Sumner aiming for third suburban cricket title

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 11

Sumner aiming for third suburban cricket title

If Sumner can win its third consecutive senior suburban cricket title this season, it will make a splendid 75th jubilee present for the club In the 1977-78 season. Sumner won the title by 20 points from .MerivalePapanui. Last year, the winning margin was even more clear cut — the sec-ond-placed team, Upper Riccarton, trailed Sumner by 56 points. Fittingly, Sumner provided the leading run-get-ter and wicket-taker last summer and these two players. Tony McKendry and Alan Hounsell. will again head the Sumner challenue. J McKendry scored 478 ’tuns at an average of •34.14 while Hounsell r picked up 54 wickets at •-the remarkable average of *10.66. This pair will be J backed up by basically the ’same team as last season. The only player missing '’from the lineup will be (•Peter Cook. who is ■navailable. Apart from •ylcKendry. good returns •with the bat are expected J fcfrom Peter Sargisson and ••Roger Campbell while .John Graham, an opening * bowler who took 30 wick- ✓ last year, should prove able supporting bowler ?Sor Hounsell. C- Upper Riccarton did ex■'ceptionally well in 1978-79 jn its first season /back in the senior grade.

In winning the senior B title by a margin of 55 points it was obviously worthy of senior status. Yet its performance probably exceeded its hopes and with a strong batting lineup will be aiming to move one place higher on the points table. The only significant loss i the all-rounder, Steve Schultz while the addition of Graham Gall, who has

moved north from Dunedin, should give the batting further depth. Nigel Pearson finished last season with the seventh best batting average and along with Gall and Alan Kerr should form a solid batting base. The brunt of,the bowling will be entrusted to Dave Kennedy. the mediumpacer whose tally of 46 wickets last season was higher than anyone except

Hounsell. His main support should come from Terry Caldwell and the promising left-arm spinner, Alan Muir. Hornby filled third position last season and will field a very youthful combination this time. It has picked up five new players, including lan Singleton from Nelson and Brian Ellis, one of two Ashburton players to have joined the club. An interesting addition is John Nicholl, who spent last season as an umpire but this year will be a medium pace bowler for Hornby. The only major loss is last season’s captain, Peter Burton. ho has moved to Auckland. Robert Wilson, Bob Kerr, Barry Furness and Ron Johnson are likely to provide the bulk of the runs. Wilson featured prominently in both the batting and bowling averages last season while Kerr was among the top ten batsmen and had the fourth best bowling average. Merivale • Papanui dropped from second to fourth last season, but should be capable of producing a determined challenge this time. Its only loss is Bill Shierlaw and an important gain is Bryce Nicholson, a wicket-keeper and promising batsman. Nook Ebert had the top batting average last sea-

son. with 450 runs at 45 while Ken Stagg and Lindsay Sheppard also made handy contributions. High hopes are held for a

young all-rounder, Greg Mander, while a left arm spinner, Andrew Murray, should make further pro-

The team captain will be Paul Hammant, whose 44 wickets cost only 11.5 each last season. Hammant, and Dave McNaughtan will spearhead the bowling while another youngster, Jim Haines, should gain good experience. Last season, only three

of its players could average more than 20 with the bat. Provided these problems can be ironed out, Merivale-Papanui could be a tough opponent.

Woolston W.M.C. has suffered no losses and has picked up a Southern Districts player, Jim Jenkins. Again the batting will be in the reliable hands of Dave Quested and Norm Sloane, both of whom passed 400 runs last season.

Sloan and Quested will share the bulk of the bowling with the all-round skills of Ken Taylor again likely to figure prominently. Harewood will be hoping to continue the success of Upper Riccarton, winners of the senior B title two years ago. Harewood has won promotion to the senior grade and will be without only one member of its winning combination. Ray Harper is unavailable tut Harewood has picked up Graham Gadsby from Timaru.

Jim Hoolihan and the 19-year-old Mark Stone bowled very economically last season and should provide a tidy opening attack, which will be backed up by Gadsby and Tony Fleete.

The main run-getters should include Alan Harrison, Reg Hughes and Fleete. The all-round efforts of the team last year were good and the club is hoping for a similar return his season. Southern Districts is an amalgamation of the Waltham and Beckenham clubs. The senior team

will probably be made up of Waltham players with two or three Beckenham players also likely candidates. The one big loss is Mike Eddington, who was with Waltham last season. His move to Nelson will leave a gap. The batting will revolve around Steve Holden, a solid run-getter for Waltham. Kevin Tucker, the second highest scorer in the senior B competition last year, when he was with Beckenham, and Tim O’Loughlin. The medium-paced trio of Gary Baxter, Karl Siave and Phil Woolhouse, will dominate the bowling attack and there is a definite opening for a spinner. The new sense of purpose within the newly-formed club will be a strength. Hoon Hay, which finished sixth equal with Waitham last season, will have no new faces but has suffered virtually no losses. John Neilson and Bill Campbell will head the batting, along with two youngsters, Bruce Day and Philip Agent, while Jim Bennie and Tony Pugh will be expected to lead the bowling attack. Again there appears to be a vacancy for a spinner. The team is a fairly youthful one and should perform well in the field. The final points table for the 1978-79 season was: Sumner 107, Upper Riccarton 51, Hornby 44,

Merival e-Papanui 41. Woolston W.M.C. 39, Hoon Hay and Waltham both 31, Belfast 26. There were only two ce n t u r y-makers, Tony McKendry (131 not out), and Peter Sargisson (100 not out). The leading wi-cket-takers were Alan Hounsell (54), Dave Kennedy (46), Paul Hammant (44), Robert Wilson (41) and Ken Taylor (40).