St. Albans Has Most To Lose In Defeat

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30930, 10 December 1965, Page 19

St. Albans Has Most To Lose In Defeat

fßy R. T. BR/TTE.VDE.VJ

Two matches of particular moment are set down for Saturday’s senior cricket.

Lancaster Park, the top team, will meet Old Boys, a strong challenger in third place, at Lancaster Park; and West Christchurch-University, fourth at present, meets St Albans (sixth).

The latter match will have a very important bearing on the composition of the top half of the competition when it is divided after the first round in the new year.

Lancaster Park, heavily defeated by West-University last Saturday, should not have quite the same batting problems against the Old Boys’ attack, but Old Boys, like West-University, have the batsmen to challenge the Lancaster Park spinners. West-University has taken a dramatic step for its match with St. Albans. R. K. Allen, a wicket-keeper in the representative squad, has been dropped in favour of a promising second-grade player, G. Nottage.

I. D. Hounsel is not available and he will be replaced by D. Hopkins, a medium-pace bowler from the second team. Poore Not Playing St Albans has its problems, too. M. B. Poore is not available, and the wicket-keeper, T. J. Haydon, cannot appear until the afternoon. However, the return of P. G. Z. Harris should strengthen the side for a match which is of vital importance to it. Sydenham, in second place seven points behind Lancaster Park, will not have an easy match against Riccarton. which has R. C. Motz in particularly fine form. Riccarton's batting needs only to improve a little to make it into a very useful team; Sydenham’s batting has also been very erratic this season.

The fourth match is between Old Collegians and East Christchurch-Shirley at Burwood Park. As the lowestplaced teams, they have a decided interest in keeping

away from the bottom of the table and the dangers of a relegation match. Old Collegians are very unfortunate not to have scored more points so far. But EastShirley last Saturday gave its best batting display for some time and this could be as hard-fought and interesting a match as the others promise to be.