Vital match for cricketers

Press, 28 November 1987, Page 16

Vital match for cricketers

By

JOHN COFFEY

Rod Latham (left) and Stu Roberts (right) have most to gain, or lose, when the Canterbury XI cricket side meets a Marlborough Invitation XI at Blenheim tomorrow. Their performances will have an important, perhaps vital, bearing on whether they retain their positions in the full Canterbury team to contest the Shell Series later this season. Neither Latham nOr Roberts has maintained con-

sistently convincing form at club level or in earlier trials. With the Canterbury team to be named on Tuesday evening, the game at Blenheim provides both with a chance to reply to strong challenges from rival candidates. Latham has been a useful performer during seven seasons of first-class cricket, without realising the extreme potential displayed in his youth. In 48 appearances Latham has scored 2144 runs at 28.58,

an average he maintained last season. But he had managed only 131 runs from seven completed inter-club innings before returning a more profitable double of 53 not out and 45 against High School Old Boys in the round which ended last Saturday. Aged 28, Latham has also played 37 Shell Club limitedover games. He holds the Canterbury aggregate record with 782 runs, at 24.75. A much more recent Canterbury recruit, Roberts showed promise In the final two Shell Trophy fixtures of 1885-88 and then made a stunning Shell Cup debut against Wellington at Timaru last December. Roberts took four Wellington wickets for 13 and continued to bowl fast and straight for most of the oneday series to return the

impressive over-all analysis of 11 wickets at 11.18 each. It was all the more disappointing, then, that Roberts was unable to carry on in similar vein in the Shell Trophy competition, particularly as he had the stimulus of partnering Richard Hadlee. The 12 wickets taken by Roberts cost a total of 185 runs. Roberts, at 22 years of age, has plenty of time to put that very forgettable sequence of matches behind him, but his club statistics

have not been flattering. * While Latham and Roberts were left out of the.. Town team against Countft and the Canterbury XI which beat Wellington, other* grasped the opportunities to bid for their positions. . Max Bremner, who to atoe playing at Blenheim tomorrow, has advanced his claims for a place in the middle-order batting . and Bill Lawrence can hamßy l)e left out after his aggressive annd productive efforts with the new balL .