ST. ALBANS WINS CHAMPIONSHIP

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26072, 27 March 1950, Page 3

ST. ALBANS WINS CHAMPIONSHIP

FINAL ROUND OF SENIOR GAMES

An inspired spell of bowling by A. Laing and New Zealand slowbowler. T. B. Burtt immediately after the tea interval won the senior cricket competition for St. Albans on Saturday. When the match, against Old Boys, began a month earlier, St. Albans scored 407. Old Boys, although four points behind. needed only a first innings win to draw level, in which case the championship would have been decided on the season’s averages, and under that system Old Boys would have won. The opening pair J. G. Leggat and C. G. Snook, put on 159, and at tea Old Boys had made 214 for three wickets. At that stage Old Boys appeared to have every chance of success, but in his second over after the interval, Laing clean bowled W. McD Anderson, one of Old Boys’ fastest scoring batsmen, had O. C. Jones dropped in slips, and then bowled him. Burtt, also in his second over after tea, had Leggat caught, and soon afterwards dismissed P. Small, Old Boys' score going to .seven for 232. Old Boys’ made a gallant effort to recover, but were all out at 5.15 for 311, St. Albans winning by 96 runs on the first innings. St. Albans’ success, the first for 24 years in the senior grade, was popular and well deserved, but honours for the day’s play went to Old Boys, whose score was a good one in any circumstances. Its true value can be measured by the fact that in the other three senior games 54 wickets fell for only 450 runs. The effort made by Leggat and Snook was magnificent. especially as they had to set out on a slow wicket and outfield after a huge St. Albans score. It was not their fault their side did not win. Much of

the credit for St. Albans’ success must go to Burtt, who took four wickets for 91 off 42.3 overs. He seldom gave the batsmen any freedom to score at the pace they desired, and he richly deserved the ovation he received from both sides when he left the field. His was a good example of determined, clever, and accurate bowling. .The slow pitches, and the lack of practice through the recent rain, caused most of the batsmen in the other games to fall into errors they would not have been guilty of a few weeks ago. and scoring was very low. The only batsmen to make more than 50 during the day were Leggat and Snook. For Old Collegians. N. L. Macbeth finished with five wickets for 34 in Lancaster Park’s first innings, and in the second innings A. R. Mac Gibbon took seven wickets. For Lancaster Park. F. Dennis took five wickets for 20, and the Sydenham captain, A. T. Burgess, took five Jackets for 11 against West Christchurch*.: when Sydenham batted. J. F. Booker toox Six wickets for 34. Results were:— St. Albans 407 beat Old Boys 311 by 96 runs on the first innings. Old Collegians 163 and 94 beat Lancaster Park 160 and 66 by 31 runs. Sydenham 173 and 75 beat West Christchurch 140 and 61 by 47 runs. Riccarton 505 beat East Christchurch 108 and 66 bv an innings and 331 runs. Old Boys v. St. Albans With the pitch drving slowly, the St. Albans caotain. J. Smith, did not use Bunt until late in the morning. He gave u z. Harris plenty of work, and- relied £ °n the pace bowling of A. Laing, wno in his first snell. moved the ball late and howled very well indeed. Leggat! and Snook did not seem at all depressed ; f? ?c °re they were chasing, and although thev did hot score fast, they gave sirie the oerfect start. They reached c ’ m 116 minutes, and lust before lunch • nnok. with an eye on the clock, hit l s aine for ,wo sixes—one to square leg. -J* f ther an extraordinary stroke, to ion e At the interval the score was Leggat had batted solidly and kL' a,thou £h not quite as safe, had many excellent leg side strokes. • Albans fielding in the morning fpr ♦ r rart the afternoon was indifMany runs were given away in <l£E throwp through over-anxiety, and 2? one hit there were three attempts batsmen out, all of which yielded

at A 2! e r lunch Burtt w’orried Snook, and staPe he was getting a little life i K£ - m the Ditch. The score reached 150 in but Burtt did his side a . serw e bv bowling four successive overs, for to Old Bovs loss of time . 35 important as the loss of wickets bowling well, beat Snook and 92 the score at 159. Snook’s ♦hi- h,s first score of more than 50 haw season - and it was the first time he n #°?P ene d the innings. Leggat’s choice was a haony one. for Snook. ♦t, • rno?:t - has the temperament for P -. Dl * occasion A few minutes later Smith pulled a short one from , hieh to F. P O’Brien at deep an< i the catch was taken inches with T the boundary. J. R. Waters staved |e «J;!L Le ? Ba t for 3 time and. at tea. with wickets in hand. Old Boys had 135 minutes to score 194 runs. I

Leggat’s bat seemed to become larger as the aitemoon wore on, but after batting more than four hours he hit an easy catch from Burtt to G. Coull at extra cover. His innings was as good as any he has played. He was quite imperturbable, and he gave no chances. He was slow in the morning but appeared to have the situation well in hand always and later he scored with freedom on both sides of the wicket. It was one of the occasions when the term “captain’s innings” would not be misapplied. It was then that St. Albans got on top. Burtt was bowling magnificently and Laing at the other end was full of life and energy and bowled several really fine overs. The wickets fell, but when Old Boys’ cause 1 seemed quit*? hopeless R. F. Cook seized 1 the initiative and put his side back in the game with a bright 34. He hit two sixes off Harris and one off Burtt, and with L. H. Fisher added 57 in 34 minutes. The last two wickets however fell fairly quickly and St. Albans won with plenty of runs and time to spare. The winning team was given a warm ovation by the large crowd which stayed to see the season out.

The unip. cs were Messrs T. H. Garbutt and H. Moore.

West C iristchurch v. Sydenham Although Sydenham-.-had established afirst innings lead of 33 on the first day of the match against-’West Christchurch, it seemed that the sidfeX failure on Saturday, when it was dismissed for 75-, would be fatal. Only the captain, A. T. Burgess, who batted 83 minutes for 26, could do much With the bowling of J. F. Booker, who gave his best performance of the season. He moved the ball late and kept it well up to the batsmen. Muph'of the batting, however, was poor. West Christchurch’s batting was if anything wors than Sydenham’s. Although only 109 runs were needed, the side was all out for 61, batting one short as Sydenham had done. R. Emery again scored d üble figures, as he had done in 15 of his 16 previous innings, but the only batsman to look like one was J. Nee. who scored 23. Nee has had a poor season in the senior grade, but there are few better stroke players and on Saturday a cover drive with which he hit S. M. Camt-on for four was perfection and nothing less. Burgess, who has practically carried Sydenham this summer, ended a good season by taking five wickets for 11. He did it by bowling a length and leaving the rest to the batsmen. The umpires were Messrs H. W. Gourlay and E. D. Milne.

Old Collegians v. Lancaster Park Wickets fell like ninepins at Elmwood Park, where Old Collegians beat Lancaster Park. At the start of the day Lancaster Park, with five wickets to fall, needed onl 40 to catch Old Collegians first innings score of 163, but N. L. Macbeth, A. R. Mac Gibbon, and P. H. T. Alpers all bowled well and the last wicket fell with the score at 160 when Alpers yorked F. Dennis, the only batsman to make much headway. This was but the start ’of the excitement, for Old Collegians, after R. C. Saunders and D. R. Farrant had scored 29 for the second wicket, failed badly against accurate slow bowling by Dennis. M. J. Moffat played a stroke or two and Macbeth achieved double figures, but 210 minutes’ batting produced 82 runs off the bat and a total of 94. which left Lancaster Park only 98 to win. Dennis bowled well, and lack of prartive did not assist the Old Collegians’ batsmen to overcome their long standing aversion to spin bowling. When La. easier Park began again, MacGibbon began performing as though he ■zas in a skittle alley. Certainly the light was not good, but he bowled with pace and accuracy which brought him seven wickets for 13 runs in a score of 20 for eight wickets. The ninth fell at 34 then I P Anderson, who had not scored 50 r-ns in the whole season, and C. A. Lloyd almost doubled the score. Anderson walked up the pitch to hit Mac Gibbon as though the bowler was middle-aged and out of form. He was finally off Macbeth, who finished with a match analysis of eight for 58. Mac Gibbon bowled some which were almost unplayable doing some extraordinary things with’ the ball while bowling at top speed. An interesting game ended with Lancaster Park, which tw’ice seemed to have the match in hand, 31 behind. I The umpires were Messrs F. Rix ana E Br ßiccarton v. East Christchurch The absence of their captain. L. r Townsend and three other Players through illness, and the prospect of chasing Riccarton s record season score of 505 were apparently too much for the East Christchurch batsmen, for they could only score 174 runs in two innings. The only batsman who played the bowling with anv degree of certainty in either innings was N. Gallaher, who made 42 inthe first. Gallaher was at the wickets for 45 minutes before scoring, but then showed welcome entefprSe when he hooked G Wainscott vigorously lor six. He followed this with three more later in his innings. Of the ' other batsmen. W. H. Waiters after being i dismissed for none in the first innings, atonec for this failure, somewhat by carrying his bat. He scored a scratchy 17. The Riccarton bowlers, although steady, at no time warranted the respect the East Christehureb batsmen showed them, even though the wicket was receptive to spin The umpires were Messrs H. Wilson and F. Palenski. Boys 311 (J. G- Leggat 111. C. G. Snook 92. W. McD. Anderson 11 L H. Fisher 29, R. F. Cook 34, J. D Alderson 13; A. Laing two for 56, P. Z. Harris three for 98, T. Burtt four for 91 Old Collegians 163 and 94 (D. R. Farrant 17 R- C. Saunders 19. M. J. Moffat 18 N. L. Macbeth 10; M.E. Chapple one for 23. C. Lloyd two for 28. F Dennis five ’for 20, G. Smart two for 11). Lancaster Park 160 (Dennis 26. Chapple 11, A. R. Mac Gibbon two for 58, - Mac _^ l^_2 V ß fi £^ r 34 P H T Alpers two for 25).and 66 (I. ' Anderson 32 Mac Gibbon seven for 39. I Svd?nham re n3 f °and 75 (D. Wilson 15. A_ I E’. HoS inc for 12 L. Denia one for 14. R. W. G Emery one for 14). West Christchurch 140 iand 61 (D. T. Ager 10. Emery 10. J. Nee 23; Cameron three for 23. Hurgess five for ; 11 Riccarton 505; East Christchurch 108 (N. Galla <er 42. M. font 15, M. Sibley 14. R Taplin 11; D McKay two u- 18. R Frew two for 13. G. Wainscott one for 30) and 66 (W. H. Walters 17 not out. Sibley 15; McKay one for 13. D. Thomas one for 3, ’Wainscott four for 26).