WIN FOR ST. ALBANS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27192, 9 November 1953, Page 11

WIN FOR ST. ALBANS

CRICKET

LANCASTER PARK BEATEN

GOOD BOWLING BY D. STARK

The second round of games in the Canterbury Crjcket Association’s senior competition was concluded on Saturday in the worst possible conditions. Heavy earlymorning showers caused the start of play to be delayed until 1 p.rh. Shortly after play started, more rain fell, and at 2 p.m. heavy showers stopped play for more than an hour. Outfields were slow and wet, and the wickets dead at the start of play and remained so until late in the afternoon, when the pitches dried out a little under, the sun, and gave the spin bowlers some scope.

It was not a batsman’s day, and the only half-century recorded was that, of the hard-hitting G. Gearry, of West Christchurch, who scored 61 against Sydenham. S. C. Guillen, of the same club, carried his previous day’s total to 77, and P. O’Malley, of Lancaster Park, increased total to 57.

The outstanding performance of the day was the bowling of D. Stark, who in taking seven wickets played a big parr !in an unexpected first innings win by St. Albans over Lancaster Park. N. Burtt, of Sydenham, took five West Christ-' church wickets and materially assisted in the collapse of that side. Old Boys were unable to improve on a first innings lead over Riccarton in a dull day’s cricket, and Old Collegians became the first team to secure two wins when it won on the first innings when the umpires decided the pitch was unfit for play, after ia disagreement on this point by the captains. Results:— Old Boys 154 for three wickets declared beat Riccarton 97 and 165 for six wickets on the first innings.

Old Collegians 183 beat East Christchurch 142 on the first innings.

St. Albans 198 beat Lancaster Park 184 " on the first innings.

Sydenham 196 beat West Christchurch 182 on the first innings.

Competition points: Riccarton 11, Old Collegians 10, East Christchurch 6, Lancaster Park 6, St. Albans 6, Sydenham 6, Old Boys 6, West Christchurch 1.

ST. ALBANS V. LANCASTER PARK 198 109/1 Requiring 89 runs, with nine wickets in hand, to overtake the St. Albans first innings total, Lancaster Park appeared to be assured of a first innings win when play was resumed at Hagley No. 3, but some remarkable bowling by D. Stark brought the match to an interesting finish and gave his side a first innings win by 15 runs. Stark has been given comparatively little bowling in recent seasons, but on Saturday he showed his true value by taking seven wickets for 76 runs off 25 overs. He turned a good-length ball sharply from the leg and obtained some lift off the pitch, and varied his attack well with a straighter ball that beat more than one batsman. It was an outstanding performance by a bowler who made the most of the conditions.

P. O’Malley and A. Duckmanton, the not out batsmen, started slowly and had added 20 when Duckmanton was out leg before wicket after adding 12 to his previous day’s total. He was more forceful than O’Malley, who was well bowled by Stark with his total at 57, to make three wickets down for 134, a position that gave Lancaster Park every chance of reaching the St. Albans total. O’Malley scored only nine runs on the day, but his innings was altogether a promising one in view of his poor form in recent seasons. J. McNaughton and R. T. Dowker carried on in heavy rain for a quarter of an hour on a deserted park, before Dowker was bowled by Stark. The players then left the field. The dismissal of Dowker was the turning point in the innings, for on the resumption an hour later the remaining seven batsmen were dismissed for 27 runs. When six wickets were down for 157, with F. Dennis and J. Abrams batting, the side still had some prospect of a first innings lead, but Dennis, .after driving Burtt for six, was well bowled the next ball. In the last few overs, R. Hill hit hard, but the wickets of I. P. Anderson and R. Millar, his partners, went to Stark at little cost.

T. B. Burtt shared most of the bowling with Stark, and bowled 32 inexpensive overs for two wi?kets and 53 runs. He worked hard right through the innings, and could have met with more success.

Scores: St. Albans 198; Lancaster Park 184 (G. Royfee 34, P. O’Malley 57, A. Duckmanton 35, R. T. Dowker 13; N. McDiarmid one for 23, D. Stark seven for 76, T. B. Burtt two for 53).

The umpires were Messrs W.< Barnes and L. Jdhnston. SYDENHAM V. WEST CHRISTCHURCH 196 74/1

Splendid bowling by N. Burtt, the masterly placing pf the field by A. -T. Burgess, and the fine fielding of every member of the team enabled Sydenham to snatch victory from West Christchurch at Sydenham Park. West Christchurch, which at one stage appeared practically certain of a first innings win, slumped badly towards the closing stages and was still 14 under Sydenham’s first-day score of 196 when the last wicket fell.*

Because of fairly heavy rain play did not commence until 1.21 p.m., and it was interrupted again by rain at 2.9 p.m , during which time S. C. Guillen and G. Gearry took the score to 113 from the previous Saturday’s 74. Between 2.9 p.m. and 3.46 p.m. there was no play because of rain. Left with 135 minutes in which to make 83, West Christchurch appeared certain of a win. Even after the dsimissal of Guillen, who gave a faultless display of hitting all around the wicket during his 133 minutes at the crease, West Christchurch’s position still looked fairly sound. At this stage Gearry and GUillen had put on nearly 100 in a fifth-wicket partnership to take the score to 150. Nineteen runs later H. Hopkins went back to the pavilion, and when he was followed ’ n quick succession by J. Nee (seven for 170). W. Duncan (eight for 170) and C. Garston (nine for 175), the possibilities of victory for West Christchurch began to appear fairly remote. Gearry’s dismissal eight minutes later ended the match. Stumps were drawn at 5 p.m. Apart from Guillen (75), and Gearry (61), the only other batsmen to reach double figures were D. T. Ager (11) and H. Hopkins (12). Guillen and Gearry had scored fairly freely at the close of play on the previous Saturday, and the soggy wicket, which was conducive only to spin bowling on Saturday, allowed both men to give full rein to their batting talents. Guillen’s was a chanceless innings, and his 75 was extremely well made. He lost his wicket when he moved down the pitch to Burtt for a big hit and was caught fairly close to the wicket. Burtt, concentrating on a leg attack at one stage, was forced to bring the ball more across to the off because of Guillen’s stroking to leg. To the bowling on the off, however, ’he proved even more invulnerable, hitting some beautiful shots through the covers and between the bowler and mid off. His score- included several sixes and fours.

Gearry was no less forceful, attacking the bowling with a severity that soon caused Burgess to replace his field, with special attention to the boundaries. Unlike Guillen’s, however, his innings was not entirely without chances, for he gave two rather hard catches towards the close of play the previous Saturday. His play on Saturday, however, was chanceless. An extremely powerful hitter, he dealt fairly severely with Burtt and Burgess, hitting both all round the wicket. He went out when he stepped out to Burtt and was stumped by McKnight. His 61 was made in 126 minutes.

Hopkins, who was with Gearry for 23 minutes, looked capable of putting on a fairly .large score. Another powerful hitter, he quickly took his score to 12. While attempting to hit Burtt to square leg, he seemed to hesitate and played the shot late. Falloon, at square leg, did not have to move to take an easy,catch. Nee, Duncan and Garston also went out to catches. Nee, attempting a square cut, snicked one low and D. O’Malley at first slip took a very difficult catch at ground level. Duncan played a shot similar to that of Hopkins and was easily caught by Rendle at square leg. Garston five minutes later spooned an easy catch to Salt at mid on. The whole Sydenham team supported the bowlers to the full. Not a catch was dropped and the returns to the wicketkeeper usually were taken just above the bails. Of the bowlers, Burtt enjoyed the most success. He quickly-struck a length, and although he was at times treated unmercifully by Guillen and Gearry, he never departed from that length. Salt, who towards the end of the match bowled a few overs, was the other successful bowler on the day. Bowling slower than is his usual practice, he achieved a greater accuracy. Details were:—

Sydenham 196 beat West Christchurch 182 (S. C. Guillen 75, G. Gearry 61, H. Hopkins 12; D. Humphries three for 32, N. Burtt five for 64, B. Salt two for 12), on the first innings. OLD BOYS V. RICCARTON 154/3 . 97 When W. A. Hadlee declared the innings closed on ihe resumption of play at 1 p.m., with a lead of 57 runs on the first innings, Old Boys apoeared likely to force an outright win, but Riccarton batted doggedly until stumps for whdt, in the conditions, was a very reasonable total of 165 for the loss of six wickets. Batsmen and fieldsmen alike found the wet conditions difficult at the start of Riccarton’s innings, but the bowlers were able to get some lift from the pitch, and D. J. Reid met with immediate success when L. Newman touched a ball outside his off stump to give Copp, the wicketkeeper, a neat catch. R. King and W. Muncaster had settled down to sohie patient batting when heavy rain caused an adjournment of 80 minutes, but on resuming they had almost overtaken the Old Boys’ lead before King Jost hie

wicket to D. C. Currie, with his total at 31.

Both King and Muncaster, who was out a. few runs later after scoring 37, played good cricket in difficult conditions to give their side the chance to play out time. Although the scoring rate was slow they occasionally gave some relief to a drab scjene with some big and both hit a six off Currie, who was by this time getting some turn on a drying wicket. With the total at 90 G. Wainscott was caught. off .Currie, but any hope that Old Boys would run through the side and then score some quick runs warf* dispelled by a good partnership between F. F. Dawson and R. H. Scott, seasoned batsmen who played cautiously to add 58 runs before they were separated. Scott gave an early chance and then took his total to 27 before he was caught on the boundary. Dawson carried on quietly until stumps for his 33 not out, a valuable innings, particularly in the early stages, when the loss of his wicket would have given Old Boys some prospect of an outright win. In" the concluding stages of the game Hadlee called on some unsuspected bow’ling talent, nine bowlers being used. Even R. G. Condliffe manfully withstood the shock of being given his first over in 12 years in senior cricket.

Scores: Old Boys 154 for three wickets declared; Riccarton 97 and 165 for six wickets (R. King 31, W. Muncaster 37, G. Wainscott 15, F. F. Dawson 33 not out, R. H. Scott 27, J. A. Hayes 10); D. J. Reid one for 31, D. C. Currie two for 45, I. A. Baxter one for 17, J. F. Collins one for 12, J. W. d’Arcy one for 2). The’ umpires were Messrs E. Brooks and E. Milne. ,