16/10/2026
The clubrooms will be open following this, rugby on the TV, and a good time to be had!
Your Hollings First Windows Red Star/Lansdowne side to take on Freyberg in the first round of the Coastal Challenge. Team preview below, good luck to the lads.
The Hollings First Red Star/Lansdowne side is locked in for this weekend, with Robbie Anderson captaining the troops and no doubt finding time between overs to remind everyone that he’s the self-proclaimed number one real estate agent in New Zealand. Young John McKenzie has been granted special leave from farming duties in Eketāhuna and will experience the rare luxury of chasing something that isn’t livestock. Jake Jonas is one of the young cricketing prodigies in the side, he has the talent to be anything and will no doubt arrive on two wheels, while Samuel Payne has all the talent in the world, not a care in the world, and is equally likely to arrive by bike with no idea what time the game starts.
Jeremy Anderson continues to single-handedly raise the average age of the side, with Dad’s Army apparently refusing to accept that retirement is an available option. William Orsborn is one of the schoolboy superstars coming through the grades and, judging by his following at St Matt’s, may bring the biggest crowd of the day. Luke Jonas, meanwhile, is simply known as the better, younger Jonas, who bowls the worst bouncer ever seen. Zach Antsis is Wairarapa’s answer to Shane Warne and will be turning them square, or at least telling everyone afterwards that he was.
Patrick Wooton retains his undisputed title as Wairarapa’s best net batter, with Saturday providing another inconvenient opportunity to see whether that form can survive the journey from the nets to the middle. Regan Fricker has once again been named as a player, although there’s every chance he’ll be halfway through raising the finger before remembering he’s not actually umpiring. Cameron Sclanders will quietly take a few wickets, say absolutely nothing about it and leave the rest of us to do the celebrating for him. And rounding things out is Roshan Abraham, Wairarapa’s very own Murali, where the mystery isn’t whether it will turn, but whether anyone, including Roshan, knows which way it’s going.
A beautifully balanced side of youth, experience, farmers, cyclists, real estate agents and blokes who probably should have retired years ago. Freyberg won’t know what’s hit them. To be fair, neither will we.
Wairarapa Cricket
