Top cricket sides fall

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34048, 12 January 1976, Page 10

Top cricket sides fall

The senior cricket: championship was resumed on Saturday, with many new faces to fill' the gaps left by holiday-i makers, and a few peel-! ing noses to testify to; some summer sunshine,! somewhere. Both leading teams were beaten, but the limited-over matches now being played so liberally are not very satisfactory, and they had no effect on positions in the table. Old Boys still lead by 20 points from Old Collegians, but East-Shirley is now only two points "behind Collegians. Results; St Albans 185 beat Rice ar* ton 154. Lancaster Park 156 beat O'd • Collegians 69. East-Shir'ey 205 beat Burn-side-West 148. li Sydenham 169 beat Old Boys 152/9. Points are: Old Bovs 85X, Old’ Collegians 65A. East-Shirlev 63A,i jSt Albans 60 \ Lancaster Park 53,; i Sydenham 52J, Burnside-West 31, i Riccarton 27.

. Three major innings were! jplayed. Neil Francis scored a fine}: j 84 for St Albans, John White-;; head, an Old Boys replacement, 1 ’scored 71 not out. and Barry’i ■ Thomas made 61 for Burnside-L West, L I The most successful bowler ' {was Joe Harrison, of St Albans, who took five wickets. \' GOOD START ■ With Tony Collins in an ag-i' i gressive mood, Lancaster Park !: began well against Old Col-; 1 legians at Elm-wood Park. Col-p tins’ partnership with DavidDempsey was worth 57, Collins ■-' scoring 43 of these. Dempsey also batted well for ] his 32 but with the score at. 150, for five in the thirty-third over, i 1 Old Collegians struck back andp the last five Lancaster Park wic- i' kets fell for a mere six runs. | 1 Old Collegians were unable to'; take advantage of this break, and against the accurate medium-p paced bowling of Trevor Luke j 1 and the guile of the off-spinner*.’ Bruce Irving, the side was outrfi in the twenty-sixth over. Of the i J ‘ 69 runs scored, 20 came from {1 extras. • ] EASY WIN Brisk batting during the lastp 20 overs, and some veryj, accurate slow’ bow’ling carried ; St Albans to a comfortable vic-! i ! tory over Riccarton. If there had been a man of; ’ the match award, it would un-p ! doubtedly have gone to Neil ' ;Francis of St Albans, who opened: the innings and played very 1 sensible and well for 84 in 150 J i minutes. I!

I It was his responsibility to pro- 1 } vide a sound and lasting base for j i the batting, and this lie did ex- • itremely well, although he lost; ! no opportunity of picking up | runs. There was much delight- i | ful driving and square cutting in '• j his innings. I For some time the accuracy I i of the left-arm spinner, Philip! D’Auvergne, kept St Albans ini .check, but once his quota of 10; ; overs was spent. St Albans pros-) ! pered. Francis led the way but} ' there were several other useful | • contributions. Riccarton made a lively start.! ; with Tim Murdoch swinging hisi bat cheerfully. Peter Stubbings; played a few lovely shots, but I i Riccarton was hard pressed by; ; Stephen Boock, who not only had ■ ■ good control, but turned the ball! i violently. Then Joe Harrison,; (meticulous of method, very I steady of length, picked up wic- > kets quickly, and although; Franko Aladrussan, making his; i first senior appearance for two I years struck many bold blows, scored 40, the task was too much ! for the tail-enders. D’Auvergne i played a good, responsible inn- ; ings. Aladrussan made his runs in 51 minutes with some hefty ; swings. It was strange, however, that {Riccarton did not keep on fling- | ing the bat at the ball in the., : last three overs, when 38 were; needed; there were a few sharpC 'singles, but nothing red-blooded’■ {about the batting. !; A sound and sensible innings I; {by John Whitehead, nearly car- i “ ried Old Boys to a win against h t Sydenham. He came to the wic-il

l ket after Bill Aldridge had des-| ; troyed the top batting and only • a lack of support prevented him j | from attaining his goal. i Sydenham began well. The. veterans Bill Thomson and Dave Gallop put on 87 for the first] wicket in a mixture of fine shots! and Well-placed miss-hits. But the fourth wicket fell al 150 and the last six wickets ; added only 19 runs. Geofl' Allen. ; bowled a good line on a pitch ’ | which always aided the medium-; • paced bowlers. Peter Burgess bowled well for | Sydenham and took out the : middle-order batting. i fan Rule and Garry Hooper, I who had shown glimpses of bat-i i ting ability late in East’s order 1 • in earlier games, made the most .• of their promotion against BurnI side-West, and each scored 43. ; East went on to the day’s highest total, aided by some in- | accuracies in the bowling and ; more pronounced errors in the catching. I A vigorous innings by Barry | Thomas, who hit seven fours and I and two sixes, was the basis of | Burnside-West’s reply, but East | had firm control of the sitnai ion. John Langley bowled Iris lefti arm spin well. Athletics. — The 18-year-old East ; German sprinter. Eugen Kay. set; a new world indoor record time ' for the 100 metres in East Ber- [ lin when he clocked 10.215ec,! the official East German news) lagency. A.D.N.. reported. The, race, during a domestic athletics; meeting, was eiectrieonally I itimed, A.D.N. said.