It appears Whanganui have received a good draw to start, as they will face Marlborough in their opening match at Manawaroa Park.
“It’s a team we don’t know, we never get to play them,” coach Warren Marr said.
“We see a white ball, and the energy rises.”
Should Whanganui win on Friday, the Taranaki and Manawatū match will eliminate one title contender, while Hawke’s Bay will start as favourites against HMC Horowhenua-Kāpiti, and the long-travelling Nelson will meet Post Office Hotel Wairarapa.
Whanganui will take a 13-man squad down to stay two nights in Palmerston North, allowing Marr to select his XI for each game depending on ground conditions and the balance of bowlers/batsmen for the specific opponent.
The team did suffer a blow with the late withdrawal of swing bowler Ross Kinnerley, after a flare-up of his leg injury at training on Wednesday.
“We’re still a strong side, Rosco would have made it the best side we could have put out,” Marr said.
Therefore, the likes of returning Central Districts Stags batsman Ben Smith, allrounder Nick Harding and Hadleigh O’Leary, more recently a spinner, will do some of the seam bowling to cover Kinnerley’s workload.
The rest of the attack will revolve around the other two pace-bowling O’Learys – Connor and Shaun – and then the spinners of James Woodford and Fred McVerry.
One player will be making his debut for Whanganui, batsman Tom Dempster. The local banker lives in Feilding and scored 192 runs across two matches last weekend.
“Runs are currency, so we had no choice but to select him,” Marr said.
Dempster played the match-winning knock with a century in Wanganui Vet Services Marist’s Coastal Challenge victory over Kāpiti Old Boys on Saturday, and backed it up with 91 on the Sunday for Riverview Motel Whanganui A in their victory over Horowhenua-Kāpiti Emerging Players in Levin.
Four members of the Chapple Cup squad played for the A team, and Marr was pleased to see Shaun O’Leary play himself into some batting form as the Whanganui side scored 350 and kept their hosts to about 250.
The first-round Chapple games start at 10.30am.
The Whanganui team is:
Greg Smith (c), Joel Clark, Nick Harding, Ben Smith, Carter Hobbs, Shaun O’Leary, Fraser Kinnerley, Hadleigh O’Leary, Chris Sharrock (wc), James Woodford, Fred McVerry, Connor O’Leary, Tom Dempster.
Club cricket
The fourth rounds of the Cricket Whanganui Premier 2 40-over and Premier 3 30-over competitions will see the table leaders looking to consolidate their positions in the race to get to grand final day on March 23.
In P2, table leaders Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens will host a Property Brokers United P2 side now in a must-win situation to keep their finals-day hopes alive.
The current second-placed team, Whanganui High School First XI, will take on fourth-placed Wicket Warriors Whanganui.
After a narrow loss to Marton, the Whanganui Renegades will look to get back on track when taking on Whanganui Collegiate Second XI at the school grounds.
In P3, leaders Wanganui Vet Services Marist Second XI host a Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens P3 team coming off the bye, while after beating the WHS P3s, the Kaitoke Knight Riders will look to make it a double of school victories when they meet the Whanganui Collegiate P3s.
