Old Boys takes senior title on rain-ruined day

Press, 2 April 1979, Page 19

Old Boys takes senior title on rain-ruined day

Cricket came to a sad and soggy end on Saturday. There was play in only two of the four senior games, and both of these started late and ended early. But if the weather was chilly and the grounds heavy, interest was sustained until well into the afternoon.

lor at Hagley Oval the I two leading teams were' playing, very probably all - four captains involved would

!>have been quite happy to | s'call the games off, but Old! Boys, a narrow leader for| ['the championship, had to;

keep a close eye on Burn-side-West, on the other side of the ground. Burnside-West made a brave effort to retrieve the ground it had lost against Riccarto' on the first day, but it ran out of time and this game was abandoned well in advance of closing time. Old Boys, however, had a very good chance of beating East-Shirley when rain came again and this match was also left drawn. Had Old Boys been able to hit off the last 45 runs needed, it would have given the side a seventh successive victory, and it certainly deserved to take the championship pennant, with such a strong forward move over the last half of the season. The matches abandoned were between Old Collegians and Lancaster Park> Sydenham and St Albans. At Sydenham Park, not a ball was bowled on either day. Sores.— Riccarton 229/6 dec. draw with Burnside-West 71/9 dec. and 196/3. East-Shirley 122 and 63 drew with Old Boys 196/5 dec. and 35/1. Final points: Old Boys 59, Burnside-West 55, Old Collegians 50, Lancaster Park 47, Riccarton 46, St Albans 35, Sydenham 32, East-Shirley 29.

Burnside-West, 158 behind Riccarton and requiring an outright win to have a chance of retaining its championship title, must have dreamed a dream or two as John Mitchel and Justin Boyle put on 168 for the first wicket at a rollicking pace. Mitchell, a spectacular strokemaker, was out for 99. Boyle made 75, by far his best score in the senior grade. Mike Hamel took the last wicket in Burnside’s first innings to finish with a startling seven for 12, while in the other game Dayle Hadlee had further success with his off-spinners, taking five more wickets to finish with 11 in the match, and became the only bowler in the grade with 50 wickets for the season. It was remarkable that there was any crdicket at all. It took much effort from the players, particularly those in the Rlccarton-Burnside match, to get away the water on the pitch surrounds. Riccarton, so much on top on the first day. was clearly eager to get on with the game. But once that started, there was no question that Old Bovs would continue its match with East. It could not afford to assume that Burnside-West would not succeed in its very difficult task. HADLEE'S MATCH Old Boys, 51 for three at the start of the day against East’s 122, became 51 for four before a ball was bowled. Peter Rattray, too ill to play, had to abandon his promising innings of the first day. But John Bierwirth, getting runs with strokes sufficiently firm to counter the slow outfield, batted well, and so did Dayle Hadlee, whose 24 not out in 36 minutes included a six. Cran Bull, the Old Boys captain, declared when still 16 runs behind, and then some able bowling by Geoff Allen and Brent Small supported another sharp thrust by Dayle Hadlee. At the start of a long spell, Hadlee was unexpectedly erratic and expensive. But once he settled down, he was the ringmaster. Keith Moor field, one of the openers, defied him with good defensive batting. He was in 129 minutes for his 30. The others found Hadlee very difficult and at one stage Hadlee bowled seven consecutive maiden overs. Now and then the ball came through low from the damp turf, sometimes it lifted a lot, if lazily. Timing was anything but easy. Alan Albertson was with Moorfield for some time, but once he had gone, the batting fell apart. Again Graham Pulley tried valiantly to save a sinking ship. He was in some 40 minutes for his two runs, and this period of obstruction left Old Boys with a stiff task, considering the heavy state of the outfield. There were 17 overs to score 85. But Barry Hadlee and Tim Evi-

son had put their side into a very promising position when the rain which has plagued cricket in the last month- of the season had the final word. Hadlee again bowled skilfully, and there was much to admire in the calm, relaxed and competent wicket-keeping of Brvan Ritchie, on the sort of pitch wicket-keepers seldom enjoy. CENTURY STAND The broad bats of John Mitchell and Justin Boyle, employed most attractively in a magnificent opening stand of 168 runs in 142 min, ruined Riccarton’s chances of victory against Burnside-West University. After a frustrating two-hour delay to the start, and a rare change to a fresh wicket (which made for a rather short boundary on one side) the game began with Riccarton very much In control. Resuming at 70 for eight, the not-out Burnside pair spent only nine balls at the crease before the ninth wicket was taken and a declaration came. The follow-on was enforced with Burnside all of 158 runs behind, and the Riccarton bowlers were obviously eager to repeat their first-innings success and wrap up the opposing batsmen in a couple of hours or so. Mitchell, a lovelv player to watch when he is in full flow, obviously decided that there was no point concentrating on mere existence at the crease and he started his innings with a real

.flourish—his first four scoring j shots were all boundaries, four, six, six, four. Forty-two runs came from just the first six overs and while this luxurious rate was never quite maintained none of the Ricearton bowlers—eight had been used by stumps—looked capable of keeping the scoring down below a run-a-mlnute level in the first session. Mike Hamel, the young offspinner who had spectacular figures of seven for 12 in the first innings, was brought on early—in the seventh over—and almost immediately had a watchful Boyle dropped at slip. But it was a long time before the Burnside player was beaten again. Boyle played a most sensible innings and left the impression that rash shots are not part of his make-up. In the earlv stages he was content to let Mitchell (often hitting over the top) to do the bulk of the scoring and his much more experienced partner scored 77 of the first 107 runs, bringing up the three figures with a loveiv ondrive for six—his fifth of the innings—from Hamel s bowling. As the tea interval approached, though, Mitchells scoring rate slowed quite abruptly and Boyle became the aggressive partner, hitting several boundaries in quick succession including two pull-shots for six. When he was eventually dismissed in the second over after tea, Mitchell was only 15 runs ahead of him after being about 50 in front at one stage. Mitchell had already been dropped twice in the deep (at 77 and 851, one a difficult chance to Geoff Miller, and after Boyle left he gave an easy stumping chance at 91. Tragically, frustration put an end to his innings on 99 after Barry Thomas had faced three successive overs, twice taking a single on the eighth ball. When Mitchell finally did get a ball he had obviously decided on his shot already and David Stead’s flattish delivery had the batsman down the pitch and “holing out” to mid-off; 70 of his runs came in boundaries.

Much of the remaining interest in the game dwindled after this dismissal and David Boyle’s completion of a pair in an unhappy debut when Geoff Miller threw down the stumps. Peter Wallace hit a couple of quick fours before the captains agreed to an end of play, 85min early. While none of the Riccarton bowlers showed anything like their penetration of the previous Saturday, David Stead confused now and then with his wrong-un (better disguised than most) and Hamel bowled a very good line, while getting quite a bit of turn, after the tea interval. Hamel’s first eight overs had cost him 43 runs, the next eight just 10 plus Boyle’s wicket. These two spinners did most of the bowling between them, Stead twice swapping ends as changes were rung.