Scene set for explosive clash

Defending champions Lansdowne will take on the team rated most likely to topple them off their perch this season, Greytown, in a Wairarapa Umpire's Cup limited-overs cricket competition match at Greytown tomorrow.
What makes this clash so intriguing is that both sides have a number of players capable of producing an individual performance so impressive it decides the fate of the game.
In the batting department Lansdowne have potential match winners in Sam Curtis, Brock Price, Robin James and Alex Treseder, all of whom are capable of scoring heavily at a quick rate.
Of them Curtis has been clearly the most prolific run scorer in recent seasons but while Greytown will obviously be keen to see the back of him without much damage being done it is Price who perhaps offers the biggest threat to the southerners. He seldom takes more than a few balls to get into full stride and invariably the large percentage of his runs come from boundaries.
Greytown too have batsmen who aren't shy at taking the game to the opposition attack. Player-coach Steve Coleman has already managed a couple of half-centuries this season and will be a prize scalp for Lansdowne , as will Seth Rance, the Central Stags player who hits the ball a country mile when he is full flight. Mark Childs and Paul Lyttle are just a couple of others in the Greytown batting line-up always likely to cut loose on the club scene.
Rance will, of course, also be expected to play a big hand for Greytown with the ball. He will relish the challenge of taking the battle to batsmen like Price and Curtis and his ability to extract useful pace and lift from even the most placid of wickets-artificial or otherwise-is a huge plus for his side.
Ben Hodder and Brian James also got amongst the wickets for Greytown in their win over Rathkeale College last Saturday and Hayden Spierling and Nash Patel add to their strength in that area of the game.
Lansdowne's attack mainly consists of a bevy of medium pacers-Mark Scully, Dane Buchanan, Robin James and Brock Price- who can generally be relied on to bowl accurately for whatever stint they are given, a huge attribute to have in the limited-overs arena.
Whatever the result of this match it should be an entertaining encounter well worth a look.
The other Umpire's Cup match tomorrow will see Rathkeale College up against Red Star at Rathkeale and another interesting battle is on the cards.
Rathkeale have drawn the short straw so far this season, having to play Lansdowne first up and then Greytown, and they will be regarding this game as an opportunity to strike winning form.
Harry Greenwood is sure to be at the forefront of their effort with bat and ball and others like Jamie Holmes, Matthew Stringfellow, Jacob Smith, Harry Clinton-Baker, Phillip Tuoro and Josh Mann all have the potential to make a name for themselves.
Red Star lived up to new skipper Aaron Wilson's prediction that they could be the "dark horses" of this year's competitions with their three-wicket win over Wairarapa College last weekend and that should have them in a confident frame of mind. Nicolai Karaitiana is an all-rounder capable of having a big say in this one, as could batsmen Chris Wenden and Daniel Stoneley and bowlers Jarred Watt and Sean Jarvis.
A Red Star victory appeals as the most likely result but it would no great surprise to see it go the other way.