Opportunity missed by Lancaster Park

Press, 24 January 1977, Page 5

Opportunity missed by Lancaster Park

One over by Martin Had-, s lee, of High School Old]] Boys, shattered Lancaster] < Park's hope of reaching the]* lead in the Christchurch sen-]* ior cricket championship at Hagley Ova! on Saturday. p With the competition ] fr o n t-runner, Sydenham, , having been restricted to a i draw by St Albans, Lancas-p ter Park appeared perfectly]] placed to complete the out-p tight victory that it required' to slip ahead on the points!] table. |i But Hadlee claimed threep wickets within seven deliv-! ( cries to destroy Lancaster Park's hopes, and it even-]; tually fell short of its target 1 of 189 runs in 70 minutes , and 15 overs. The innings i ended at 177 with 2.1 overs left. j] There was small con-]' solation for Lancaster Park]] that, even in defeat, it|] shaved Sydenham's advan-i; tage by one point, and now] trails by 8L St Albans islj still third, but the gap hasp been closed appreciably by]] some of the lesser sides. . Riccarton spurted from i seventh to fourth when it!* set Old Collegians a goal; they could not resist at Hag-], ley 3. After Paul McEwan]’ had all but provided Old’] Collegians with a path to j victory, the later batsmen ii failed in rapid succession to] 1 be 39 runs short. The other games also had] run-chases on the second!] afternoon but the tasks'] were more difficult and Sy-'i denham. especially, and * Burnside-West-University —] against East-Christchurch-]i Shirley — were never inp great danger of suffering p similar fates to Lancaster], Park and Old Collegians. McEwan, with 86 runs in J 76 minutes, was the most], prolific batsman of the day,p George Nicol (St Albans) ] following him by only three 1 runs. Keith Thomson (Sy- : denham) extended his over- ] night 61 to 73 not out, and , Peter Wallace (Burnside- ■ West), Murray Mowat (Old ' Boys) and Derek Burrell ] (Sydenham) also scored halfcenturies. ] The East-Shirley medium- ] pacer. Bob Impey, again prospered, with /50 to give |< him 11 wickets for the]] match; Ron Harwood (Burn-!] side-West) also claimed sixli wickets, and Bruce Irving * (Lancaster Park), Geoff j Allen (Old Boys) and David i Stead (Riccarton) five each. ] Results:— ! Old Boys 10 and 208/9 < dec. beat Lancaster Park ] 180/7 dec. 177 by 11 runs. Riccarton 212/8 dec. j and 122/6 dec. beat Old ]] Collegians 148 and 147 by 39 runs. ]' East-Shirley 184 and * 180/9 dec. drew with ]] Bumside-West 147 and i 157/9. St Albans 188/7 dec, ] and 162/6 dec. drew with < Sydenham 149/4 dec. and * 73/4. , I Bat 81. Wins Total

DIFFICULT TASK Burnside-West made a gallant effort to meet the stiff demands presented bv East-Shirley’s declaration in the game at Burwood Park. With the ball coming on to the bat reluctantly, and with a slow outfield — there was an extraordinary number of twos — Burnside-West was asked to make 218 in 126 minutes. The scoring was last and furious for a while, but once the expenditure of wickets became excessive, Burnside-West, led by Peter Wallace, staged a successful defensive campaign. At the start of the day Ron Harwood hit out vigorously to help make Burnside-West’s lastwicket stand worth 38 and leave East-Shiriev with a lead of 37. East-Shirley then struggled against the medium pace of John Davies and the right-hand leg-

spin of Harwood. Davies took ( only two wickets but was de-! cidedly unlucky. Harwood con-: ceded six runs from his first five : balls, but his next 30 brought i him three wickets for three! runs. He turned the ball sharply I from a full length, but even » when he over-pitched, he was] treated with the utmost respect: i East's captain, Graham Pulley, regarded him with grave suspicion. and he sometimes looked as if he would be happier scotching snakes than smothering legbreaks. But Pullev's sixth-wicket stand of 57 with Keith Hawker — who underlined his sharp improvement this season — gave his, side control of the situation. It was an almost impossible fourth innings task for BurnsideWest. however. Yet John Mit-i chell — perhaps th e most excit-. ing batsman in the competition, — and Colin Blackman made such a rapid advance that anvthing seemed possible. Blackman drove majestically, and had fours with nine consecutive scoring strokes. Mitchell,* with splendid timing, matched 1 Blackman in scoring speed and these two scored 68 in 38 minutes before Mitchell fell to a finelyjudged catch by Garv Hooper. I Wallace, picking up line and i length quickly, hit across the' line confidently, as well as mak- i ing purer strokes well: when the; last 15 overs began. Burnside-; west was 102 for two. needing! almost eight an over, and Wai-1 lace scored 12 of the 15 runs from the first of them. With 12 overs left, 89 were! needed, but then Bob Impey’s] persistent seam bowling began! to win rewards, and East steadily I assumed control. Wallace, thus cast in a second role in one! innings, defended soundly, and: he was out only through slash- j mg at the last ball of the match. I NO SUPPORT Victory was always well with-] in range of Old Collegians while] Paul McEwan was at the crease. He started his innings with his ’ team in trouble at 6/2. but was! immediately into stride and put Old Collegians well into conten-! tion with 18 runs from an over by the Riccarton pace bowler. 1 Frank Madrussan. A lofted drive, which should have been caught by Madrussan. ■ enabled McEwan to reach his half-century in just 39min. His pace never slackened and there l wer e nine fours and two sixes! before he was caught in the outfield by Graham Barrett, when seeking to hit a ball from David Stead hard and high. Old Collegians was then 120/4, and seemingly still within range target. However, none of the other players were able to c °pe so confidently with the spin of Stead and Andrew Nixon, and there was a steady stream! of batsmen following McEwan to I the pavilion. Both Stead and Nixon allowed their rivals just enough leeway to commit errors, and two fine stumpings by John Mackie, and two more catches bv Barrett completed what became a rout. Finally, the last Old Collegian John Lovell-Smith, went to the' pitch with the task of defending for 23 deliveries: he was I bowled by Stead on the seventh. l Stead, who would have been I lost to his team had Canterbury I been involved in the Sheil | Trophy semi-finals, returned an outstanding all-round contribution — eight wickets and two! useful turns with the bat. Nixonl also showed some sound judgment under pressure. “ : Earlier in the day. Old Colleg- i lans had played out its first • innings to finish with a deficit of * 62 runs, gaining 2J batting ’ points to Riccarton’s three for i bowling. Riccarton was restrained in its second innings bid for quick * runs, especially by the accurate hue and length achieved bv Jim • Paterson. Stead and Geoff Miller . fared best of the batsmen, keepmg up sufficient momentum to finish* 16 scene for the exciting FIRST WIN When Lancaster Park re-| quired only 18 runs from the! last four overs and had four; wickets in hand, there appeared'/ to be no chance for High School I:

31d Bovs to break through for their first outright success of the summer. But the situation changed. rapidly as Wayne Wilson. Robin Foster and Bruce Irving were all dismissed wjthin one over by Martin Hadlee, and the swing ; of the pendulum was completed when Murray Mowat dived far to his left to hold a difficult i chance offered by Lancaster, Park's last hope, Ken Baker. It had been Mowat who had provided the inspiration for Old : Boys to fight back from a seem- i ingly impossible position. Lan- 1 caster Park had declared at its i overnight total. 20 ahead of Old i Boys, and the latter was struggling at 70/5 before lunch. Mowat made his entry at this] point and held the experienced I Bevan Congdon and Bruce i Irving at bay for more than two j hours before being run out. He was given valuable support by i Chris Marks and Ricky Page, and Old Boys’ fortunes had been. restored to such an extent that a declaration could be afforded. The Lancaster Park wicket-; keeper, Richard Wilson, had also 1 had his moments, with four consecutive dismissals from two catches and two stumpings; John Calder, safe under four catches, gained equal success for Old I Boys in the outfield later in the day. All of the top-order Lan- 1 caster Park batsmen made promising starts, but the persistence of Geoff .Allen ensured that no individual innings were fully developed. John Alexander was dropped twice before being beaten by Allen and soon after Hadlee produced the over which ripped apart the Lancaster Park tail. NICOL BATS WELL Sydenham added only 21 runs I to its overnight first innings. total before declaring at 149/4 Keith Thomson continued from 1 61 the previous week to finish 73 not out. The feature of the St Albans second innings was George i Nicol’s innings of 83, scored inl 194 minutes. He hit six fours: and was particularly strong on; the off-side. His partnership with Peter Joyce for the second j wicket was worth 68 runs, the i 50 partnership coming up in 601 minutes. The best Sydenham bowler i was Bill Aldridge whose work manlike performance was worth; more than the four wickets he i was rewarded with. Only three bowlers were used during the innings. St Albans declared at tea. leaving Sydenham to score 202 in 60 minutes and 15 overs. Sydenham needed to score at the rate of something over eight runs per over and after losing Bill Thomson and John Larter early never really looked likely to threaten. Only one Sydenham batsman reached double figures and stumps were drawn at 5.30 p.m. Derek Burrell managed a quick 52, but Joe Harrison picked up three wickets and, with a ring of close fieldsmen supporting him. seemed the bowler most i likely to win the match for St Albans.

Svden ia 23 48 89 Lane. Pk 23 21J 36 801 St Alb. 22 J 111 24 651 Rice. 2(14 «4 24 53 Old Coll. . 18 214 12 51J East-Sh. 215 1.'4 12 51 B.W.-L. 221 164 12 51 Old B. 234 14 12 494