Albion looks strong chance

Tony Buchanan.
Tony Buchanan.
Albion will be making its third appearance at the national club championship and will field possibly its strongest side at the tournament.

Manager Tony Buchanan will travel to Auckland with the team and believes the Eagles will have benefited from their previous experience at Cornwall Park.

''This is third time we've been in four years and I think our minimum expectation is to make the final,'' Buchanan said.

''If you look at our squad, we've got two current Volts players and four players who played for Otago A this year.

''And then you've got [Jack] Harper and [Jamie] Glenn who have played Hawke Cup cricket in previous seasons.

''And we've got younger guys like [Taylor] Cumberland who is a recent Otago under-19 rep.

''On paper, I would suggest that we have a very, very powerful team that has every chance.''

Otago allrounder Sam Wells suffered a side strain during Otago's Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts last week and will not be able to bowl but will play as a batsman.

Josh Tasman-Jones made his first-class debut in that game and shapes as a key player for Albion. The Eagles open their campaign against Canterbury side Old Boys Collegians today. Old Boys is potentially one of the stronger teams in the competition alongside Wellington's Eastern Suburbs and Auckland's Takapuna.

''When we were last there two years ago, Cornwall won the tournament and had a very strong team. They lost to Takapuna in the [regional] final, and even though a lot of the names don't jump out at me, on that basis they would have to be very strong.''

Buchanan feels Albion will need to win at least three of its five round-robin games to make Sunday's final.

''We will be targeting every game but it depends on how the other results go and whether we've got a good run rate.''

Comments

Here's my prediction Adrian - they'll get belted. The Volts got last in everything so having a squad full of "Otago reps" doesn't mean much, but then you haven't even bothered to countenance that or the merits of the other teams.

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