Denness making tour bid

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 14

Denness making tour bid

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) HOBART.

The M.C.C. captain, Mike Denness, batted through bad light against Tasmania yesterday in an bid to find the form which would enable him again to captain England, in the fifth test ?,gainst Australia.

The tourists were 178 for two at the end of the second day of a three-day match, with Denness 42 not out and Colin Cowdrey 36 not out. The umpires, Messrs J. Stevens and K. Connor, asked Denness half an hour before stumps if he wanted to continue batting in view of the bad light. Denness, without hesitation, said that he and Cowdrey would bat on as storm clouds darkened the ground. The first day of the match was washed out and play was not possible in the pre-lunch session yesterday because of the state of the ground. Brian Luckhurst and Dennis Amiss, the M.C.C. openers, put on 68 runs before Amiss was caught in the covers for 32 off the seam bowler, Kevin Badcock, a nephew of the former Austrr lian test player, C. L. Ba’-' cock.

Luckhurst, who has played well in the secondary matches of the tour, scored 59 before he was caught on the leg boundary.

Denness, who came to the wicket almost an hour after Cowdrey, had overtaken Cowdrey’s score at stumps by hitting seven fours. He struggled early on, showing the effects of not having played for more than a week, and was dropped on the squareleg boundary, but then settled down to play some superb shots.