Hounds Looking For Repeat Finals Foray

This season will see a change in leadership for the Hounds with the peoples champ Peri Manu standing down after two seasons at the helm. In his place will be club and Taranaki Cricket legend Roger Stachurski. The brain is taking over from the brawn it has been suggested.

The squad contains the nucleus of seasons gone by who will be pushing hard in search of the elusive title the they came so close to hoisting last year, going down in the North Taranaki final. Whilst that season saw the bowlers dominate the batters in the statistical aspect of the game, early season netting signs point to a tight contest which could be a good omen.

Nonetheless, "the boys are looking forward to getting back on the green (fields)" of New Plymouth, suggested team spokesman  and statistician, Manu. In recent seasons gone by, key batsmen for the Hounds have been Emmett Herlihy, Trent Harvey and Steven Gilmour. The bowling attack, a traditional strength of the Hounds will be spearheaded by Shaun Valentine (25 wickets at 11.36 last year), Peri Manu (22 @ 12) Gilmour (21 @ an incredible 8) and former CD 'A' representative and new captain Roger Stachurski.

The Hounds take on cross town rivals NPOB at Devon on Saturday. The match starts at 1.

(squad: Roger Stachurski (c), Peri Manu, Emmett Herlihy, Craig Morris, James Matuku, Trent Harvey, Steven Gilmour, Tom Rigg, Mark Drinkwater, Kieran Sorensen, Shaun Valentine, Johan Swanepoel, Mark Dickie, Michael Whitley))