Spectacular finishes in senior cricket matches

Press, 7 December 1981, Page 21

Spectacular finishes in senior cricket matches

Outright results in all four senior cricket championship matches on one day is a rarity: but three cliff-hanging finishes made Saturday the most remarkable for many a day. it was not only that three of the games ended with between one and 11 balls undelivered; two of the victories went to teams at the bottom of the table. Sydenham had its first win in three seasons against St Albans, and moved from last place; Riccarton. in seventh position at the start of the round, toppled the thirdplaced Old Boys. Sydenham's success was achieved by a sound team effort, especially in the field, when a St Albans secondinnings advance was checked and turned. But Riccarton owed much to David Stead, who scored his fourth senior century, a brilliant 110 not out. and East-Shirley had Garry Hooper to thank mainly for an astonishing victory. Needing 211 to beat Lancaster Park, the championship leader, East, lost five wickets for 13 before Hooper and lan Rule took charge with a stand of 143. After Hooper was out, Rule and Stenhen Booth saw their side

through to a memorable win. Hooper scored 94, Rule 68 not out. Justin Boyle with 82 was a prime asset for Burn-side-West and Michael Johnston showed excellent form in making 58 for Lancaster Park. It was not Richard Hadlee’s fault that Old Boys lost. He was again a very commanding figure as he took six Riccarton wickets for 29, to finish with a match aggregate of 13 for 56. In four senior games he now has 28 wickets for 134 and that is not an inaccurate measure of his dominance over club batsmen. Scores. Old Boys 240/9 dec and 135/7 dec lost to Riccarton 178 and 198/8 by two wickets. Sydenham 126 and 122 beat St Albans 79 and 167- by two runs. Lancaster Park 128 and 191/4 dec lost to East-Shirley 109 and 211/6 by four wickets. Burnside-West 89 and 200 beat Old Collegians 125 and 124 by 40 runs. The outcome of the upsets and excitement was that Lancaster Park’s lead of 12Vz points was reduced to five. The team’s points after five rounds are;

Stead’s day Tim Murdoch played some fine lofted shots when Riccarton batted in the morning, and it took Old Boys 25 minutes to separate Murdoch and the number 11. Kevin Scott. Old Bovs, with a lead of 62. needed runs quickly but Riccarton made a determined effort. Peter Rattray and Ross Bayliss

added 50, but it took them 67 minutes. Rattray continued his run of good scores but again the main thrust came from Bryan Ritchie. Once settled in. he attacked audaciously, and Gary Saunders was able to declare in time to have three hours bowling. Riccarton's target was 198. Wayne Spanjer and Stead scored 36 for the first wicket and Stead and Lindsay Thorn scored 37 for the second, but it always seemed that Richard Hadlee would win the match for Old Boys. The batsmen could not wrest more than a trickle of runs from him, but at tea, with two hours left, Riccarton was only one down for 60. Hadlee then had a second spell, and picked up two quick wickets. Stead, however, was in his top form. He even hit Hadlee back down the ground a couple of times. When Hadlee was on. Riccarton struggled, however. At the other end it was a different business. Stead’s driving, cutting and pulling brought rapid runs and they were strong, assertive strokes. Riccarton required 81 in the last hour, and that was when Hadlee came back again. Stead found in Geoff Miller a man to match him in determination and aggression, and they reduced the task to 59 from. 15 overs just before Miller was bowled. The pair had added 76 in 68 minutes. Murdoch again batted beautifully if briefly, before Ritchie took a fine catch diving away to his right to dismiss Murdoch. With seven overs left, Riccarton needed 29, with four wickets standing and Stead in tremendous form. Hadlee bowled a maiden, then Steve McNally was caught on the boundary, squarecutting — a rather novel demise. Stead, now fully on the charge, hit Geoff Hancock for 4. 6, 1 and it was 16, from five overs. Stead edged a four off Hadlee to reach his century in 177 minutes, but then he lost John Mackie. Stead hit another four off the seventeenth of the 20 overs, and to his great credit Glen Bateman clung to life through an over from Hadlee. Two overs to get six, eight down. Stead finished a marvellous match with another six into the Christ's College ground, with 11 balls unbowled — and Hadlee not able to bowl his last over. Fine fielding If Sydenham’s batsmen struggled painfully for runs in the morning, its fielding, in the vital last period of play, was admirably assertive and the side deserved its narrow win. Sydenham started the day with a lead of 65 and only one secondinnings wicket down, but in 140 minutes to lunch only 53 were added and not a boundary was struck.

Some very accurate and lively bowling came from Ross McNally and Les Watson, and another good stint of spin from Andrew Nuttall. It took Kevin Congdon 160 minutes to make his 26, but he held the innings together. Bill Thomson, after adding a few, had to retire with a painful elbow injury but he returned later to add useful runs. When John Larter ended the innings, with his hundredth senior wicket, St Albans needed 170. The task looked relatively simple while Mark Butt was batting. With swift but easy footwork he drove and cut handsomely. When the final 20 overs began. St Albans needed only 69 with six wickets left. But Sydenham stuck to its task. Scott Briasco took an athletic catch to dismiss Graham Moore, who was looking full of runs, and John Lovell-Smith brought off a superb take to dismiss John Durning. Larter was still there, batting sensibly and ably, and with him Lyn Sparks, but the scoring rate fell away and then the batsmen began to look a little overanxious. Larter was run out. and when the last over began St Albans was nine down, and needed six runs. Sparks and Watson scored three of them, but in trying for a four to finish the match, Watson was very well held by Brian Salt at mid-wicket. Salt had kept his side together splendidly, and it was fitting that he should have this distinction. Lovell-Smith bowled effectively and Mike Dolden, the little leftarm spinner, turned in a fine performance under pressure. Counter-attack A magnificent counter-attack mounted by lan Rule and Garry Hooper thwarted Park’s bid to wrap up the match early and, incredibly, headed East towards a victory that was achieved with one over to spare. At the close of play it was hard to believe that East had been 13 for five at 2.30 p.m. and then put on 198 for the loss of only one further wicket. Hooper and Rule scored 143 of those runs in 146 minutes and. after Hooper was out. Stephen Booth kept the run-rate going. Two straight lofted fours by Booth in the third-to-last over virtually sealed the win for East. It was a tragedy for Hooper that he was given out leg before wicket with his score at 94 and it seemed that it would be a tragedy for East as well. But the side won the race and it was good to see the admirable lan Rule score the winning runs and remain not out at the end. Rule's 68 came in 207 minutes, but those statistics give little measure of the confidence with which he played. It was a case of Rule's flowing drives and crisp shots off his toes being nowhere

near as productive as Hooper's lusty hits across the line. Brlice Irving had figures of three for three at one stage but then he took a savaging from Hooper who twice put the ball high up in the number five stand. Hooper had three sixes in all, to go with his 10 fours. Earlier in the day, the Park top order had functioned soundly to set the scene for the declaration, leaving East 211 to score in even time. David Dempsey blazed away, walking into the ball and hitting it on the up. and Michael Johnston played very soundly to have 58 in 167 minutes. Graeme Kench and Rod Latham looked good too at times, but later in the day these efforts were overshadowed by East's remarkable resurgence. Quick losses A return to form by Paul McEwan and a long determined innings from Derek Templeton were not enough to save Old Collegians from defeat at Elmwood Park. Peter Wallace was about to declare when the last BurnsideWest wicket fell at 200. giving the home side the realistic target of 165 to be scored in 95 minutes and 20 overs. At three for 39, with Vaughan Brown out, Collegians' chances seemed slim but then improved batting from McEwan raised supporters’ hopes. McEwan began sketchily, surviving a confident appeal for leg before wicket before he had scored and giving a straightforward chance to slip when in single figures. These let-offs seemed to give him confidence and soon he was unleashing the booming drives which had delighted Canterbury supporters two seasons ago. With Templeton, 60 runs were added in less than even time but with his dismissal, from an uncharacteristic lazy stroke, the heart seemed to go out of the Old Collegians batting. When David Farrant took wickets with the second, third and fifth balls of his tenth over it was left to brother Tony to clean up the innings. Some tight bowling came from the medium-pacers. Dave Carroll and Steve Bateman. Bateman in particular used his height to advantage but the Burnside fielding, usually safe, had at times a hysterical quality about it. 'Justin Boyle batted extremely well in the morning and it was his application and well timed aggression which put Burnside back in the game. David Boyle also batted assuredly and the brothers scored 78 for the fourth wicket. For Old Collegians Lindsay Forde kept his usual steady length and demanded watchfulness while Brown chimed in to capture the valuable wickets of Justin Boyle and John Mitchell.

Bat Bowl Win Tot Lane Pk 46 14.44 17.40 77.84 Burn-West 42 13.43 17.40 72.83 Old Boys 32 14.08 13.60 59.68 East-Sh. 31 14.70 11.20 56.90 Rice. 20 13.88 12.80 46.48 Old Coll. 15 11.21 15.80 42.01 Syden. 14 12.07 13.60 39.67 St Alb 11 10.67 15.00 36.67