CHRISTCHURCH NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 61

CHRISTCHURCH NOTES. ( From Our Own Correspondent.)

December 9.

The weather on Saturday was again ideal, when the fourth round of matches in the district competition was brought to a finish. Linwood rather easily defeated East Christchurch by 71 ruA on the first innings. Linwood had • made 293 runs, and the Easterners had four wickets down for 61. Continuing, tne losers' tail wagged to some purpose, and the innings closed for 222, the principal contributors being Willsteed 46, Harkness 38. Ross 38, Fraser 31, Addison 25, and Meech 20. Howell was in good form, and secured six wickets, and tho fielding was very fair. Linwood went in again and scored only 117. Orchard got 31 speedily by good cricket, while H. C. Ridley made 27 not out in his usual finished style. . • Sydenham and St. Albans nad an exciting finish to their game, the former winning by 14 runs on the first innings. The previous Saturday Sydenham scored 219 and St. Albans had two wickets down for 70. The Saints' wickets fell speedily until the board showed seven for 97, and then a fine 6tand was made by Ford (33) and Feldwick (52). The latter played a fine, free innings, and then Goldsmith contributed 25, leaving tho Saints with 14 runs to get and two wickets in hand. Then Patrick was put on, and to the great delight of Sydenham's crowd of supporters, ho got both wickets in an over for no runs. Bennett got four wickets for 82 runs. Sydenham rattled up 200 for six wickets in their second innings, some fine hittinp being shown by Gray (57) and Patrick (52). West Christchurch, too. had an anxious time with Riocarton, and a mistake could have cost the -Westerners the match. West Christchurch had made 211 and Riccarton had three wickets down for 84. Resuming, Harper (20), Clarkson (25). and J. Williams (15) played" good cricket, but the board showed nine for 164. A good last-wicket stand was made by Atkinson (18) and K. Williams (25), and they nearly pulled the match out of the fire, the innings realising 196 or 15 runs to the bad. Malone bowled really well, and got five for 75. West Christchurch made only 143 in their second inning 3, of which Whitta claimed 46, made in fine style, although his hands were knocked about considerably. A feature of Saturday's play was tho poor batting of our leading lights, Orchard, Whitta, and Patrick being the only ones to make a respectable showing. D. Reese was clean bowled for 3, Lusk was caught on the boundary for only 1, and Read, Bishop, Fryer, A. Ridley and several others did not get doubles. The scoring all round was poor. No century was scored on Saturday^ in Christchurch, Prebbles 96 for Riccarton juniors against East Christchurch being the nearest approach.