DISTRICT COMPETITIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19811, 1 December 1919, Page 2

DISTRICT COMPETITIONS.

TWO TEN-WICKET WINS. The defeat of Sydenham by St Albans on Saturday transform! Sydenham from first to third wince in the Senior competition, in which Rieoarton now load St Alba-tis by n. point, thanks to their three-point, win against East Christchurch. "With three rounds gone, the competition is in a very interesting state, and there is :i continuous improvement in the tone of piny all round, particularly in the fielding in ninny instance*. Tho teams are as follow : 3-pl. 2-pt. wins. wins, loial. lUc.carton , . 1 i I S). Alba lis. . . IS « Sydenham 1 1 « \\\ Christrhurch . 1 K. Cbvif-tchuroh . Linwood . WEST t. IJNWOOTX It is not of tea that a, team has to go in again requiring one run to win, r..nd it is doubtful whether snob a case, up till Saturday, had been recorded in Senior '.Ticket locally. Yet West Christchurch had to do it in their match r.gaiiwt Linwood, and the incident was the joke of the afternoon. West, in golfing parlance, found themselves dormy. They had just missed an innings win by one run. -and their opponent-; could draw only by capturing Urn wickets for nothing G. T. Weston, with the pads on, and E. •[. Normnn, without, were entrusted with the task of winning the match, and Harry Taylor was given a Ixnvl. It was not until lho seventh ball, however, that Weston got the ball away to the boundary, jind left West winners by ten wickets. It was a curious fact thac Bit-carton, at the tame time, on 'the next wicket, were doing almost the same thing against East Christchurch. The Wost-Linwood, match was a- disappointment from if cricketing point of \iow, and the wind wiis so cold that tho spectators were glad it was over by 4.30. Linwood were just ninety-two behind West on the first innings, and , there was one stage, with Grant and Taylor slogging away confidently, when it looked odds on a fairly clone finish, hut with these two batsmen out of the way, the only other to play the bowling was Thomas, who was top scorer with .11. The. remaining seven batsmen (Benin was absent without leave) made fourteen between them. Lusk's success with tho ball waa the surprise of the afternoon- Five of his six wickets were caught in the field, thanks to a. trick of the. wind, which carried a swinging ball just a. bit outside the point where it seemed to be due. Reese's two for eight were also caught. The bright spot in the innings was tho very smart, fielding and throwing in of Boag, Zimmerman and Worker. West can certainly claim to be the best fielding side in the competition if to those, named be added Dan Reese, Young and Blunt. RTCCATVTON v. EAST CHRISICHUIIGH. Riccarton gained a comparatively easy three-point win against .East Christchurch. This so;won the Riccarton eleven is going very strongly, having found an appreciable acquisition to its bowling strength in tho return of Evans and Nixon. On tho first day's play Biecarton had :•„ lead of 124 runs ion the first innings. After the rain of Saturday morning the wicket was m fairly good condition, although it bumped a bit. East Christchurch commenced their -Fecund inning* with Wood and M'CleWmd. M'Ciolland had got a.way one or two lusty shots when he was given out leg before wicket to Evans. B. B. Wood, who has not really got under way this season with tho bat. w,io showing good style when he was tempted to hit out at NixorJ and fkied the ball. Fuller from behind tho wickets took the catch. E. Wood;-, was the mainstay of the. East second innings, being responsible for » well played 00. He batted nicely all round the wicket, making some espccii ally fine square cuts. \Vith the end !of the innings in sight Woods coinj niCTiccd to hit out trecly and made, ono |or two uppish :.'nots. ultimately being well taken by Caygill off Luttreli. Howell had a short innings, and R. Gregory, who went in eighth wicketdown, was the only other batsman to reach double figures. Gregory has the makings of a hard, forceful hat. He was particularly good on the off side. Tho East wickets fell as follow :-- Omfor '2l, two for 40. three for ."0.. 'four foil "0. five for 71 six for 01. swen' ! for 97, eight for '.17. nine for 128, ten ! for 138. The lliccuruin ground lieldj ing was particularly sharp and keen ' .ilmo'st throughout, and only occasionally did the ball beat the field. Evans was again in good form with the ball, securing >ix wickets for do runs. Nixon was kept, on for a good spell and though pot so successful in the mutter of taking wickets he was treated very respectfully ny most of the. batsmen. Sinclair, who came off so well in EastV, 'first innings, did not strike, a suq* on) Saturday. Luttreli and Sinclair knocked off the. fifteen runs that Riccarton required to win. SYDENHAM v. ST ALBANS. 1 The Sydenham colours were lowered ' in the Senior cricket competition on '. Saturday lor the lirst time since 1917, ; when Linwood (the champions,! deieated ■ Sydenham by an hillings in the final I match of the, series, on thai occasion the • southern teaiii being dismissed in the \ second innings for 2-L run;., Bead sceur- ' ing five of the wickets for lo runs ami ' Perrin three for six- The success of [ St Albans on Saturday was thoroughly deserved, the team winning by the. sub- . stantial margin of 104 runs on the first i innings. The actual scores of the match > were:---St Albans: First innings 210, 1 second innings 202; .total, 418. Sydeni ham: First innings 112, second innings 235 for eight wickets; total, 347. Sydenham wore without tho services oi i Patrick in their first innings, which no , doubt affected the team's chances, foi , he played a great game for his side on j Saturday and registered 12-5 before l)r » i Wii-llis howled him. His presence mi- - dotibtediy prevented St Albans scoring ' a three-point win. In his stylish and ] forceful innings there was just one blot. That was when the team's total e stood at four wickets for 07 runs and k his own score was 40. Patrick mishil a leg ball from Stringer and it sailef f I towards Tikao, seemingly an oa.s\ ; . I chance. Tikao, however, who usualh 8 | fields well, quite misjudged the flight ol ? the, ball. Apart from this Patrick's „ display was full of merit, his cuttinp ucing superb, whether forward, square i- or late. Indeed, he seemed to plaw :, the ball through the slips at will, ninm of tho shots flashing to tho boundurj 0 | in a manner reminiscent of Clem Hill's - strokes in the same direction. Pat- '• rick recorded his century with a bril- * liant square-cut to the boundary. His " hits included two sixes, ono a, fasl 0 stroke that carried the ball well ovei !* the long-leg boundary, and the dtbet ' being a. great high smite- off Sand f man," the ball going straight over t-h« n ' bowler's wicket a.ndT landing in this, in i stance alio well over the boundary. Tfa k innings demonstrated that Patrick if I- in, excellent batting form, despite a ■• lack of continuous practice. His hit r were :—i4lI4lllUlil411114128&11121 162442124411211214141444114116111. lf The next best batting display of th< , r _ day was that of Sandman (St Albans) " who gave, one of his characteristically , t bright displays, in which, however •l there was less forward hitting than 1; u usual with him. The majority of he score was made behind the wickets, hi:

lato cutting being so effective that i when Bennett was bowling against Sandman there were thre<j men in the slips. Sandman ultimately fell a viotim to one of M'Ewin's " wilv ones, which the batsman ran out to hit. missed, and in a flash Bellamy, who had ono or two possible chances of fiatchme Sandman earlier, had the bails off. His score included nine fours. Jhe most unlucky batsman of the match was J. A. Young (Sydenham). He „nd Patrick were added 100 for Sydenham's "fifth ynckct when Patrick drove one straight back with such pace a* to not onlv knock a wicket- flying, but to catch >oung just out of his ground in backing up, tnus unfortunately causing his comrade to be declared run out. Young was batting cxceedindv well at the time. ,l. N. ]siiiro> (Sydenham) battel Very solidly f or his 'JU.. mid seemed safe for a score when be appeared to bo caught in two minds by one of Stringer's simple straight ones and was bowled. D. Keoso (St Albans) batted nicely for his '2l. as did Tikao (St Albans) for .'SO, though I ikao's play was hardly consistent. Tikno, however. U always an interesting batsman to watch when in scoring vein, ami his contribution was n. valuable one for his side. "Mr Extras " got more than his share in St Albans second innings, 3i out of 202 being disproportionate. Of the bowlers. Stringer (St Albans) deserves special mention. He bowled for most of the innings against a heavy, cold southerly wind, and came out with the excellent average under the circumstances of four wicket* for "6 runs. Bennett (Sydenham) secured four for 70, and bowle'd from both ends. His performance was uniformly good. IT. Watson (Sydenham) secured three for 70, and M'Ewiii (Sydenham'), who howled only a few overs, got two for 18. The. wicket was faster than on the previous Saturday, but was inclined to be bumpy. Hrunton kept wickets well and bandied the hall smartly. Bellamy performed excellently in part/5.