K.O. cricket finalists

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 3

K.O. cricket finalists

St Albans and Lancaster Park will contest the final of the Atlantic and Pacific knock-out cricket competition.

In the semi-finals yesterday, St Albans routed West while Park had not quite such a convincing win over Old Collegians. Both winning sides won the toss and batted first, putting the pressure on their opponents.- West, facing a hefty total, could not even get half way to the target; Old Collegians came close to Park’s score through the sterling efforts of their last two batsmen, Peter Hewson and Lindsay Forde. St Albans were away to a good start through Les Smith and John Durning. Then, Smith and Mark Burtt put on 35 in the space of five overs to have the St Albans total at 74 at the halfway stage.

Smith was out for 31, Burtt went on to be not out ,74 after the 40 overs. Largely through the efforts of Burtt and Neil Francis, who was not out 45 at the close of the innings, St Albans rattled on 115 in the final 20 overs to reach the healthy score of 189 for five.

West responded dismally to the stern challenge. Only Justin Boyle, Chris Marks, Michael O’Neill and David Carroll reached double figures and the side’s prob-

lems against some tight bowling were compounded by two run-outs. Any significant advance that might have been contemplated by West was stemmed by the tight seam bowling of Les Watson (two for 10 off seven overs) and by the teasingly flighted leftarm spin of Andrew Nuttall. .

Park was unable to last out the 40 overs against-Collegians, but the side’s total of 151 from 36.4 overs was enough to win the match.

Michael Johnston, Roy Gearry and Stuart Cameron were the principal contributors to Park’s total. Johnston figured in valuable partnerships with John Alexander, Gearry and Cameron. Park had reached 65 at the half-way stage. The swinging seamers of Bryan Andrews captured five Collegian wickets blit, in the end, Andrews was rather expensive. Roger Fuller and Jeff Gray were the only two Collegian batsmen to reach the twenties but it was Hewson (not out 15) and Forde (19) who had the side within 13 runs of victory. Forde was the last man out with two balls remaining in the innings. “ ScoresSt Albans 189/5 (L. Smith 31, M. Burtt 74 n. 0.; N. Francis 45 n. 0., M. O’Donnell 2/26; BurnsideWest 82 (D. Carroll 21, L. Watson 2/10, Francis 2/21. A. Nuttall 3/ 23). Lancaster Park 151 (M. T. Johnston 37, Ri Gearry 22. S. Cameron 24. R. Wilson 2/15. R. Fuller 4/56, D. Templeton 3/42): Old Collegians 139 (Fuller 21; J. Gray 22. T. Luke 2/10. B. Andrews 5/53).