PIGEON PONDS hosts Portland Colts at Pigeon Ponds Recreation Reserve to get its Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) A grade season underway and with Simon Close not playing this summer due to injury, the entire Ponds team is going to have to pick up the slack his absence leaves.

That is a task easier said than done, but the talent is there for the side to perform to standards they have set in the past few seasons.