Senior Cricket Invercargill 1970.

Old Boys gained the lead in the Invercargill Cricket competition in December 1968.  Old Boys have an eight point lead over Georgetown whom they beat last week outright and with a further two points back to Invercargill who quickly disposed of Appleby to gain its second outright win of the season.

OLD BOYS V GEORGETOWN
An accurate Old Boy's attack, headed by I. Chapman and Jack Alabaster saw Old Boy's 187 beat Georgetown 75 and 86 outright. They consolidated their position by batting through their innings with D. Barnett hitting a forceful 51 in the first innings then a respectable 36 but was bowled by "shooter' from P Dick. Although failing to get a wicket in the latter part of the innings - A. Taylor 4/45 was Georgetown's best bowler. 
Georgetown failed dismally in its second innings with only P. Dick (40) and B. Crawford (18) managing double digits.  Early in the game it looked as though sensible batting would see Georgetown come through but Chapman five for 21 and Alabaster four for 29 had too many guns for their opposites.  
MARIST V UNION
Marist bowler L. Ward sent Union reeling when he dismissed the first three batters for only 22 runs, including R.A. Holloway who was having his last game before heading North.  His dismissal bought R. Verrall to the crease to join D. Rae and these two batted Union back into the game.
With these two  striking the ball confidently and showing great pace between the markets the score grew quickly.  Unfortunately Rae became impatient and was bowled by Ward for 36.  Verrall batted effectively but was unable to keep any partners for a long stretch.  He was seldom troubled by the Marist bowlers and when his last batter, Munro came to the wicket, he tried to hit off the remaining runs but his wicket fell to a great one handed catch by W. Scully on the boundary.
With L. King too late in arriving, Union had to close its innings when still 37 short of Marist's total.
Marist's second innings was notable for a low score of 99 for eight declared with only L. Ward (19) L. McConnell (19) and K.J. O'Connor (13) as Holloway kept them at bay with a grand effort of 4/37 off 13 overs.
INVERCARGILL 
Appleby continued against Invercargill where it left off the previous week - in deep trouble.  F. Whelan went without adding to the score, 0f 18 and J. Gutsell (7 not out) defied the Invercargill attack before the whole team was out for 27, 20 minutes after play started.
J. Vear 5/7 and G.D. Alabaster 5/15 captalised on the weak Appleby batting and were responsible for Invercargill's resounding win.

Reference:  The Southland Times - 8th December 1968

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