Dempsey scores fastest century of season

Press, 12 December 1977, Page 19

Dempsey scores fastest century of season

. It was both feast and famine in senior cricket on Saturday. In one of the most extraordinary championship days in recent times, Lancaster Park revelled in a run riot against East-Shirley, while the top team, Old Boys, tottered against St Albans, and Sydenham, in second place, had its nearest' rival, Burnside-West in ex-' tremis by the end of the! day. Lancaster Park’s charge! was led by the talented! young David Dempsey, who raced to a century in 84 1 minutes, the fastest this! season. He went on — with! the help of six sixes — to make 174 not out. That! equalled the innings of Mike Fisher for West-University' in 1971-72. No bigger senio'r score has been made since Graham Dowling (West-Uni-versity) hit 179 not out from the Lancaster Park attack 10 years ago. As an aperitif before Dempsey consumed the East bowling, Peter Coman also hit six sixes in a tvpically breezy innings of 98. And 1 there were some hammer 1 blows from Geoff Miller |i (Riccarton) who added 81 to j: a string of good scores this!] season and another fine in-1* nings of 64 from John Phil-| i lips (Old Collegians). c

-I Neil Francis, a self-effac-I mg sort of cricketer who t ! has had a remarkable run of >'bowling success, took seven -!for 28 for St Albans against iiOld Boys and the top wi- , cket-taker in the championII ship, lan Wilson, increased this lead with five for i; Sydenham against Burnsidet West. • Old Boys are in difficulty against St Albans and will be struggling to retain their ■Head in the championship. I T h e pennant holder, : Sydenham, must have high hopes of outright victory ! after leaving the BurnsideWest batting i. tatters. At one stage, Burnside-West !had made 20 for one; within minutes it was 22 for five. Scores. — Sydenham 215/8 dec.; Burnside-West 57/9 St Albans 90 and 46/0; Old Boys 103 Riccarton 147; Old Collegians 164/7 East-Shirley 212 and 9/0; Lancaster Park 237/2 dec. Lancaster Park’s batting bonanza brought it nine per- i formance points, an incredlible total. It was one run i | short of a further half-point, i ‘Dempsey’s century was his ; second of the season, and he I is now only six runs short i of 500. I;

-I In this match, Bruce Ir Jiving claimed four wickets fiand the last of them pui i him ahead, in career aggre t gate, of John Kiddey anc - left him second only to the - fabulous figures of Ret I Read. FENCE HITTING With an exhilarating display of power hitting anc ’ superbly timed stroke-mak-I ing Dave Dempsey scored an • unbeaten 174 to enable Lan . caster Park to declare aftei 25 overs and score nine batting performance points. Dempsey’s was an innings of rare character. There were some delicately placed shots wide of slip, rocketing cover drives and booming 1 straight hits. Towards the end the bowlers were at a loss where to bowl, and even deliveries outside the off stump were swept to the leg boundary. In his 112 minutes at the crease he hit six sixes and 26 fours. Tony Collins was also in spritely form and in the 35 minutes he was at the wicket with Dempsey runs came at a bewildering rate. Dempsey’s innings overshadowed that of the hardhitting Peter Coman, who also collected six sixes in his total of 98. However, Coman’s innings was of i great value to his side. He'

■ was watchful and aggressive . in turn and only got oui when trying to ' push the ■ scoring rate along. Tony Coilins sent East in to bat and although wickets fell steadily on the slowish pitch, Lancaster Park die not get the quick breakthrough it wanted. The bowling for Lancaster Park was done mostly by the two slow left-armers, Andrew Nuttall and Keith Hardie, and the veteran offspinner Bruce Irving. All three flighted the ball well and managed to get some balls to veer disconcertingly. Coman was the only batsman to handle them with confidence. Nigel Image batted sensibly in a fourth-wicket partnership of 72 with Coman and Reeve Banks held on at the end with John Langley to put the total over 200. MILLER BOLSTERS TEAM A typically aggressive innings of 81 in 77 minutes by the Riccarton middle-order batsman, Geoff Miller, prevented what had threatened to become a complete collapse by his team and allowed Old Collegians only a moderate advantage in the game at Hagley 3. Miller arrived at the! crease at a time when Ric-

jvca.lv/ie wao icciuig IIUHI Lilt? j shock of having lost four i wickets for just one run I after John Ruston and John | Airey had quietly compiled lan opening partnership of 23. Ruston must have been especially bemused by it all. 1 Twice within a few minutes . he had to prevent a hat-trick after the Old Collegians pace bowlers, Lindsay Forde and John Lovell-Smith, had achieved consecutive dismissals from the seventh and eighth deliveries of their overs. Old Collegians received fine service from their me-dium-pacers. Forde conceded! only eight runs from his first seven overs, LovellSmith was almost as miserly until Miller pounded him for 16 runs in an over, and both Lovell-Smith and Robert I Walker finished the innings I with four victims. I That Old Collegians enjoy an overnight lead of 17 runs was largely to the credit of John Phillips, who mixed watchfulness with aggression in his half-century. Craig Burtt joined him in a solid partnership of 89 runs in 92 minutes before Riccarton struck back by removing Phillips and Keith Williams as stumps drew near. , The similarities between , the opposing sides continued , when Riccarton relied heav-b ily on the seam bowling off Glenn Bateman, Steve!, McNally and Paul Hammant. . McNally, in the final accounting, was even less ' expensive than Forde had ’ been — although McNally ‘ did not have to contend with j a batsman of Miller’s pun- 1 ishing mood — and Bateman made particularly useful in- ’ roads into the Old Colle- c gians line-up. 5 CHANCE LOST After bowling particularly t well on a more than helpful r pitch, High School Old Boys t frittered away an excellent 1 opportunity to have St 1 Albans by the scruff of the t

; 1 neck with a hapless batting t|display at Hagley 1. T' Winning the toss gave Old Boys the chance to skittle St 1 Albans for 90. However, > well as they did bowl, the ' Old Boys bowlers had good I cause to thank the pitch for ■ its assistance. The ball flew dis- ' concertingly around the ears ' of the batsmen all day and only David Bull and John 1 Calder showed the necessary application to do well. . With the exception of one simple chance to mid-off, the Old Boys fielding was efficient, Brian Ritchie and Cran Bull taking six catches between them. Dayle Hadlee, Gary Saunders and Ricky Page ail used the pitch well, Hadlee having a good pre-lunch spell. In the first two innings, the top score was David Bull’s 27, six batsmen reaching double figures. Old Bovs were happily placed at 73 for two before a succession of bad shots saw the score slump to 80 for eight. Martin Hadlee carried the side beyond the 100 mark before, becoming one of Neil I Francis’s seven wickets, easily his best performance in 'senior cricket.

Francis kept a good line and length — all that was required on this pitch — and, assisted by Stephen Boock, bowling at a slightly quicker pace, kept Old Bovs’ first innings lead to only 13. By the close of play, St Albans had turned this deficit into a 33-run lead, with Geoff Smith batting beautifully for an unbeaten 42, including 10 boundaries. Joe Harrison performed ably, holding up an end but the Old Boys’ attack, in contrast to the first innings, was slightly wayward in line.

SYDENHAM ON TOP The old-fashioned virtue of bowling straight gave Sydenham a commanding situation against BurnsideWest. Batting was nevei easy, and if the eccentricities of the pitch were perhaps accentuated later in the day, when Burnside-West went in, Sydenham’s accuracy was the key to the play. Half a dozen of the Sydenham batsmen made useful scores, and their value soared as the day wore on. Stephen Bateman, one of the province’s most promising young cricketers, was strangely erratic, and over-bowled. Gerald Cummins was tighter of line, but the attack as a whole was of very modest quality. Sydenham did best when Warren Bell and David Gallop were putting on 52 in 34 Minutes. Bell made 34 of his 17 runs in boundaries, including a six from a square cut. That was only one of ;he strange events. Some fine bowling by lan iVilson, who made the most )f the conditions had Burn->ide-West in difficulties, and here was good support from he lively Nicky Dierck at he other end. George Carloutsos took three catches, wo of them superbly athetic efforts, and contributed argely to Sydenham’s