Jaks-United not in the running

Press, 31 March 1980, Page 25

Jaks-United not in the running

Jaks-Unlted, which has cleaned up everything going in the Christchurch senior men’s softball this season, could only finish fourth—well out of the prize money—in the Blake Brothers invitation tournament at Papanui Domain over the week-end.

The top prize monev of Sl5O deservedly went to the fit. young Jaks-City side, which had two convincing wins over the big guns. United and Papanui, in its final games yesterday.

City, which had w’on both its matches reasonably comfortably on Saturday, preserved its record by overwhelming United. 9-2. yesterday and then it pushed aside the previously unbeaten Papanui. 7-1, in the “final.” A generally light-hearted attitude prevailed among the champion Jaks side and at least five '‘irregular” pitchers were used during the tournament, including the player-coach, Dennis Rea. However, even when the Canterbury representative, David Bradbury, was used the team made little headway. Bradbury had an amazing 15 hits (including three lovely safe bunts) smacked off him by the City batters before Rea came on himself to pitch to the last three. United had started this match in great vein when Tony Mountford belted a homer off Alan Hall’s first pitch, but the team managed only one more run—a Mark McFarlane homer. The Hall brothers were City’s batting stars. Alan Hall had three hits out of four and batted in three runners, as well as chalking up a verv long home run himself. .His younger brother, Michael, batted .666 with a three-bagger and a single. Two hits were also managed by two other City players, Glynn Eades and Wayne Poore. One of Eades’s efforts was a rather ex-' traordinary ■'blooper” which did not get out of the diamond, landing over the head of the third baseman and in front of shortstop. United was well beaten in this

game, but its chances of ths blgj prize money had really disappeared as early as the first] innings of the match against] Papanui the previous day. Brent Hazeldine pitched to only four batters—but by that time Papanui was already 3-0 up. thanks to a mighty heme run by Dale Eager, which also scored in Brian Waine and Garry Bishop. Papanui went on to win. 6-2. After the loss against City early yesterday morning, United had to go straight back on the diamond again to play Western Suburbs. Another defeat here—the third in a row—meant that United was a lowly fourth out of the five teams. The final between City and Papanui was a little disappointing in that a much closer game had been promised, with both teams having perfect records. After four innings the match was tied up at 1-1 and a good finish seemed likely. However, Lindsay Anderson took advantage of a "tuber” to liut a home run past the centre outfield in the top of the fifth to put Citv back In front. Three more runs were added in the sixth, when the team went all but through the order, and two more In the seventh.

Robert ("Chub”) Tangaroa did not have a great day on the pitching mound for Papanui. He gave up eight hits and four walks, but at least had the satisfaction of snaring five strikeouts. Anderson, John Daly, and RayMarsh all batted .666 for City with two hits out of three. The City pitcher. Alan Hall, matched Tangaroa’s tally of strike-outs and gave up hits only to Colin Chee (making a quite valuable comeback), Brian Waine. and Tangaroa. It was quite a good tournament for Western Suburbs, which took Papanui close on Saturday and yesterday thrashed. Richmond, 13-1, before going on to upset United. It earned third place. First and second prize money

(totalling Slso' in the B section will be shared by Western Suburbs B. the Papanui Aces, and [the Canterburv Evergreens, who all finished with five points. The tournament batting award went to the Evergreens player. Kevin Thorn, who finished with the outstanding average of .700.

After the conclusion of the tournament, the host club, Papanui. said that it was hoped to be an annual sponsored event. Results:—

Section A.—Jaks-City 2. Western Suburbs 0; Jaks-United 1, Richmond 0; Papanui 3, Suburbs 2; City. 4, Richmond 1: Papanui 6. United 2: City 9. United 2; Suburbs 14. Richmond 1: Papanui 3, Richmond 2: Suburbs 8, United 6; City 7, Papanui 1. Points: City 8, Papanui 6, Suburbs 4, United 2, Richmond 6.

Section B.—Papanui Aces 4, Suburbs reserves 2; Canterbury Evergreens 11. United reserves 1; Timaru Celtic 10. Suburbs reserves 10; Aces 7, United 1; 15, United 5; Evergreens 3, Aces ); United I, Celtic 1; Suburbs 6, Evergreens 4; Celtic 7, Aces 3. Points: Aces. Suburbs and Evergreens 5, Celtic 4, United 1.