THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 44, 21 February 1905, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

WELLINGTON MATCH DPvAWN.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLIN T GTOX T ilondar.

< The cricketers were favoured -with perfect -weather for the concluding day's : play in the match against the Austra- , Hans. Tho attendance- in the early stage lof the match was very limited, but to- | wnrds fch? aftprnoon. when it became j> known that the local men were making i a pood stsud in the attempt to save an inning's defeat, it increased, and at the latter part ot' the day scrap 2000 were present- The innings of th? visitors co-n----tiuclcil a few minutes before lunch, and it Krit the local men with the rr-speer-able total 01' -50 runs to make to save an inning's defeat. Thejv were many who thought that in their second essay ! the visiters would dislodge their opponents for a lessor bootp than in the first innings, but it proved otherwise. By ; determined hattin.2 they succeeded in malriiuj ? -irnTn gam*, with nine wickets I down for 214. Or. :\ :ip-r- -wicker. Bricn and Mouagban facet; t!;' , bowling of Cotter r_n*i Noble, j but aft'T a cuuple of overs the latter ! went oft', and Armstrung took his place. j JbSriiv relished the change, nnd began to score merrily oft , him. but paid great respect to Cotter. With the score at -7, Briee. uho was then 10, save Armstrong a chance in the slips, oft" Cottpr. but it was not accepted, and a li. tie later on, when his sore , w: - -s '25, h-? gnve Hopkins a rntlipr difficult cluuie? in the ! li'op field. c:ff Armstrong. Hopkins gut I'o the ball after n smart run. but faile.l jto hold it. For Ualf-an-hour's play the I board showed 45. of which 30 were down ! ix> Brice. ami eight to Monaghan. After j land ins: Armstrong a second tims out of bounds, Brire attempted to repeat j the dose, n.nd was brilliantly caught by Oehrs almost on thp boundary: st>—l— '0. Hi? score included two sixes and three tourers.

Ccbcroft jr;;nt?d Monaghsn. and the rate of scoring began to slacken considerably. The local skipper was content to put the hall along the srround in front of him. while Monaghan was treating the bowlers with rosper-t. When 70 was on the board. Duff relieved the fast bowkr. and Hopkins went on in place of Armstrong. The change was at once effective. Hopkins bear Cobcroft with a beauty after be had batted half-an-hour for half-a-i!ozcn.: 7o —2- —!*.

C. Hickson was next, and at orteo he -settled down to play steady cricket. At this time the scoring was painfully slow. Ore or two changes failed to effect a 1 hough Hiekson had n narrow escape of being- stumped when he ■ topped "lit to Duff. I T opkins was bowling exceedingly well, but had no lurk. until Xobie snapped up Mon-as-han in the slips off him: 9(>— ">— 3o- Monaghan had played v nire. patient, innings. c.v.d was at file wickets ninety minutes for his runs, most of which were got In ■•ingles.

(rehrs v.is now given a chance, and with bis third ball ho dismissed the miffcmnsr. Barton: 97—4—0.

Redgrave was not troublesome, beirg taken low down at deep =lip: 106—n—1.

Blacklock opened well. and. with Hickson, carried the r.otal on to 110. when fhe afternoon adjournment was taken. Hickson was then 21. which had token him an hour to exwnpilf. On resuming Blacklock played the first ball of Armstrong's on: ilo—6—o".

. Mahoney livened up the game by opening his shoulders and scoring a couple of boundary hits in quick succession, but then touched one from Hopkins, which went into Armstrong's hands. The latt?r failed to hold it. Hill, hovrever. was eloso at ha.nri, and as the ball bounced from Armstrong.-! hands l)e secured it. though there was no doubt that Armstrong wonld have caaght it at, the second attempt: l-J-4—7 —13.

H>it<-hin<irfj joined Hiekson,' anil the spectators were treated to some lively hitting c>n the parr nf the newcomer. Iliekson was satisfied to send the ball avray for a sinprlo or a brace, but not so He scored all round the wicket nt --TLte of one a minute, and although frequent ehangps in the bowling wore made it hart no effect. The seor? of 170 vrent. up after three hours' battinfr. and a< twenty-five minutes past five p.m. tho total of th? first innim->--f 1 S3) was passed. Hiokson brought up 50 opposite liis najne after two hours and

:!-quarter's play, and by hard hitting Hutchinps brought tip 200. after the inninps had be«n in for 2040 minutes. l"he latter was tlion oaujrht at th* wickets after a partnership which pnt on ■">o runs, and went a lon» way towards bringing tho. game to a draw: 200—S—38.

lia.wT.home fa.Uet! to sctore. and Tucker and HicKSon played out time, the score ~t.3nciifur nine wickets for 214. Iliekson. who had gone, in at i hrre p.m.. played a fine inr.incrs. chara<;tPi"ised by patienea and strong defeuce- It vra.s only marred I>T the ciiaiif-e mentioned.

WELLINGTON*.—Second Innings. Brice. c Gehrs. b Armstrong- 39 Monapban. c Noble, b Hopkins 30 Cdbcrott, l> Hopkins 0 Hickson. not out 50 RetfgTave. a Ilill, b Hopkins 1 J. P. Bkcklock, h Armstrong 6 Mnhoney. c Hill, b Hopkins 13 Huu-hing?. r Kelly, b Noble 3S Hawthorne, ran ont 0 Tnckrr. not out .5 Extras 20 Total for nine wickets 214

Armstrong bowled one no-ball. Tho amount tnkrm at th-e gates today was £.CA. and tor the three days 63tt, which doos not include the sale of ticket? in town.

NOTES ON THE GAME. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON', Monday. Time alone saved Wellington from defeat at tbe hands of the Commonwealth champions, albeit the showing of the local men in their second essay was distinctly cmiitable. Brice and Monaghan. the initial batsmen, set a splendid example by putting 56 on the slate before the partnership was severed. The association of Hiekson and Hutchings was also prolific of run-getting, another 56 being placed on the score-sheet during their tenure of the wickets. Eriee hit out in great style, and on two occasions banged tbe bail clean over the ropes—the two biggest hits in the match. la attempting to repeat the dose he was beautifully caught by Gebrs, stationed near the "boandary. Monaghan. whose .bowling created *uch a favourable itPr-

pression on Saturday, was at the wickets for S3 minutes, and exhibited confidence and crifc -which very few previously gave him credit for. The colt, whose first season it is in senior cricket, must go very close to intercolonial honours. | IDekson from the outset of his innings j played a careful and watchful game, and , : successfully defied all attempts by the i Australian bowlers to dislodge him. ; Right up to the drawing of stumps he j vras the top snwyer on the Wellington : side. His patient and almost chance- ; less innings for two aud o-halt hours | wybt a lonp way towards robbing the. ; Australians of a win. The brightest dis- | play of either innings %rajj that of his clubjnate Hutcbings. who went at the bowling mth dash from the jump. His j chanceless showing was appreciated by : th(; spectators.

ITie bo-wling of the Australian erneks ! had no teiTors for the local men, Noble ' alone eai-ning tbpir respect. Their field- ' ing was, with few exemptions, c:lcan and accurate; Hner ground fielding and I patching than Gehrs has nevrr before I been seen on the Basin Reserve, and the j brilliant work of the South Australian ; in the?c dt?partments \?r~z cheered again an.i again by t.h* , spectators.

The iocsl men have ajot to learn from tii<! visitors in tiie p-altiiig nr.'l hooking strokes, they being pastmast<-ri in the execution of both. The weath»r A\as glorious during the whole of tlie mati-h. and the tinanoial results are eminently satisfactory from tho local Cricket As sotiaticn'i standpoint. profit will be somewhere near £300.

The Australians li.-.vo so far the ex-p-r'i">r» of a match in Auckland :nid in \V i;>:r!-o"' to ciiiile thpm, and so far as their p'-pvriinco goes they toll us pretty freely what is the with NVw Zealand crip' ft. The <ri-t of their find is this, that ft is useless to try to b"t l °r the personnel until we have improved the wickets. At the gathering in the Tirrvu Hail the other evening, Mr Noble said we n.-eued some different kind of soil to that which we have, so that tnatehes may be played out under differfint circumstances. He alluded principally to the, wicket in Auckland, but he did not think the Wellington one was going to last very long. In Australia they never had two wickets prepared for one malch. bur. in Xew Zeshicd it «ms. it. se?rned, quit" a common occurrence to have two wickets prepared side by side. There was a. weakness sonifwhere. and it must be by reason of tho fact that the ' =soil was not sufficiently pood to Inst. I three or four days. Herptllv thought it I would pay New Zealand ?rs to get a few tons of soil from Xow Sonrli \Vales. Mr Xtible further emphasised ihnf to improve our pricket we ttmst have good I wickets for practice as well us for matches. If we got somi- Bulli soil the wickets would he much improved. The J present wickets were not fair to playi era or to ttio men who had m prepare Ihe wickets. The ?oil required move work than -houlri be necessary, and it spoke volumes for caretakers in this country that they got up the wickets as well as they did.

Mr Clem Hill most emphatically endorsed Mr Nobie's remarks about Bulli soil. Xew Z«ilami cricketers showed their eartrestnes.s by the way they were iniportinp Australian rricketers as c-oaohes—>S. P. Jones, in Auckand. S. Callawny in Christchurch. and H. Oraham in Dtinerlin. The <»rfat aecret was to have a man to coach the young cricketers eominrr on. There was not a question that Xew Zenlanri was doing her utmost to be in line with Australia in cricket, and perhaps on top. as iv lortball.

Mr Noble's plooniv anticipations as to the lasting of the Wellington wicket were dispe.llcd by the fact of its playinjr bet ter to-day than it did on Friday. The Au.~"tralian skipper was himself surprised at Cobcroft electing to utilise the second wicket when the local men started their ?econd essay.

BOWLING ANALYSIS. O. M. K. W. Hopkins 10 .1 44 Armstrong ...u 19 f! 52 Oehra T 0 23 Xoble 13 :: 2.9 Cotter 11 3 IS DuiY 11 5 20 McLeod 3 0 S 4 2 1 1 0 0 0