BIG PARTNERSHIPS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 839, 6 December 1929, Page 7

BIG PARTNERSHIPS

WELLINGTON BATSMEN IN FORM

HOLLINGS AND AIREY Special to THE SUN WELLINGTON, Today. There have been some excellent scoring partnerships in Wellington cricket to date this season, and already nine three-figure partnerships have been recorded. Hollings, the ex-Varsity player who now turns out for the Wellington Club, has again struck something of the form that made him a likely member of the team which toured England a couple of years back, but who just failed to gain inclusion.

He has been associated in four of the partnerships, and he and Airey have been giving some delightful displays, so that they are now recognised as almost a-s formidable a combination as Dempster and Foley. Rollings and Airey have been together in three century partnerships, and Hollings’s fourth was with Wiren against Varsity, when the side declared with six wickets down for 407 runs. Other three-figure partnerships registered this season are:—Mackenzie and Bailey for University, James and Lambert for Old Boys, Dempster and | 1 " I Foley for Institute, Baker and Tindall for Midland, and Biggar and Ross for Hutt. Five of the nine partnerships have been for the first wicket. The best effort was that of Dempster and Foley ■ x who scored 258 I ■ ■■ runs between them a fortnight ago before they were separated. The same pair hold the record in Wellington having scored 303 between them for a first wicket stand in the 1927-28 season, while last year they scored 280 before being separated.

In the 1924-25 season Dempster partnered by F. T. Badcock, scored 299. so that in each of the four highest first wicket partnerships ever recorded in Wellington grade cricket, Dempster has made one of the players, while Foley has been the other string on three occasions.

Dempster. with J. Banks, also scored 23S last season, so that he has been responsible on five occasions for great stands, which proves what a really fine batsman he is. He has also created a further record in that he has been associated on twenty-two occasions in century partnerships for his club—ten for the first wicket, five for the second, five for the third, and two for the fourth. Foley has been associated with nine century partnerships—three for the first wicket, one for the second, two for the third, two for the fouth. and one for the fifth.

In club cricket in Wellington, a sigh of relief goes up from the opposition when this pair is separated, for they have broken the back of the best of bowling on many occasions.