Recognition at last

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 28

Recognition at last

After being on the fringe of the Canterbury Shell cricket team for the last six years the St Albans left-arm slow bowler, Andrew Nuttall, was a relieved man when told of his selection for the province’s limitedovers side this week.

It seemed that Nuttall was destined for a career of “nearly but not quite” since making his debut for Canterbury in the 1982-83 season. Since then he has not been able to command a regular place in the A side in spite of some highly successful years with his club and Canterbury B, for which he has claimed 120 wickets in the last four seasons.

Injuries to leading fast bowlers like Richard Hadlee, Andrew Hintz and Bill Lawrence, and the unavailability of the legspin bowler, David Hartshorn, may have helped Nuttall into the one-day team but the 31-year-old is determined to hold his place.

“The hard work starts now. There is always room to improve and I have got to feel confident about batting and fielding at first class level.” Nuttall is not noted for his batting prowess and will probably rival the High School Old Boys fast bowler, Stu Roberts, for the No. 11 batting spot. He has been disappointed that his batting has not come on in recent years and feels a lack of time to play long innings at club level has hindered his progress. The tall, blond headed Nuttall, who recently resigned from teaching to take up a position in the insurance and financial services industry, sees his role in limited-overs cricket as one of containing the batsman. “I am aiming to bowl 10 overs for 25 runs or less and hopefully pick up a wicket qr, two. The team has beg® picked for five games w hopefully I will

get my chance to perform.”

Nuttall played in the first two pre-season games against Central Districts and Wellington, finishing with figures of one for 30 and 10 overs in the first match and one for 27 in the second, scoring six and 0 when he batted.

He found the first class players he bowled to a testing proposition. “Club cricket is not as demanding. First class players have more shots and the wickets are better so the batsmen like to dictate to the bowlers.” While he has a' swag of wickets for Canterbury B he said the batsmen in that national competition are not so experienced and the pitches often assisted the bowlers. Nuttall actually made his first class debut for the national under-23 team against Otago in Dunedin 11 years ago after learning his early cricket at Cashmere High School and with the Lancaster Park club. He switched to St Albans for the 1980-81 season and at the start of this summer had 327 wickets for the club as well as the 87 he took for Lancaster Park.

Largely self taught in the art of slow bowling, he listed Jeff Pepper, Bruce Irving and Dayle Hadlee as coaches who had helped and encouraged him. “I have read a few books and chatted to people over the years but it would have been nice to attend a clinic like Ashley Mallett took the other week for young players. There is always something new to try out and experiment with and spinners often get better with age. A lot of it has to do with motivation and having the time to work at it.”

He said his wife, Jo, had provided invaluable support over the years but the arrival of a baW daughter nine weeks a’’gs

could rule him out of his winter sport, volleyball, which he plays for the Shirley Relics in the southern league. While he has briefly considered moving to another cricket association in the past Nuttall said he never seriously contemplated leaving Christchurch.

While reluctant to predict how successful he would be his captain at St Albans, Neil Francis, is confident that Nuttall will be a Canterbury player for some time. • He said Nuttall was one of the most dedicated and hard-working cricketers he had come across.

"For example, after a recent game against East Shirley we were back in the clubrooms but Andrew was out in the nets bowling. That is the kind of commitment he has to the game.” The experienced Francis is pleased that Nuttall will be bowling in one-day games and is excited by his pairing with another St Albans slow left-armer, Mark Priest. “Andrew has proved over the years in one-day cricket that he has the ability to bowl line and length and do a good job. I hope he can do the same for Canterbury.” He said that the easy going slow bowler, who is nick-named “Nutts” by his cricket team mates (for obvious reasons) and “Basin” by his volleyball associates (for not so obvious reasons) is a popular figure in the St Albans pavilion.

Francis said his partnership with Priest would be good for Canterbury cricket.

“We have got two guys who are among the best spinners in the country. Mark is more of an attacking spinner while Andrew specialises in two or three day cricket when he can bowl long spells.

GARY BIRKETT