Harrison, 18, takes outstanding nine-wicket senior haul

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 17

Harrison, 18, takes outstanding nine-wicket senior haul

Brett Harrison, a young man in his first summer out of school, returned the most outstanding bowling figures for many seasons of first-grade cricket in only his second senior appearance for St Albans on Saturday.

A graduate of Papanui High School who bowls at medium pace, Harrison, aged 18, took nine Marist wickets for 12 runs from his 49 deliveries; statistics which testify to Harrison’s impeccable line and length, and Marist’s frail batting. His first appearance in first-grade cricket produced no wickets and he conceded 31 runs from seven overs.

The resultant 125-run victory enabled St Albans to keep its share of the Trust Bank Cup lead with Lancaster Park, which beat Sydenham by three wickets.

The enormity of Harrison’s feat can be gauged from the fact that only three bowlers have taken a full 10-wicket “bag” in 82 years of club cricket; only one since 1907-08.

Harrison’s club has had the services of such outstanding bowlers as Tom Burtt, Don Sandman, Ted Mulcock, Ken Ferries and, briefly, Stephen Boock and Bill Merritt Some claimed nine wickets in an innings, but none for such a meagre concession of runs.

Across Hagley Oval, the High School Old Boys spinners, Brent Small and Nigel Jackson, captured nine wickets between them to ensure victory over Woolston Working Men’s Club. Old Boys share third position with Old Collegians, who were finished by mid-afternoon after Riccarton was caught on a sub-standard pitch at Elmwood Park. BurnsideWest gained its first win of the competition at East Christchurch-Shirley’s expense.

The best bowling returns after Harrison’s extraordinary achievement were Small’s five for 14 and Lindsay Forde’s four for five as Old Collegians routed Riccarton." '

Only three batsmen exceeded 50, including Alistair Mayston (BurnsideWest)) in a most promising first-grade debut The others were Ben Harris (St Albans) and Peter Kennedy (Sydenham).

Points after three rounds are: Lancaster Park 6, St Albans 6, Old Boys 4, Old Collegians 4, Burnside-West 2, EastShirley 2, Riccarton 2, Sydenham 2, Woolston W.M.C. 2, Marist 0.

Results.— St Albans 188/8 beat Marist 81. Sydenham 159 last te Laneaster Park 113/7. Old Boys 195/8 beat Woolston W.M.C. 114. Riccarton 84 lost te Old Collegians 87/3. Burnside-West 178/9 beat East-Shirley 178/9. HARRISON’S HOUR Brett Harrison’s incredible bowling analysis overshadowed all else which occurred as St Albans retained its unbeaten record in the competition at Marist’s expense on Hagley 1. The match had proceeded along a normal course, with St Albans reaching 186 for eight, somewhat disappointed that it managed no more than 38 runs from the last 10 overs. There was some concern that the pitch was worthy of a total in excess of 210. Marist was satisfied that it had prevented the St Albans middle-order men from capitalising on the solid start given them by Greg Olliver and Ben Harris. Only when Harris and Neil Francis were together in a 42-run fourthwicket partnership was there a spurt in the scoring. It was Kevin Thomas who applied the clamps to the St Albans advance when he took wickets in three of his last four overs of admirably accurate medium pace. There was nary a hint of the dramatic turn events were to take when Paul Bateman and Greg Curtain saw off the St Albans opening bowlers, Les Watson and Lyn Sparks. Bateman and Curtain saw their side through to 33 until Harrison was tossed the ball to bowl the twelfth over.

With his sixth delivery Harrison had Bateman caught by the wicket-keeper, Andy Stewart, fusing a combination that was to strike twice more. Harrison removed John Larter and Dave Grealish with consecutive balls in his second over and had two more wickets in his fifth over.

Richard Brazendale, rolling up his left-arm spinners at the other end, interrupted Harrison’s sequence when he caught and bowled Curtain. Undeterred, Harrison added one more wicket in his sixth, seventh and eighth overs and finished the Marist innings with the first ball of his ninth over.

The remarkable success of young Harrison was the product of recognising the virtues of line and length and preying on the needs of the batsmen to keep runs flowing at a satisfactory rate in limited-over cricket

PRESSURE ON SYDENHAM Sydenham was always under pressure on a pitch with an unpredictable bounce, which the Lancaster Park bowlers exploited well. The brightest batting came from Peter Kennedy, who added 62 with Darin Murray.

Kennedy’s innings lasted 90 minutes, and was marked by some excellent effortless driving. Richard Petrie also looked all confidence but the rest were whisked away by Mark Chamberlain, Craig Thiele and James Shipley. When Chamberlain and Thiele returned for their final spells, Sydenham lost six wickets for 33. Both looked impressive. Trevor Luke had contributed some tight opening overs and Shipley captured the wickets of both Kennedy and Murray. It was largely a one-sided contest However, Lancaster Park suffered many misgivings from miscued shots, and Sydenham kept chipping away at the wickets to make an interesting finish. John Radovonich and Shipley played good, assertive shots among their moments of difficulty and Nick Foster made the most of a rare opportunity in the senior grade. Although he too had moments of doubt, there were many clean, handsome shots in his 40. Paul Bulman looked the most likely of the Sydenham bowlers, although Bert Walker held a sensational caught and bowled to dismiss Stu Cameron. WOOLSTON FALLS SHORT The Woolston Working Men’s Qub batsmen failed to capitalise on a promising position, losing ground with increasing rapidity as High School Old Boys eventually cruised to a 51-run victory at Hagley 3. In spite of several catching calamities, Woolston did well enough to restrict Old Boys to 165 runs. An adventurous innings by Gary Gardner then had Woolston ahead of its required run rate. With nine wickets in hand Woolston was in deficit by only 117 runs. But Gardner’s departure signalled the start of a recession that was halted briefly by Ken Taylor when the Woolston cause was all but lost Taylor defied the Old Boys spinners until he was last out

The damage was done by the experienced Brent Small, in a return to first-grade cricket, and youthful Nigel Jackson. Small's off-spinners

bedazzled the Woolston batsmen, while Jackson, a leftarmer, reaped rich rewards from his opponents* inability to cope with deliveries of fuller length.

Woolstor’s demise wasted the very useful bowling efforts of Karl Slave, who took two wickets to embellish an economical spell, and Alan Gambles. One over from Peter Sullivan was enough to cause a noticeable slump in the Old Boys fortunes, too, before Sullivan was shouldered aside as the specialist bowlers came back to finish off their allocations.

Only six fours and one six punctuated the sedate Old Boys batting progress, theaccuracy of the Woolston bowlers being supported by a slow outfield — there were also 15 threes. Richard McGrath contributed useful runs near the en<L

McGrath’s new-ball partner, Alister Hooke, had a wicket with his ninth delivery in first-grade cricket But the seamers were soon to quietly retire to the outfield as Small and Jackson took over. SPITEFUL PITCH

Neither the bat nor the ball but a spiteful, under-prepared pitch dominated the short day of play at Elmwood Park. It was the visiting side, Riccarton, which suffered. Old Collegians chose to field.

Some balls came through at the regulation height and pace, but these only flattered to deceive for most popped and flew alarmingly. Only Stu Gambles and David Stead reached double figures. Gambles played some finely-timed shots forward of the wicket while Stead used all his experience to counter the unexpected movement His partnership with Danny Read was worth 24 and it was a real test of survival. Read was hit in the face by one of the many sharp-rising balls. It was fortunate that he was the only one to suffer. All that was needed for the bowlers was accuracy. The medium-paced Lindsay Forde returned the best figures of four wickets for five runs. When Old Collegians batted some of the menace had disappeared. Chasing the meagre total of 64 the batsmen wisely decided to score runs as quickly as possible. David Bond set the tempo with a hard-hitting 22 and the other batsmen continued with attack, for any- hesitant play with the unpredictable bounce spelt disaster. DEMORALISING DEFEAT East-Shirley managed to turn what had looked likely to be an easy victory into a demoralising defeat against the inexperienced BurnsideWest line-up. When East had reduced Burnside-West to 67 for seven at the halfway stage of its innings, it must have been relishing the thought of an early return to the Burnside Park pavilion. The bowling had been good and tight, the

pressure on the batsmen consistent

The rearguard, however, managed not only to see out the last 25 overs but contrived also to add a highly creditable 111 runs. Alistair Mayston and Alan Piper put on 58 for the eighth wicket, Rob Penney made a valuable little contribution, as he did later with the ban, and Mayston and the last man, Steve Hawker, added 37. Hawker struck three telling blows to the boundary at the end of the innings, while Mayston, in his first senior match, remained unbeaten on 53, scoring from 84 balls with eight boundaries. Although allowing Burn-side-West to escape with some dignity from a parlous position, East still apparently held the advantage as the side moved to 102 for three. Craig Gibb and Gary Lund had scored at a rate of about one run for every two balls faced, and struck 12 boundaries between them.

But Gary Jones went with the score at 104 and East was

faced with the task of scoring 75 from 13 overs, then 65 from 10 overs. With the pressure mounting, three further wickets fell cheaply, including that of David Grocott, who faced 54 balls in scoring 37.

With five overs remaining, 44 were needed and 20 runs came from the next two overs. The man largely responsible for the surge was Garry Hooper, who hit two sixes and a four in his innings of 20 from only 12 balls. Hooper, who had earlier bowled tightly, seemed destined to become East’s saviour. However, he fell in the third-to-last over, eighth man out with the score at 160.

Fifteen runs were needed from the last two overs but Steve Hawker finished his stint by conceding only two runs from the penultimate over and he bowled Greg Fletcher into the bargain. Penney wrapped up the win for Burnside-West by allowing the last pair only three singles and a leg bye from the final over.