Papanui Wins Men’s Softball Title

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31020, 28 March 1966, Page 17

Papanui Wins Men’s Softball Title

Papanui beat Avon 10- to win its first Canterbury men’s softball club championship at English Park on Saturday.

Tight fielding and the supremacy of the pitchers marked an exciting encounter. The winning margin was provided by I. Pollock, who hit a home run over right field. This was Avon’s first loss to Papanui in four matches. Avon shared second place in the championship with Richmond, which beat Western Suburbs on Saturday. Final championship points were:—

Results: Papanui 1, Avon 0. Richmond 11, Western Suburbs 4. Papanui v. Avon Errors were cut to a minimum by the two finalists. Papanui. as usual, fielded extremely well and the throwing of C. Chee and I. Pollock was particularly accurate. Avon also took all the chances offered and S. Whittington took one brilliant catch. The Papanui batters were the more impressive. Pollock scored his outstanding home run in the fourth innings after B. Waine had impressed with two safe hits. Avon did not give in. In the last innings a belated attempt to snatch the game and force a title play-off just failed to succeed when R. McKenzie was caught in the outfield while Whittington and J. Hooper w r aited on base.

The young * Papanui pitcher, D. Chee, did much towards the title victory. He conceded only two safe hits, an outstanding performance when one considers the strength of Avon’s batting line-up. A. Ballantyne also pitched well for Avon, taking five strike-outs to Chee’s two, but Ballantyne conceded four safe hits. Richmond v. Western Suburbs The unusual number of seven home runs was the feature of a game spoilt by Western Sub urbs’ mediocre fielding. Richmond entrusted the pitching to P. Joyce, resting Kelly Smith at third base. However, Smith was. not content to take it easy with the bat and he hit consecutive home runs off B. Grimes. E. Noonan had hit a home run earlier, off Kevin Smith. R. Storer completed Richmond’s quartet with a home run as soon as Grimes replaced Smith. B. Lapthorne began the rush of home runs in Western Suburbs’ second innings and A. Wilson and N. Hobson followed suit by pounding Joyce away. ‘Richmond did not appear in danger of defeat and failed to score only in the fifth innings. Apart from the individual batting efforts of Wilson, Hobson and Lapthorne, the Suburbs team lacked combination and its team-work was inferior to Richmond’s. T. Smith was the best of the outfielders for Richmond and M. Nepala and A. Hall impressed closer in.

W L For Ae-st Pts Pap . 13 3 122 51 13 Avon . 11 5 101 55 11 Rich . 11 5 103 42 11 Sub 4 12 74 126 4