Lancaster Park wins senior cricket championship

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 3

Lancaster Park wins senior cricket championship

Lancaster Park won the A.N.Z. Bank senior cricket championship yesterday when it beat High School Old Boys, and finished the twoday competition almost 40 points ahead of its nearest challenger. It was fitting that one of the dominant figures in Park’s second consecutive championship, David Trist. should break the post-war record for the most wickets taken in club cricket in a season. Trist's third wicket of six in the Old Boys first innings on Saturday gave him 71 for the season, beating the previous record of 70 established by Trevor Jones for St Albans in the 1959-60 season.

St Albans had its third win in as many matches, the latest at the' expense of Old Collegians, and boosted itself to third place on the points table. .

Riccarton's win against Sydenham lifted it off the bottom spot and dropped its opponent to that ignominous bottom position.

In the other match Burnside West had to defend strongly in the last hour at Burwood Park to prevent East-Shirley- winning after the home team had- scored a commendable 247 in its second innings yesterday.

Several other milestones were reached at the weekend. When John Mackie (Riccarton) caught. Greg Brown in Sydenham’s second innings yesterday he became the wicket-keeper with the most senior dismissals in the club’s history. In the same innings Lindsay Thorn took a spectacular one-handed catch over his head to give Glen Bateman his 200th .wicket in senior cricket. In the same game David Stead broke the Riccarton club record for the most catches by a senior player. Cran Bull (Old Boys) yesterday reached 7000 senior runs and Rod Latham, aged 20, (La’ncaster Park) reached 1000 runs in senior cricket with his innings of 50 on Saturday. Scores were: Lancaster Park 208/7 dec. and 105/5 beat Old Boys 122 and 190. by five wickets. St Albans 157/6 dec. and 62/4 beat Old Collegians 136 and 82, by six wickets. Riccarton 223/3 dec. and 6/2 beat Sydenham 106 and 122, by eight wickets. East-Shirley 108 and 247/7 dec. lost to Burnside-West 193 and 116/4 on the first innings. The points table is:

OLD BOYS LOSE ADVANTAGE

Old Boys were on the defensive from the first session against Park. Of 42 overs bowled until lunch on Saturday 25 were maidens, and Old Boys had struggled to 77 for four. It lost three more wickets soon after lunch for the addition of only six runs as Trist squeezed what life there was from the pitch. Park in its first innings romped along in its usual cavalier style with David Dempsey. Graham Kench and Rod Latham all making useful contributions.

Yesterday morning, after Park declared overnight with a lead of 86, Old Boys looked in a position to deny Park the win when it reached 125 for one. Cran Bull, batting freely and elegantly, and a youngster, Simon Carter, added 99 for the second wicket in 100 minutes. But Bull’s dismissal started another slump. His brother, David, was out in the same over to Dempsey, who had brought himself on in an endeavour to break the stubborn Carter-Bull partnership. Late in the innings Brian Ritchie made a valuable 45 as wickets fell at the other end.

Needing 105 to win with ample time, Park started badly losing two wickets for eight’ runs. and at 35 for five was in dire trouble. But Latham, with a few lusty blows, and Mark ■ Johnston, with more cautious batting, featured in a 70-run partnership in 74 minutes to take Park to a win with three overs to spare.

BOWLERS DOMINATE Tenacious efforts by several of the Old Collegians batsmen in their second innings made St Albans’ task of winning the match at Elmwood Park more difficult than it might have been. The opener, Steve Sansom, stayed 82 minutes for his 10 runs, and was sixth out; Robert Wilson lasted 40 minutes: Richard Leggat and Derek Templeton put on 27 in a 60-minute stand for the seventh wicket; and the last pair, Bill Lawrence and Lindsay Forde, frustrated St Albans for 24 minutes and 11 runs. A quick perusal of the scoreboard gives an indication of the way in which the St Albans bowlers attacked the stumps. There was. however, a marked tendency for the ball to keep low, as the. St Albans batsmen found in their second innings. With a 21-run lead on the first innings, St Albans needed 62 to win. in 75 minutes and 20 overs, a seemingly easy task. But there were major setbacks, and St Albans was forced into as grim a struggle as Collegians had fought earlier. It was not until the eleventh over of the 20 allowed in the last hour, that John Larter and Max Bremner steered the side through. Firm grip maintained

Brian Salt's decision to ask Riccarton to bat on a humid morning and on a pitch that should have contained some moisture, seemed a -reasonable one. But by lunch the Sydenham captain would have been rueing his decision.

Lindsay Thorn and David Stead, the Riccarton openers, found no terrors in the pitch scoring 114 runs in 115 minutes. Thorn, batting fluently, reached his 50 in 89 minutes off 86 balls. Stead took 20 minutes longer to

reach his 50 but faced only, nine more balls than Thorn. Stead was first out and then Thorn and Tim Murdoch added 53 for the second wicket. Murdoch played some splendid drives in his 44 and he was able to declare with 223 runs after 240 minutes of batting. Kevin Congdon and Greg Curtain scored 44 in an hour for Sydenham’s first wicket, but when their stand was broken the innings slumped to 84 for six at- the close* on Saturday evening. It was concluded quickly yesterday morning. Congdon showed tremendous tenacity, batting 196 minutes for 33.' Forced to follow on Syden-' ham was quickly on the defensive and as the afternoon wore on, the spin of Stead proved too much for most of the Sydenham batsmen. Riccarton was left to score six runs to win. In an eventful first over Bob Carter took two wickets, but the winning runs came off the second over bowled by John LovellSmith. East revival Although well beaten on the first innings, 'East-Shirley regained its self respect with a commendable batting performance in the second innings which left it with a chance of beating Burnside-

West University at Burwood Oval.

A last-wicket stand of 34 between Tony Gray and Craig Thiele ' helped’ EastShirley to its disappointing first innings total of 108, but Burnside-West, too, was struggling at 111 for seven. Some lusty hitting by the later-order batsmen ' took Burnside-West to 193 and East-Shirley faced an uphill battle.

East-Shirley prospered in its second innings through an outstanding second-wicket partnership of 191 in 159 minutes by Keith Moorfield and Alan Laurent. Both made their highest senior scores, but both lost their wickets only a few runs short of the coveted century. Both survived chances early in their innings and Burnside-West paid dearly. Moorfield hit 14 boundaries and Laurent struck 11 as they denied the BurnsideWest attack. Eight bowlers were used by Peter Wallace but he had a long wait before the partnership was broken.

Burnside-West was left 140 minutes to make 163. but the loss of early wickets put an end to an exciting finish. East-Shirley was in a position to win 70 minutes before stumps but David Boyle was dropped at slip and he and Wallace batted competently through the final 20 overs.'

Bat. Bl. W Tot. L.P. 30.41 36.60 92 159.01 B.W. 30.89 31.20 60 122.09 St A. ' 25.37 33.40 58 116.77 E-S 28.94 27.00 54 109.94 O.B. 28.06 29.40 49 106.46 Ric. 27.83 29.00 38 94.83 O.C. 27.36 30.00 35 92.36 Syd. 25.29 28.20 37 90.49