Cricket Youth

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31230, 30 November 1966, Page 8

Cricket Youth

WEEKLY REVIEW

Whether it is a slightly imperious, “Of course I play; I like cricket,” or an unashamed “Coz I don’t have to do the chores.” the reasons that primary and intermediate schoolboys have for devoting two hours of a Saturday morning to playing competition cricket are numerous, strongly held, and, if sought, forthrightly expressed.

The decision by A grade players to participate is easily made and their reasons for doing so are invariably more noble than those offered by boys in the lower grades. Their ranks being filled mainly by Forms 1 and 2 pupils, the game is not knew to them. They have, in most cases, played cricket throughout primary school, like it or are madly keen, and wish to have as much of it as can be provided. Thus the Cricket Association’s junior advisory board can take pride in the recreation and enjoyment it is giving to more than 400 boys, and questions like “Why do you play on Saturday mornings?” are, if not daft, at least rhetorical. In the B, C and D grades the reasons proffered on Saturday by players at schoolboy cricket’s headquarters— Hospital Corner in Hagley Paris—were varied and interesting. The question, put to members of the Marist Loreto C grade team, drew this response: “It’s fun; gives me something to do." “It cleans up the time for us.” “No, it’s not that. It's beaut fun coming here in the mornings. Otherwist I’d still be in |bed.” “Not me, I'd be cutting the lawns.” A Riccarton D grade player said: “I like it because I get out of doing the dishes and rhaking the beds. It’s lots better than school games because at Hoon Hay I don’t get in the team much.” A team-mate: “I like playing sport. I look forward to Saturday morning because in the afternoon I only muck around at home and watch the telly.” A chorus of stentorian voices issued from the East Christchurch C grade team when the question was asked: “I’ve got hardly anything else to do.”—“I like winning games. If we win this one we’ll be first equal in the competition."—“l like being in the slips, and bowling and batting, but I like playing best because when we win our coaches shout us ice creams.” Not all boys are completely satisfied, however, and from the same team came a dampening to the general enthusiasm: “I like school games better. At Banks avenue I have got 61 wickets in the last two seasons (other team members loudly verified this) because I usually bowl right through the innings, but here you only get three overs.” A weaker case for the prosecution: “I don’t like playing Burnside much because they beat us and we didn’t get any ice cream.” A West ChristchurchUniversity B grade player said he played because his school friends were in the team. “I play softball at school and this is my first season at cricket. I like cricket just as much. Last week I made 12 not out. That’s what I like; in cricket you can get a lot of runs at a time, but in softball you only get one.” A grade players were not only appreciative of the opportunity to play. A Riccarton player said this: “I like this better than school games. These go on longer, there’s more enjoyment, and there’s trees and fresh air and everything which you don’t get at school. You can’t break any windows either. Here the captain can look after his team and there’s no teacher watching you. But at school the teacher tells you bow to place your field and who to bowl and it’s no use being captain, really.” The boy next to him cut in: “You get around more grounds in this competition, too. Hospital Corner is my favourite because of the trees ‘and everything.’ Most other parks have long grass; it’s nice and short here.” Trial Match While all around them batsmen smote hip and thigh without regard to style or effect, the 22 players in the representative trial at Hospital Corner formed an oasis of cricketing perfection. Perhaps the benefit of R. C. Notz’s coaching was showing, but the batting, particularly, bore a stamp of class that seemed almost out of place. However, the net result did not completely satisfy the selectors who umpired the match, Messrs D. J. Steere and A. L. Moore. “There were a lot who batted well defensively, but players capable of taking steady bowling apart seem very few,” said Mr Steere. “We are well off for pace bowling and the spin department should be reliable, although no-one can get any great turn.” Only 63 runs were scored in the two-hour trial game. Peter Ross’s team was dismissed for 56, five bowlers sharing the wickets, and lan Rule’s XI batted 30 minutes for seven runs without loss. Ross and B. McLeod, of High School Old Boys, led the batting, but neither was able to put power into his shots. “We tried to have the suspect batting against the suspect bowling and the

accomplished performances pitted against each other,” Mr Steere said. “The trouble is that a lot of these batsmen have been playing against weak bowling. When they come up against a tight attack like this they naturally find free scoring difficult” The three players who kept wickets, John Lindsay, Gary Myall and Graeme Donaldson, are normally medium-pace bowlers. The wicket keeping berth is wide open and the selectors intend trying a fourth candidate, Wayne McWhirter, for the second day on Saturday. “For the South Island primary school tournament (in the last week of January) we will probably end up with about six medium pacers, though at least two of these will be good enough to earn a place without having to bowl,” Mr Steere said. “We may well need all of them in five long days of cricket.” With the tournament matches likely to last more than five hours each day, a spin bowler or two will be needed. The Riccarton A offspinner, Brian de Lore, is the specialist most likely to travel to Gore and his support could well come from Ross and Rule, both of whom bowl leg spin—Ross with his left arm, Rule with his right.

Good Recovery Its batting had not yet matched its bowling strength and East Christchurch-Shirley’s A grade team, with six of its members, including the opening bowlers, lan Perry and Murray Brown, in the trial match, was expected to bend the knee when it met Lancaster Park. Predictions were being fulfilled until, at a parlous four runs for two wickets, Lyall Perry joined Robert Palmer. Palmer, who looked a likely representative until he switched to tennis last season led the revival with 51. Perry scored 37 and the pair put on S 3 to enable a declaration at 128/5. Short Work

Riccarton and Marist clubs were engaged in internecine contests at Hospital Corner. Riccarton A made short work of the club’s B team, which was without its biggest boy and opening bowler, Grant Magon. Hjg boys have, in fact, been Riccarton B’s chief want. The team, which any other time plays under the name of Hoon Hay Primary School first XI, began well enough but two dropped catches during a 31-run partnership by David Kennedy and Garry Copsey did nothing to compensate for bowling that was mainly erratic. The A team’s declaration at 81/5 was made 40 minutes before the close: sufficient time to dismiss the B’s for 23. David Kennedy’s medium pace claimed 5/3 off three overs, but the most popular wicket of the match, was that taken by Kevin Connor, whose approach to the bowling crease was as long as the pitch Itself. The route was covered at two speeds: fast at the start, steady over the middle stages and fast again as he approached delivery stride. Only Kevin’s head and shoulders were above bail height as he flung himself past the wicket, but the ball, of low trajectory and bounce, was watched most intently during his two maiden overs. Scoring was even lower in the other match between teams of the same club. Marist Mairehau dismissed Marist Loreto for 37 and replied with 18/8. As with most of the Convent schools which supply the Marist club with its players, the Loreto College and Our Lady of

Fatima Convent School first Xis are both in only their second season of competition cricket. The Mairehau team, although at present without a coach, has done extremelv well. The team relies rather heavily on its opening bowler and opening batman, Rodney Mason, who, according to Father O’Mahony, a temporary supervisor of the team, “never fails with the ball if he has failed with the bat."

Against Xavier College, Rodney scored 49 and took 7/10 with his medium-pace bowling which nags at bat and wicket with the persistency of a water torture; against Lancaster Park he lifted his head and was bowled first ball, but amply atoned by capturing 7/21; and on Saturday he took 5/7 off 12 overs. In most un-Cameron like fashion, Ronald Cameron nephew of Otago and New Zealand representative, Frank, fancies himself neither as batsman or bowler, but has done a tolerably good job keeping wickets for Mairehau. The Marist game, obviously, did not yield champagne cricket. The batsmen generally paid the penalty of adopt ing a square-on stance and there were far too many strokes of the agricultural kind. Adults Needed Just as A. and P. shows are synonomous with lost and wailing children, so Is Hospital Corner becoming increasingly noted as a place for leaderless cricket teams. Teams without adult supervision have ceased to be a novelty. The earlyseason boom in adult Interest has waned badly and on Saturday there was the unfortunate case of the High School Old Boys B grade side dividing itself Into two teams of five and conducting, as is the wont of leaderless schoolboys, a freely debated match. A spokesman for the team said: “We arrived here and there was no-one in charge. Our coach was at Sydenham looking after the A grade team. When he came here to get the gear he saw us at the pavilion and told us to go over to Hospital Corner and look for a game. Everyone else had a game so we're playing among ourselves. We haven’t had a proper match this season. We went to Lancaster Park at show weekend, the coach didn’t turn up ard only about half our team wa. there. The other day h rained. We were entered in the competition three weeks ago, but we haven’t had our team published in the draw yet.”

The game was interrupted while he had his say. As he went back to the game, his team asked him, “Is that going in the paper?”— “Yeah.” There followed a loud and united shout of “Hooray," and the match continued. Retirements

There is nothing like competition for selection in a team to bring out the best in the players. Sixteen boys have been attending the weekly coaching sessions run by Mr G. Steel at Burnside Park for the Burnside D team. The prize of a pocket knife for the boy taking the most catches and effecting the most run outs before Christmas has led to a high standard in this department of the game; Andrew Goudswaard, Brian McLean and Brent Millner have taken bags of cheap wickets; the batting has been reliable; Michael Johnson has been an astute captain and placed his fields well; and the team has won all its matches. Mr Steel has not, however, lost sight of the fact that cricket is a game for 22 players. In common with many other coaches, his policy has been to retire batsmen after they have scored 20 or so runs—provided the state of a match is not going to render it suicidal to do so.

Tall Scoring

A commendable feature of the Sydenham-Hagley Old Boys B grade game was the manner in which the Sydenham players moved smartly into position at the end of each over. It was evident that these boys had responded well to coaching and despite their long toil in the field their ground fielding and throwing did not faulter. A little more attention by the bowlers to length and direction may have prevented Hagley from amassing its formidable 156. Ross Calder was again in good form and his 64 retired showed that the bowling held no terrors The brightest star in an unexciting morning’s cricket at Lancaster Park was a fine 41 not out by all-rounder Graeme Stevens. Opening the innings, he carried his bat in Lancaster Park C’s score of 114/8 declared. Next highest scorer was Mr Extras, who claimed over 20 wides—a definite case of forsaking accuracy for speed. The only bowler to show hostility was Kevin Joughin who had been lent to Marist St Mary’s by the home side. He took three of his friends wickets for two runs. Marist scored 20 without loss and continue next week.