SIDELINES

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 44

SIDELINES

THE RUGBY match between Canterbury and Auckland at Lancaster Park last September, the one in which the Ranfurly Shield changed hands, produced a net profit to the C.R.F.U. of $126,009. This was by far the biggest gate of the shield tenure and also the biggest in the union’s history. The previous high was $87,628 for the Otago shield challenge in 1984. Another record set in the Auckland game was programme sales. All the 12,000 printed were sold and if the union had known what the crowd size (52,000) was going to be it could have increased the order by at least 2000. IF VAUGHAN BROWN gets a further eight runs for Old Collegians in its Trusteebank Trophy senior cricket match against Lancaster Park B on Saturday morning, he will be the ninth century maker in the grade this season. Two Lancaster Park A players, David Dempsey and Tony Collins, made hundreds in a Trusteebank Cup game against Park B, while the others have all come in the two-day competition. The highest score is the 134 compiled in smart time by the Sydenham opener, Wayne Higgins, against Riccarton in the first round. Others to get to three figures are Peter Kennedy (Sydenham), Paul McEwan (Old Collegians), the Riccarton pair, Lindsay Thorn and Denis Aberhart, and Craig Gibb, of East-Shirley.

FOR THE SECOND successive year Spencer Mechen’s Papanui team of Max Duncan, Vem Anderton and Jackson Kinraid has won the Canterbury elimination in the national R.S.A. bowls tournament. In the final last week Mechen beat Tom Payne (Linwood), and Payne’s team also qualifies for the play-offs at Blenheim in March.