Coach saddles up warhorses for defence
Golden Edge Nelson Griffins representative cricket coach Garry MacDonald has called on his two ‘‘warhorses’’ to help in Sunday’s Newman Shield defence at the Marsden Rec.
With experienced allrounder Joe O’Connor unavailable due to a rotator cuff injury, MacDonald has brought in Wanderers’ Hayden Ingham and Stoke-Nayland’s Dylan Eginton to complete his 12-man squad for Nelson’s final representative fixture of the season. Nelson beat Marlborough by 89 runs to reclaim the Newman Shield last November in Blenheim.
O’Connor’s absence means a deserved call up for the two seamers, Ingham and Eginton, both of whom already have representative experience.
‘‘The warhorses I call them,’’ MacDonald said.
‘‘They’ve been doing a lot of net bowling during the world cup and they front up at every practice and bowl their hearts out and they’ve deserved it.
‘‘So they’ve got an opportunity to get in there and show what they can do.’’
WTTU seamer Sam Baxendine is this season’s leading wickettaker on the Nelson premier club scene and with left-arm spinner Marty Kain now also available to back up fellow spinners Felix Murray and Greg Hay, there is plenty of variety in Nelson’s attack. Marty King completes the seam options.
According to MacDonald though, O’Connor’s absence does reduce Nelson’s batting.
‘‘We’re probably a genuine allrounder short batting at eight . . . so we’re a little bit unbalanced from that point of view,’’ he said.
Still, it’s a strong Nelson lineup with former Marlborough player Josh Clarkson currently in top batting form and Hay also available ahead of Central Districts’ fourday Plunket Shield match against Canterbury at Saxton Oval next week.
Marlborough haven’t enjoyed any success this season although MacDonald stressed that a Newman Shield win over Nelson this weekend would help to alleviate some of the pressure.
They’ll be fielding one of their strongest lineups of the season though, including CD allrounder Ben Wheeler who was injured for much of the early part of the season.
‘‘We’ve had a reasonable season I guess, we’ve treaded water, but if we lose this game, it puts a damper on the whole season, there’s no doubt about that,’’ MacDonald said.
‘‘We want to win it and with the team we’ve got, we’ve got enough players in strategic areas [to suggest] we should be able to do that. But that’s cricket isn’t it, you just never know.’’
Play is scheduled to start on Sunday at 11am.
Last weekend’s washout means that WTTU are now guaranteed a place in the Car Company Nelson one-day premier club final with still two rounds of competition remaining.
Heavy rain meant that no play was possible last Saturday, with WTTU now holding an eight-point lead over RWCA Athletic College Old Boys. WTTU lead the competition on 32 points, followed by ACOB on 24, Car Company StokeNayland on 21, Taylors Contracting Wanderers 16, Post Boy Hotel Wakatu 12 and Sprig and Fern Motueka 6.
WTTU and ACOB square off on Saturday at Jubilee Park, with third-placed Stoke-Nayland also meeting WTTU in the following week’s 10th and final round.
That places plenty of pressure on ACOB and Stoke-Nayland to perform, although Stoke-Nayland will clearly be backing themselves to secure victory over bottomplaced Motueka at the Marsden Rec.
Wanderers remain in the hunt and play the two lowest-placed teams over the remaining two rounds, starting On Saturday with Wakatu at Victory Square.