Griffins head to Chapple Cup this weekend
The Nelson Griffins will be looking to improve on last season’s fourth placing when the annual Central Districts Chapple Cup cricket tournament starts in Napier on Friday.
Green, bowler-friendly wickets caused all sort of problems for the batsmen last season as Nelson eventually suffered a three-wicket loss to Taranaki in the playoff for third and fourth.
Nelson once again meet Horowhenua-Kapiti in the opening round, with Friday’s winning teams progressing to the top-tier Chapple Cup competition. The losing sides will contest the Cave Cup.
A generally wet spring provides no guarantees that conditions will be markedly better this weekend, Nelson also lamenting the significant loss of Central Stags batsman Josh Clarkson who is out for several weeks after fracturing his forearm during a recent Stags practise match.
And to further accentuate Clarkson’s misfortune, he’d been standing at the non-striker’s end at the time
However, the Griffins have been boosted by the arrival of South African allrounder Evan Jones from Marlborough who’ll join fellow South African Willem Ludick in the Nelson lineup.
The two Pretorian allrounders arrived in Nelson last February, Ludick linking up with Nelson club Athletic College Old Boys and Jones joining Blenheim’s Renwick club. Both players duly made their representative debuts for their respective provinces although Jones has opted to play his cricket in Nelson this season with the Wanderers club.
They are currently in the process of registering as New Zealand players in a potential bid to attract Central Stags contracts. Both are on three-year working visas.
A former South Africa under-19 representative, Ludick was part of Nelson’s seam attack during last season’s Hawke Cup campaign and will assume the captaincy in Napier. Offspinner Jones enhances Nelson’s slow bowling resources as a foil for left-arm spinner Felix Murray.
New Nelson coach Ruan Louw said that the squad had been progressing nicely over the past few months.
‘‘The squad we’ve taken has sort of selected itself,’’ Louw said. ‘‘These are the guys that have put in the shifts, they’re the wons that have rocked up early in the morning and done all the strength and conditioning sessions.
‘‘We’ve tried to introduce a few new things to training, just trying to expand the players’ thinking around their own games.
‘‘People like Tom Ingham, Mason Thelin and Tom Cross, they’ve added to their game from what we saw three months ago and certainly from probably what they had last year.’’
As a contender for first class honours, Ludick offered the side a genuine leadership option while a well-balanced bowling attack provided plenty of options.