Cricket St Albans stays undefeated after three rounds

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 30

Cricket St Albans stays undefeated after three rounds

The Trust Bank Cup holder, St Albans, is the only unbeaten side after three rounds of the Canterbury first grade limited-over cricket competition. Ironically, St Albans reached that exaulted position, even though it was only engaged in a friendly game on Saturday. Three teams which had won their only previous matches, Riccarton, High School Old Boys and Old Collegians, all lost their fixtures.

They were beaten by Lancaster Park, Sydenham and Woolston Working Men’s Club, respectively. In the other game Burnside-West-University comfortably accounted for Marist.

Burnside-West joined St Albans in the section A lead, but the latter has a match in hand. While Sydenham is ahead in section B it has played one more match than .most of its rivals. Results.—

Old Collegians 110 lost to Woolston W.M.C. 113/3 by seven wickets. Burnside-West 187/7 beat Marist 152/8 by 35 runs. Riccarton 208/6 lost to Lancaster Park 214/4 by six wickets.

Sydenham 208/8 beat Old Boys 177/7 by 31 runs. St Albans, East-Shirley byes. Competition points.— Section A

A bristling Lancaster Park batting line-up was always on target to overhaul Riccarton’s useful total at Lancaster Park Oval.

An enterprising secondwicket stand between Graham Inglis and Nick Foster put Park on its winning course against the Riccarton seam bowlers, and Rod Latham and Pierre Flavell thumped the spinners so high and so often that the home side attained its target with 34 deliveries to spare. Latham scored his unbeaten 75 in 104 min from 81 balls, hitting five sixes. Flavell lofted the ball over the boundary lines three times as he raced to 33 not out from 33 balls in 45min. Their partnership of 88 runs occupied only that short amount of time.

Much of the groundwork had been carried out by Foster, who capitalised on any waywardness of line from his opponents. Riccarton did not help its own cause by conceding a high proportion of no-balls, and when the spinners, David Hartshorn and David Stead, were introduced Park held the ascendancy and Latham was getting into stride.

The Riccarton opener, Stu Gambles, was largely responsible for his team exceeding 200. After his century of the previous week, Gambles was full of confidence and fine strokes, though he survived one rocky patch when he was dropped three times in two overs. Hartshorn also batted attractively before being run out.

Only Trevor Luke, of the Park bowlers, claimed two wickets. But Latham hinted of a profitable day by returning the most economical analysis of his side — 34 runs from his 10 overs. It was a different situation at Warren Park, where Marist was never in contention to head off Burnside-West.

Steve Hawker and Darryl Philpott restricted the Marist top order, then David Farrant and Russell Haglund not only kept the scoring rate down but also took two wickets apiece as Marist stumbled to 104 for seven in quest of 188 to win.

The only Marist batsman to pass 20 was Gary MacDonald (23), and the capable allrounder, Darren Leigh, was one of four to reach 19. He took most of the 14 runs from one over from Steve Bateman in a flurry which proved too little and far too late.

In the later stage of the innings Hawker had returned to gain another two victims, and Mark Hastings allowed just 17 runs from his nine overs.

Not that Burnside-West had batted with great control on a pitch that was still recovering from rain earlier in the week. David Farrant, however, contributed an invaluable halfcentury, and there were handy runs from David Boyle (35), Jon Preston (22) and Hastings (20 not out).

Paul Adams was the most successful Marist bowler, but it was Garry Hooper and Leigh who kept the clamps on Burnside-West over the closing stages of the innings.

Woolston W.M.C. had a surprisingly easy win over Old Collegians at Elmwood Park, dismissing the home side for

a meagre 110 and wrapping up the match by scoring 113 for three.

The Old Collegians batsmen, fresh from a fine win over Sydenham the previous week-end, at no stage looked in control of the Woolston attack who made the most of a damp pitch.

Tim Andrews, Jerry Bramble and Russell Grant concentrated on line and length and it paid handsome dividends. Two run outs in the fourth over and another two wickets with the score at 37 forced Old Collegians on to the defensive and only a 38 run partnership between Keith Gardner and Richard Leggat gave it any respectability.

It was dismissed for 110 in 40 overs with Grant, an offspinner, finishing with three for 11 from his 10 overs. Anup Nathu and Les Robson went early on for Woolston but Peter Kennedy, Peter Sullivan and Craig Williamson steered it to victory in 33 overs.

Sullivan batted well for an unbeaten 52, including two sixes and seven fours, while Williamson contributed 13 to their unbroken partnership of 71 in 65min.

Robert Wilson was the pick of the bowlers, conceding only 19 runs in 10 overs. Sydenham produced a solid performance to comfortably down High School Old Boys at Hagley 3 by 31 runs. Sydenham was sent in on a slow wicket and struggled early against an accurate attack but a 69 run partnership for the fourth wicket between Richard Petrie and Darren Murray pushed it to a useful score.

Earlier Kevin Congdon (42) had anchored the top of the order.

Chris Flanagan troubled all the batsmen, finishing with three for 39.

High School Old Boys made slow progress from the start of its chase and when Blair Hartland and Flanagan were both run out any hope it had of winning was extinguished. It was 93 for three after 35 overs with Ken Julian and Paul Bulman containing the batsmen well and the remining overs did not produce the whirlwind run rate required.

Julian finished with one for 19 from 10 parsimonious overs while Petrie had two for 24 from his 10 overs.

Brent Fleming (24 not out) and Ross Bayliss (20) contributed useful knocks at the tail end of proceedings but there was always a touch of inevitability about the finish which eventually arrived at 6.40 p.m. Scores.—

Burnside-West 187/7 (D. G. Farrant 51, D. J. Boyle 35; P. J. Adams 3/45) beat Marist 152/8 (S. J. Hawker 3/34). Riccarton 208/6 (G. S. Gambles 91, D. J. Hartshorn 47) lost to Lancaster Park 214/4 (R. T. Latham 75 n. 0., N. J. Foster 42, P. Flavell 33 n. 0.).

Old Collegians 110 (P. E. McEwan 21, R. I. Leggat 22; R. B. Grant 3/11) lost to Woolston W.M.C. 113/3 (P. J. Sullivan 52 not out).

Sydenham 208/8 (K. C. Congdon 42, D. J. Murray 47, R. G. Petrie 43; C. W. Flanagan 3/39) beat High School Old Boys 177/7 (B. R. Hartland 48; K. P. Julian 1/19; Petrie 2/24).

P W L Pt St Albans 2 2 0 4 Burnside 3 2 1 4 Riccarton 2 1 1 2 L. Park 3 1 2 2 Marist 2 0 2 0 Section B P W L Pt Sydenham 3 2 1 4

East 2 1 I 1 2 Old Boys 2 ] I 1 2 Collegians 2 1 I 1 2 Woolston 3 1 I 2 2