Wairarapa are no longer the cellar dwellers in their zone of the Hawke Cup cricket elimination series. Their outright win over Horowhenua-Kapiti last weekend has seen them leap frog both that team and Wanganui at the bottom of the table. With just one series of matches to be played on February24 and 25, Nelson and Taranaki are joint leaders with 25pts, followed by Hawke's Bay 22pts, Manawatu and Marlborough, both 21pts, Wairarapa 11pts, Wanganui 5pts and Horowhenua-Kapiti 4pts. Wairarapa's final game is against Marlborough in Blenheim with the team likely to be announced early next week. Latest results: Manawatu 294 and 125-0 had a first innings win over Marlborough 244; Nelson 356-4 had a first innings win over Hawke's Bay 355-4; Taranaki 421 had a first innings win over Wanganui 208 and 246-5; Horowhenua-Kapiti 203 and 164-3 declared lost to Wairarapa 207 and 163-7 by three wickets. Meanwhile Rathkeale College first XI drew their latest inter-school fixture with Wanganui Collegiate at Wanganui. Batting first, Wanganui Collegiate crawled through to 188 in 72 overs despite Rathkeale losing their main strike bowler Doug Bracewell to a back injury in just his second over and having another of their main wicket-takers in Dean van Deventer troubled by cramp. Their problems meant a heavy workload at the bowling crease for Andy Dodd and he responded splendidly, taking 5-46 from his 28 overs. Rathkeale College reached 183 in 52 overs in their first innings with seven of the batsmen getting into double figures. Cameron Linton top scored with 28 and Matt Dalley made 27. For either side to have any chance of an outright win the onus was on Wanganui Collegiate to score quickly in their second innings but their batsmen struggled to get the ball off the block, and the game ended with them at 125-5 made of 52 overs.Cole Eru took 2-22 and Dodd was economical in putting down 25 overs and conceding just 53 runs.
