BATTLE FOR BARNARD

It has been a quadrennial since tomorrow’s two clubs have done battle for Island supremacy.  The 115-year-old Barnard Cup will be up for grabs tomorrow at Windsor at 2:30. The match will also determine if CW can make its fifth defense of the Gerwing Shield.  This is not exactly the equivalent to the 61 defenses that Auckland made of the historic NZ, Ranfurly Shield in 1985 – 1993, but baby steps!

In that 2021 match, names such as McKinnon, Groenewold, Holland and Eager appeared for VV, whilst a slew of “current” names, a number of whom will be on show tomorrow for CW, appeared for CW.  The likes of Humphries, Peters, Finnemore, Sutherland, Kratz, Nott, Sawyer, Schelly, Bowd, Sponarski, Sanderson, dressed for the eventual winners. Of these, Bowd does not appear on tomorrow’s team list and will certainly be missed, given his current top form. Likewise, the absence of Kratz reduces depth. Injuries and unavailability have caused the hosts to do some recent re-shuffling.  The big change for tomorrow will be Easson, taking over Bowd’s #10 spot.  Sutherland retains his start after a solid performance against UVic, emulating his form of four years back. Hager returns and Mager is called up for the other wing.  This is a match that “AJ” needs to put his mark on, and hopefully with such short practice Hager and Suddsy can gel in the centers.

CW’s pack also has some changes with veteran, Kehoe earning a start at #8 and perennial Finnemore joining Johnny Humphries at lock.  John always seems to delight against Westshore, so we can anticipate tomorrow will be no different.  Kratz appears nowhere, so it will be on Fatt and Peters propping Corbin.  The bench has some firepower with Fuailefau seeing a recycle and Ogunlabe and Tait will be eager to get on to prove the selectors may not have got it right.  At this point in time, we do not have Westshore’s selection, so will not make any speculations.

The Women’s Premier match should also be a cracker.  CW travelled with a patched-up side to Seattle last weekend and lost a close one to the home team who has been threatening with some recent upsets to the preferred teams in the league. This blogger can only make a few observations about tomorrow.  No doubt Westshore will be locked and loaded as they always seem to manage when it comes to games against CW, and one gets the feeling that there is no love lost. CW’s starting eight looks to be as strong as they have fielded this season, with Chanelle Edwards-Challenger on the bench to boot. The backs also look solid, centered around Emily Currey at #15, Hill-Huse returns to pair Remee Brown in the centers.  It will be great to see all-star Junior Sophie Hayes get some time from the bench before she departs for Harvard on a full ride.  So, there you have it.  Touch for Alum will serve as a pre-cursor to the Divvies when CW also faces Westshore in men’s action and Westshore have forfeited their second women’s match, so there will be some type of intersquad on Windsor East.  Burgers and Bevvies will be available.  Go, CW!

This blogger has been raging about “growth” at Windsor this year.  Today, we include a utube video of our newly acquired lights.  Any former players who labored under the previous candles will be amazed at how they ever were able to play the game under their practice conditions after viewing this!"Onward and upward", as one of our regulars would say!