A Diary of Sport OUTRIGHT WINS HARD TO GET

Southland Times, Issue 24300, 4 December 1940, Page 11

A Diary of Sport OUTRIGHT WINS HARD TO GET

Effect Of One-Day

Cricket

By

NOT OUT

The difficulty of securing a four-point win in one-day cricket matches was illustrated by the Old Boys-Bluff-Rail-way match on Saturday. Bluff-Railway, 87 runs behind on the first innings, followed on, but when it began its second innings there was only three-quarters of an hour left for play, and it is a pretty tall order to get rid of a team in that time, no matter how weak it may be in batting. Old Boys had a good try, but a quite modest stand between J. Williamson and W. McDonald upset the calculations, and at stumps BluffRailway still had three wickets in hand. G. Agnew, D. Hamilton and J. C. Scandrett, who made the most of the Old Boys runs between them, have been the mainstay of the Old Boys batting this season. Of the three Hamilton has been the most successful, having made scores of 48, 32, 35 and 42 not out, a total of 157 and an average of 52.33. Agnew has made 24, 50, 1 and 74, a total of 149 and an average of 37.25, and Scandrett has made 16, 12, 21, and 45, a total of 94 and an average of 23.50.

Old Boys entrusted its attack to three bowlers, Scandrett, D. Luzmoor and E. Semmens, and of these Scandrett was the most successful. He bowled throughout each innings and in the first had 11 overs including one maiden, and took five wickets at a cost of 51 runs. In the second he had seven overs, including two maidens and took four wickets for only 27 runs. To date this season in club cricket Scandrett has taken 16 wickets for 158 runs, an average of 9.87. This with his batting average makes him the best all-rounder in the Old Boys team. Semmens did a useful bit of work in finishing off the BluffRailway first innings. He was put on towards the end and in four overs took three wickets for 11 runs. DROPPED CATCHES Marist, which started off the season with two wins, has lost its last two matches, but for their defeat on Saturday the Marist players had largely themselves to blame, since dropped catches assisted Appleby not a little in gaining a first innings lead. When the fifth Appleby wicket fell the total was only 34. Up to this stage everything was in favour of Marist in spite of its modest first innings score of 118. But then began the tale of dropped catches which cost Marist the game. It was just another illustration of how important good fielding is. D. Calvert, R. Calvert and E. Calvert had a considerable share in Appleby s victory. D. Calvert made 50, top score of the innings, but it was R. Calvert, in association with J. Sicvright, who stopped the rot and put Appleby in the way of winning. D. Calvert's score was by far his largest for the present season and has considerably improved his average. His previous scores were 12, 20 and 3, and now in four innings he has made 35 runs, an average of 21.25. R. Calvert s score of 23 was his first double figure of the season. E. Calvert proved his worth as a bowler, taking three wickets for 20 runs in four overs.

J. Purdue, Appleby’s best bowler, was not quite as successful as usual on Saturday, though the batsmen had to treat him with respect and did not find his bowling at all easy to score off. However, 1 is two wickets cost 36 runs, which was something of a ''ontrast with his record for the previous match when he took six Invercargill wickets for 32 runs, and with that in the opening game of the season, when he took five wickets for 23 runs. To date this season in club games Purdue has taken 16 wickets for 146 runs so that each wicket has cost just over nine runs, a remarkably good average.

After his failure against Old Boys, when he was dismissed fcr eight, N: Forde showed his true form with the bat on Saturday when he made 52, by far the highest score for Marist and getting on for half of the total for the innings. Forde is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen at present playing in Invercargill, and he has the honour of having made the highest individual score in the senior competition to date this season. This was his 82 against Union.

The Anpleby wickets were shared by five Marist bowlers, but L. Connolly bagged four of them for 59 runs. He was a bit expensive perhaps as he had only nine overs. At least he was a lot more expensive than N. Forde who, although he captured but one wicket, had only 29 runs knocked off him in 10 overs. A DESERVED WIN Invercargill deserved its win against Union if only because of the fact that all the Invercargill batsmen except two reached double figures. Curiously enough these two S. Mac Gibbon and H. Alabaster were each dismissed for a duck. Such consistent team batting has not been common this season and is worthy of note. Mac Gibbon, who was one of the opening batsmen for Invercargill, has had a lean season so far. Last season he scored runs regularly, but to date this season he has tailed to strike form. D. Farmer, top scorer for Invercargill was a trifle lucky, but showed his appreciation of A. Hamilton’s slows by some hard hitting which pushed up the rate of scoring very considerably. Union failed by 48 runs to reach Invercargill’s total and this was perhaps partly due to the fact that the rather limited time available caused the batsmen to hit somewhat recklessly.