Hare wood seeks senior title in its seventy-fifth year

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 25

Hare wood seeks senior title in its seventy-fifth year

Harewood finished second in the senior 'suburban cricket competition last season. This year, when it will celebrate its seventyfifth anniversary, the club is hoping to go one place better. Harewood ended the competition with 81 points, five behind Woolston W.M.C., but at one stage on a dramatic final day of the season, Hare-

wood was leading the competition. By beating Southern Districts by nine wickets. Harewood moved into the lead, but later, with just 40 minutes remaining, Woolston recorded an eight-wicket win over Hoon Hay to take over. Indeed, had Sumner beaten Merivale-Papanui instead of going down by seven runs, it would have

won the title for the third successive year.

Harewood’s last success was in the 1976-77 season when it shared the title with Merivale-Papanui.

If the competition can have a final day as tense and enthralling as that this season, it will be a big boost for the suburban grade. Harewood has suffered only one significant loss,

its opening bowler, Jim Hoolihan, but has made an important gain in Lyn Sparks. Sparks will return to the club after having played for North City in the Auckland senior competition. With him, he has brought, Jim McMillan, a batsman, and John Andrews, an opening bowler. The batting should be the team’s main strength. Players like Barry Panther, lan Ward, Tony Fleet and Alan Harrison will be expected to provide the bulk of the runs, while the three medium pace bowlers, Sparks, Andrews and Graham Gadsby, will probably be expected to get through a lot of work. Ward and Fleete will offer variety with their spin.

Woolston will have basically the same team which won the competition last season. Four bowlers, Norm Sloan, Dave Quested — the opening pair — Ken Taylor, a medium pace bowler, and Murray Campbell, an unorthodox left arm spinner, will share the majority of overs while Sloan, Graham Barrett and Bruce Jenkins will lead the batting.

Merivale-Papanui has lost Greg Mander, its promising young batsman, who has moved to Ashburton and Bryce Nicholson is also unavailable.

A varied bowling attack, comprising Paul Hammant, Dave McNaughton, Jim Haines, a pacy young opening bowler, and Andrew Murray, a left arm spinner, should be one of the team’s strengths. Its batting will rely on Nook Ebert and Ross Murdoch, a former Southland Hawke Cup representative, who played a few times at the end of last season. Sumner is likely to have a virtually unchanged side. Tony McKendry, Roger Campbell, Charlie Cross, and Peter Sarginson will again dominate the batting, while Alan Hounsell, John Graham and perhaps David Boreham, who performed very well lower in the grades last season, will lead the bowling atStimner’s fourth position last season was slightly

misleading. It.would have won had it beaten Meri-vale-Papanui in its last match. With its remarkable 56-point winning margin From the 1978-79 season still relatively fresh in the memory, its chances of success must be fairly strong.

The 1980-81 season could be the time for younger players to show through in the Hoon Hay team. The captain will be Steven Stuart, who, along with Bill Campbell, John Neilson and Philip Agent, should make sizeable contributions to the batting. Tony Pugh and Jim Bennie will again open the bowling with Phil Woolhouse and Amos Faafoi as the supporting medium pacers. There is likely to be a shortage of spin bowling in the attack, however. Southern Districts have made a useful acquisition in Ross Calder, the former Riccarton and Lancaster Park senior player. He should make a valuable contribution to the team performance. Alan Dennis, a quick voung bowler, will, with Gary Baxter, Karl Siave and John Adams dominate the bowlers. Of the batsmen, Steve Holden, Tim O’Loughlin and Alan Laurent, along with Calder, should be able to make an impression. Upper Riccarton, which finished second from bottom, has lost Nigel Pearson, its. captain last season who has moved to Auckland on a work transfer. and Steve Schultz from last year. Alan ' Kerr and Dave Kennedy will be expected to score plenty of runs while Kennedy and Mike Walsh, both medium pace bowlers, will shoulder the brunt of the bowling. Belfast, winner of the senior B grade, will probably find its first season a tough one. It has lost Terry Cockburn, who represented the New Zealand under 23 team against Pakistan seven years ago, and Brian Churstain from last season. On the credit side, Jeff Blance, an opening bowler, has joined from Woolston, while David Rhodes, a left hand batsman, and Gary McCarthy, an opening bowler, have come from Papanui High School. Russel Horton, who played twice for Canterbury in the 19605, John Fielding, a former senior player with. East-Shirley, Brent Pearson and Peter Steere, the opening .pair, should be the main batting contributors, while Stan -Wooliscroft will offer the variety to the bowling attack with his leg spin.