Burnside proves too strong for Richmond

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 26

Burnside proves too strong for Richmond

Predictably, the leading team after Saturday's Dalgety Travel senior men's softball is still Noel Leetning's Burnside. Playing at Spreydon Domain. Burnside had far too many big guns for Richmond.

.At Papanui Domain, however, many local "experts" were proved wrong when a fired-up Papanui side took the diamond against AG C. United. Led by its pitcher. Colin Sutherland. Papanui overcame an early one-run deficit to eventually come out a convincing winner. 5-2. Western Suburbs 10. Richmond I

Playing on their home ground. Spreydon Domain, for the first time this season. Suburbs made no race of their match with Richmond .Although allowing Richmond to score four runs, the Western Suburbs batters were always in total control

Big batting, tn fact, was the feature of Suburbs play. The pitcher. Tom Heihana. and the catcher. Lawrence Tyree, were the pick of the Suburbs batters Reihana hatted four limes and hit safely each time, with one of his hits being a massive home run. Tyree picked up three safe hits from four turns at bat. with two of these being home runs. Burnside H. Richmond I) After lacing the might of Western Suburbs batting line-up. the Richmond players would have looked on their second

game against the competition leader. Burnside, with some despair.

This was warranted, as the Burnside hatters simply carried on where Suburbs had left off

Burnside's short slop. Jimmy Hall, provided the inspiration for his side by starting the game with a home run He went on to follow this with a second home run and a three-base hit All of Burnside's runs wore' scored in the first four innings, with half of the final score of eight coming from home runs - two from Jimmy Hall, one from his brother. Alan, and one from John Kottier.

Although conceding these runs. Richmond looked good in the field at times. This is a young team and with more experience should improve greatly. Richmond's batting against the pitching of Chub Tangaroa was woeful. however. Tangaroa struck out 16 Richmond batters, taking his total of strike outs for the season so far to 40 in just three games. Papanui 14. Albion 2

At Papanui Domain the home team had the double header and in both games lived up to the expectations of its supporters. In the early game Papanui easily outplayed Albion With 16 safe hits taken off Albion's two pitchers. .Mohi and Cook, every Papanui baiter bhr one registered a safe hit.

Papanui applied pressure from

the outset, scoring five runs in the first two innings. Scoring then stopped until the sixth innings when every Papanui batter had at least one turn at hat and nine runs were scored

Although conceding 14 runs, the Albion fielders at times looked very sharp, expecially in the infield A magnificent catch was taken by Mohi al centre field Mohi had pitched for the majority of the game, but was replaced by Cook in the sixth Fielding at centre outfield. Mohi caught Garry Bishop’s huge hit as it was clearing the fence, and actually tumbled over the fence himself. Albion's two runs were taken off Papanui's substitute pitcher. Steve Vivien, after the regular hurler. Sutherland, had been replaced in the fifth innings Papanui 5. United 2

AGC United was the favoured side in the main game of the day and looked set to take the game by scoring an early run in the second innings. Maia Toa bounced the ball over the fence and was thus held up at second. Dean Couch, transferred from Lyttelton this season, scored Toa to give United an early lead. Papanui. in fact, had a chance to take the lead in its first turn at bat. The lead-off batter. Tony Bishop, made base safejy and advanced to second on a passed ball. Dale Eagar hit safely to centre field and Bishop attempted to make home as Couch

misfielded the ball. Couch recovered quickly, however, and made the perfect throw to take Bishop out at home. Dennis Weirsma. Papanui's captain, evened the score in the fourth innings. Weirsma made base safely with a two-base hit. was advanced to three ano then came home on a passed ball. From that point on the Papanui batters punished United pitcher Ross Fife. Eagar again hit safely in the fifth innings to score. In the seventh Papanui went through its batting order. Garry Bishop led off and pounded the first pitch over the fence for an automatic home run. A fired-up Papanui team then took to Fife and four more hits led to two runs being scored. Couch and Toa again combined in United's last turn at bat to score United’s second run. The game was characterised by some very good batting and some exceptional fielding. The short stops for both teams were impressive. lan Gibson, for United, featured in a good double play, catching Tony Bishop's drive and then throwing out Sutherland at first. The lefthanded Garry Bishop vacated his customary position on one for Papanui and was impressive with his play at short stop. Papanui's win puts an edge to the Dalgety's sponsored competition as now both Papanui and United will he chasing Burnside to capture the lead.