No new tactics for ‘final’

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 36

No new tactics for ‘final’

By

JOHN COFFEY

The opposing captains, Neil Francis (St Albans) and Rod Latham (Lancaster Park), are not planning any radical tactical changes in the “final” of the Canterbury first grade cricket championship at Ensors Road. Although the Trust Bank. trophy is contested on a round-robin basis, the two leading clubs clash in the last round tomorrow and next Saturday. ) St Albans has an advantage of seven competition points. Regardless of which side leads on the first innings. Park, must win outright if it is to overhaul its rival and reverse their finishing places of last summer. “We approach our matches on a ball-by-ball basis and.cannot change

the style we have played all season. A game can hinge on one ball, one catch, one run out, and we hope to capitalise on circumstances without going negative about it,” said Francis. j“lf we need to defend at times in the match then that is what we will do. If the situation arises that we can attack and play our natural game then all the better. We have got a team of attacking players,” he said. The strength of St Albans was its depth, said Francis, rather than relying on the skills of two or three team members. “Not many senior teams in Canterbury can claim to have 11 players of senior standard these days. The talent might still be there, but it is spread over too many

teams,” said Francis. While St Albans has retained the side which clinched the Trust Bank Cup one-day competition last Saturday, Park welcomes back David Dempsey, Graham Kench, Reece Nimmo and Andrew Kench. “St Albans is probably in the box seat because of its competition lead, and might play negatively to consolidate that,” said Latham. “Obviously, our airm is to play positively and to win outright. We’ll not be altering our tactics,” he said.; Any change in planning by Park would be unexpected. It has taken maximum points from Woolston Working Men’s Club, Bumside-West, Riccarton and East-Shirley' in its last four trophy fixtures.

Park has made a remarkable recovery after suffering first innings losses to Old Collegians and Marist in the first two rounds. “We got together and decided maybe this championship is there to be won if we got off our butts,” said Latham. The teams are.— St Albans: Neil Francis (captain), Ben Harris, Grant Lucas, Max Bremner, Geoff Smith, Mark Priest, Chris Harris, Andy Nuttall, Paul Rutledge, Roger Ford, Henry Richards. Lancaster Park: Rod Latham (captain), Tony Collins, David Dempsey, Reece Nimmo, John Gully, Nick Foster, Mark Chamberlain, Graham Kench, Andrew Kench, Dean Stanton, Trevor Luke.