Plenty of depth in NEV side for national clubs event

NORTH East Valley will head into this week’s national club championships with some confidence and plenty of depth in its side.

The side will play five games against the leading club sides from the other five major associations in the country before finals are played on Sunday.

The side plays its opening game against Napier Tech Old Boys today before games against Pukekohe Metro, Onslow, Burnside and then Cornwall. All

games are played at Cornwall Park in Auckland.

North East Valley is captained and coached by Adam Miles, who opens the batting and also keeps wicket.

He has coached junior Otago sides in the past couple of years and also made a couple of appearances for the Volts. He will miss the first game today because of a coaching commitment with New Zealand Cricket.

Miles will be joined by fellow Otago Volts players Jimmy Neesham and Llew Johnson.

The side will be without Volts wicketkeeper Derek de Boorder, who picked up a minor injury in the last firstclass game of the season against Canterbury.

Volts opening bowler Michael Rae will also not be playing as he has university commitments.

The side, though, has plenty of talent and should be competitive.

It has the Kindley brothers — Will and Hunter — who have been good performers at junior level. Will made more then 500 runs in the club season just completed while Hunter made the New Zealand under19 World Cup training squad before injury ruined his chances of playing in the tournament.

One interesting newcomer to the side is Matthew Fisher, who opened the bowling for New Zealand at this year’s under19 World Cup played in this country. He is from Northern Districts and joined the Valley club when the tertiary year began.

Club stalwarts such as Jamie Murley, Florian Schmidt and Tom Griffin will also line up.

Albion was the Otago representative last year and made it all the way to the final before losing a close match to Eastern Suburbs of Wellington.

Green Island was the last side from Otago to win the national title, in 2006.

The weather may have a big say in the event, with showers forecast in Auckland every day this week.