Two top teams beaten in senior games

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 18

Two top teams beaten in senior games

Two teams which had jeen without victories through the first eight rounds of the senior cricket championship Avon their games in the ninth round on Saturday.' They iwere St Albans and Riccarton. ■■> Both sides are in the second section and they have left the ; section in a very interesting position, with one round to go. Each section produces one'of the finalists for a three-day match in March. ' . Old Collegians, ahead tn section two, needed only 113 runs to beat Riccarton, but a late collapse gave Riccarton a narrow victory. However, the team behind Old Collegians, Burnside-West, went down to St Albans. Old Collegians have extended their lead over Burnside-West to three points, but the advantage may not be of particular importance. These teams meet in the next round, the last of section play. In section one, Lancaster Park won again, and is a certain finalist. It is 17 points clear of Old Boys, these two teams meeting in the next series.

St Albans thoroughly earned its first success, against Burnside-West. In the first round, St Albans had needed only 65 to beat Burnside; but had been bundled out for 54. This time the target was 70, but there were no tremors on the way.

Old Boys and Sydenham had a particularly close game. An attractive declaration by Old Boys opened up the game, and Sydenham looked likely to win when George Carnoutsos and Kevin Congdon had a century partnership. Then the wickets fell and at the end, one wicket and two runs separated the teams. Scores. —

Burnside-West 150/7 dec and 139 lost to St Albans 220/4 dec and 70/1. Old Boys 186/8 dec and 134/1 drew with Sydenham 132 and 186/9. Lancaster Park 203/3 dec and 102/5 beat EastShirley 108 and 196. Riccarton 199/Bdec and 133 beat Old Collegians 220/4 dec and 98. Carnoutsos, with 74, was the day’s top scorer. Peter Wallace, of Burnside-West, played a splendid innings of 68 in difficult conditions and Barry Hadlee’s 63 took him well past 500 for the season. Trevor Jesty (St Albans) who had been 41 not out on .the first day, batted aggressively to score 72 not out. The Old Boys vice-captain, Gary Saunders, finished Sy-

denham’s first ’inning's with five wickets, and took six in ; the second, .his best,- senior performance. ■ Others with five wickets in an . innings were .Bevan Congdon-.(Lan-caster Park),.Ken Ferries (StAlbans) and /Steve McNally (Riccarton), . ' - : \s/ Points are: . -j’ .. -T

Section one.-— Lancaster. Park 65, Old Boys -48, EastShirley 28, Sydenham 25. Section two. — -Old Collegians 40, Burnside ? West 37, St Albans 33, Riccarton 28. FIRST WJN If victory over Burnside-WeSt was St Albans’ first win’of the season, there were no mishaps -on the way to it and the' ninewickets margain was a fair reflection of the run of play. St Albans started the day 29 ahead with six wickets in. hand. In 25 minutes, this handy lead had been increased to 70; with Trevor Jesty giving a delightful display in going from 41 to .72 not out. There were -14 fours in his innings, which was marked on Saturday by the excellence of his square-cutting bn- a • pitch' with a soft top. , f Burnside-West’s bowlers did not make the most of the pitch, but the St Albans seamers did. -V They dug the ball in, and had it lifting at angles occasionally approaching the , vertical. The bounce was often slow, but it was sometimes spectacularly high, with the ball taking extensive divots from .the pitch. Les Watson produced a ’ damaging opening spell in which he took three for 11, and Ken Ferries went on from there, .f The only batsman to.make anything of these weird conditions was the experienced’ and . 'tenacious Peter Wallace, whose 68 was a remarkable effort. He countered the slow, high lift cleverly.- and when the .bowler’s length varied sufficiently, for him to attack, he hit the ball. well. There were 11 boundaries fyoni him. 'i-' The- others , came and, went, however, some succumbing to good catches, and. St Albans’ target was only 70 runs. Again the Burnside-WeSt bowlers got comparatively little fro'm the pitch and St Albans lost only one wicket in getting the runs. Geoff Smith batted very 'attractively, and there were many good shofts from Rodney Moore and Les Smith. >• LATE RUN Riccarton has been at, or near the bottom of the senior points table for a surprisingly long time considering the quality of its attacking batsmen, the threat posed by its medium-paced bowlers and the all-round abilities of David Stead. It seems better equipped than several teams in the competition, yet\ victories have eluded it. ■ . •.. - When it beat Old Collegians, at Elmwood Park to record its first win of the season, it was without David Stead whose little finger is recovering from a fracture, and its batsmen had failed lamentably against an attack that was only steady. All its hopes were thereto red placed on the shoulders of its bowlers and they responded splendidly, both in their batting and their bowling. The morning play, saw Riccarton bat very badly with all the top order players, except Wayne Spanjer falling to the Old _Collegains’ medium-pacers. At 56 for seven and conceding a deficit of 21 on the first' innings, Riccarton's chances seemed slight.

But- Steve McNally, Ross Calder and Glenn Bateman had other ideas. All .three adpated",-their play •-ideally' to the. conditions. Theywere t-areful in defence-.but lost few,opportunities to advance the -scoring: Calder .went ‘at 94 for' eight, and Bateman took the score through td. 131 before he was ninth out; • -

. fjrhe.-Tast. three wickets j 'added IT. runs, but a target of 113 for ant'-Old-Collegains’ victory, seemed well within their capabilities. The ’only),uncertainty was the pitch','which had not played well and’ which seemed to deteriorate badly in the latter part . of the Riccarton innings. ,

Old Collegains knew they would, have' a struggle. • Never'theless PauK McEwan was...'his usual...breezy self in scoring ‘-'all but eight - run’s from the bat

when he was fourth out at 47. Rod Fulton, and Vaughan Brown inched forward against a determined "and skilful attack and, as Old Collegains approached the last hour they needed only 26 runs for victory with five wickets in hand. At that stage everything fell into place for Riccarton. McNallydismissed Robbie Deans at 87, bernie Rule had a wicket at 88 and McNally struck again only one run later — Old Collegains were reeling at 89/8. Although he missed the pleasure of tlie last wicket, it-was MeNallv who won tlie game for Riccarton. His final seven overs gained him four wickets and he conceded only three singles. His best return in senior circket was a first-rate performance from a

very determined cricketer, well supported by a thoughtful captain and eager fielders. A> the close it was all Riccarton; it captured the last five wickets for onlv 11 runs to triumph by the slender margin of 14 runs. PHOTO FINISH

At the end of the-game on Hagle v three, Sydenham needed three runs and High School Old Boys one wicket after an afternoon of fluctuating fortunes. Cran Bull closed the Old Boys innings with only one wicket down and left Sydenham to score 189 runs in 198 minutes. That Sydenham nearly succeeded was due to a fine second-wicket partnership from George Carnoutsos and Kevin Congdon which 102 in SO minutes. Carnoutsos played some s fine shots forward of the wicket while Congdon was strong off the back foot, but it was their quick running and adventurous calling which kept the score moving. , Congdon was out at 113 and wickets fell and the scoring rate slowed in the face of accurate bowling, particularly from Gary Saunders. At the beginning of the final 20 overs Sydenham was 144 for six. with 45 runs to get and a stand of 31 from Euan Spence and Alan McLean brought Sydenham back into contention. McLean went at 175, Spence at 180, both victims of the steady Saunders, and when Ash Hurt also went at 180 lan Wilson and Mike Dolden had to score 9. Eight were needed from the last over, four with four balls, to go; but Old Boys conceded only a single. . ' . , Saunders bowled particularly well, attacking the stumps throughout and fully deserved his good figures. Only lan Wilson of the Sydenham bowlers was able to contain the Old Boys’ batsmen in the morning and he bowled a long spell with little luck. Barry Hadlee and Peter Rattrav scored quickly, but without their usual expertise against some indifferent bowling. COMFORTABLE WIN It seems to be a habit of EastShirley’s to bat dismally in the first innings, show rather more fight in the second, but for that effort to come too late. So it was again at Burwood Oval, a series of battling little innings giving the side some hope. The bowlers did a sound 30b, too, but a target of a mere 102 — and 75min, plus 20 overs to get th em was well within Lancas-

ter Park’s reach.. Grant Neilson and Graeme Pulley were tight and steady, but mixed innings from Dave Dempsey and Michael Johnston, sometimes aggressive, sometimes watchful, and in Dempsey’s case, not without some good fortune saw Lancaster Park through. The East-Shirley innings was a series of little battles, most of the batsmen getting a start, fighting for double figures,- then succumbing to the pressure. Perhaps the best of the batting was that of the overnight pair, Keith Moorfield and Steve Booth, the latter’s strong driving being the major factor in their 45-run partnership. But Congdon was making the ball talk with the moisture in the pitch and his variety of swing and speed, and the batsmen so often found survival, rather than scoring, the first priority. lan, Rule was there for the best part of two hours for his 27, Booth and Pulley both had an hour and a half at the wicket; John Langley batted boldly for SOrain. But Congdon could not be; denied and Andrew Nuttall, bowled more than usual, helped ihim finish off the job.