Congdon has vital debut for Park XI

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33675, 26 October 1974, Page 48

Congdon has vital debut for Park XI

(By

R. T. BRITTENDEN)

The first Christchurch] club appearance of the New Zealand cricket captain, B. E. Congdon, coincides with a particularly important match for his team, Lancaster Park. Today, Lancaster Park, champion for the last three seasons, meets a strong High School Old Boys side which started the season well against St Albans. The inclusion of Congdon in the Park side is at the expense of M. J. Smith. It leaves Park with a very well-balanced team leftarm swing from W. Wilson and K. C. Chambers, rightarm seam bowling from Congdon and T. Luke, offspin from the indefatigable B. C. Irving — and a string of seven talented batsmen. Powerful attack Old Boys have a shorter tail, a lesser list of top batsmen. But the inclusion of S. T. Chambers in place of S. Girvan gives them a powerful pace and seam attack — R. J. Hadlee, D. R. Hadlee and G. T. Allen with Chambers.

This game, at Hagley Oval, will be one of the hardest-fought and most interesting in the championship. St Albans has an unchanged team, but Old Collegians will be without R. W. Fulton, who will soon move to the Gisborne area to further his farming experience. Loss to club Fulton, as a left-hand batsman, a useful medium-pace bowler, and as an outstandingly good fieldsman, will be sadly missed by Old Collegians. The prospects are that he will be away from Christchurch all the summer. His replacement is R. C. Bromley. This will be another match of especial interest between two attractive teams: when they met last season, they had the distinction of a tie. East Christchurch-Shirley also has the first-round team in action again for its match with Sydenham, the competition leader. Sydenham has lost P. E. McKenzie, who has been replaced by K. D. Prusas. Long spells Although it has considerable batting talent, Sydenham is sadly short of bowling— C. W. Aldridge and I. Wilson will probably have to keep the new ball until it is well worn. In support are

the spinners, D. L. Gallop and J. G. Larter. Burnside-W est-University and Riccarton are unchanged for their match at Hagiey Oval.