Date-stamped : 17 Jan94 - 10:54 NZ SHLCUP, Round 10, 15 Jan 94 Northern Districts v Wellington, Harry Barker Reserve, Gisborne. In the battle for the final semis spot, Wellington did all they could with a convincing win over the third placed side. It was Gisborne's first Shell Cup game for seven years, and 19 mar- quees and a good crowd ringed the ground. The Harry Barker Reserve had a reputation for a superb batting pitch. In 1983 ND scored over 300 runs in 50 overs but still lost and in the previous year Bruce Edgar set a Shell Cup record with 147*, which was only broken this year. However the wicket has now deteriorated, and the well performed Wellington spinners had a field day. For the second game in a row Wellington started the match by con- ceding 50 runs from the opposing openers in the first 9 overs. After the 53 run opening stand however tall left armer Brett Wil- liams bowled magnificently, and with Crowe setting good fields Williams conceded just 10 runs in his 10 over spell while taking 2 wickets. Offspinner Jason Wells, who had unsuccessfully opened the bowling, then came back to clean up the tail, finishing with 4-26 off 8.3. For Northern Whealleans opened with 31, while Coo- per provided the only middle order resistence with 34. Martin Crowe continued his comeback with a promising innings as Wellington chased Northern's 132. He felt that he was getting stronger all the time, and was looking forward to a long innings in Wellington's forthcoming four day match. By the time Crowe was dismissed for 49 he had shared partnerships of 48 with Austen and 46 with Douglas to virtually assure Wellington of victory. Kerr and McSweeney saw Wellington through with seven wickets and (im- portantly for their net run rate) 11 overs to spare. Contributed by Jason (jmas@waikato.ac.nz)