St Albans regains cricket title

Press, 9 March 1987, Page 22

St Albans regains cricket title

St Albans clinched its first Canterbury first grade cricket championship since 1964-65 when it comfortably accounted for Old Collegians at Elmwood Park on Saturday. The opening day of the final Trust Bank Trophy round having been seriously disrupted by rain a week earlier, St Albans needed only a draw to have an unassailable lead over its closest rivals.

It did much better than that Old Collegians fell for a modest 117 runs, and after a slow start to its innings St Albans won with eight wickets and plenty of time in reserve.

A generation gap was spanned when Ben Harris assisted the present side to its triumph. His father, Zin Harris, was in the victorious 1964-65 squad, along with two other New Zealand representatives, Matt Poore and Sam Guillen, and such other highly regarded players as Wayne Burtt, Ken Ferries, John Rushton, Trevor Jones and Alan Taylor. Only Bumside-West and Lancaster Park had managed a start on the first day, and Park eventually reaped all 16 competition points from a seven-wicket win. However, it was still three points behind St Albans.

At Sydenham Park, Riccarton also had a full complement of points in sight after two quick declarations. But the last Sydenham pair prevented Riccarton from completing the task.

High School Old Boys and Marist had brief first innings at Ham, before Old Boys achieved an outright victory target with the loss of only three wickets to join Riccarton in equal third position. Both Woolston Working Men’s Club and East Christ-church-Shirley had winning chances from the final delivery at Burwood Oval. Neither succeeded. East was three

runs and Woolston one wicket short of a win.

The first grade newcomer, Woolston, filled eighth placing on the points table, with the winners of the last two summers, Marist and Sydenham, behind it Results:

Old Collegians 117 lost to St Albans 118/2 on the first innings. Burnside-West 145/3 dec. and 178/6 dec. lost to Lancaster Park 146/7 dec. and 178/3 by seven wickets. Woolston W.M.C. 69/3 dec. and 101 beat East-Shirley 50/2 dec. and 118/9 on the first innings.

Marist 4/0 dec. and 180/8 dec. lost to High School Old Boys 18/2 dec. and 168/3 by seven wickets.

Riccarton 24/0 dec. and 174/8 dec. beat Sydenham 8/ 1 dec. and 128/9 on the first innings. Final points: St Albans 63, Lancaster Park 60, Old Boys 48, Riccarton 48, BurnsideWest 44, East-Shirley 39, Old Collegians 39, Woolston W.M.C. 38, Marist 26, Sydenham 23. Nick Foster, of Lancaster Park, was the top individual scorer with an unbeaten 82. Half-centuries also went to his team-mate, John Gully, Russell Haglund (BurnsideWest), Paul Hartland (Old Boys), and the Boyle brothers, Justin (Marist) and David (Burnside-West). For East-Shirley, Garry Hooper had an excellent double of 46 and four wickets. Dayle Hadlee (Old Boys), with six, was the only bowler to take five or more wickets. FAST FINISH St Albans appeared content to complete its first senior championship triumph in more than two decades at a funereal pace after it had dismissed Old Collegians for just 117 runs at Elmwood Park.

One of the opening batsmen, Richard Brazendale,

laboured more than two hours and 122 deliveries for his 20, and the Old Collegians off-spinner, Gary Thomas, wheeled up five consecutive maidens. Seven of the first nine runs were no-balls from Greg O’Reilly.

The first 50 runs were spread over 103 minutes; but the next 50 came in just 29 minutes after Max Bremner and then Geoff Smith accelerated the opening of the champagne bottles. Bremner breezed to his 46 from 49 deliveries, and Smith nonchalantly lofted the only six of the day. It was fitting that Smith should be at the wicket when the championship-clinching runs were scored. He has served the club nobly since the summer of 1970-71, and his team-mates will not mind at all if he manages to rescind his often-heard announcements that retirement will coincide with possession of the Trust Bank Trophy. St Albans eventually won with ease and an hour to space. That did not seem likely as Old Collegians promised to reach a reasonable total after choosing to bat BEATING THE CLOCK A punishing yet highly stylish innings of 82 not out against the clock by Nick Foster steered Lancaster Park to a seven-wicket win over Burnside-West at Ensors Road. Set 178 to win in 52 minutes and 20 overs, Park came home with 4 y 2 overs to spare, Foster seeing it through in harness with John Radovonich, whose 27 from 56 balls was a more sedate offering. Leaning into his shots with grace and power, Foster struck 11 fours and two sixes while facing 63 balls. Park had reached the required momentum earlier with Dave Dempsey hitting 27 from 28 balls and Rod Latham hitting

six boundaries and a single in a 14-minute stay. In spite of a fine batting double by David Boyle, West failed to take a point from the match. The side was in an unenviable position from the moment it lost the toss late on a damp first day. Boyle again impressed with the free-scoring form he has found of late. In the morning, he carried his overnight total of 51 through to 74 not out when David Farrant felt bound to declare at an uncomfortably low total. Then, in West’s second innings, Boyle stroked a delightful 77 from 73 balls, dominating an opening partnership of 45 with Jon Preston (9) before rattling on 85 with Russell Haglund. Haglund, whose timing of the big hits was not always up to his usual standard, nevertheless knocked up 53 from 59 balls. Park had earlier achieved first innings points with seven wickets down, and it took a late burst of scoring by John Gully for the initial task to be completed with enough time left to allow an outright result.

After moving rather slowly in tandem with Latham (32 from 64 balls), Gully plundered 14 from an over by

Haglund immediately before lunch and completed his scoreline with two sixes off Alan Piper, which carried him from 39 to 51. LAST-BALL FINISH Either East-Shirley or Woolston W.M.C. could have won their match off the last ball at Burwood Oval, but the end result was a draw, Woolston taking first innings points from a contrived arrangement earlier in the day. Woolston, after winning the toss, rather surprisingly batted, and withdrew at 69 for three after 53min. The Woolston captain, Anup Nathu, fell to the first delivery of the day, but Gary Gardner and Ken Taylor, with some lusty blows to midwicket, were responsible for a good scoring rate. East-Shirley, too, sought runs purposefully, but even more surprising was the sacrificing of first innings points with the declaration before lunch at 50 for two. On a pitch which tended to play low, free scoring was not too easy in the afternoon and East-Shirley did well to dismiss Woolston for 101, leaving itself 121 runs to get in an hour and 20 overs. The workhorse, Garry Hooper, who bowled unchanged for 28 overs in Woolston’s second innings, claimed four wickets and he gained his fiftieth for the season when he snared Nathu.

East-Shirley started its second innings badly and the unnecessary run out of its most prolific scoring batsman, Gary Lund, was a vital blow.

While Hooper was at the crease, East-Shirley had every chance of scoring at five runs an over off the last five, but he became the third run out victim when trying to steal a leg-bye. Seven runs were wanted off the last seven balls, but when it became five off two balls and with the last pair at the

crease, East-Shirley settled for the draw. Lyn Sparks hampered the Old Collegians' batsmen most in the morning, and Mark Priest chipped in with three inexpensive wickets. But young Roger Ford had the most impressive analysis. In an eight-over spell either side of lunch. Ford took his four wickets for the concession of only 24 more runs and was on a hat-trick after dismissing Mike Hamel and Bill Lawrence with consecutive balls. Richard Leggat lasted more than an hour before being last out for Old Collegians, having watched team-mates depart with alarming ityThe winning runs actually came from four wides, hence Russell Scott’s extraordinary bowling figures of 0.0, 0,4, 0. It had been his first delivery. PROSPEROUS STAND Paul Hartland and David Bull allayed any fears that Old Boys might have held of not reaching their target of 167 in 84mins and 20 overs against Marist at Ham with a century stand for the opening partnership.

The first wicket did not fall until 114 and, although Gary MacDonald took three wickets in short order, that was the only success for Marist as Chris Flanagan, in typical hard-hitting style, took Old Boys to their objective with a brisk unbeaten 31 in 25min. His innings included three fours and two sixes.

Both teams batted briefly before declaring in the morning, but when the serious business began, Marist also flourished through a fine opening partnership of 84 between Greg Curtain and Justin Boyle.

Curtain was the real aggressor; his 43 was from 64 balls and included two sixes and six fours. John Larter kept the momentum going with 47 off 66 balls and Boyle anchored the innings with his fifth half-century in his last seven innings.

The wily Dayle Hadlee did best with the ball and his long spell was rewarded with six wickets. The declaration set a fair run chase and Old Boys were equal to it because of the flying start given by Hartland and Bull. Hartland scored especially freely in most regions -and hit one six and eight boundaries in his 68.

RICCARTON THWARTED C A 21-run tenth-wicket partnership between Bryce Nicholson and Paul Bulman denied Riccarton the outright win over the home side fit Sydenham Park. Runs, however, were not as important as time, and the stubborn defence over 10 overs frustrated all Riccarton’s efforts. David Stead changed ends, brought Peter Stubbings on to bowl and shuffled Danny Halligan and Kevin Scott about, all to no avail.

After Sydenham’s rather surprising declaration behind Riccarton’s innings, it began its second innings brightly, the first 50 coming in better than even time.

The youthful Colin Cadigan batted neatly and confidently and continued bis consistent improvement during the season.

After the initial stand, wickets fell regularly and it was left to Stubbings to score sufficient for the declaration. Richard Petrie and Andrew Caddick led the attack and both bowled accurately. Caddick, in his first senior match, impressed with his high wristy action and it would be interesting to see him bowl on a pitch with more bounce. Set to score. 191 in 87 minutes plus 20 overs, Sydenham struggled from the outset Wayne Higgins played an uncharacteristic watchful innings and Ken Julian was also solid, but the side never recovered from the loss of the first two wickets for 10 runs.