Final-over win clinches cricket title for Sydenham

Press, 14 March 1977, Page 20

Final-over win clinches cricket title for Sydenham

Sydenham has won the senior cricket competition, and “The Press” pennant that goes with it, with the final round still to be played. A tense victory in the final over against Old Boys, and Lancaster Park’s failure to finish off a win against Burnside-West, has left Sydenham with an unbeatable tally. It is 28J points clear of Lancaster Park, and even if the latter gave anothr rollicking batting performance, it could not close the gap. By the same token, Lancaster Park is assured of second place. It is 27| points clear of St Albans, and most interest lies in the tense battle for third place. Even Riccarton, eighth and last, is only 21 i points behind St Albans.

The only side, Sydenham apart, to win outright was Old Collegians. Given the bait of a declaration by Joe Harrison, Old Collegians’ captain, Paul McEwan, gave a typically forthright batting

exhibition to lead his team to a two-wicket win. However, both the other matches went close to outright results. After appearing to be cruising to victory

at tea against Lancaster Park, Burnside-West had to struggle to keep its tenth wicket intact. And East-Shirley was also nine down and well short of its target against Riccarton. Points:—

Lancaster Park 232/3 dec. and 161/6 dec. drew with Burnside-West 173 and 179/9. Old Collegians 146 and 202/8 beat St Albans 218/3 dec. and 128/7 dec. by two wickc's. East-Shirley 154 and 119/9 drew with Riccarton 206/6 dec. and 124/7 dec. Sydenham 201/8. and 134/7 dec. beat Old Boys 172 and 157 by six runs.

Even including McEwan’s powerful innings, the outstanding performance of the day was by the Riccarton captain, David Stead. One of only three batsmen in the eight teams to pass 50, Stead all but bowled his team to victory as well. His seven for 38. was by far the’ outstanding bowling performance of the day. Another Riccarton bowler, Andy Nixon, also had five wickets in an innings, and so did Kit Chambers (Lancaster Park) and Bill Aldridge (Sydenham).

The only other batsman to get a half-century was Old Boys’ Brian Ritchie. GOOD DECLARATION At the time, Maurice Ryan’s declaration seemed more than

generous to Burnside-West. He left it 215 min to score 221-, or something like four runs and a half an over—and this without his three tightest bowlers. But as it happened, Ryan knew what he was doing, though the game appeared to be slipping

away from Lancaster Park at tea. He brought back Chambers, who had been taken off after only three overs when he was causing Burnside-West some problems. Chambers responded by taking out the Burnside-West middle order, and Ryan himself chipped in with a couple of wickets.

But the destruction job was done just a little too thoroughly and, to keep Burnside after a fairly remote quest, Ryan had to bring on Ross Calder to sacrifice some runs. But Justin Boyle stood firm for an hour, and with Murray Williams contributing some lusty blows, Burnside held out. Ryan had earlier set Lancaster Park up for his declaration w’ith another sound innings, and Calder brought the closing forward a little with a hectic quarterhour W’hen he raced to 29. Boyle, with his leg-spin, was the best of the Burnside bowlers. That Burnside ever looked to have a chance of winning was through the first three batsmen, dangerously though they all lived. Colin Blackman hit some handsome drives, and both John Mitchell and Matthew Toynbee hit powerfully, interspersed with a number of chances and near- ! chances. SLOW PITCH The pitch at Burwood Park was wet and sticky, and throughout the day the ball dominated the bat. The East Christchurch-Shirley innings folded in the morning for the addition of only 49 runs I against the accurate spin of| •Stead and Nixon. Both turned i the ball sharply and the holding nature of the pitch made the ball lift unpredictably. Riccarton, in its turn, found scoring difficult, and in the see | ond innings only Stead batted | with any f reedom, hitting eight I fours in his score of 51. Steady medium-paced bowling by Gra-I

ham Pulley and Gary Hooper contained the scoring.

East needed to score 177 in 75 minutes plus 15 overs, and although the opening stand between John Grocott and Peter Coman reached 57, the slow pitch made runs difficult. Again it was the slow bowlers who did the damage and Peter Stubbings made his contribution with some sharply turning off-spin. However, Stead was the main destroyer and the fall of Grocott’s wicket at 91 in the fifth of the last 15 overs meant the abandonment of the chase for runs. Seven wickets were down when S’tead began the last over and although Stuart Tasker fell to the second ball and Bob Impey to the seventh, Adrian Jackson was equal to the occason. But he faced three no-balk before the last was bowled.

A feature of the consistently good Riccarton fielding was Stubsix catches in the slips. McEWAN'S MATCH The unorthodox batting brilliance of McEwan and the amazing transformation of the pitch alter rolling between innings were the two most significant factors in an exciting Old Collegians victory over St Albans. St Albans duly gained the remaining three Old Collegians first innings wickets at minimal' cost to earn maximum bowling j performance points. However, its! attempts to add quickly to its first innings advantage of /2| runs were fraught with pitch problems. Before lunch, the ball reared, scuttled and seamed. Only the tenacious Rodney Moore and an aggressive Neil Francis were capable of combating the awkward conditions. St Albans finally declared leaving Old Collegians to score 201 runs for victory in two hours and the mandatory 15 overs. With the pitch misbehav ing. St Albans was favoured. The conscientious rolling of the pitch, however, changed the nature of the game. Old Collegians made an extremely slow beginning in its quest for outright victory but. with the advent of McEwan, the tempo increased.

i In 79 minutes, he hit ten fours • iand two sixes and totalled 93 ; runs. But for one difficult chance at 41, his domination was complete. St Albans placed its faith | in the proven talents of Steve ißoock and Neil Francis but, uncharacteristically, both were expensive. I It was a resolute and brave

I effort from Gary Walklin that | brought St Albans back into the game. However, some Finn blows from Dave Selby denied St Albans, and Walklin’s exertions, though rewarded with four wickets. were not quite sufficient to bring his team victory. The winning runs were hit in the forbfifth and penultimate over. This was a fine game of cricket marked by excellent fielding, very good catching and positive batting. That St Albans lost only 10 wickets compared to the 18 lost by Old Collegians is an indication of how cricket is played these days; but not one St Albans supporter would den.v Paul McEwan his success. TENSE FINISH

Keith Thomson made what seemed a very reasonable declaration. leaving Old Bovs to score 104 runs in the post-tea session. Two hours and 20min later, his judgement was vindicated when his brother. Bill Thompson, caught Murray Mowat from a towering hit off the third to last ball.

Old Boys started disastrously, losing their first wicket at none. But Richard Hadlee put Old Bovs in with a chance, scoring 45 in 38 minutes, with three sixes, one of them a huge hit, and four feurs. He was run out when attempting a second run which was never really on.

. Old Bovs still needed 85 runs starting the last 15 overs, but their fortunes slumped with tin* batsmen chasing the runs. The last over started with 11 runs required and two wickets to fall; anybody's game, but with some tight bowling and good field placings, Sydenham scored an exciting win.

Earlier in the day. Old Boys added 57 runs to their overnight score to be all out for 172. giving Sydenham a lead of 29. Ritchie batted well to reach 70. which included 11 fours. Bill Thompson reached 46 In Svdenhains second innings with some unusual strokes and aggressive hitting. He gave Old Boys plenty of chances as he was missed at least seven times. In Sydenham’s total of 134 for seven extras became second highest score, mainly through Richard Hadlee being no-balled 12 times

It will possibly go dov\ n as the game of dropped catches with at least a dozen chances goim to ground. The one exceptioi was a brilliant catch by Bill Aldridge to dismiss Peter Rattray.

Bat Bowl Wins Total Syd. .. 29 321 84 .1451 L.P. .. 40 29 48 117 St A .. 341 31 24 891 o.c. .. 24’ 26 36 861 B.W.U. .. 341 191 24 78 East .. 271 23 24 741 O.B. .. 351 261 12 74 Rice. . . 301 131 24 68