Youth vital for survival

OUT OF THE PARK: Gordon Wilmshurst hit two automatic home runs in the Hutt Valley Presidents grade match.PHOTO/FILE

Giants Softball Club president Allan Clarke can remember back to the days when there were 18 softball clubs operating in Wairarapa.

Now Masterton-based Giants is the only one and Clarke is determined that after 48 years of existence they will continue to be the face of the game here.

Nobody understands better than him, however, for that to happen introducing more youngsters is a must and so the priority is to form an under-13 team to play in the Hutt Valley competition.

Clarke has four players willing to take up that challenge and with the first game scheduled for this Saturday he has only a few days left to come up with another eight. "It doesn't sound a lot but the timeframe is tight so hopefully a bit of publicity will get us over the line."

"It's a great opportunity for young players - boys and girls - to test themselves at a higher level, they should be jumping at the chance."

Numbers playing regularly in the Friday night league for intermediate and primary school players at South Park and Hadlow School certainly suggest Clarke's target should be easily met. Up to 150 compete on a weekly basis, many of whom have the raw skills to progress further in the sport.

This season Giants are operating three teams in outside competitions. Their flagship side is the Premier Two men who play in a combined Hutt Valley and Wellington competition, which has been divided into two pools of six: Giants compete against Poneke-Kilbirnie Gold, Poneke-Kilbirnie Red, Tawa, St George and Cardinals. There will be three complete rounds and the winners of the two pools will play off in the final.

Coached by club stalwart Mark Fricker, the Premier Twos have lost their opening two games by relatively narrow margins and Clarke is confident that with talented youngsters like Michael McDermott, Danny Brown, Jordan Waitere, Jacob Elliott and Tame McDermott in their line-up they will make rapid improvement.

The Giants under-15s kicked off their season with a loss to a very well-drilled Totara Park side in a Hutt Valley competition match last weekend and with the bulk of their squad having played at under-13 level last season they too will be expected to get better in the weeks ahead. Interestingly there are two girls in their side, Makaylah Julian and Ashleigh Edmonds, and they lose nothing in comparison with their male counterparts.

As usual too Giants are fielding a team in the Hutt Valley Presidents grade and judging by the ease of their 21-2 victory over Stokes Valley last weekend they will again be strong title contenders. A highlight of that game was the five automatic home runs, three of them by Terry Waitere and the other two by Gordon Wilmshurst. Giants were also dominant in the field, no surprise when you consider they have pitching talent of the calibre of Tony Nixon and Ray Stratford.

Away from the playing front, Allan Clarke is also keen to see Giants develop their facility at South Park, which he says is widely regarded as one of the best venues in the lower North Island, and probably even further afield. "We have a lot of visiting teams rave on about how pleasant the atmosphere is with all the trees and the closeness of the spectators and there's plenty of scope to make it even better."