BURTT HITS CENTURY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30279, 4 November 1963, Page 16

BURTT HITS CENTURY

Sydenham Fail Badly With 48 An excellent maiden century by J. W. Burtt and some accurate and lively medium pace bowling by A, R. Taylor and K. E. Ferries placed St. Albans in a strong position against Sydenham, which again disappointed with an inept display of batting to record only 48 in its first innings. Burtt's 100 not out, which was full of firm drives and sensible defence, only underlined the deficiencies of the Sydenham batsmen who in their haste to score runs neglected basic principles against swing bowling. The St. Albans innings fell into two distinct phases. A bright opening partnership of 52 between J. Ruston and J. A. Mills took only 35 minutes, but the next 30 runs came in 80 minutes for the loss of five wickets.

Then M. B. Poore joined Burtt, who was batting soundly but slowly. Under Poore’s careful nurturing, Burtt’s innings blossomed forth. The partnership put on 83 runs in even time and although Poore’s contribution was only 32, he sheltered Burtt for a while from the nagging spin of B. A. Salt. Once Burtt began to assert himself he played some grand shots in front of the wickets. It was a valuable and well-deserved century.

A. N. Bailey’s generous declaration at tea with the score at 236 gave Sydenham two hours’ batting time—or as it turned out St. Albans 110 minutes of bowling time. Faced with the accurate seam bowling of Taylor and Ferries, the Sydenham batsmen collapsed dismally to be all out for 48—the lowest score of the season—in 95 minutes. It was an inglorious effort and even the fine bowling of Taylor and Ferries could not excuse the batsmen.

Ferries gained the best figures with his persistent industry, but Taylor perhaps bowled better. His late swing and ability to move the ball back from leg confused and confounded the batsmen and the ball he bowled Salt with would have been admired by a leg spinner.

The umpires are Messrs R. V Taylor and H. C. Moore.

ST. ALBANS First Innings J. Ruston, c Priest, b K. Thomson . .. 29 J. A. Mills, b Hartland .. 30 S. C. Guillen, bK, Thomson 0 M. E. Clements, c sub, b K Thomson .. .. 0 P. G. Z. Harris, c K. Thomson, b Hartland .. 7 P. Dabovich, c Salt, b Hartland .. .. 17 J. W. Burtt, not out .. 100 M. B. Poore, c Gallop, b Thompson .. .. 32 A. R. Taylor, c P. Thomas, b Thompson .. .. i A. N. Bailey, not out 46 Extras (byes 3, leg-byes 1, wides 1, no-balls 9) .. ..14

Total for 8 wkts. dec 236 Bowling.—P. Thomas, 20. 3. 62, 0; G. Thompson, 13, 4. 40. 2; I. R. Hartland, 21. 7, 35, 3K. Thomson, 11. 4. 24, 3: B A Salt, 16. 7, 29, 0; D. L. Gallop', 10, 0. 32. 0 P

SYDENHAM First Innings I. R. Hartland, b Taylor .. 2 J. Tucker, b Ferries .. 10 W. Thomson, c Burtt, b Taylor . 6 K. Thomson, c Harris, b Taylor .. 10 ID. L. Gallop, b Ferries .. 17 R. Thomas, b Ferries .. 0 N. Sloane.’c Mills, b Ferries 0 B. A. Salt, b Taylor .. 2 K. Priest, c Guillen, b Taylor 0 P. Thomas, lbw. b Ferries 0 G. Thompson, not out .. 0 Extras (no-ball 1) .. 1 Total .. .. .. 48 Bowling.—A. R. Taylor. 14, 5. 31, 5; K. E. Ferries, 13.2, 5, 16, 5. Second Innings D. L. Gallop, not out .. 8 I. R. Hartland, not out .. 0 Total for no wkts. .. 8 Bowling.—Taylor, 3,2. 3 O’ Ferries, 2,0, 5. 0.