Weather wins again
A major transformation planned for the nation’s insurer is having ripple effects in Taranaki.
The Accident Compensation Corporation’s (ACC) ‘Shaping our Future’ strategy aims to improve outcomes for its customers, along with their experience of the service. It is the biggest change in how the service manages its injury claims in 20 years.
Just how much the proposal will impact on the 3415 staff currently employed by ACC across the country was unclear at this stage. However, the Taranaki site – based in its New Plymouth office – was not threatened with closure, an ACC spokesperson said.
‘‘The New Plymouth branch is not going to close, and clients will still be able to talk to their case manager face-to-face about their recovery if that is what they want,’’ the spokesperson said.
What is less clear is how many jobs are on the line as part of the service shake-up, as ACC did not answer questions about the number of Taranaki-based employees possibly affected. For the second straight week the weather defeated everyone with the entire round of Revital Fertiliser Premier grade club cricket being abandoned.
Not only was club cricket washed away – the scheduled first round of the Mike Shrimpton Trophy for the Taranaki women’s team was abandoned the night before.
With the forecast improving for the weekend we look forward to hearing some leather on willow.
Revital Taranaki
The Revital Taranaki team begin their campaign to defend the Furlong Cup and earn another shot at the Hawke Cup come end of season.
A number of players are missing from the squad that competed last season including former Black Cap Peter Ingram, James McDougall, Moritz Hartmann and
Callum Stuart.
With those players missing and with Bailey Wisnewski, Davis Mills, Kaylum Boshier, Shaun Sullivan and Jackson Braddock
Pajo all unavailable for this round, coach Debu Banik and selectors have named a very young and inexperienced team to play against Manawatu¯ .
There are five debutants including Jessie Vertongen, Mattie Allen, Daniel Bernet, Michael Blanks and Ben Frewin. Taranaki will be looking to their senior players to stand up, especially Dean Robinson at the top of the order – along with Liam Muggeridge, who is coming into his 5th season at representative level and selectors will be looking for him to deliver on the promise he has shown.
With the ball Ryan Watson will once again spearhead the attack and will be joined by fellow New Plymouth Marist United (NPMU) club member Josh Barrett. Barrett last played five years ago in the 2012/13 season.
Mattie Thomas will once again lead the side.
The game is scheduled to start at 10.30 tomorrow at Pukekura Park.
Revital Fertiliser Premier Grade
We look forward to hearing some leather on willow.
The last two rounds being washed out it has played into the hands of the top four, with only six teams now having a mathematical chance of reaching the semifinals going into round six this weekend.
Top of the table NPMU take on Inglewood, who will fancy their chances to topple the favourites with a number of players on representative duty from NPMU.
New Plymouth Old Boys will travel to Stratford and should be too strong for their central Taranaki counterparts, Ha¯ wera will host Woodleigh down south and in the match of the round it’s the battle of the schoolyard as New Plymouth Boys High School (NPBHS) host Francis Douglas Memorial College (FDMC).
This game basically shapes as a quarter-final for both of these teams with the winner keeping their slim hopes alive and the loser looking towards the two-day competition. NPBHS have been building into their season with a couple of solid performances before a morale-boosting win over
Ha¯ wera.
None of the NPBHS batsman have set the competition on fire yet but Tyler Slingsby has led the bowling unit with 7 wickets at an average of 8.43.
On the other hand, FDMC got off to a terrible start to the season, hitting rock bottom in round 2 when they were bowled out for 34. However, one week later they got the win over Stratford which has kept their hopes alive.
Skipper Mattie Allen has proved he is a quality player, leading the team and averaging 58 with the bat. He will be sorely missed this weekend as he debuts for Taranaki.
Games start at 11am and live scoring of all games can be found on the Taranaki Cricket Association’s website.