“He’s always very handy with his bowling and his batting,” Glen Innes skipper Andrew Symons said.

“If he goes well we seem to go well.”

The side was being finalised on Wednesday night and Symons expects some changes from the side that was named to take on the Armidale Second XI two weeks ago.

“We are a bit weakened this weekend. We’ve got a few blokes away,” Symons said.

“A few blokes are going to watch the [rugby league] World Cup final.”

He knows that the two Hodgson’s – Luke and Andrew - are both out along with Daniel Holley, but is confident they’ll get a full side.

“Having a home game makes a big difference,” Symons said.

It has been a disrupted season so far with three of the seven club games washed out. There’s also been a couple of forfeits.

“It makes it hard for everyone to get in form,” he said.

He identified Colts captain Nathan Purvis as another key for them with the bat.

Another big asset if he plays will be Perry Stapleton. After smacking 46 last weekend to dig his side out of trouble the Kings allrounder claimed 1-6 opening the bowling. Symons wasn’t sure about his availability for Sunday but said he would be “handy to have”.

Both sides will be chasing their first win after the opening round was a washout.

While Glen didn’t even get on against Armidale, Walcha were mid-run chase when the rain arrived.

Symons isn’t quite sure what to expect from them but believes that whoever  whoever has the strongest batting on the day will get the result. Being on synthetic the ball doesn’t do as much and it’s harder for the bowlers to really have an impact.

Meanwhile in Saturday’s local games Cavaliers host the Kings while Symon’s Emmaville side are home to Colts.

”We’ve got a few out. (But) we always seem to scramble up enough players,” he said.

They had a good win against Colts last time the two sides played, and Symons believes being a Twenty20 probably gives them a bit of an advantage.

They like to play an attacking game.

“If the ball is there to hit the first ball we’ll hit it,” Symons said.

”They are a bit more conservative, which is more or less how we won the game last time.”

“We got some nice runs and they got behind the run rate.”