Matches played Sunday 21 February

Old Hararians are the national league champions, despite losing their first match of the season to Harare Sports Club.

Alexandra, as expected, beat Bulawayo Athletic Club to finish level on points (13.5 each) with Old Hararians, but average run-rate is used as a tie-breaker and the latter are clearly superior. Old Georgians, Harare Sports Club and Queens Sports Club all have 12 points, and the first two will go through to the club knockout competition as they have a better run rate than Queens.

ALEXANDRA SPORTS CLUB v BULAWAYO ATHLETIC CLUB, at Alexandra Sports Club

ALEX 229/7 (50 overs) (D A Marillier 49, G C Martin 38, S G Davies 37, J W Armitage 38*; I A Engelbrecht 3/36, P Engelbrecht 2/31). BAC 141 (38.2 overs) (S K Nyakutse 30, N C Johnson 75; D G Goodwin 5/11). Alex won by 88 runs.

The Alexandra Sports Club is probably the best-drained ground in Harare, and the only ground able to stage a full day's play as the summer monsoons continued.

Alex were expected to beat the inexperienced Bulawayo side which relies so heavily on Neil Johnson, especially in batting. They batted on winning the toss, and Doug Marillier and Gary Martin shared a good opening partnership of 58. The score reached 85 before the second wicket fell, but some careless strokeplay, including the Goodwin brothers, saw the situation deteriorate to 101 for four.

Spinners Paul and Ian Engelbrecht looked BAC's most competent bowlers on a slow pitch. Sean Davies began a recovery, and James Armitage indulged in some uncharacteristic big hits, which took the total safely past 200.

BAC were not expected to challenge this with their fragile batting, although at one stage they were going well with Johnson and their 17-year-old all-rounder Senyo Nyakutse in partnership. On Nyakutse's departure, Ian Engelbrecht scored 14, but when he was run out virtually all resistance ended. Darrell Goodwin, with his gentle off-breaks, teased out Johnson and ran his way through the later batsmen to finish with five very easy wickets.

OLD HARARIANS v HARARE SPORTS CLUB, at Old Hararians Sports Club

OH 171/6 (30 overs) (R W Price 37, B C Strang 36, D P Viljoen 43; K J Davies 2/35). HSC 177/3 (28.2 overs) (M A Vermeulen 20, S V Carlisle 64*, C B Wishart 54*; G B Brent 3/30). HSC won by seven wickets.

After heavy overnight rain and a late start, this match was reduced to 30 overs per side. OH captain Trevor Penney decided to bat on winning the toss, despite the reduction in overs, due to the fact that his team had won most of their matches batting first and he was confident that his bowlers, including Paul and Bryan Strang, Gary Brent and Raymond Price, would be able to bowl out the opposition.

Ray Price held the OH batting together at the start, but the innings was struggling until Dirk Viljoen joined the aggressive Bryan Strang, sent in early to try to push on the scoring rate. They added a vital 77 for the fifth wicket, and then Penney himself came in to hit a quick 14 before the innings closed.

Sports Club ran up a quick 46 for the first wicket off 9 overs, helped by some erratic bowling involving frequent wides. But then came two quick wickets before Stuart Carlisle and Craig Wishart came together at the crease. They played themselves in cautiously, playing judicious strokes and running well between the wickets, but the required rate gradually increased to almost eight an over.

But the batsmen knew what they were doing. They continued their good placement of the ball but were now ready to punish heavily the bad ball. Fine Old Hararians fielding made fours a rarity, so they waited for the right balls and went for the big ones. With Penney having to leave the field with a split hand, they gradually mastered the bowling and were soon in complete command. Both hit three sixes, with Wishart hitting just one four and Carlisle two. Most of the sixes were so well hit that they cleared the boundary by a considerable margin, but none was bigger than Wishart's drive over wide long-on off Bryan Strang to finish the match and inflict the first defeat of the programme on the new champions Old Hararians.

QUEENS SPORTS CLUB v OLD GEORGIANS, at Queens Sports Club

After heavy rain in Bulawayo, this match was called off the previous day. Both teams had a mathematical, though most unlikely chance, of overtaking Old Hararians; a winner would have finished equal on points but would have required a phenomenal run rate to be declared winners.

UNIVERSALS SPORTS CLUB v MANICALAND, at Universals Sports Club

Defending champions Universals scarcely had a chance, with five of their seven matches abandoned. By midweek their ground had dried out enough for them to decide to take a chance and hold the match there, but heavy rain later in the week saw the quagmire return. This match ended Manicaland's incredible record of finishing all their matches.

Even so, no other team in any of the four divisions had fewer than two matches destroyed by the rain. In the Second League, Winstonians emulated Universals with five abandonments out of seven, and three teams in the third league were able to get only one result in their five matches.

FINAL FIRST LEAGUE TABLE

                         P    W    L   NR    Pts    Run rate
OLD HARARIANS            7    3    1    3    13.5    4.42
Alexandra                7    3    1    3    13.5    3.68
Old Georgians            7    2    1    4    12      4.19
Harare Sports Club       7    3    2    2    12      4.04
Queens Sports Club       7    2    1    4    12      3.84
Universals               7    1    1    5    10.5    3.05
Manicaland               7    2    4    1     7.5    3.03
Bulawayo Athletic Club   7    0    5    2     3      2.86


LEADING BATTING AVERAGES  (100 runs, average 40)

                         M   I  NO  Runs   HS     Av.
A D R Campbell  (U)      3   2   1   100   50*  100.00
T L Penney  (OH)         6   5   3   179   52    89.50
P A Strang  (OH)         4   4   2   135   71*   67.50
M A Wagh  (OG)           4   4   1   184   61*   61.33
G W Flower  (OH)         4   4   1   167   67    55.66
S V Carlisle  (HSC)      5   5   2   144   64*   48.00
N R van Rensburg (Q)     3   3   0   142   87    47.33
C N Evans (OG)           4   3   0   128   83    42.66
C B Wishart  (HSC)       5   5   2   127   42*   42.33
     Highest aggregates:
N C Johnson (BAC)        5   5   0   188   75    37.60
G J Whittall  (Man)      6   6   0   187   78    31.16

     Note: Neil van Rensburg's 87 for Queens against Manicaland was the highest score of the programme.


LEADING BOWLING AVERAGES  (Qualification: 5 wickets, average 15)


I A Engelbrecht  (BAC)   5    28    0   98  11    8.54   5/32
A M Blignaut  (HSC)      4    30.1  2  138  13   10.61   7/26
G W Flower  (OG)         4    29    3   80   7   11.42   3/26
H H Streak  (Q)          4    27    4   79   6   13.16   3/13
M H Dekker  (Q)          4    22    4   66   5   13.20   2/20
     Also 10 wickets:
G C Martin  (Alex)       7    47.3  3  202  10   20.20   3/25


Fielding statistics are not available because in some matches
the scorers did not trouble to name the catchers.

No league matches scheduled for Sunday 28 February.

7 March: Club Knockout Semi-Finals:

Old Hararians v Harare Sports Club

Alexandra v Old Georgians