The Giants Premier Reserve team had a tough start to the season, going down eight runs to four against a strong-looking Hutt City United team at South Park on Saturday. Missing a few players from last season, and still without their recently-signed Australian pitcher, the team couldn’t match the Hutt team in their first outing after promotion to the Premier Reserve competition. Veteran pitcher Tony Nixon stepped up to the plate, and despite his vast experience and skill I’m s

The cricket season may just be begining and the oval at Masterton’s Queen Elizabeth II park won’t see any action for a week or two yet, but for head groundsman John Fletcher the preparation has been underway for months. In fact work on preparing the block began almost immediately after the previous playing season was over. “Our first job was to scarify the surface of the block which is basically a machine the rips up the grass and a little bit of the clay. Then we put new gra

I sat down with Dalefield and Wairarapa men’s hockey manager Mike van Woerkom with a cup of tea and some delicious home-made cinnamon pinwheels (thanks Carol) to chat about Dalefield’s season, the great result for Wairarapa at the recent National Hockey Championships, and his involvement with hockey in general. MIke dressed up against the cold at the National Hockey Stadium during the recent National Hockey Championships Every time I go to the turf at Clareville I see Mike as

Recently appointed Wairarapa senior women’s cricket coach Patrick Wootton is looking forward to the new challenge. “Yeah, I’m pretty happy and looking forward to stepping up into the senior space and challenging myself and seeing how we can go as a team,” he says. This year’s squad has a number of new players whom Patrick has coached at secondary school level. “I’m looking forward to seeing what the younger girls can do at the senior level. So seeing how they stack up against