Distinctive Features In Friendly Cricket Matches

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 9

Distinctive Features In Friendly Cricket Matches

TF a friendly cricket match A has one really distinctive feature, it is the variety of abilities shown by the players taking part in it. More often than not, there are one or two with reputations, a good many whose enthusiasm far surpasses their skill, a leavening of non-players, and. nearly always, a vintage model or two. So there is much more to a friendly match, in a tactical sense, than can ever be found at Lancaster Park. A captain has the almost insuperable task of containing his opponents to a reasonable scoring rate while allowing every member of his team at least one over, and that goes for portly wicket-keepers and all. He may have to make a choice, in sending someone out to the boundary, from a young and normally active man handicapped by having dropped a fence post on a foot, an older man whose pace to the ball would hardly exceed that of a skip between heads, and one really fit player without the slightest pretence to ability. These are the sort of conditions which often govern friendly matches, and make them so distinctive and diverting. It was certainly so when "The Press” cricket team went recently to Le

Bons Bay to play the Bay

This season "The Press” can boast of two players of Plunket Shield standing, which may explain why there have not, so far, been any negotiations about one fixture played quite regularly in recent years. But Le Bons Bay had no misgivings. With good reason.

The toss was won by "The Press” captain, a man appointed to the post because he had been an All Black forward distant years ago. It wks his main contribution, but it was an important one, for it allowed his side to go in first, thus covering the late arrival of one section of his troops which had set off from Christchurch quite early, but in a very ancient vehicle which strongly resisted determined efforts to get her up the steeper hills. It was typical of the occasion that the Canterbury player who is a bowler should open the innings and score a vigorous and convincing 71, while the other Canterbury player, a batsman, should be beautifully caught off a dreadful ball for less than half that score. But it was a very hot morning, and although “The Press’’ was scoring well at the break, everyone was glad of the interval; the pretty Le Bons ground is within sight and sound of the surf, whereas at the Oval they only have a gasometer.

After lunch, more good progress was made, although there were derisive comments from both sides when a Le Bons bowler, with his first ball to a brother in “The Press,” sent up one of very fulsome length which was promptly hit for 6. Later in the day there was a minor demonstration when “The Press” player, with his first ball to his brother, bowled a rank long hop which was also sent into the

lupins beyond the boundary. In the end, “The Press” scored 250. A search through the admittedly sketchy statistical section of “The Press” cricket record* suggest this is the highest total since 1907, and the score-sheet in that vintage year would keep an auditor busy. Le Bone Bay made a rather sorry start; two somnolent fieldsmen made startled slips catches and immediately tried to assume an air of complete indifference. But the home team then played its trump

card—afternoon tea. This is no formal break for a breather, at Le Bons. The servery looked like the cookery section at a Women’s Institute competition in a keenly-competitive district What with this, and the sun and the swimming, there was

a certain ennui about “The Press" when the battle was resumed. And the runs came quickly, from several quaint partnerships. A mid-dle-aged Old Collegian thrashed everyone, including the Canterbury players, and scored about 80. Then there was a brisk little affair between a father and hi* son. A little later another youngster was joined by his grandfather, a very spritely gentleman of 71, who had hardly had time to settle in before he was hitting one of the opposition’s principal bowling weapon* into the pine trees. At a critical stage extra* took a hand, and the fielding generally fell away, although one young man, who

spend* most of hi* spare time in alpine regions on various manly activities, seemed not at all surprised or perturbed at being third man at each end of the ground. The winning ran* were made by the grandfather and a batsman whose attire was quite the moat immaculate of all those playing, an ensemble which argued he was entitled to a higher position in the batting order than number 13, but whose subsequent display confirmed the placing. In all, four hours’ cricket produced some 530 run*, a* well a* a few pulled muscles, many tired feet, some stiff arms, and a host of happy memories.