MEN'S SOFTBALL Papanui Beats Richmond For Second Time

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30938, 20 December 1965, Page 19

MEN'S SOFTBALL Papanui Beats Richmond For Second Time

Richmond suffered its third defeat of the season and its second to Papanui when the Canterbury' men’s softball championship continued on Saturday.

Papanui built up a winning lead in the first two innings. The win took it into second place behind Avon in the championship. Western Suburbs avenged its first round defeat by Spredon and Avon convincingly beat United in the other matches. Results: Papanui 7, Richmond 3.

Western Suburbs 15, Spredon 7. Avon 13, United 1. Championship points are.— Avon 8, Papanui 7, Richmond 6, Western Suburbs 4, Spreydon 2, United 0. Papanui v. Richmond Any chance that Richmond had of gaining an unprecedented fourth successive title win was removed by Papanui in the first two innings. The Papanui batters brought the usually dominating pitching of K. Smith under control, and he suffered the unusual

embarrassment of having two successive home runs scored against him in the second innings. Firstly, B. Walne brought in another runner, and then B. Chee repeated the effort. This gave Papanui a sevenrun lead. It was able to hold Richmond scoreless in the vital middle stages, and only in the sixth innings, when it scored two runs, did Richmond look Its old batting self. Except In the first two Innings Papanui seldom looked like scoring. Smith struck out three batters during the match, but he also gave two walks. The Papanui pitcher, D. Chee, was slower but more steady, forcing two strlke-outs and no walks. Suburbs v. Spreydon Suburbs built up a six-run lead in the first four Innings, and then held off a determined Spreydon challenge to win comfortably. The match was spoilt by many fielding errors, particularly In the late stages of the game. When B. Grimes, the Suburbs pitcher, began to tire in the sixth Innings, Spreydon threw everything into a last-minute effort to win. but Suburbs scored five runs in its last innings. Grimes pitched steadily throughout and had enough in reserve to finish the match with a strike-out. There were too many errors to make this an exciting game, but Suburbs appeared the better team throughout, particularly in the early stages when Spreydon’s batting was restricted by good pitching and steady catching. Avon v. United

United managed to kep Avon scoreless in the fourth Innings, but the game ended after six Innings with Avon having won in the first.

Seven runs in the first innings put paid to any hopes that United may have held. R. Bartley scored a fine home run. and B. Bridgeman, B. Mansfield. M. R. Napier, and D. Hooper batted well enough to put united out of the game. United's fielding was not of a good standard, and many errors did not assist its performance. The United pitching was consistent, but Avon's strong batting prevailed. After three runs had been scored In the sixth innings the match ended early.