CANTERBURY WINS PLUNKET SHIELD

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 14

CANTERBURY WINS PLUNKET SHIELD

CRICKET

Central Districts Beaten; Six Minutes To Spare

R. T. DOWKER TOP SCORER WITH 60

(New Zealand Press Association)

NAPIER, January 23.

In one of the closest finishes of the series, Canterbury beat Central Districts by 16 runs in the Plunket Shield match which ended at McLean Park, Napier, this afternoon. Canterbury’ wins the Plunket Shield with outright victories over all four opponents.

The last Central Districts wicket today fell six minutes before stumps after the extra half-hour had been claimed. Both teams scored the same number cf runs, 255, in the second innings.

With Canterbury dismissed at lunch in their second innings for 255, Central Districts was faced with the task of getting 272 runs in 280 minutes on a wearing wicket. The challenge was taken, up and at the afternoon tea adjournment three wickets were down for 104—still well behind the clock, but, with the excellent Canterbury fielding giving nothing away, a satisfactory rate.

Between tea and the fall of the last wicket, Central Districts scored a further 151.

Canterbury put on an additional 119 runs during the morning session before their innings closed at 255. The captain (R. T. Dowker) was top scorer with 60 after a sedate innings in which, although the scoring rate was slow, he- handled all the Central Districts bowlers with confidence. He was at the wickej for 165 minutes, and gave a polished display, with shots behind the wicket predominating. M. E. Chapple scored a useful 49. Chapple played some powerful shots, particularly in off driving the slow Dowlers. S. C. Guillen was aggressive, and so were G. M. Gearry and I. Sinclair, who provided a merry 10 minutes in an eighth-wicket partnership of 21 runs. The Canterbury innings ended when M. Jack was struck over one eye by a sharply-rising ball from D. D. Beard, and had to retire. Beard’s Bowling The Central Districts’ attack was less impressive than it was in tne first innings, but again Beard got through a marathon performance with 44 overs, in which he took four wickets for 67 runs. R. W. Blair took three for 55 off SI overs. D. Spence, after taking two wickets fairly cheaply on Saturday, took punishment today to finish with two for 72 off 17 overs. Central Districts did not catch up with the clock in their second innings. The first wicket fell at 30. when D. Bowden was out leg-before, and the second at 70. when E. M. Meuli was bowled by Sinclair for 41. Meuli bad batted solidly for 90 minutes. »K. F. Smith was next to go, being out leg-before to Gearry with his score at 13. and the total at 80. With R. Simpson and D. Ki veil together the 100 came up in 12C minutes, and at tea the total was 104 for three. With Kivell the more aggressive, the pair carried the score to 138, when Kivell went out to a brilliant onebanded catch by the wicketkeeper, Guillen, off Cameron. Beard swung at everything until caught at long-on when trying to hit Cameron out of the ground, and five wickets were down for 156 with 88 minutes’ play remaining. In the meantime, Simpson had been collecting runs steadily, chiefly with attractive cover drives and square cuts, and he reached 50 with a well-run three. His partner, B A. Turner, was earning applause with some excellent running between the wickets. Simpson Run Out With 74 runs needed in 62 minutes, Central Districts had a setback when Simpson was run out after scoring an attractive 56. Turner saluted Blair’s arrival by lifting one from Coull high to the long-on boundary to reach 20, and Blair quickly ran to double figures with a six over square leg off Sinclair With 45 minutes left, 51 runs were Deeded, and the stage was set for a stirring finish, when Coull clean bowled Blair when the batsman tried for a big hit, and seven were down for 227.

Joined by Colquhoun, Turner reached 34 by hooking a short ball from Gearry hard to the square leg fence, but when trying to repeat the shot in Gearry’s next over he gave Sinclair an easy catch at square leg With half an hour to go Central Districts had lost eight wickets for 235—37 runs short of their objective. D. V. Spence started briskly by square driving Coull for four, and then Colquhoun swung one from the same bowler to the long-on boundary. In

trying to lift one from Coull for six, however, Colquhoun skied a catch at mid-wicket, and it was taken by Gearry. With the last man. A. G. Small, in. Central Districts still needed 26, but the end came w’hen Coull took a fine cne-handed diving catch to dismiss Spence with the total at 255. Scores:— CANTERBURY First Innings ~ .. .. 175 Second Innings B. A. Bolton, c Meuli, b Blair .. 7 J. W. d’Arcy, c Colquhoun, b Spence 22 G. G. Coull. st Colquhoun, b Spence 15 B. A. Haworth, b Beard .. .. 18 M. E. Chapple, c Colquhoun, b Blair 49 R. T. Dowker, lbw, b Beard .. .. 60 S. C. Guillen, b Beard .. 30 S. N. Gearry, c Turner, b Beard .. 16 I. McK. Sinclair, lbw, b Blair .. 19 M. Jack, retired hurt .. ~ o S. Cameron, not out .. o Extras .. .. .. 19 Total .. .. .. 255 Fall of wickets: one for 10. two for 31. three for 58, four for 88, five for 152, six for 212, seven for 221, eight for 244, nine for 252, ten for 255.

Fall of wickets: one for 30, two for 70, three for 80, four for 138, five for 156, six for 198, seven for 227, eight for 235, nine for 246, 10 for 255.

Bowling O. M. R w. R. W. Blair ..31 12 55 3 D. D. Beard ..44 14 67 4 D. Spence ..17 1 72 2 K. F. Smith ..10 2 28 A. G, Small .. 2 — 5 E. M. Meuli .. 2 — 10 — CENTRAL DISTRICTS First innings . 159 Second Innings E. H. Meuli, b Sinclair . 41 D. W. Bowden, lbw, b Coull . 21 K. F. Smith, lbw, b Gearry .. . 13 R. Simpson, run out . 56 D. S. Kivell, c Guillen, b Cameron . 34 D. D. Beard, c Sinclair, b Cameron . 12 B. A. Turner, c Sinclair, b Gearry . 35 R. W. Blair, b Coull . 12 I. A. Colquhoun, c Gearry, b Coull 7 D. V. Spence, c and b Coull . 14 A. G. Small, not out 0 Extras . 10 Total .. . 255

Bowling O. M. R. W. S. Cameron .. 19 3 48 2 G. M. Gearry .. 29 6 53 2 G. G. Coull .. 17.1 5 58 4 I. Sinclair ..16 1 73 1 M. E. Chapple ..3 0 13 0