Cricketer back from strenuous English season

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 30

Cricketer back from strenuous English season

By R. T. Brittenden Mike Dolden, a left-arm spinner with the Sydenham senior cricket f team, has been a week without a match, and it is a strange feeling for him. He has just returned from a season in England, where twice he played nine days on end, and in all took part in 67 matches — the equivalent of three seasons as a club cricketer in New Zealand.

It was a rewarding trip for Dolden, who played for the Hornsey Club in London, the club to which Riccarton’s Tim Murdoch had been attached a year earlier. Nearly all Dolden’s games were one-day affairs, but they gave him plenty, of exercise. He bowled 795 overs and took 157 wickets at 15.1, a fine return. Hornsey plays in the Middlesex County League, and in those matches Dolden had 97 of his wickets. Some of his games were for the M.C.C., and in one of these matches, against a Kent eleven at Folkestone, Dolden took a hat-trick. The occasion was marked by the presentation tb him of an M.C.C. jersey, arid his inclusion in the club as a playing member. It is not likely that he will . be appearing for M.C.C. sides for some time however; he has no plans to return to England., He found that playing

three, four or five days a week improved his cricket and although he had been kept so busy, he is looking forward keenly to the coming season in Christchurch. One of Dolden’s Hornsey colleagues was Kevin James, the 19-year-old professional who has been engaged by Sydenham for the coming season.

James, a left-hand batsman and left-arm mediumpaced bowler had toured twice with Young England teams. Dolden holds him in high regard. James, he said, had had a very good season with the Middlesex seconds and in the last game of the season, against Kent seconds, he had scored 50 and taken four wickets for 11, Earlier he had figures of three for 30 for the senior county side, in a one-day game against Hampshire. He also played for the first side in a three-day match against Oxford University, and had done well. James’s chances with the strong and successful Middlesex first eleven had been limited, but the side’s outstanding bowler, Vincent van der Bjyl, would not be returning from South Africa next season, so James might then have an opportunity to advance, Dolden said. Sydenham, which has made an enthusiastic start to the season, will play a practice match at Rangiora on Sunday.