Old Boys face struggle against Burnside-West

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 30

Old Boys face struggle against Burnside-West

All but one of the top four teams are well placed to press on for outright points after the opening day of the fifth round in the Trusteebank Trophy first grade cricket championship on Saturday. The solitary exception in that quartet is the competition leader, High School Ola Boys, which has a job ahead of it to get first innings points from Burnside-West University at Burnside Park. Six points clear of Sydenham at the start of the round, Old Boys will not want to surrender that advantage. It will start the second day 82 runs behind, with five wickets standing. The morning session seems sure to be a tight, absorbing struggle. Sydenham has already gained four points against Lan-

caster Park B, having rolled it for just 79 on a soft pitch. It declared immediately after passing that score and Park B are two down batting a second time, but 55 runs in the black.

Old Collegians and St Albans shared third place, on 25 points when the round began, and both are in solid shape against Riccarton and Marist respectively. Paul McEwan continued his impressive pre-Christmas form and was steaming towards his second century of the season before being run out at 78 as Old Collegians made 215 at Elmwood Park. Denis Aberhart, the Riccarton captain, made life difficult for the batsmen and fully earned his fine figures of five for 36 off 24

Riccarton’s batting, not for the first time this summer, let it down and at 67 for five, might struggle to avoid the follow on. Brent Glanville enjoyed another day of success behind the stumps for Riccarton. He picked up five dismissals for the second time this season.

St Albans took first innings points against Marist shortly before stumps, chiefly due to a fine all round performance from Mark Priest. He followed his haul of six for 39 by scoring an invaluable 52. Marist made St Albans battle, however, with Garry Hooper returning the season’s best analysis — seven for 50 — in a marathon spell, East-Shirley is staring down

the barrel of a heavy defeat against Lancaster Park A at Burwood Park. A lively spell of new ball bowling by Craig Thiele netted him five for 28 as East-Shirley was bundled out for 85. Park A forged a 96run lead and East is 39 for three in its second innings, still 57 runs behind, and in trouble. Scores: East-Shirley 85 and 39/3 met Lancaster Park A 181/9 dec. Burnside-West 166/8 dec. met High School Old Boys 84/ 5. Old Collegians 215 met Riccarton 67/5. Marist 119 met St Albans 145. Lancaster Park B 79 and 57/ 2 met Sydenham 80/2. SLOW BATTING It took Burnside-West 270 minutes to reach 166 for eight against High School Old Boys at Burnside Park, but by the end of the day, the honours rested marginally with the home side. Sent in, Burnside struggled for runs right through two sessions. Darin Cusack and Chris Kennedy added 58 for the first wicket in 111 minutes, and Kennedy’s 31 took him 128 minutes. The middle order found consolidation difficult and at 114 for seven, with the clock showing 2.50 p.m., Burn-side-West had little to show for its toil. Then Steve Bateman joined David Boyle, who had come in at the fall of the first wicket, and things brightened up. Bateman contributed 38 to their stand of 52 in 49 minutes, enabling a tea time declaration. Boyle's unbeaten 37 took him 157 minutes.

Of the bowlers, Dayle Hadlee was the most impressive. His first 12 overs cost just 17 runs and his marathon spell of off spin brought him four wickets. Six of Stu Roberts’ first eight overs were maidens.

Old Boys lost two early wickets — Jonathan Eaton shouldered arms and Bateman got through Peter Rattray’s defence — before Anup Nathu and David Bull added 44 at a run a minute. Bull and Ross Bayliss departed in quick succession, but the loss of Nathu, nine minutes before stumps was a severe blow to Old Boys’ hopes of getting first innings points. STRUGGLE FOR BATSMEN

There was always something in the pitch for the bowlers at Elmwood Park; the spinners could turn the ball sharply, the seamers found useful movement. Sent in, Old Collegians struggled for runs, with the Riccarton captain, Denis Aberhart, conceding only two runs off the bat in his first 10 overs.

There was some accurate leg-spinning from David Stead and David Hartshorn. David Bond, who had batted sensibly for 34, was stumped off Hartshorn. But Paul McEwan put Riccarton to rout, with some superb driving, and by lunch he had made 33 in half

an hour, and his side was 93 for two.

McEwan continued to dominate, reaching his 50 in 43 minutes, with 10 fours but a sad mix-up with Richard Leggat had him run out There was a decline after that, but Tim Chiswell, with cheerful aggression, and Lindsay Forde added useful runs for the last wicket

There were two especially good features of Riccarton’s performance. Aberhart, giving the batsmen no licence, and moving the ball about with excellent control, took five of the wickets in a marathon stint; Brent Glanville added to his growing reputation as a wicket-keeper. He had a hand in the dismissal of the first six Old Collegians batsmen. Riccarton made a dismal start against accurate and — from Bill Lawrence — aggressive bowling. Lawrence, although having no-ball trouble, worked up a healthy pace. Only Steve McCormick and Danny Halligan, with a fifthwicket stand of 30, did much to arrest Riccarton’s decline. BOWLERS ON TOP Fourteen wickets fell at steady intervals throughout the day at Sydenham Park, with the bowlers always holding the upper hand. The Sydenham captain, Bob Carter, put Lancaster Park B into bat on a very soft wicket. Park’s first innings was a slow affair taking 160 minutes off 52 overs. Two batsmen, Reece Nimmo promoted to opener and Murray Smith, handled the consistent Sydenham strike force with determination. Smith batted 105 minutes and Nimmo for 61 minutes. Nimmo’s dismissal by Stuart a son gave the stalwart »r his one-hundredth senior wicket, in a career stretching back to 1970. The Park batsmen contributed to their downfall with some poor batting. Park’s bowlers struck back quickly sending Wayne Higgins back without a run on the board. Peter Kennedy threw his wicket away in frustration after forty minutes, and it was left to Kevin Congdon and Carter with a fine stand of 62 in 76 minutes to enable a declaration. Batting a second time, the Park openers, John Alexander and Nimmo, offered more resistance but both were dismissed in the final 15 minutes, Alexander with one ball remaining. Unless the weather intervenes next week, a Sydenham win seems likely. SPINNERS’ PITCH

On a wicket that gave no help to the fast men, Marist ana St Albans relied heavily on their spin attacks, and both sides struggled for batting mastery throughout the day. Marist was offered first use of the sporty Ham wicket, and while John Larter occupied the crease they looked to be head-

ing towards a healthy score. He went at 52, however, and from then on it was all down hill. The chief architect of this change was Mark Priest, who in one spell of five overs took five wickets for three runs — just reward for a willingness to keep the ball well up and generally in line with the stumps. Andy Nuttall was, as usual, most difficult to get away, his first six overs being maidens.

A target of only 120 for first innings points appeared an easy one for St Albans, whose tail is possibly the shortest in the competition. But from the time the two Garys — Macdonald and Hooper — commenced a marathon bowling spell of 55 overs unchanged, even that small total seemed unassailable.

Hooper, in particular, deserved all the success that he received: his length and line was always good and his brisk spin bowling posed many problems for all the batsmen, until the arrival of Priest, who capped off an excellent day with his first half century of the season. Hooper’s performance was his best in senior cricket and the best bowling return by anyone this season. Macdonald bowled unchanged for three hours, except for the tea interval, while Hooper kept the southern end going from 2.30 p.m. until stumps. It was a sterling exhibition of fitness and skill. DAY TO FORGET On a moist pitch at its home f round of Burwood Park, Easthirley had a rather dismal day. With a former club-mate, Craig Thiele, in lively mood bowling for Lancaster Park A in the morning, East capitulated for 85 by 12.15 p.m., and by the end of the day, two night-watchmen were fully employed in guarding the side’s somewhat shaky asset of 39 for three. In between times, Park A had also struggled on an awkward batting surface but had forged a lead of almost 100 with no-one managing to reach the thirties. It was largely a bowler’s

pitch. Colin Hight and Rob van Zanten toiled manfully for East through long spells, with Hight at the end of Park’s innings looking as though he had done a day down a coalmine. Van Zanten was given the added burden of opening East’s second innings in the absence of Ray Jones, who had left to pursue business matters.

Faced with the persistence of Hight and van Zanten, Park did not build its innings ar it would have wished. Tony Col-

lins was bowled playing across the line when he had Park rattling along merrily before lunch and Dave Dempsey went the same way later when he, too, looked to play the same role.

The solid anchoring knock came from Ross Calder, while James Shipley forced East to use a “sweeper” on the extracover boundary to cut off his powerful drives through the off-side. Graham Kench came to the fore later in the order as did

the last three, lain . Boyle, Glenn Bateman and Craig Thiele. A feature of the innings was the wicket-keeping of East’s Peter Grigg, who performed well in a period of standing up to the medium-paced swing bowling of van Zanten. Grigg effected a leg-side stumping to remove Bob Cusdin and showed smart thinking to run the length of the pitch to run out Mark Chamberlain, with both batsmen left at the striker’s end.