Sydenham Take the Twenty20 Title

Below is the report in the Christchurch Press 17th November 2008.






A betting man would have got long odds on Sydenham and Marist-Harewood being the finalists of Canterbury Cricket’s Twenty20 premier grade men’s tournament at Hagley Oval yesterday.

Two of the lesser lights in the club championship proved more successful than the fancied teams with Sydenham ending Marist-Harewood’s unbeaten record in the final to win comfortably by 31 runs.

Sydenham had qualified fir the final with two wins from three matches and by pipping Lancaster Park-Woolston, which had the same record, by virtue of having beaten it in pool play. Sydenham posted 134 for nine in the final having been sent in, built around a splendid start from Ben Orton (60) but the side lost wickets steadily after that primarily to outfield catches against spinners.

The combined side never really threatened the target being unable to get any momentum.

The fourth over from Craig Ross was a rare maiden, creating further pressure.

Lively medium pacer Les Humphries chipped out the top order with four wickets in his spell while spinner Ben Rapson took three with Chris Cooper and Ross posing problems.

Marist-Harewood could still reflect on a good effort to make the final having been without influential players Johann Myburgh (injured) and all-rounder Carl Frauenstein (unavailable) for the latter stages of the event.

Marist-Harewood knocked one of the favoured sides Old Boys-Collegians out of contention when it won a final round winner-take-all pool match after both sides had two wins entering yesterday’s third round.

OBC was restricted to just 101 with a consistent Marist-Harewood bowling effort and despite the best efforts of speedster Shane Bond, it could not deny the newly amalgamated club.

Bond’s four overs yielded just three runs.

Last season’s reigning T20 champions, St Albans and the early two-day competition leader this season lost all three of its matches.

Sydenham also took a share of the women’s title having joined forces this season with Lancaster Park-Woolston which beat St Albans in the final.

That reversed the result of the section match between the teams when St Albans was a handsome winner and went through pool play unbeaten.

It won its final section play match with a six off the final ball against ES when three had been needed to win.

In the final, St Albans managed 113 for eight, its innings having a strong start from Amy Satterthwaite with 41 from 32 balls including four fours and a six.

Once she fell to a contentious catch at midwicket by White Fern counterpart Haidee Tiffen, St Albans struggled against a combination of LPW’s spin bowling and some fine fielding.

LPW was carried to the brink of victory by a successful second wicket stand between Katey Martin (43) and Tiffen and also aided by some poor St Albans fielding.

Rnd 1: ES 108/8 (T Papps 40; C Small 2-19) lost to Syd 110/4 (B Rapson 43; M Peacock 2-15)

Rnd 2: Ricc 132/8 (I Robertson 49; C Small 2/20, C Ross 2/22, B Rapson 2/21) beat Syd 131/7 (P McCarthy 41no, C Yates 22; C Mugford 2/21)

Rnd 3: LPW 136 (S Coffey 40, Cotter 20; C Cooper 4/30, C Ross 2/19, J Barton 2/22) lost to Syd 139/8 (B Orton 50, Yates 27no; R McCone 2/27)

Final: Syd 134/9 (B Orton 60, C Small 20; T Muir 3/22, M Dai 2/24) beat MH 103 (Extras 21; L Humphries 4/27, Rapson 3/17, Cooper 2/16)