Christchurch Champions

NZ Truth, Issue 1057, 25 February 1926, Page 12

Christchurch Champions

ST. ALBANS ON TOP '. t , ■ • (From' "Truth's" Special Christchurch '....- Rep.) .__ ' The seventh round of cricket matches m Christchurch was concluded on Saturday"' afternoon iri fine weather. St. Albans,, the leaders for the competition, gained a; two-point win over , Riccarton, and they are now six points ■" ahead of their nearest opponents,Y\yest . Christchurch. "y * As only!two more rounds will be P played thoy are m a position to stand !" two defeats and then be m a play-off. s But West Christchurch would also r * have to gain a couple of three-point a wins to. get up, even: if St. Albans lost ■s both their next games. Such possibilities as these are it unlikely, however, and the: Saints n seem practically assured of, championship honors., c On the first day Riccarton had made T 140 and St. Albans had lost three, for a" 149.. The Saints carried this., on. to Lt 308. Crawford (56) and Doreen (9), the not-out men, saw the total advanced 3 > to 215. when "Craw."' was rUn out. s- This was a piece of bad luck, as he . had made 81 and looked certain to get his century. Thereafter the St. Albans batsmen took full advantage of the "fact that there was not much iV sting m. the Riccarton attack. 0 Doreen (60) and Brunton (44) gave • good exhibitions. -Though he' gave a P couple, of chance's,"Brunny". played L delightfully free cricket. He hit a ri couple of sixes off Rix. 3 When Riccarton went m a sec- [ r ond "''time., they treated St. Albans s to'a bit of their own. The start was not promising, however, as four were down for 49 and it looked as though the Saints would get .a three t pointer. A great partnership . between "Scrum" Evans and Jack Powell, however, put a different complexion on 111 matters. They pUt on 187 runs before they-were . separated. ".. Both ibatsmen had a Jot :of luck, but this. .is. to be expected when they went after the bowling the. way they did, and it.eventually paid them to. do so. Evans.was dropped-three times, twice when m the twenties, while ■ Powell was dropped twice before he-had reached double figures. At 236 Evans wa's caught, and curi'Youslyohbugh Powell followed him to the pavilion the very next ball. The breaking-up of partnerships m this fashion frequently occurs m cricket, arid when one man goes the other soon follows him pavilionwards. Powell made 104 m 70 minutes, He hit two sixes. and eleven fours. Evans made 78, which included one six and nine- fours. The play of this pair was exhilara- " ting to watch. Thereafter things went '. along fairly quietly, and at stumps t Riccarton had. lost eight for 276. '; Naturally the St. Albans' bowling 0 suffered' by the hitting of Evans and . .Pbweli, assisted^ of course,' by dropped catches. Sandman secured five of the eight wickets, but they cost him .138 runs. Norrie got the other three for 35 runs. West Christchurch were able to . retrieve the position they found -.' i themselves m at the end of the t' first day, when they were 28 runs ;- t dowr on the first innings. - Thanks to some brilliant bowling • and batting by Roger-Blunt, however, , West finished up with a handsome? three-point win by six wickets. *' , Linwood's second innings was pro-' i, ductive of a rather feeble display for; 1 108, m which only four batsmen made doubles., "■'■.' ' i—- . ' ,