CRICKET TOWN IN GOOD POSITION AGAINST COUNTRY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 6

CRICKET TOWN IN GOOD POSITION AGAINST COUNTRY

Some good batting and some excellent bowling marked the opening day’s play in the Brabin tournament trial match being played between a Country team and a Town team at Hagley Oval. The Country team, which also included several Christchurch players because of lastminute defections, was dismissed in its first innings for 138. In reply, Town had lost seven wickets for 192 runs at stumps Top scorer for Country was the Christchurch player, M. Ryan, who. after giving one chance behind the wicket, scored freely round the wicket for Jiis 44. Some lovely off-side strokes characterised G. Wood’s innings and B. Rippen made a chanceless and very valuable 34 runs. B. Hope and M. Beban found the pitch very much to their liking and they shared nine of the 10 wickets. Beban was particularly hard to get away and had only 29 runs taken off his 28 overs.

A first-wicket partnership of 40 runs between R. Thomas and D. Woods gave Town a good start. Woods was in an aggressive mood and when the partnership was broken, he had scored 31 of the 35 runs that had come off the bat. G. Barrett played a very patient innings for his 41 and although he played many fine strokes, none was better than one superb cover drive. B. Hadlee, after giving a stumping chance very early in his innings, batted well and freely for his 36. Hope was, kept very quiet for some time, but towards the, end'of the day’s play he began to hit out and Ryan, in

particular, suffered most at his hands. The pitch, a fairly slow one, did not help C. Cahill, a bowler who commanded quite a lot of pace off the pitch. He also was very economical, conceding only 12 runs off 12 overs for his one wicket. R. Hortin and Ryan tied the batsmen down for some time, both of them spinning the ball quite sharply. Details:—

COUNTRY First Innings B. Rippen, b Beban .. ..34 F. O’Reilly, b Watson .. .. 0 G. Wood, c Thomas, b Hope .. 30 R. Capstick, c Beban, b Hope 3 N. Goodwin, lbw, b Beban .. 3 R. Hortin, st England, b Hope 0 C. Reid, b Beban .. 0 3. Metcalfe, c England, b Hope 6 M. Ryan, c Watson, b Hope .. 44 K. Walton, b Beban .. .. 2 C. Cahill, not out .. .. 1 Extras (wides 2, byes 9. legbyes 3) .. ..15 Total .. .. .. 138 Bowling.—G. Watson, 8. 1, 12, 1; B. Hawkins, 5, I, 12, 0; M. Beban, 26, 14. 29. 4: P. Nicol, 4,0, 11, 0: B. Hope. 18.3. 2, 60. 5. TOWN First Innings R. Thomas, b Ryan .. .. 4 D. E. Woods, h Hortin .. 31 G. Barrett, b Cahill .. .. 41 B. Hadlee, b Ryan .. ..36 B. Hawkins, b Ryan .. .. 0 J. England, b Ryan ..19 E. Bailey, c and b Metcalfe .. 0 M. Beban, not out .. .. 12 B. Hope, not out .. .. 33 Extras (byes- 14, leg-bye 1, no-ball 1) .. .. 16 Total for seven wickets 192 26, 6. 48, 1; M. Ryan, 32. 10. 73. 4: C, Reid, 5,0, 16. 0.