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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 35 Number 6. April 11, 1972

Cricket

page 14

Cricket

As at any other occasion where the word "ale" is frequently mentioned (needless to say the same beverage consumed), the tournament cricketers were first to arrive and last to leave. Wellington was well prepared for the onslaught and graciously supplied fine weather, "obliging" billetors and superlative organisation. Unfortunately, Victoria didn't quite manage to maintain such high standards on the field of play and due to our batsman being more anxious to return to the pavilion to ensure their cans didn't get too warm while they batted, the side's potential run-scoring machine never realised itself.

Frequent failures of the upper and middle order batsmen (with Gary Bevan a notable exception) hampered our efforts in either setting totals or chasing them. However the side fielded well and the bowlers (John Greenwood particularly) made it difficult for the opposition to score freely. Overall we recorded 4 losses (2 in the last over of the match) and a good win over Canterbury.

Auckland with several tournament veterans, were the eventual and deserving winners. Otago and Lincoln were, close behind, with Massey ending with a whimper after initial successes. The threat from Waikato never looked like materialising while one's imagination can decide where the other two teams finished.

With 40-over games being played the standard of play was, amazingly enough, very high, although it dropped in direct proportion to the piss supply over the 6 days. Moreover, from the undisguised smirks on the faces of certain players, successes were not confined to the cricket arena. In fact such comments as, "That was a bloody hard one" and "Mr Umpire, I'd like to appeal against the light... it's too bloody bright", testify to the fact that 6 enjoyable days were spent in dispersing red leather balls the length, breadth and height of Karori Park. Incidentally for those interested in body counts and such like data; during the tournament 288 wickets were captured, 6,480 runt scored and 11,620 balls bowled... an incredible amount of balls.

Rick Priest.,