FLYERS FAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 80, 5 April 1943, Page 5

FLYERS FAIL

AFTER FINE STAND

THREE TOP HALF-CENTURY

Batting throughout the day at Lancaster Park on Saturday, the Royal New Zealand Air Force XI. nearly played out time. It was a magnificent effort to hold the fort for so long in face of the huge total of 481 which the New Zealand Army team had set the flyers to avert defeat; more especially as four men on the victorious side had bowled for the Dominion in international matches—T. L,. Pritchard, I. B. Cromb, a. L. Weir and M. L. Page. The scores were:— Army: 294 and 315 for seven wickets (declared). Air Force: 128 and 277. The soldiers thus won by 204 runs. The most successful players were B. Bezzant (Air Force), 78 and 63; Cromb (Army), 51 and 66; J. L. Kerr (Army), 51 and 62. Half-century tallies were recorded by several men in one innings. They were: Page (Army) 75, W. McD. Anderson (Army) 70. N. R. Hoar (Air Force) 67, and O. L. Wrigley (Air Force? 52. Pritchard had the splendid double of four for 33 and five for 50. The Press Association's overnight message on the final of the three days' play states:— G. JU Weir carried his bat for 43 in Army's second innings, but his fellow Aucklanders (S. G. Haliday, G. H. Hook and L. E. Partridge) had a disappointing match, as did also Charles Kerr (the ex-Green Lane player) for Air Force. Fighting hard for runs against the New Zealand Army's keen pace and spin attack, two Royal New Zealand Air Force batsmen, R. Bezzant and O. L. Wrigley, carried their side's score from 40 for three to 132 for four in a splendid partnership at Lancaster Park. This was an outstanding feature of the match. Bezzant, a former member of the Air Force eleven in Christchurch, batted soundly for three nours to compile 78. His partner, batting with great determination, saw the total raised still higher. Hoar (Wairarapa) also batted gallantly for 67. Scores in the Air Force second innings were:— B. Bezzant. c J. L. Kerr, b Pritchard 78 C. Kerr, c Kerr b Pritchard 0 W. Dustln, c Cromb, b Anderson 12 R. Crawlord, 6t Dunnett, b Cromb 7 O. L. Wrieley, c and b Cromb 52 K. Parkin, c Cromb, b Pritchard 0 G. Churchill, b Pritchard 0 Hoar, c Dunnett, b Anderson S7 C. J. Oliver, not out 17 W. Bird, c.Partridge, b Pritchard 14 S. G. Lemin, run out 0 Extras •. 30 Total 277 Bowling:: Pritchard, five for 50; Anderson, two for 30: Cromb, two for 77; Weir, none for 7: Partridge, none for 35; Page, none for 48.