Lancaster Park a worthy cricket champion

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 11

Lancaster Park a worthy cricket champion

(By

R. T. BRITTENDEN)

Lancaster Park had a grim battle with Old Boys before winning the senior cricket championship last Saturday, but it was the best team in the competition. It was a dramatic finish, with anxious East-Shirley players on the boundary, hoping, no doubt, that neither side would win the game; but in the most critical moments, Old Boys made gross errors of judgment, and the Lancaster Park players kept their heads. Lancaster Park was well led by M. L. Ryan, an astute captain, and it had a fine team spirit. It was a variable quantity in the field, but sometimes, caught brilliantly. In batting and bowling it was resourceful and many of the players discovered, ■in Concert, the way to personal records. The leading batsman A. M. McKendry, scored 555 runs, giving him 1584 for the last

three seasons, a remarkable performance. A. E. Collins improved on his previous best with 467. He had his failures, but his extremely assertive methods in an opening position sometimes unsettled opponents accustomed to conventional first exchanges. Ryan himself set a personal record with 439, and although C. F. Baker’s aggregate fell a little, his average improved. In a solid batting line-up, R. M. Gearry 'made 340 runs, his best since 1964-65. Park’s bowling was usually very sharp and purposeful. J. Hadlee rose to particular prominence during the season. He was the fastest senior bowler, and had a very satisfactory season. W. R. Wilson’s 31 wickets set a record for him and he could never be handled easily. But it was B. C. Irving’s remarkable success which did most for Park in the field. Three times previously in his career he had exceeded 50 wickets; this time it was a record 64, at very modest cost. Opposing batsmen, as well as the figures, suggested that Irving has never bowled better in a distinguished career. Ryan and Baker were among others who chimed in with bowling successes, and, in J. F. Jackson, Park had an alert young wicketkeeper who led the grade’s dismissals list. It was bad luck for East Christchurch-Shirley that it should be deprived of a first peace-time championship only by a few deliveries. It was a tremendously enthusiastic team under the dynamic leadership of V. Pollard, who enjoyed a great personal success, with 647 runs at 64.7 and 39 . cheap wickets. East was even more militant in its batting methods than Park. J. W. Grocott fell only a few short of a

500 aggregate—which would have been his first— and P. G. Coman very nearly topped the aggregates for the third time in five seasons. The rest of the East batting was rather sketchy, but it nearly always did well in the field, with G. V. D. Pulley taking 50 wickets and A. C. Nottingham bowling well at times. N. M. Pitches progressed quite spectacularly as a batsman, and P. R. Joyce, one of the finest close fieldsmen in the province, must soon realise his batting potential. Old Boys did very well to finish third equal, for it was short of good batsmen and felt the loss of C. J. Stevens after five games. When A. R. Houfisell left, four

matches from the end, the bowling was also thin, although D. R. Hadlee improved steadily and J. W. Calder progressed most satisfactorily with his offspin. But the established batsmen, B.G. Hadlee and C. L. Bull, did not reach their usual run quotas and the batting always looked in danger of collapse. West-University, champion team for the previous two seasons, had G. T. Dowling and B. F. Hastings for only five matches, but almost until the end of the season West looked capable

of snatching the title again. B. Bhana had an especially good season; M. A. Fisher had one or two tremendous innings; and D. G. Trist’s batting improved markedly.

But Trist, who suffered unduly from injury and illness, took only 22 wickets and. West’s pace bowling was very thin. The spin of C. M. Kirk and P. A. Sharp again brought rich rewards, but West’s fallible batting and lack of new-ball penetration had the side faltering, and it went out of the race when Riccarton staged a massive batting offensive in the final round. R. K. Allen again kept wickets very well and he finished the season only two dismissals short of 200, and 16 away from S. C. Guillen’s Christchurch record. Riccarton should, perhaps, have finished higher than fifth. To be sure, it lost R. C. Motz for six of the 11 games and P. W. Hammant, after taking 15 wickets in the first three innings of the season, claimed only seven more thereafter. J. W. Kiddey was steadiness itself, and had a fine final season. He will be sorely missed next year. Riccarton did not do much to develop the spinners, R. J. Miller and P. G. D’Auvergne, who had only 185 overs between them in the season. The batting was always interesting, sometimes brilliant D. W. Stead’s tally of 553 was almost 200 more than his previous best; G. T. Barrett finished in excellent form after a moderate start; and P. A. Stubbings, when established, was one of the best-looking batsmen in the grade. D. A. Dempsey went ahead very satisfactorily, and of the younger players, G. T. Straw looked the most promising. Although it had the top batsmen —L. A. Smith, who made 677—St Albans had too many batting failures. J. W. Burtt scored well in the first two games and the

last two, but did very little in between. A good many batsmen were tried and found wanting—St Albans used 25 players in all. G. J. Walklin and K. I. Ferries made a good opening pair of bowlers, and J. A. Harrison had another very good season, but St Albans was usually a bowler short. But it should do better, especially in batting, where G. B. Smith gave notice of intention. Sydenham was as unpredictable as ever, and it finished only a point from last because of its many batting failures and lack of bowling penetration. I. R, Hartland and K. Thomson did best with the bat, but R. L. McHarg became of more value in this department and although J. F, Larter’s return was unspectacular, he looks likely to make many runs in the senior grade. The bowling was decidedly thin and more use might, perhaps, have been made of D. L. Gallop, who was very tidy, as a rule, and finished a clear leader in the side’s bowling averages. Old Collegians, now an open club, again lacked batting strength, although R. W. Fulton scored almost 500 runs and D. S. Banks contributed many useful innings. But the new players in the team will unquestionably help to bring better results with experience. R. J. Pither is a very promising left-hander. D. J. Gatenby a leg-spinner who must, on recent form, have representative prospects, and P. E. McEwan is a batsman of considerable potential. Old Collegians may have been disappointed at finishing last again: but it was by no means a bad last. Much of the sustained interest in the championship sprang from the fact that any team was capable of beating any other and, near summer’s end, Old Collegians had the satisfaction of defeating Old Boys, then Lancaster Park, in successive matches.