Red Star was made to work for their expected win over Flight Centre Lansdowne in the Bidwill Cup senior men's cricket match which drew to a close at Rathkeale College on Saturday.
The victory meant Red Star qualified for the cup final - where they will again meet Lansdowne- with the remarkable record of having won all their preliminary round matches outright, a feat which may go down as a "first" in the history books.
Certainly it means Red Star will go into the competition decider as warm favourites although Lansdowne will have taken heart from their much improved second-day performance.
Trailing by 60 runs on the first innings and going into Saturday's play with a lead of four runs with just five second innings wickets intact, Lansdowne fought back strongly, thanks in the main to some superb batting from Wairarapa skipper Henry Cameron. He fell just one run short of what would have been a well-deserved century, his 99 coming from 106 balls and including 14 fours and two sixes.
That knock followed hard on the heels of Cameron's 69 in the first innings when Lansdowne were all out for 109.
Giving Cameron solid support on this occasion was Choi Jackson whose 36 came off 62 balls and included four fours and one six and Lansdowne reached an acceptable 221.
Most successful of the Red Star bowlers was Peter Sigvertsen who took 3-41 off 13 overs while John Wells finished with 2-13 and Nik Karaitiana 2-32.
Needing 162 for the outright win, Red Star methodically went about reaching their target, finishing on 165-4 after 50.5 overs. There were solid efforts from the top order with Harry Clinton-Baker making 32, Troy Burling 32 and Joe Hull 34 not out. Hull struck seven 4s and Burling six 4s. Bowling for Lansdowne Alex Treseder took 2-26 off 13 overs.
Meanwhile, Newbolds Marist Old Boys openers Greg Dennes-Wilson and Colin Jones went on a run-scoring spree in their team's open grade fixture against Lansdowne 3 at the Park Sportsground on Saturday. They both retired after bringing up their centuries.
