SIX TEAMS WILL PLAY IN SENIOR A CRICKET SERIES

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 October 1950, Page 6

SIX TEAMS WILL PLAY IN SENIOR A CRICKET SERIES

Six teams, including two College elevens, will play in the Wanganui Cricket Association’s senior A competition this season. This decision was made at the association’s management committee meeting last night when nominations from Technical Old Boys, Wanganui, Marist, United, Wanganui Technical College and Wanganui Collegiate School were accepted for the Senior A grade. Six teams—Technical Old Boys, Post and Tele-graph, Marist, Wanganui and two from the Collegiate School—will play in the senior B competition. Eight teams will play in the junior competition. Marist, United, two Technical College teams, Collegiate School, St. Augustine’s College and Waverley are definite starters. Technical Old Boys may have to be replaced by a further Collegiate School team. Lack of players may cause the default of the T. 0.8. side. The Collegiate School, which nominted two teams, was the only entrant in the third grade, so this competition will not be held. The matter of re-admitting college teams to a senior A grade caused considerable discussion at the meeting. A motion by Mr J. Bergerson and seconded by Mr R. E. Thomas, that the senior A grade contain the same teams as’ last season was defeated when an amendment, moved by Dr. W. A. Priest and seconded by Mr. H. E. Newton, that the college teams be admitted, was carried. COLLEGE TEAMS’ FORM. Mr Bergerson said he thought great harm was being done to cricket by admitting college teams to the senior A grade. The college players could not stand up against good senior bowling. Moving his amendment, Dr. Priest said he thought the school teams were strong enough for the senior A competition. They had proved too strong for the senior B grade and many of the players had not had the chance to bat.

Thee hairman, Mr L. W. Condlige, agreed with Dr. Priest, saying that weak competition did not heln the college teams to improve their play. With a fifth Plunket Shield team being formed this season, Wanganui should be looking toward building up its senior A grade, said Mr Thomas With the college teams out of the grade last year, the games had been better, he said. He asked whether the association had the assurance that the Collegiate School teams would not drop out of the competition during the series. Mr W. A. Dustin considered that college teams produced good cricket on better grounds, but Mr Bergerson said it was no encouragement to the college players to make a score of onlv one or two runs each Saturday. Mr Newton gave an assurance that the Collegiate School team would remain in the competition, except during school holidays and at the end of the season when other sporting commitments clashed. Mr E. C. Warr said that as coach of the Technical College team, he would prefer to see it playing in the senior B competition, but he did not want a distinction made between the two colleges. Summing up the arguments, Mr E. C. Gee said the Collegiate School team was definitely above senior B standard, while the Technical College team should improve on better wickets. Both had nominated for the senior B comnetition, he pointed out. Furthermore, he said, if the Collegiate School team was admitted to the senior A competition and the school authorities were agreeable to making the school wicket available to club teams for alternate matches, the whole competition could be improved.

The amendment that the school teams be admitted to the senior A grade was then put to the meeting and carried by a narrow margin of votes.