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A grandstand finish looms as three teams are within five points of each other with two rounds remaining in the WestpacTrust Trophy senior two-day club cricket championship.

Defending champion, Riccarton (69), and pursuers, East Christchurch-Shirley (65) and High School Old Boys (64) are locked in a three-way battle for the title after Saturday's play.

Front-runner Riccarton is wobbling, with just one match to play, after being beaten outright by East Christchurch-Shirley which leapt into second. Riccarton's final-round match is against Old Collegians.

Old Boys settled for first innings points against Marist but is still a contender with its match against Lancaster Park-Woolston and a likely last-round decider against East-Shirley. Burwood has to play St Albans and Old Boys.

Riccarton batting folds

Against the sharp East Christchurch-Shirley bowling attack, the Riccarton batting again failed on the true pitch at Burwood Park.

Captain Robbie Frew was the only one to show form, hitting six fours in his stand of 37 with Wayne Stead. But when the slow left-armer Carl Anderson captured both these wickets in his first over the visitors' fight folded.

Medium-fast Ryan Burson was another accurate bowler taking the top off the Riccarton innings and then cleaning up the tail.

Stead spearheaded the Riccarton attack with brisk medium-pace and East was faltering at 30 for three. The innings was steadied by Tim Papps and Craig Gibb and the chase was completed with 100 minutes to spare.

First innings battle

High School Old Boys decided it would try and secure the first innings points on offer against Marist rather than concede and risk a run chase for an outright at Hagley Oval.

Although Jeremy Innes and Darin Cusack shared a prosperous partnership worth 87 for the second wicket, it then slipped to 179 for six.

But opener Innes remained the anchor, posting an unbeaten 82, with 10 fours. It declared at 212 for eight.

Marist battled to 85 for four at tea but then Matt Henderson rocketed to a century, raising it with the fourth of his sixes. He and Sean McWhirter added 145 for the fifth wicket.

St Albans eases home

St Albans had a deserved win, but only 10 balls from the end, against Lancaster Park-Woolston which earlier acquired first innings points at Garrick Park.

A total of 521 was made in the day.

Andrew Richardson set about the bowling with rare gusto. He scored at an outstanding rate -- 50 in 26 balls. John Stuart played a vital role in a stand of 85 in 59 balls until the declaration.

In the St Albans second innings, most of the batsmen got started, and were eager for runs but the best of them were Garfield Charles and Anton Trist. Charles scored 71, the 50 in 45 balls. Trist did even better with 44 in 21 balls, including taking 30 off a seven-ball over from Jim Hindson which had three successive sixes.

The declaration left Lancaster Park-Woolston a target of 218 at about six an over and, despite some promising top-order contributions, it succumbed to the left-arm wiles of Murray Griffin (medium pace) and James Ward (spin).

Kember bows out

Hamish Kember closed a 10-season senior cricket career, not on a winning note, but with a typically determined display for Burnside West-University which unexpectedly took first innings points against Sydenham at Burnside Park.

Burnside resumed at 96 for six, which soon became 121 for eight until Kember, an under-rated lower order batsman, and No. 10 Rob McHarg added 72 for the ninth wicket to lift Burnside in sight of its 211 target.

In the Sydenham innings, Kember took just one wicket with his left-arm slows but it was enough to return him 250 for the club from 75 senior two-day matches. Campbell Ogilvie returned the best figures of five for 69.

Burnside-West gave the stiff target of 163 in 26 overs a try but wickets kept falling. Kember was left to defy any late advance.

Short scoreboards

St Albans 209-9 dec and 237-6 dec (Garfield Charles 71) beat Lancaster Park-Woolston 229-6 dec (Andrew Richardson 63no) and 188 by 30 runs.

Marist 210-8 dec and 234-5 dec (M Henderson 100) lost to HSOB 212-8 dec (Jeremy Innes 82no, Darin Cusack 53) on the first innings.

Riccarton 147 and 126 lost to East Christchurch-Shirley 182-5 dec and 92-4 by six wickets. Sydenham 210 and 168-8 dec (Campbell Ogilvie 5-69) lost to Burnside West University 216-9 dec (Rob McHarg 50no) and 118-7 (Jamie Helms 6-40) on the first innings.

Points after seven rounds

Riccarton 69, East Shirley 65, Old Boys 64, Lancaster Park-Woolston 37, St Albans 36, Burnside-West University 29, Old Collegians 22, Marist 17, Sydenham 6.