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I had a sports editor's dilemma on Monday afternoon.
Tuesday's back page story after Hawke Cup cricket weekends has usually been reserved for the final outcome and scoreboards for Active Physio Wanganui's latest efforts against their Central Districts neighbours.
However basketball standout Akira Marsters, a guy whose sport in this town is not too far above social-league quality, had wandered in to let me know that while he was giving up the NBL for the time being, his dream of going the Steve Adams route of playing for a major American college is very much alive.
I weighed that up against cricket coach Dominic Rayner's latest description of an innings loss to Manawatu in a season "we're happy to see the end of", and made my choice for a lead.
For the record, I would rather not see Wanganui senior representative cricket slip on to the inside pages, although don't ever think that always constitutes a demotion in story importance, but there's just got to be something to work with.
I've heard a lot of theories up at Victoria Park as to why the local youth-to-adult player quality conversion rate is so poor as I watch our young teenagers compete, and often beat, their representative equals during the Festival of Cricket.
Obviously small towns have a "brawn" as well as a "brain" drain to the major centres, but there's more to it than that.
I've been told, and agree, that a simple Wednesday evening net session is simply not enough to stand up to a Manawatu or a Hawkes Bay who have more men to call upon, although as a working stiff myself I get how the needs of the missus and demands of the mortgage take up so much time.
This ain't your granddaddy's game anymore those dreaming of an abundance of college teams linking with the clubs to provide a clear gateway for senior grades with a dozen 1st and 2nd XIs probably don't grasp the modern realities.
Lowered expectations honestly might not be such a bad thing.
A little more patience is applicable, which you need in abundance to love "Our Summer Game" at any level these days, and really who else could do a better job around here?
Coach Rayner and manager Justin Lock are 1-5-1 in their tenure but no one screams down the phonelines for their heads, while Karl Parker went 4-5 with the rugby boys and found himself handing over a resignation letter.
Unlike rugby, diamonds in the rough from Wanganui can still go straight from our club scene into the top age-grade national sides Henry Collier and Nick Blundell being just the latest.
Conversely, they receive that extra one-on-one coaching and dedication, but somehow locally this needs to be widened so a second tier of 3-4 guys who could be in the senior lineup, even if they're in their 30s, get offered and choose to take up a bit of a helping hand.
Give Rayner and Lock just 6-7 blokes to work with who are all firing at once, and the back page will be there with open arms.
Speaking of getting results, the one cricket tournament that proved a dream to cover for the Chronicle's team this month was the Under 15 girls nationals at Victoria Park, as every squad took advantage of the special wi-fi spots to update their scoreboards electronically, as they were happening, through the website CricHQ.
Guru Dilan Raj has sent gentle nudges to Wanganui's senior club and representative players over the past two seasons that this technology is there for them, if each team can just find someone with a little computer nous and the faculties to remember their password to use the resource.
Here's a contrast being able to cover two games "live" in New Plymouth from the partial comfort of my Wanganui office this season thanks to the 'Naki embracing this new laptop and tablet world, but then spending nearly an hour on the phone with Mike Mason in Palmerston North with a pencil scoreboard in front of him on the previously mentioned Monday.
Obviously it's not just on the pitch that the local game needs to change with the times.