Good bowling by Trist sees Lancaster Park crush Sydenham

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 17

Good bowling by Trist sees Lancaster Park crush Sydenham

Another spectacular bowling success by David Trist took Lancaster Park to a crushing win over Sydenham on Saturday, and so the side improved slightly its lead over the second team, Eurnside-West.

Trist took six for six and so far this season has the astonishing figures of 30 wickets for 192 runs. Burnside-West stayed within reach by beating St Albans but this was a much harder fought game, which ended with only 15 balls not bowled. Old Boys also won outright, to remain in third place, and East-Shirley had a first-innings win over Riccarton. S cores. ~~~ Old Collegians, 49 and 151, lost to Old Boys, 150/8 dec. and 51/3, by seven wickets. Riccarton. 178/8 dec. and 187/4 dec., drew with EastShirlev, 182/6 dec. and 100/ 7. . Burnside-West, 145 and 106/8 dec., beat St Albans. 90 and 128. by. 33 runs. Lancaster Park, 181/8 dec. and 161/5 dec., beat Sydenham. 115 and 64, by 163 runs. There were other bowling successes. Chris Marks took five wickets for BurnsideWest. David Stead five for Riccarton. and by adding two each to their first-day tallies Richard Hadlee (Old Boys) and Tony Farrant (BurnsideWest) finished with six apiece. Dave Dempsey. Park’s captain, led the scoring with 79 and the Riccarton skipper, Tim Murdoch, made 73. Ray Jones and Duncan Wild (East-Shirley) added only a few runs each to the halfcenturies with which they had finished the first day. The day will be remembered mainly however, for the fact that the Lancaster Park spinner, Bruce Irving, brought his senior bowling aggregate to 1000. He is only the second Christchurch cricketer to have reached that mark. The first was the now legendary Reg Read, who also played most of his cricket for Lancaster Park.

Read was in his twentyfifth season when he claimed his 1000th victim; Irving, in his twenty-seventh, was not far behind.

There were other anniversaries. on a lesser level. Les Smith played his 200th innings in senior cricket and Craig Thiele took his hundredth wicket.

Points, at the end of four rounds, are.— Bat Bl Pts Tot Lan. Pk 11.25 14.20 41 66.45 Burn.-W 10.54 13.40 30 53.94 Old B. 10.33 10.00 27 47.33 East-Sh. 11.50 8.40 19 38.93 St Alb. 8.31 12.00 11 31.31 Old Col. 8.72 11.80 10 30.52 Rice. 10.12 9.60 8 27.72 Syd. 9.59 9.60 2 21.19 Delaying the inevitable When Old Collegians. 101 behind on the first innings, had slumped to 80 for eight by midrporning against High School Old Boys at Hagley three, it seemed certain that ” all participants would be available for an afternoon of gardening duties. The first suggestion that Old Collegians would not bow the knee without a struggle came with the late arrival of Graeme Sercombe. who had had examination commitments. Sercombe went in at No. 10 and. with the wholehearted assistance of Robert Wilson and Lindsay Forde, stayed while 71 runs were added. Sercombe survived some anxious moments against Richard Hadlee but generally batted attractively. Wilson also gave a lesson to most of the team-mates who had preceded him. while Forde hit out lustily until Hadlee returned to end the innings by gaining his sixth wicket. The Old Collegians recession from the previous week continued almost from the start on Saturday. Paul McEwan guided a delivery from Hadlee straight to second’ slip. Derek Templeton was cunninglv stumped by Bryan Ritchie off Gary Saunders, and Geoff Wright. Richard Leggat. and Mike Henderson made only brief slays. Old Boys were kept in the field for some’ time after lunch- and eventually needed 51 to win. Having mounted belated resistance. Old Collegians were in no mood to allow their rivals to cruise home and it was not until 3.25 p.m. and after 29 overs that the inevitable result was completed. Once again it was Wilson who made life most difficult for Old Boys, claiming two wickets and conceding just, seven runs from 11 overs. Forde was also miserly, in his concession of runs and. fittingly, it was Sercombe who was given the final over of the day. Park's day It was a Lancaster Park benefit at Sydenham Park on Saturday. In the morning David Dempsey made a slashing return to form’ with a typically aggressive 79. David Trist scythed through the Sydenham batting to take six wickets for six runs, and. to put the icing on the cake.

the veteran off-spinner, Bruce Irving, captured his 1009th senior wicket. Irving had to wait some time for his wicket. He opened the bowling just before lunch, an unaccustomed situation, but it was not until 3.20 p.m. that he got one through Ash Hart's defence to hit the wickets. He was applauded right round Sydenham Park, the players in all other matches being aware of the situation, and it was a fitting tribute to this popular player. Dempsev played some magnificent cricket after a faltering start. He punished the bowling unmercifully and there were few false shots in his comparatively short innings. All the attacking strokes were there; the fierce hooks and pulls, the elegant cuts and the well-timed drives. He was partnered for 52 minutes by Roy Gearry and in that time 99 run's were scored. Of these. Gearry scored only 28 but he made his’ full contribution in combining with Dempsey in exciting running between the wickets. Gearry is a deceptive batsman. at times most circumspect, but he hit two towering sixes, the first of which lost the ball. Trist bowled extremely well, showing a fine control of length and direction, and he fully deserved his fine return. Although Sydenham was badly outclassed, some comfort could be taken from the performances of Bob Carter. He bowled economically when the rest of the attack’was being hammered and scored half of his side's meagre total of 64, a short innings of character. Pulley to rescue Graeme Pulley has fought many rearguard actions for East-Shirley during his long senior career and on Saturday he figured prominently in another one, saving his side from defeat bv Riccarton. Pulley came in with East four down for 35. the side facing 187 in the last session, and he'stayed 83 minutes to be not out at stumps. The other East piayer to approach stature in that final session was Ray Jones, who had a painful day in more ways than one. After his glorious free-flowing batting with Duncan Wild at the end of the first day, Jones looked to be within easy reach of a century. But he added only five further runs to his total, as did Wild.

then, fielding close to the bat in Riccarton's second innings. Jones was struck a sickening blow in the groin area and he was out of action for a considerable time. But with East in trouble, he came out to bat at No. 9. with a runner and in obvious discomfort, and helped Pulley to stave off defeat. The ride to first-innings victory had looked easy for East last week but on Sa’turday the

home team was forced into a grim struggle against the clever leg spin of David Stead and the highly accurate seam bowling of Glen’Bateman. Garry Hooper finally saw the side through. Batting with just the right mixture of watchfulness and aggression. Tim Murdoch carried his side into a- possible matchwinning situation, although the target he set East was a tall order. Murdoch's 73 came in 124 minutes, with six fours and a six. If the most successful bowlers of the day were Stead, for Riccarton. and Craig Thiele, for East, perhaps the unluckiest was East's Stephen Booth, who bowled some superb deliveries, especially early in Riccarton's second innings. Good finish St Albans made a valiant effort, in mid-afternoon, to win a match it had always looked likely to lose, but BurnsideWest's control was loosened and not lost. It was a good finish to a match which was spoiled to some extent by the low-slow bounce which made attractive batting difficult. St Albans began the day at 67 for six. still 78 behind, but after defiance for nearly an hour from Lyn Sparks and Paul Rutledge. Burnside's seam attack wrapped up the innings quickly. Burnside lost its opening batsmen early, but David Boyle played good, firm strokes in his 40 and David Farrant attacked enthusiastically. After an impressive opening spell by Ross McNally. St Aman's spinners were the main threat, and it was the spin again when the last innings began. Peter Wallace, an enterprising captain, gave St Albans a minimum of three hours to score 162 after Andrew Nuttall and Mark Priest had bowled their left-arm spinners effectively. Les Smith batted courageously and well for St Albans agains’t tight bowling and keen fielding but his partners came and went quickly. When the final 20 overs began. St Albans had five wickets left and needed 71. a position of promise brought about by a fighting partnership between Sparks and Priest. Sparks fought hard and made some fine forcing shots. There was fluent driving from Priest, who was ninth out, in the fourteenth over, with the score at 126. By then, however. St Altins had abandoned its policy of controlled aggression. It could not save the match.

Chris Marks often spun the ball sharply, and he had strong spin support from John Mitchell and David Boyle. Mitchell, as busy a cricketer as there is, picked up two of the wickets and did his side particular service when he bowled the obstinate and dangerous Smith.