Come-back star shines

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 16

Come-back star shines

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. Just over a year ago the Auckland pitching star, Cheryl Kemp, decided to take a season off from softball, after suffering a surfeit of the game. There would have been many Wellington supporters at the’ Rothman’s women’s championships in Johnsonville yesterday wishing her lay-off had been a little more permanent. For Kemp revealed dazzling form on the mound, as Auckland toppled previously unbeaten Wellington, 3-1. She completely dominated the most lethal batting line-up in the country, keeping the home team to a mere three hits while taking six strike-outs. The win leaves her side at the head of the six teams which start post-section play in the Bensel Cup today. Counties saved their best until last, but still wound up on the wrong side of the ledger against Canterbury.

The South Island side won 5-3, but not before Anne Benion and Dot Epere slammed successive home runs for Counties at the bottom of the seventh innings. Together with Auckland and Wellington, Hutt Valley, Nelson, Counties and Canterbury have qualified in the top six for the Bensel CupRothman’s Cup competition. Hawke’s Bay and Waikato, the bottom teams in section A, join Rotorua, Wanganui, Southland and Manawatu in the Mereweather Cup. North Taranaki, Horowhenua, North Shore, Midlands, Combined Services and Wairarapa will contest the N.Z.S.A. Cup and the B teams from Canterbury, Hawke’s Bay, Hutt Valley, Counties, Wellington and Auckland will fight out the N.Z.S.A. (senior B) Cup.