Main placings retained in cricket championship

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 23

Main placings retained in cricket championship

Only among the more modestly placed teams was there any shuffling of positions in a relatively uneventful final round ' to the Trusteebank Trophy Canterbury inter-club cricket championship on Saturday. Marist was already assured of top ranking. Even though it lost to St Albans on the first innings and subsequently struggled to avoid outright defeat, Marist completed its debut season with a handsome advantage of 10 competition points. The next three clubs, St Albans, High School Old Boys and Lancaster Park A, consolidated their positions with firstinnings successes. East-Shirley slipped ahead of Sydenham into seventh behind Riccarton and Old Collegians, and Bum-

side-West came out best in a struggle with Lancaster Park B to avoid the bottom rung. Mark O’Donnell, the Bum-side-West batsman who is soon to further his cricketing career in the Netherlands, soldiered on for just over seven hours and a half for what might be the longest of all first-grade innings. The other century-scorer was Peter Rattray, though his first 71 runs for Old Boys were accumulated the previous week. Keith Moorfield, Ray Jones (both East-Shirley), Euan Spence (Sydenham), Keith Gardner anti Roger Fuller (Old Collegians) exceeded 50. Two spin bowlers, Andy Nuttall (St Albans) and Robin Foster (Lancaster Park B), had six wickets in an innings, and

Nuttall nine in a day. Rod Latham took five wickets for Lancaster Park A. St Albans 363 beat Marist 127 and 168/9 on the first innings. Old Collegians 225/8 dec. and 263/5 dec. lost to Old Boys 227/2 dec. and 167/7 on the first innings. East-Shirley 267/4 dec. and 146/5 dec. beat Riccarton 170/8 dec. and 87/4 on the first innings. Lancaster Park B 270 lost to Burnside-West 287/9 on the first innings. Lancaster Park A 241 and 140/3 dec. beat Sydenham 196/ 6 dec. and 161/9 on the first innings. Final points: MSrist 69, St Albans 59, Old Boys 49, Park A 43, Riccarton 38, Old Collegians 35, East-Shirley 33,

Sydenham 31, Burnside-West 29, Park B 25.5. MARIST HOLDS ON

Marist achieved its aim of batting throughout the second day of its match against St Albans at Hagley 1. It had only one wicket to spare, having lost 18, when the gloom brought a halt at 5.47 p.m. after 17 of the compulsory 20 overs in the final hour.

The participants might have been the two leading sides in the championship, but it was hardly a game to relish. Marist’s unassailable position removed the lustre and atmosphere of a final, and the match seldom flowed.

It was a balmy morning on Saturday and Paul Bateman procrastinated in a manner which would have earned the admiration of the New Zealand Rugby Union council — his second single came from the forty-third ball he faced, his third dribbled from the ninetyninth ball. Marist’s total reached 30 in the thirty-fourth over of the innings. The defensive attitude of the Marist batsmen seemed only to play into the hands of their opponents. St Albans, with its big total, could afford attacking fields and nothing was done by the Marist top order to wrest the initiative from the left-arm spinner, Andy Nuttall. Nuttall eventually took nine wickets. Mark Priest joined in the slow bowlers' benefit and both of the medium-pacers, Lyn Sparks and Les Watson, stayed short of 50 wickets for the season. Marist’s first 50 runs occupied 137 minutes, the second half-century only 55- minutes. No-one displayed any real permanency and when Sparks

forfeited the St Albans second innings Marist was left to attain 237 runs in two hours and 20 overs.

A' much more entertaining Bateman, in company with John Larter, had Marist quite well placed when 71 runs were accumulated for the third wicket. However, Bateman and Larter fell in successive overs and, at 130 for six, Marist did not have sufficient players in reserve at the start of the last hour. Another couple of wickets were sacrificed by wild swipes to leg, and Pete Eady and Jop Werle had to show a more dedicated approach to stall St Albans until dark. IN THE FAST LANE The tame finish to the match at Hagley 3 contrasted with the earnest efforts for much of the day by the opposing High School Old Boys and Old Collegians teams to seek a positive result. But when bad light caused a stoppage at 5.38 p.m. Old Boys, especially, were far from an outright victory. The task set Old Boys, 262 runs in a minimum of 146 minutes, was difficult, even when the ideal batting conditions and small western boundaries were taken into account. It was understandable that Old Collegians should be cautious, though. Earlier in the day it had taken Old Boys only an hour to rattle on the 100 runs required to gain first-innings points. The Old Collegians batsmen had been just as dominant in their second turns at the crease.

Peter Rattray, not out 71 at the start, progressed smoothly to his century. In doing so, he headed off Anup Nathu at the top of his club’s batting averages. But Rattray enjoyed that

distinction only briefly. He was out for 14 in the afternoon, dropping below Nathu — who was not playing — in the final standings. The Old Boys declaration was hastened when young Blair Hartland included eight boundaries, most of them stylish drives, in his 38 runs. With Rattray, Blair Hartland shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 56 in only 30 minutes after his elder brother, Paul, had been spectacularly caught by the Old Collegians wicket-keeper, David Bond.

Old Collegians mustered an even more rapid run-rate. Paul McEwan hammered three sixes from successive deliveries by Cran Bull and needed only 20 minutes and 30 balls for his 44 before Bull gained his revenge. Roger Fuller bettered all of his previous scores this season in racing to 62 in 42 minutes off 57 balls. Keith Gardner was not as violent as his team-mates, yet never slipped behind a crisp pace. There was no real prospect of Old Boys even approaching their goal after Linasay Forde caught and bowled Rattray to have his fifieth dismissal of the summer. Four wickets were lost between 81 and 105 as McEwan bowled at a deceptively friendly pace, and Old Boys still needed 152 runs at the start of the mandatory 20 overs. McEwan continued to make inroads until the light was too poor to carry on with the remaining 6.4 overs.

STILL LIFE What was probably the longest innings played in firstgrade cricket gave BurnsideWest first innings points against Lancaster Park B, and left the loser at the bottom of

the championship table. Mark O’Donnell scored his first senior century after batting for a shade more than 7ti hours. It was a masterly display of concentration, but it made the Pilgrim’s Progress into a diversion. His determined defence took his side from a dangerous position and it was not entirely his fault that he could not score at a more reasonable rate. An elbow injury made turning movements painful, so he decided he had to play straight This he did, for hour after hour, but it simplified field settings for him and he was unable often to penetrate the defence. There was an occasional strong off drive, and he worked the ball off his pads skilfully, but it was not riotous entertainment

O’Donnell took an incredible five hours to reach 50. Then there was a brief excursion into the good life, before a further fall of wickets, and his approaching century, reduced him to a crawl again. He was 91, when he put his side in front in the eighth of the last 20 overs. Although he hit a boundary after that, he did not reach his century until the fifteenth over had been completed,in semi-darkness. Burnside-West lost two early wickets, and had a long haul ahead. O’Donnell and Darin Cusack were all responsibility for 160 minutes, adding 100. Cusack, willing to get down the pitch to the slow bowlers, had many handsome drives cut off, but scored well with stylish square cuttings. Kevin Collins was with O’Donnell while 52 were added in 70 minutes, but at tea the score was 217 for six, and still 54 runs were needed.

The seventh wicket fell at 236, and when Steve Bateman left after 19 in 23 minutes, it was 259 for eight Steve Hawker held on grimly as the last runs were made, but Andrew Hintz had to come in and play a similar role before O’Donnell went to his century. Lancaster Park B stuck to a tedious task willingly. The captain, Wayne Wilson, started bowling his seamers, but changed gear before long and spent much of the day dabbling in the art of left-hand spin. He was extremely accurate in taking his work-load to 49 overs, which cost only 57 runs. Robin Foster was just as persistent, but he had a reward of six wickets to show for his efforts. INTERESTING FINISH Dave Dempsey made a good job of keeping’Sydenham interested in its runchase at Ham. Only three overs were left to be bowled, and the last men at the wicket, when a' light appeal was upheld by the umpires. An injured Gary Gardner, relegated to No. 11, had hobbled the vast distance to the middle to face the final ball of the fourth-to-last over. He survived a huge shout for l.b.w. from the entire Park A side before deciding he was not up to the task of helping to score the necessary 25 runs from three overs. This left the young Richard Meaclem unbeaten on 39, after an hour at the crease. This was his second not-out of the match and confirmed him as a player of aplomb, and consideranle skill. In the first innings, he had helped Euan Spence to add 47 for the sixth wicket. Ash Hart declared 45 runs

behind on the first innings, after Spence had carried his score through to 77, compiled from 208 balls with eight fours. It was a typically gritty and valuable knock from Spence. He shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 66 with Ken Julian, who had lasted 112 minutes before falling to a brilliant catch, low down, by Stu Gambles. In its second innings, Park set out frenetically to reach a declaration figure. In the 23 minutes batting until lunch, the side took 47 runs for the loss of Ross Calder's wicket Tony Collins was twice dropped (the first a difficult chance) from the first two balls he faced and went on to 44 in even time. Dempsey’s declaration was a generous one, leaving Sydenham 130 minutes and 20 overs to score 186. Sydenham was clearly prepared to use all the time available. From 20 overs, 100 runs were still needed, three wickets down, and from 10 overs the asking rate was seven an over, four wickets in hand. That rate had not decreased with five overs to be bowled and the loss of two further wickets left Sydenham in an almost impossible position. Dempsey had handled his bowling resources shrewdly, leaving out Glenn Bateman on a slow pitch, switching lain Boyle from end to end and also giving Latham a long spell from which he picked up five wickets. At one stage, Calder was brought into the attack to maintain Sydenham’s interest, and he performed that task. DOGGED DEFIANCE Chris O’Malley and Tony Halligan returned personal best first-grade scores as they

aU attempts by the East-Shirley bowlers to separate them in the morning period at Burwood OvaL At 93 for eight, Riccarton was m deep strife and looked certain to follow-on, but the two tail-enders had other ideas. For more than 90 minutes they defied the two most penetrative East-Shirley bowlers Colin Hight and Robbie Van Zanten. then they resisted temptation against unrecognised bowlers who dished up an assortment of slow full tosses and long hops. A sharp chance in the gully was spilt off Halligan when Riccarton was still way short of the follow-on target, but the pair then proceeded comfortably to take the team’s total beyond that mark. They added 79 in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand and will fondly recall the last day of the 1984-85 season. Interest went from the match once Riccarton had reached the safety area. Keith Moorfield, the East-Shirley captain, promoted himself to opener for the second innings and went on to complete a chanceless half-century, his second of the match. Ray Jones, who came in at No. 3, also finished in style, with an unbeaten half-century. The declaration at the tea interval left Riccarton a tough task and the chase was soon abandoned, the match petering out to a tame draw, and stumps being lifted just after 5 p.m. Denis Aberhart was able to improve his batting average for Riccarton, Van Zanten, although expensive, claimed three more victims, all bowled, to give him eight wickets in the match