PERENNIAL finals campaigners Cavaliers are all that stands in the way of Kinross Wolaroi School qualifying for their maiden first grade final.

The winner of tonight’s penultimate regular season match at Wade Park will progress to the Royal Hotel Cup final against CYMS on February 24.

That could be Kinross’ first final in first grade since stepping up to the top grade for the 2007-08 season and they have been pumping themselves up for this sudden-death match for a month.

“The only thing is with the wash-outs and the school holidays, they haven’t had any time together. We had one training session last week and swimming trials Tuesday and school photos Thursday,” Kinross coach Mark Gardner said.

“It’s been pretty disjointed but they’ve been talking about the game for a while.

“They seem to really pump themselves up for the night games. I know our fielding is better in the night games.”

Cavaliers will be a tough proposition given their history of performing in big games.

Gardner believes captain Richie Venner, Trent Colley and Stu Middleton are the main dangers and he feels taking their wickets early is the key to victory.

“There’s three, I think Richard, Stu and Trent are just a class above other players and if you get them out early you can put pressure on the other guys,” he said.

Gardner would love for his side to win the toss and bat in order to set Cavaliers a total to chase under lights.

And the students’ mentor is keen to see his batsmen, most notably Jason Date, find form with the willow.

“I think it will be a reasonable game. Hopefully we can score some runs,” Gardner said.

“We have to bat our 40 overs out and get a good score. We just need one or two (good scores).

“I’m hoping that (Date) steps up. You look at last year, he made half-centuries and other good scores but he hasn’t done that this season.”

Play between Cavaliers and Kinross Wolaroi School starts at 5.30pm today at Wade Park.