Leading sides beaten in senior softball

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32788, 13 December 1971, Page 13

Leading sides beaten in senior softball

Two of the leading teams, Papanui and Richmond, both suffered upset defeats when the Cooper Henderson Motors senior men's minor softball championship continued at English Park on Saturday. United, the team which won last season’s championship but which had been undergoing a serious loss- of form in recent weeks, halted Papanui’s eightgame winning streak by avenging its 1-4 first round loss with a 5-3 win in the main fixture. Western Suburbs— battling to keep abreast of Operation Deep Freeze in the struggle to be the fourth team in the major cham-pionship-repeated its first round win over third-placed Richmond! with a 7-4 win in the curtain-! raiser. United’s win has whittled Papanui’s minor championship, lead down to four points. Even if United were to win its floodlit match at English Park against Deep Freeze tomorrow evening and Papanui were to lose its match later in the evening against Richmond, it could not prevent Papanui from becoming Canterbury's entry in the John Lennon Trophy national interclub championship at Blenheim later in the season.

With another full round to go, United could quite easily still emerge as minor champion. Indeed, the improved competitive spirit displayed by Deep Freeze and Western Suburbs in particular, which has resulted in the unusual number of upset results, could even allow a team such as Richmond—up to now one of the favoured sides—to be eliminated from the “top four.”

The player to have a major part in United’s win was the present Canterbury utility. B. W. Mountford. As an efficient third baseman for his club, he drove in three of his side’s five runs in the tight game. Mountford hit a home run at the top of the first innings to give United an early, if short-lived lead and lashed a single which enabled|

two men to score when his side pulled from a 1-2 deficit to a 4-2 lead in the fourth innings. He was later made the second recipient of the “player of the day” award, sponsored by Alpine Sawmills, Ltd The left-handed first baseman, J. Shaw, had an outstanding day

with the bat when Western Suburbs beat Richmond, 7-4. Shaw gained three safe hits, driving in runs with two of them.

Another fine game by its new pitcher, P. Spillane and some powerful batting, especially by the representative catcher, R. Whinfrey, enabled Deep Freeze to gain a 10-0, five innings win over bottom-placed Kaiapoi. The side having played 13 matches for only one win, the Kaiapoi selectors would be wise 1 to consider promoting such players as D. Hammond, a New Zealand Combined Services player ! for several years and the promsing D. Burney, from the club’s 1 undefeated second grade team ifor the latter half of the season jand the “middle four” champion’ship. Points table:—

United 5, Papanui 3 Papanui could consider itself somewhat unfortunate to have met United in such a determined mood. In spite of its most aggressive batting of the season, United was still behind, 5-7, in the final “safe hits gained” analysis and it was only Mountford’s batting, especially fils third innings hit, which provided the turning point of the game—which enabled it to win. i B. H. Waine and G. A. Rob- . erts hit Papanui to a 2-1 lead at jthe bottom of the first innings, ; but Mountford’s hit, with M. (Nelepa and R. Hutton “aboard,” Lin the third, reversed the ascendancy. Mountford also scored later in the same innings when D. Daw blasted a drive at D. Egar, the Papanui third baseman. Papanui badly missed the speed of its regular centrefielder, D. J. Patterson, and the agility and sure hands of its third baseman, C. N. Chee, who is injured. After United had increased its lead to 5-2 when M. Nelepa hit a double and later scored in the fifth, Papanui attempted a “turn, around” with Its last two innings. Roberts, G. Phillips and I. R. Pollock hit safely in the sixth to take the score to 5-3. At the bottom of the seventh, B. Chee, who had earlier completed a brilliant hook-slide which defeated W. Keen’s attempt to tag him after a bunt, forced K. Thorn, the United second baseman, into error with a hard drive. The next batter, Waine, hit to left field but Thom, standing in the path of Chee blatantly prevented the little second baseman from rounding second base and making third on the hit. Thorn again interfered with Chee when the runner attempted to retreat back to second base, but received a stern warning only from the base umpire, Mr j. Simpson. It is now only conjective, but had he been able to reach third base safely, as is probable, Chee could have scored comfortably from Roberts’s fly hit to centre field immediately afterwards. For the winner, D. W. Bradbury took eight strike outs, gave up two walks and seven hits. Roberts, Bradbury’s relief pitcher for United last season, was far from overshadowed, gaining nine strike outs and conceding one walk and five hits. Umpires: Messrs I. Gernhoefer (plate) and Simpson. Western Suburbs 7, Richmond 4 Western Suburbs backed its pitcher, L. Fife, with, a nine hit attack which gave the side an early 5-2 lead and another two runs in the seventh innings after Richmond had crept to 5-4 by the fifth.

The winning team’s best rally was undoubtedly during its second innings, when M. Barry, O. Stuart, N. Hobson hit safely and M. P. McOscar and Fife drove out long outfield fly hits—one of which Richmond’s centre field G. Smith dropped with two down—to give their side a 5-0 lead. D. Rea and T. Smith put Richmond back into the game immediately afterwards but a well executed double play between Hobson, Shaw and R. J. Mullally prevented. R. R. J. Storer from reaching home plate and adding to the two run rally. D. Chee’s single allowed W. Williams to score in the third.

Richmond was unlucky not to score again in the fourth but Williams was able to come home again in the fifth to provide a definite threat. However, Hobson, McOscar and Shaw lashed" hits in the seventh to consolidate their side’s win.

Besides Shaw, Hobson and Chee were the 'game’s best batters with two hits. Fife completed the game with four strike outs while conceding six hits; his opposite, J. K. Smith, gaining three strike outs and giving up one walk and nine hits. Umpires: Messrs Simpson (plate) and Gernhoefer.

Deep Freeze 10, Kaiapoi 0 Handicapped by having to deliver to the third catcher Kaiapoi had used in as many games, M. McConnell, a former Marlborough representative, had no chance of holding the strong American servicemen’s line-up at the Papanui Domain. The heavily-built Whinfrey led the Deep Freeze batting onslaught, gaining a home run on errors early in the game because of some inaccurate Kaiapoi throwing and adding another “genuine” home run later with a long hit over centre field. A double from Spillane also drove in two runs.

Deep Freeze picked up four runs in the third innings, another four in the fourth and completed the game with two more in the fifth with none down. On the defensive side, Spillane swept through Kaiapoi’s batting, taking'seven strike outs from the 17 batters to face him and allowing only McConnell, on one occasion, to hit safely. In a generally poorly fielding side, the right fielder, J. Rea, an older brother of the Richmond and Canterbury second baseman, D. Rea, who has been out of the game for six years, impressed with his soundness. Umpires: Messrs J. Rochford (plate) and J. Anderson. United became the first team to lead the Papanui Aces tins season in a Senior B match at the Papanui Domain, However, the Aces eventually maintained their unbeaten record with a 17-7 win Somerfield beat Richmond, 18-5, and Services took Papanui B, 11-4, in other senior B matches.

Senior A P W L F A Pts Papanui 12 10 2 68 24 20 United 11 8 3 35 17 16 Richmond 12 7 5 67 48 14 D. Freeze 11 5 6 52 45 10 W. Subs 13 5 8 50 55 10 Kaiapoi 13 X 12 31 105 2 Senior B p W L F Pts Pap. Aces 9 9 0 117 24 18 Somerfield 10 6 4 91 76 12 Services 9 5 4 85 75 10 United 10 4 6 87 112 8 Richmond 10 3 7 72 111 6 Pap. B 10 2 8 70 129 4