By Gary Caffell
The unbeaten run of Kuripuni Sports Bar Giants in the Hutt Valley President’s grade men’s softball competition continued when they outclassed Railways 14-4 in a top of the table clash at Fraser Park on Saturday.
As has become the norm the power hitting of Terry Waitere, Gordon Wilmshurst and Justin Karaitiana played a significant part in the Giants victory while Karaitiana also made a decent impression on the pitching mound, as did Tony Nixon.
The Giants premier three men’s Inter-City team staved off a spirited Wainuiomata challenge in their fixture played at Wainuiomata.
Giants won by 9-6 in a game which was always tightly contested and two of their outstanding performers were a couple of players who starred in their under-17 squad last season, Korban Sutherland and Curtis Krivan.
They starred with the bat and in the field.
The fact they were having their first match after a break of six weeks clearly detracted from the effort of the Giants women’s team in their Hutt Valley major B match with Stokes Valley, the latter winning 19-11.
Giants were guilty of making a number of unforced errors in the field where they lacked their usual urgency.
It was a similar story for the Apache Jacks Giants under-15s in their Hutt Valley fixture with Wainuiomata.
Giants went into the game with an unbeaten record and were generally expected to call the tune but here too their six week break took its toll and Wainuiomata capitalised big time, winning by a crushing 15-0.
Visitors from as far afield as Canada and Australia will be amongst the guests at the Giants club’s 50th birthday celebrations in Masterton next weekend.
Events have been programmed from Friday through to Sunday with the dinner on Saturday night expected to attract over 100 past and present members.
