Round winners well placed

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 3

Round winners well placed

East Christchurch-Shirley, Lancaster Park A and St Albans, all first-round winners, are well placed to claim first innings points when the second series of matches in the Trusteebank Canterbury first grade cricket championship is completed next Saturday. Both East-Shirley and St Albans should have enough wickets in hand to head off Bumside-West and High School Old Boys, respectively, while Lancaster Park A dominated its first encounter with the club’s B team. Marist made a brave start to its chase after Riccarton’s total, but there was very little happening at Sydenham Park, where Old Collegians managed only 141 runs from the bat in 106 overs. Scores.— Old Boys 135 v. St Albans 122/6. Riccarton 243 v. Marist 110/ 0. I Burnside-West 199 v. EastShirley 162/1. Old Collegians ‘153/9 v. Sydenham. Lancaster Park ; A 186/5 decl. v. Lancaster Park B 58/8. POINTS IN SIGHT An unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 32 between Andrew Nuttall and Paul Rutledge had St Albans within 13 runs of reaching the High School Old Boys first , innings total of 135 at Hagley 1. It seemed most improbable that St Albans would struggle to outscore its rival when Old Boys lost their fourth wicket at 13 in the morning. But Cran Bull and Ross Bayliss slowed the St Albans advance and a pugnacious effort from Chris Flanagan was also to assist the Old Boys cause. Roger Ford, the young St Albans medium-fast bowler, relished the strong wind at his back and was largely responsible for Old Boys- early woes. Nuttall, in long spells from the other end, had his customary success, if suffering briefly when Flanagan broke a sequence of seven maidens by hitting 14 runs from one over. Apart from Ben Harris, who battled away for two and a half hours, the St Albans toporder batsmen enjoyed no more freedom than their Old Boys counterparts. But, just as Bull, Bayliss and Flanagan had adopted an agressive attitude earlier in the day, Nuttall and Rutledge decided that a positive approach was required to break the batting irons and their runs have come in a little better than even time. CENTURY PARTNERSHIP John Durning and Paul Bateman, the Marist opening batsmen, adopted contrasting techniques to make considerable inroads into Riccarton’s sizeable total at Hagley 3. While Bateman was everwatchful, if conscious of the need to reap runs from the less accurate deliveries, Durning was just as keen to advance at the Riccarton spinners and hit hard, high and usually straight Both faced 126 deliveries, and their very different approaches were mirrored in their personal totals at the end of the day. But Durning did live dangerously, escaping three chances between 27 and 45, all from the bowling of David Stead and two of them

to the embarrassment of a luckless substitute fieldsman. That Marist still has a long path to first innings points was largely to the credit of David Hartshorn and Tony Halligan, who displayed maturity and many fine strokes in their ninth-wicket stand of 62 runs. Earlier, Halligan’s younger brother, Danny, Peter Stubbings and Peter Sullivan had provided the inning with a solid and enterprising middle- ' order. Warren Eddington had prevented Riccarton from mounting a better start to its innings. Twice more he was to return from chilling periods in the field to immediately warm to his task and claim quick wickets. Just as Durning and Bate-

man now have a Marist partnership record upon which to build, Eddington has set a standard for the club’s bowlers to seek to better. SLOW MARCH There have not been many days in senior cricket to compare with events at Sydenham Park, where Old Collegians, sent in to bat, took 325 minutes and 106 overs to score 153 for nine wickets. To be sure, the bounce was often low, and opportunities for cutting were few, for hooking almost nil. In the dreadfully cold weather, it was sometimes like the Retreat from Moscow — with heavy casualties — and sometimes a study in still life. Graham Sercombe played some positive strokes, Richard

Leggat batted quite briskly, and Jeff Stewart gave another attractive display, scoring his 37 in an hour and including eight boundaries. But Richard Hartshorn was 48 minutes over 3, Roger Fuller 99 minutes for 7, Robert Wilson 110 minutes for nine. The Old Collegians’ plod, which seemed somewhat pointless, was nevertheless a reflection of Sydenham’s industry. Mike Dolden the left-arm slow bowler, had 48 overs on end, and was unerringly accurate. Stuart Simpson, who had an opening spell of 16 overs, bowled 19 in succession after tea, to take two for 13. Simpson, too, provided one of the day’s few real highlights with a quite splendid caught

and bowled to dismiss Fuller. The ball was lobbed up from a mis-hit but Simpson, at the end of his follow-through, launched himself sideways and took the ball at full arms’ extent. Tom White took a beauty at slip too; but these were magic moments in an eminently forgettable day. BATTLING BIG BROTHER Lancaster Park B had the wicket of Dave Dempsey after half an hour of the match at Ensors Road, but there was little joy for it thereafter as it struggled both in the field and at bat against the Park A side. After Dempsey was out, Ross Calder and Rod Latham settled into a partnership, interrupted occasionally by showers, which produced 153. Calder, who came in at the start, half an hour before Latham, played the minor role, facing 27 balls fewer than his partner. Latham, who drove powerfully, brought up his century from 197 balls. Four wickets fell between 170 and 184 and they were largely the product of the team’s, desire to allow Dempsey to make a viable declaration at tea. Whether the pitch played more awkwardly at the B’s turn at bat, or whether the A bowlers were better equipped to” make good use of it, it was noticeable that the B batsmen had much more to contend with than their A counterparts. Dempsey had the ball leaping alarmingly at, times from medium pace and Bruce Irving gained a lot of turn with help from a variable bounce. The B’s had severe problems with their bowling attack when Trevor Luke left the field with a • twisted ankle, and Brian Butler alsosuffered.sa? leg,:; injury. r X$ Y 3 A WELL IN COMMAND East-Shirley is well placed to take a handsome lead over Burnside-Wesf at Burwood Park, thanks to the efforts of two of its up-and-coming batsmen. Russell Mawhinney, who last season played several matches for Otago, and Craig Gibb steered the side -to the commanding position of 162 for two just 37 runs behind the Burnside total. Mawhinney and Gibb began slowly, but the partnership blossomed once both had posted theiir half-centuries. Both were dropped — Mawhinney twice — but they produced some powerful shots. Both batsmen reached 50 with boundaries, and when Gibb scored his it brought up the 100 partnership. The Burnside .all-rounder, Russell Haglund, had also batted superbly earlier in the day. Burnside had been in trouble at 21 for three, and with John Porter retiring hurt, things looked even worse. But Haglund came to the rescue, particularly in partnerships of 78 and 79 with Alan Piper and Chris Marks. Craig Thiele and Robbie van Zanten shared the bulk of the East-Shirley bowling, but Mawhinney chimed in later in the innings and at one stage was on a hat-trick after dismissing Marks and Tony Farrant.