded home runs to spearhead the batting effort along with Terry Waitere and Justin Karaitiana and there were sound performances from both pitchers used, Karaitiana and Mark Quinn.
The reliable pitching of Clarke played a key role in the 4-2 victory over Royals as did the consistency with the bat of Corie Karaitiana, Shannahan and Grant
Waitere became the star of another 4-2 win, this time over Porirua, with one home run and a two-bagger and Gordon Wilmshurst and Grant also featured prominently on the batting mound.
The only defeat for Giants came at the hands of Miramar to whom they lost 8-6. Clarke and Blair Thompson hit home runs there with Quinn managing a three-bagger and both Grant and Justin Karaitiana hitting two two-baggers apiece.
Highlight of the unfinished Petone match for Giants was the scoring of a run by Corie Karaitiana off a hit by Quinn.