National selectors to cast critical eye over opening weekend
January 17, 2007
Christchurch, NZ
National selectors to cast critical eye over opening weekend
Wednesday January 17th 2007
After a shortage of top class play in recent month’s players will haveitchy feet to get out on the softball diamonds of Christchurch thisweekend for the opening round of the New Zealand Community Trust Men’sNational League.
Since the softball season started in October last year the sports eliteplayers have been focusing on performing for their clubs with nointernational and very little provincial softball in between.
NZCT Black Sox coach Eddie Kohlhase believes this weekend will see a stepup in intensity and performance while it will also test the player’sability to attain the performance levels required after time away fromthe highest level.
“I would imagine a lot of the guys wouldn’t have played a lot at thislevel in the past few months. While they have been playing for theirclubs domestically they haven’t been stretched so this will be anopportunity to see some good pitching,” said Kohlhase.
Going into the opening weekend at Canterbury Foundation Park,Christchurch on Saturday and Sunday North Harbour hold the tag ofdefending champions.
Since claiming the title last season the franchise has appointed a newcoach in Graeme Gollan and he is well aware of the challenge ahead of hisside this time around.
“To come off a good championship win and to show your worth as a team youneed to back it up and defend the title and that is what we will belooking to do,” said Gollan.
Much of the teams success last season was based around North Harbour’stwo star players NZCT Black Sox captain Jarrad Martin and fellowinternational Brad Rona. Coach Gollan admits it will be the same againthis season with Martin and Rona to handle the pitching duties while alsobeing the team top hitters.
“They are our pitchers and the top batters in the team so it is fair tosay we will be relying heavily on our New Zealand players but they havethe class to do it.”
There are six teams entered in the men’s National League this season withtwo weekends of round robin play in January and February ahead of the topthree finals series in March.
The fact only three teams will qualify for the finals will make roundrobin play very tight with five teams Auckland, Wellington, Hutt Valley,Canterbury and North Harbour all looking strong on paper while SouthernPride appear to be the only team short of overall class andexperience.
Draw:
Saturday January 20th
11am Auckland v North Harbour
11am Southern Pride v Hutt Valley
1pm Canterbury Red Sox vSouthern Pride
1pm Wellington v HuttValley
3pm Canterbury Red Sox vNorth Harbour
3pm Wellington v Auckland
5pm Southern Pride v NorthHarbour
5pm Hutt Valley v Auckland
7pm Canterbury Red Sox vWellington
Sunday January 21st
9am Southern Pride v Auckland
9am North Harbour vWellington
11am Hutt Valley v Canterbury Red Sox
11am Southern Pride v Wellington
1pm Auckland v Canterbury RedSox
1pm North Harbour v HuttValley
Teams:
Auckland – Heinie Shannon, Thomas Cameron (Pitchers), Lyndon Andrew,Patrick Shannon, Nathan Nukunuku, Bobby King, Michael Cameron, Carlaus TeKawa, Jonathan Munden, Michael Gibbs, Aaron Thompson, Gus Leger, BernardHale.
Player / Coach – Donny Hale.
Canterbury – Penese Iosefo, Nathan Taikato (Pitchers), Clayton Ellis,Darren Davies, Jamie Frisby, Steve McFarlane, Paul DeLatour, TravisWilson, Paul Stead, Anthony Stewart, Gareth Cook, Todd Grego, DanielMilne, Brad Annandale.
Coach – Mike McDowell.
Hutt Valley - Jeremy Manley, Regan Manley (Pitchers), Steven Deans,Curtis Ames, Justin Karaitana, Jerol Lajpold, Tyson Byrne, David Butler,Rakai Hokianga, Scott Higgins, Bronson Marino, Geoff Packer, MichaelTelfer, Michael Foote.
Coach – Dominic Richards.
North Harbour- Brad Rona, Jarrad Martin (Pitchers), Leon Lambert, MichaelBoaler, David Down, Aaron Collier, Todd Wilson, Callum Ryan, JasonGerbes, Zack Doney, Grant Dean, Yosuke Fukui, Haizley Martin, RuebenTopia.
Coach – Graeme Gollan.
Southern Pride – Jared Welsh, Isaac Fletcher (Pitchers),Scott Cartwright,Bevan Passmore, Daniel Tarapi, Chris Telfer, Jonathan Campbell, DanielShayler, Christopher Anderson, Wanye Sangster, Scott Dale, Aaron Risdon,Martin Warren, Phil Bayne.
Coach – Ted Forrester.
Wellington – Craig Gibson, Tane Richardson (Pitchers), Stephen Ratu,Wayne Laulu, Gene Lutton, Les Poutama, Craig Wallace, Stacy McLean, DaveBishop, Thomas Makea, Fabian Makea, Corey Matakatea, Rick Manson, JohnPotts.
Coach – Les Bishop.
By SNZ Media Liaison: Kelly Mitchell
* mailto:kelly.mitchell@xtra.co.nz
http://www.softball.org.nz/
*mailto:snz@softball.org.nz
Cheers Vance
Softball New Zealand web master.
* mailto:vanf@ihug.co.nz
