Unbeaten Burnside, Sydenham

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 3

Unbeaten Burnside, Sydenham

Burnside-West Christ-church-University and Sydenham qualified for the final of the Chancery Finance first grade one-day cricket competition on March 10 by completing their qualifying rounds with unbeaten records yesterday. The calculators were put away as the challengers to Burnside and Sydenham progressively slipped to defeats which prevented them from drawing level on competition points. Burnside and Sydenham both batted first in their games and eventually had runs to spare over EastShirley and Lancaster Park, respectively. To reach the final, St Albans needed to beat Old Collegians, and have East upset Burnside. Neither event happened, but that could not detract from the thrilling finish at Hagley Oval. Old Collegians won by one run when Bill Lawrence bowled Andrew Arnold with the last ball of the match. In the other fixture at Hagley, High School Old Boys were somewhat more comfortable winners against Riccarton.

Geoff Smith, of St Albans, again led the individual batting honours with a magnificent innings of 77. His teammate, Grant Lucas, and Paul Stuart (Old Collegians) both made 68, and other half-centuries were scored by Lindsay Thorn (Riccarton), Kevin Congdon (Syden-

ham) and Bob Cusdin (Lancaster Park). The most notable bowling analysis was that of young Roger Ford (St Albans), who took three for eight from his 10 overs. Results.— Old Collegians 200/9 beat St Albans 199/8.

Riccarton 138/9 lost to Old Boys 139/6. Sydenham 188/9 beat Lancaster Park 155. Burnside-West 149 beat East-Shirley 138. Final points.— Section 1: Burnside-West 15, East-Shirley, Old Collegians, St Albans all 5. Section 2: Sydenham 15, Old Boys 10, Lancaster Park 5, Riccarton 0. Last-ball decision Another superb innings by Geoff Smith brought St Albans from a seemingly impossible position to within one run of beating Old Collegians in a match which was decided on the last delivery at Hagley Oval. Smith went in at 17 for two, his side well behind the required run-rate. Gradually, Smith changed the tenor of the proceedings. His young partner, Grant Lucas, had struggled to find momentum, but Smith’s spirited charge became infectious and they added 145 runs in 107 min for the second wicket. St Albans suffered a severe set-back when Smith was run out, and Lucas was dismissed soon afterwards. The wickets continued to fall, the runs kept flowing at the required pace, and when Bill Lawrence started the final over St Albans was six short of its target. Two singles came from the first two balls; Lawrence bowled Lyn Sparks with the

third; there was another run and a leg bye; but St Albans had its hopes extinguished when Andrew Arnold was bowled by the last ball. Earlier, Old Collegians had capitalised on the favourable batting conditions to reach the highest total of the day. Paul Stuart and Richard Leggat accumulated 100 runs for the second wicket, and the innings went through a recession before David Bond clipped 37 in even time. But, as well as Stuart, Leggat and Bond performed, the most spectacular effort of the innings was that by the young St Albans pace bowler, Roger Ford. From his 10 overs, Ford conceded only eight runs off three scoring shots in a most promising and lively display. Something in hand High School Old Boys drew level with Riccarton’s total with four overs and five wickets in hand. But it was to be 12 balls later, and after the dismissal of James Leggat, that the winning run was obtained. Leggat had ensured that the finish was not closer than that by taking three consecutive fours from the bowling of Kevin Scott in the forty-fourth over. Jonathon Eaton and

Peter Rattray had kept Old Boys on target with a 50-run pairing for the fourth wicket.

That Riccarton was able to set Old Boys a reasonable task was largely to the credit of Lindsay Thorn. In his most authoritative mood, Thorn had 10 boundaries in his half-cen-tury. Denis Aberhart pounded two sixes off the last over as a late bonus. Burnside qualifies East wanted to lose as few wickets as possible in overhauling Burnside-West’s modest total. By the middle of the last over, the side had lost all its wickets, and was 12 runs short of victory. By the halfway stage, East had scored only 52, for two wickets. lan Hogg batted steadfastly for his 32, but he was there for a long time. Damien D’Oliveira was more circumspect than is his usual wont. So the pressure was on the rest. From 15 overs, 72 were needed. Gary Jones struck some good blows, leaving 54 to win off 10 overs. But Jones was out in the fortieth over, and not even the presence of Rob van Zanten low in the order was enough to see East home. There were some fine bowl-

ing analyses, including that of an East newcomer, Stephen Payne. But Bateman was perhaps the most demanding bowler on the day. Contrasting starts

Sydenham started magnificently, Lancaster Park disastrously, and that made the big difference between the two teams at Sydenham Park. Sydenham, always in control, won by 33 runs. An in-form Kevin Congdon and the burly Wayne Higgins featured in an opening stand of 100 for Sydenham and the fourth wicket fell at 149. In comparison, Park’s first wicket fell at four, its fourth at 30.

Congdon and Higgins were together for 86min and their century partnership was reached in the twenty-seventh over. Between them, they hit 11 fours and Higgins slammed three sixes.

Sydenham might have expected more than 188 at the end of 50 overs, but it proved a winning total when Park made such a dreadful start.

Apart from doing an excellent job of containment, the Sydenham opening bowlers, Stuart Simpson and Mike Dolden, started the Park slide, which Bert Walker continued.