Softball Papanui Narrowly Beats White Sox In Tense Game

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29385, 12 December 1960, Page 28

Softball Papanui Narrowly Beats White Sox In Tense Game

Staving off a strong challenge from Linwood, Richmond maintained its unbeaten record to lead in the Canterbury Softball Association competitions on Saturday. Papanui beat White Sox in a tense match, Christchurch overwhelmed United, arid Kaiapoi caused a surprise by beating S preydon. Results: Kaiapoi 8, Spreydon 6. Richmond 9, Linwood 2. Papanui 14, White Sox 12. Christchurch 14, United 4.

Expected to give Richmond strong opposition, Linwood with fielding errors and ineffectual batting lower in the order, tried hard in the early innings t l?ut the further the game progressed the more Richmond took command. Trueman, over keen to set Linwood off, was struck out by Ballantyne, then Bayford hit on, advanced round the bases on steals and scored off a Bridgeman hit to tally one run for the first Linwood innings. Richmond found the pitching of C. Segars too much, and was out, three ina row. Fielding extremely well, Richmond’s Nelepa threw- the ball to second to tag out Whittington when Linwood threatened in the second innings, but batting, Richmond could not contrive a single hit and was again out, three in a row for no score. Clever fielding by Taylor to Lew ended a scoreless Linwood innings. Richmond began to show batting form and with two runners, McLeod and Anderson, on bases, .Noonan hit a long home run which scored the two runs. Noonan, while attempting to stretch his three-base hit into a home run, paid the penalty as the catcher, Whittington, tagged him at the home plate. H. Taylor scored another run when hfs hit bounced in an infield hole and eluded the shortstop, Hooper. Ballantyne, pitching with speed that nearly approached his top form, struck out Brown and Whittington to cancel out the fourth Linwood innings. His team-mates, hitting well, scored four hits to give them three runs, and Richmond began to take the initiative from the Linwood fielding, which had been extremely competent. N. Trueman, with two out in his team’s fifth time at bat. lifted the ball far over Joyce in the outfield for a swiftly-run home run to double the Linwood account. This proved to be the end of the scoring as far as Linwood was concerned. Richmond added three runs to bring its total to nine, but Linwood, devastated by Ballantyne’s pitching, never hit a ball outside the confines of the infield in the last two turns at bat. Ballantyne, for Richmond, pitched very well. He allowed five hits, and struck out nine batters. Segars of Linwood pitched consistently, his control of his medium-paced deliveries being really good Until he was relieved by Bayford in the sixth innings. Papanui v. White Sox The second-placed team, Papanui, had a lucky win against White Sox. Papanui did not score a run from

the- fourth innings, but White Sox, in a valiant effort to -win the game, scored six runs in its fifth innings. Papanui made a copy-book start with the first two batters getting on. then scoring on a big hit. Repeating the performance, they ended the innings with three well-made runs on the board. White Sox in reply batted in a startlingly similar manner and also tallied three runs. Papanui continued to knock the pitching of Kelly Smith around the field and after losing its first two batters reeled off four runs to take a big lead again. White Sox. in reply, sent up seven batters, and with astute coaching they scored three runs, to be only one run behind. M. Bell and Burnby started off the Papanui third frame with clever hits. Consecutive hits by Senior, Chee and Shaw followed, and when Smith struck out Clarkson to end the innings. Papanui had crossed the plate for five runs in the innings. Three easy catches, three easy Outs, was the sum total of the White Sox fourth try, and when they again confronted Papanui batters as a fielding side, Bell and Burnby again circled the bases and White Sox yielded another two runs. Batting for the fifth time the White Sox team drubbed the pitching of Clarkson. Forcing errors with swift runners and model batting, they completely upset the Papanui fielding and crossed home plate steadily to score six first-class runs. Sitting on a precarious two-run lead, the Papanui batters were completely routed by the pitching of Kelly Smith in their two final innings. The White Sox batters made first base on five occasions in the last two innings but desperate fielding by Papanui denied them any opportunity of scoring. While White Sox could be accounted unfortunate to be defeated, full credit must be given to the manner in which Papanui battled to surmount the very threatening innings White Sox mounted in the sixth innings. The defensive fielding of Papanui was. in this innings, of the highest calibre.

LOWER GRADES

Senior Reserve Men. —Sockbum 7, Spreydon 0; Templeton 20, Christchurch 4; Richmond 18, Kaiapoi 9; Papanui 7, Teachers’ College 0. Junior Men.—Papanui 7, Teachers’ College 0. Intermediate Women.—Monowai 13, Teachers’ College 9; Vanguard 21, United 7; Sockburn 21, Spreydon 1. Junior Women. —Hagley 7, Otautahi 0: Kaiapoi 17, Vanguard 15. Representative Matches In games played at Templeton yesterday the Canterbury men’s team with superior fielding and batting and strong pitching beat the Rest, 11-0. Canterbury women beat the Rest. 12-1. The Canterbury women’s team held the Rest ttyree up, three down in its first three innings by good fielding and Canterbury replied with strong batting and good base running to score 10 runs. With both teams changing pitchers in the fourth innings Canterbury was three up, three down, and the Rest scoreless with runners on. Canterbury scored one run in the fifth innings and the Rest was scoreless, with one on. Canterbury, three up, three down in the sixth innings, held the Rest scoreless. An error allowed a run in for Canterbury in its last innings and the Rest scored its only run when K. McCormick, after being walked, stole second and scored on a nit by J. Phillips. Canterbury’s form in the field and with the bat augurs well for its chances to win the national title for the third successive time at Auckland in the New Year. H. Johnson, captain of the side, is showing good form with the bat and the vicecaptain, B. Makinson, is again impressive on the pitching mound. Men’s Game In the men’s game, the accurate pitching of A. Ballantyne, backed up oy a good fielding side, proved too great a hurdle for the Rest, which found it difficult to get a man safely on base. The batting of the Canterbury team was strong, and the base running was of a high standard. K. Smith, who replaced Ballantyne on the mound for Canterbury, showed good form also and Canterbury is fortunate in having two pitchers of such high standard. The Canterbury team will be striving to win the national title at Rotorua in the New Year, and under the guidance of Mr C. Matthews should do well.

The positions of the teams are:— W. F. A. Pts Richmond 7 — 75 21 7 Papanui 5 2 61 50 5 Christchurch 5 2 65 37 5 White Sox .. 4 3 56 53 4 Linwood 3 4 55 46 3 Spreydon 2 s 31 53 2 Kaiapoi 2 5 42 58 2 United 1 6 37 98 1 Richmond v. Linwood