Wind makes bowling tricky

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34026, 15 December 1975, Page 22

Wind makes bowling tricky

The strong nor’wester Is an ill wind for bowlers. In the senior cricket championship on Saturday, half a dozen batsmen passed 50, but the bowlers had a most difficult task, trying to control length and line in the hot and gusty wind.

Sydenham, beginning to get runs at last, East-Shirley and Lancaster Park won strong positions in their matches, but the top team, Old Boys, was well contained by a determined St Albans side.

Old Boys had to bat until 4.10 p.m. to reach 220 but St Albans scored at almost a run a minute for the last 100 minutes.

Scores.— Sydenham 230/6 dec; Old Collegians 127/6. Old Boys 220/7 dec; St Albans 95/2 East-Shiriey 166/9 dec; Riccarton 93/5

Lancaster Park 181/5 dec; Bumside-West 91/5. Bill Thomson, with a well-! p ayed 77, was the day’s top scorer. Colin Stevens, maintaining his recent excellent form, made 52 in his last match before his transfer to Hamilton, and others who scored half-centuries were, John Calder, Geoff Smith.; Richard Wilson of Lancaster Park, and Paul McEwan. DILEMMA Winning the toss for Old Boys against St Albans must have brought problems for Cran Bull. He no doubt wanted to bat. because Colin; Stevens had to leave the game at lunch. But he must also have wished to have his side bowl, with half a gale behind Richard Hadlee. Bull decided to bat and, Stevens obliged by scoring a brisk half-century. His path was made relatively easy in the first hour by the in-! ability of the St Albans up-, wind bowlers to maintain’ control. Of Old Boys’ first 50 runs, only six were scored! on the off side, as Stevens in particular wafted away the loose ones coming across to the leg side. The first scoring shot was a six off Ken Ferries which was a. superbly timed hit. But there was an extremely good spell, down wind, by Neil McTaggart, whose first eight overs cost only 11 runs for the capture of John Christensen’s wi-

cket. He was accurate and lively, and was not flattered by his figures in the morning. He was not so much on top after lunch, and a back injurv ultimately sent him from the field. But there was some tidy bowling from Joe Harrison.

John Calker, after a thoughtful start, played a lovely innings. He had to cope with much tighter bowling than St Albans had offered in the first hour, but he drove beautifully, and even when the ball was dropped a shade short, he managed to get on the front foot and drive, on the up.

Notwithstanding the heat, St Albans stood up very well in the field. Harrison took a superb catch, diving to his left, to dismiss Stevens from a hard-hit ondrive and Mark Burtt, with the swiftest of pick-ups, ran out Cran Bull with a splendid throw.

When St Albans batted, the wind had dropped and swung, but the light was

poor. However Geoff Smith interspersed some airy waves of the bat with some magnificent attacking strokes and his brisk batting has set Old Boys problems.

GOOD START Sydenham made good use of a placid batting strip when it was sent in at Elmwood Park. Dave Gallop and Bill Thomson scored 82 in 113 minutes in an attractive opening stand. By lunch Sydenham had reached 111 for two wickets—a

total the team has rarely passed for a year. More was to come. With Bill Thomson reaching 77 In 173 minutes off 120 balls —a slow and patient innings by his standards—the foundation was well and truly laid.

Gary Beer and Keith Thomson added useful scores quickly and Svdenham was able to enjoy the luxury of a first Innings declaration. Richard Pither bowled extremely well in trying conditions. He used the strong wind with considerable intelligence and control. But the remaining bowlers found the gale difficult. Old Collegians struggled from the start. With lan Wilson moving the ball away from the two left-handed openers and Gary Beer catching well at slip five wickets were down for only 61 runs. But Hamish Taylor joined an tn-form Paul McEwan to bring

about a fine recovery. They ■cored 56 runs in 49 minutes. McEwan played a fine innings. H etlmed the ball beautifully from the start and drove fluently on both sides of the wicket. In the later stages of his innings his concentration disintegrated

but he survived. lan Wilson again bowled very well and was well supported by BUI Aldridge. Graham Gordon was a neat tidy keeper for Old Collegians in his first senior game. STEADY BOWLING Electing to send the home team Into bat at Burwood Oval, Riccarton found the East openers hard to separate. Batting on the rain affected pitch was easier than both captains thought it would be. The ball although coming on to the bat very slowly gave a consistent bounce. None of the East batsmen were able to collar the steady Riccarton attack. Many of them got good starts but were unable to capitalise on this and got out to rash shots. Vic Pollard looked to be getting into full stride when he was brilliantly caught by Phil D’Auvergne in the gully off a full-blooded cut. leremia bowled well for Riccarton although he gained some wickets with had batting. Riccarton started batting slowly and probably the most interesting battle was the personal duel between Lindsay Thorn and Graham Pulley who is the cap-

tain of the Shirley senior Rugby team in which Thorn plays. Thorn won this round when he hit Pulley for a six. Gary Straw batted well for Riccarton playing some nice drives and cuts off the slower bowlers. The pitch was the most dominant force in the day’s play making batting very difficult with the slow low bounce and, the bowlers found it difficult to extract any help from it.

FAST SCORING Lancaster Park scored quickly on a reasonably firm pitch at Ilam and before lunch runs came at a rate of five an over. However, with the wind dropping and the heat not so intense, the Burnside West University attack was more consistent and the scoring rate slowed. Richard Wilson was the best of the Lancaster Park batsmen and played some well-timed shots forward of the wicket. Mark Johnson was another who showed good batting form. Burnside-West University relied mainly on a medium-pace attack with David Trist and Kevin Williams being the most reliable. Only John Mitchell of the Burnside batsmen handled the Lancaster Park attack with any confidence but he too in the end succumbed to the wiles of Bruce Irving. Irving flighted his off-spln well and Wayne Wilson also bowled with a good control of length and direction.