Vital men’s club softball clash this week-end

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 3

Vital men’s club softball clash this week-end

While national attention is focused this week-end on the beginning of the Mazda women’s world softball series in Auckland two men’s club teams will be engaged in a vital contest in Christchurch. Countdown Burnside and Tait Electronics United are meeting at Western Park in a best-of-three series which will decide Canterbury’s representative in the Pan Am national inter-club championships on the North Shore in late FebruaryMarch. The original championship decider scheduled three days before Christmas was washed out. Traditionally, when club softball resumes after the holiday break the fare is stodgy but the BurnsideUnited clash promises to be a thriller. The respective playercoaches, Graeme Anderson (Burnside) and Leon Fife (United), both report their teams at full strength and

are anticipating a close contest.

Burnside, in a great run, has represented Canterbury at the last five Pan Ams while United has not had that honour since the 197980 season. In the opinion of Fife the pitching on both sides is going to be the crucial factor.

United has the unpredictable Charlie Schooner on the mound with the coach aiming to support up in spite of a sore pitching arm. Pitching for Burnside will be the experienced Roger Keith who threw so well for Canterbury during the recent Rothmans national inter-provincial tournament. “If Roger can maintain his tournament form it will be pretty hard for us,” said Fife, also the Canterbury coach. “We haven’t exactly scared the pants off him this season.”

Although the two sides are equal on competition points for the season Burnside has a perfect record against United having beaten its rival twice (4-3 and 5-1) during the interclub competition and again at the Suburbs tournament.

“Every game they’ve got the jump on us and we’ve had to fight a rearguard

action,” Fife said. He would have preferred to play the series before Christmas and now sees United’s chances as 50-50. Anderson has 12 fit players for a change and he says that deciding the Burnside line-up is going to be a lot more difficult than usual. He said that he was “reasonably confident” of success and it should be a help that virtually all the members on the squad played in national tournaments over the break. “We might see a bit more out of the young players.” Burnside’s long-time coach, Mr Arnold Hall, vacated his position at the end of last season and Anderson has had the difficult job of guiding the side for the first time while playing himself. Anderson said that being a player-coach had its drawbacks, but he was getting more used to it and was now quite enjoying the challenge. “I’ve been getting a fair go from the fellows,” he said.

The teams will play a double-header tomorrow with games at noon and 3 p.m. and will meet again on Sunday if a third match is necessary.