CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 263, 10 November 1906, Page 12

CRICKET.

From the point of view of the spectator the cricket on Saturday when the second series of championships was commenced was far from bright, the batting as a whole being mediocre. In the City-I'arnell match MacCormick and Hemus were the only pair tc bat with any dash. MacCormick played a very nice innings of 2S before being bowled off Ms pads by Kerr. He mad* some clever drives and placed the ball very well, especially on the off-side. He faced the bowling with confidence and seemed well set when his end came. Hemus' score of 58 was very lightly compiled, and included nine boundaries. He put a bit. of wrist work into his strokes, and timed the ball beautifully, though he was not at home to Kerr. Some of his strokes to the off boundary were perfect and lie desreved all his runs. He was eventually beaten by one from Kerr, which kppt low. and apparently had a bit more pace on than the bateman expected. Of the rest Spence, "who opened with MacCormick, batted faiKly for 13. Parnell have secured a very useful man in Kerr, the Mudgee bowler. He came out with the fine analysis of six for t>o, j a remarkably good performance when it is considered that Ik? had only a week's practice on the turf after coming off j matting wickets. He bowls about fast 7uedium, and has a finger break both ways. Kerr bowled unchanged through. City's innings, and. judging by the manner in which he was bowling at the finish, could have kept it up all day. He got ' two wickets on the last over. 01 iff had j an off-dny, and Fairburn was also below his best. Parnell put in OS for two wickets before stumps were drawn, Sale, making 40 not out. and Murray a rapid 20. Jack- j son got the two wickets, which fell for 27. Grafton's stock went tip like a rocket j in the Grafton-Pnnsonhy match, but it j came down like the stick before stumps i were drawn. Fonsonby, batting first on | an easy wicket. started badly, and lost i four wickets ;tt a cost of about nine i runs apiece. Hatchings and Cumin ings, who openrd. both .--tarted well, but Cum- j mings was clean bowled by Sloman with i v beauty which came in just enough to I beat the bat, unil Hutehings was smart- | ly taken In-hind by Bennett. Gavin went j in and out. and Robinson, after making , ]ti by cross hitting was caught by i'ors- j ter. Soon after Woods was Uirown out by ; Forstcr. who knocked the wicket down with a straight, throw, while Woods was trotting in. bat in air. Had he grounded his bat he would have been easily in his crease. Simms and ljraithwaite. ably assisted ' by ihe bad fielding of Grafton, I hen saved ! the situation for their sid;\ Both were | extremely lucky, they hit the bnll up, snicked when trying to drive, and gave : sundry chances. The hall whizzed round ; and over the wickets, but they had put on a hundred nms before the left-hander's end came. He had given five chances, . and made a dozen other uppish hits which fell clear. Simms carried his bat out for 78. and where the score should, had all the. chan- i ce.s been, accepted, have been under the ] century, Grafton found themselves with . a score of 2 to top. In the short time remaining for plity Grafton lost three good wickets, including that of D. Hay for 3 runs. The j lieM was wretched, the umpires ordering play to cease at <i.20. ten minutes before the hour fixed for November drawing. Bennett, an e:£-I>ague playpr, "kept" for Grafton on Saturday. He started well and took a couple of very smarr, ■catches. He tailed off. however, and , was not so good in the last half of the j innings as in the first. Sloman was the I only Grafton bowler to meet with any \ success, and he fully deserved his analy- | sis of 8 for 74. He kept a nice length. ; and mixed his deliveries very well, keeping the batsman thinking all along. On I his day Sloman is a very dangerous j bowler, and he certainly had a day on or. j Saturday. I have heard quite a number of spectators say they prefer the one senior game system to the two, for the reason i that they can jrive the one game their j undivided attention, and thus see all the incidents of one match instead of less than half of two. What a resolute batsman with his back to the wall can do was shown in Sydney last week. Paddington had dismissed Glebe for 186, but Paddington had no less than six wickets, includ'ng Trumpt r. Iredale md Kelly for 33 runs. M. A. | Noble saved the situation., and batting ! with desperate earnestness. won the j match for his side, scoring 53 not out.! and carrying the score to 190 before the last wicket fell. A. E. Relf arrived in Auckland on Sunday, and has commenced his duties as | coach to the Eden C.C. His quiet, unassuming, and pleasant manner have already made him popular among local knights of the willow. I hope that his sojourn among us will be pleasant to himself and profitable to our cricket. Eden had first use of the wicket against North Shore, but failed to take much advantage of their opportunities. I the whole side" being dismissed for 150, of which half were contributed by two batsmen, G. Mills and Shepherd. The ; batting was not attractive. Mills marie : 38 in rather slow style, and Shepherd; reached the half century by fair cricket. • Hobson 25, and Smith and Freeman 15 were the only other player? to reach double figures. j Busbj. who has been aVewnt from North Shore for a couple of seasons, ' got three wickets for 62, but his bowling . was not particularly good, the length being short. Hussey got two for 20 and Howden two for 34. In the time ■ remaining for play, North Shore topped I Eden's score for the loss of two wickets. ■ Hussey reached the limit of ill-luck in | losing the three figures, being bowled ' at 09 by the last ball of the day. A couple of seasons ago Hussey had a precisely similar experience. He was dropped soon after reaching double figures by Stemson, who' missed an easy return. Hollingrake made 37 and Prime 34 not out, both scoring fast. There was no sting in the Eden bowline. A special committee of the Leicestershire County Council has made a pretty severe indictment of the county team. Charged with the duties of investigating

felm faihire of the team during 1900, they first sought to discover the chief factors which had contributed to the disappointing form, and these they classify under three heads: —(1) "A general lack of cohesion amongst the players'"; (2) unreliable batting and increased weakness in the bowling: and (3) lack of available talent to fill vacancies in the team. The general lack of cohesion amongst the ; players is, the committee state, illus- ! trated by three things: "(a) Slackness jin the field; (b) a lack of grit and : determination on critical occasions and jan absence of esprit de corps; (c) neglect by players in certain instances to travel with the rest of the team overnight."

By taking four wickets for Thornburr against Crofton, on Wednesday last (says the London "•Sportsman" of September 21), Dr. E. M. Grace brought his aggregate number of wickots for the season up to 3.J0, thus establishing a world's record. Upon such a notable occasion, it is interesting to give the figures of the doctor's career. He commenced pteying in ISSI, and. allowing for one year he did not play, he has taken 11,700 wickets, and scored 76.100 runs. He last played for Gloucester County in 1596 against Warwickshire. He has twice topped 3CKIO runs in one season. Dr. Gr;:ce wa.-s born in 1841. He is a brother of Dr. XV. G. Grace.

~Mx. C'aruthers, Premier of X.S.W., has received a letter from the Earl of Jersey with reference to the attempts which were made to secure the visit to Australia for this season of an English cricket tciira. His Lordship writes as follows: —''1 am sorry tnat the Marj-lebone Cricket, f'luh committee found it impossible at Lhi.s late period of the season to m;iK~e the ueees.sa.ry arrangements for sending out a team. Your cablegram was considered in a very friendly spirit, nu.l the position carefully discussed, but the difficulti:\-; were too great, owing to people beinj; scattered, some on °the moors, and others hy the waters, and as autumn arrangements had probably been made in many cases, it, would have taken -nine liiiiP before one co;ild feel sure that a re] ,I'sentalive team, could be collected. Several county cricket clubs would have liar! to be asked to allow i heir professionals to come out. and in many such •nay.- time was required. As the team cat not eonir; O ill this year, 1 hope that all arrangements of the Australian board of control will be made ia plenty of time for one In r-ome out next year. If anything could have secured this year's viMl it would have been your "cable-

; CTaii:."' The. latest English eo-mment on the Bubjccl of th" visit of an English team lo Australia: "According to a cablegram to -The Times.' ihe Sydney public jliii\c accepted the linal decision of the M.('.('. in a proper spirit, ami the error Jof inviting any combination under pri- | vate auspice-i will not. be committed. 11 scarcely thought that the Colonials , would commit such a foolish act. The year of waiting will soon slip by, and the form in the various inter-State coni te=«ts will be. carefully scanned by many others besides." —"The Sportsman.' , Tom Uayward, the famous Surrey rrickcier. is a man of few words as a ; rule, but with the close of the season !an interviewer has succeeded in in- ; ducing him to talk for publication. Hayward admitted that one of his pet, ambitions is to meet, the Australians on their own soil. Had a team gone J out from England this year, and had ihe been invited, he -would most certainly have gone, and if he was required he would place 'his services at j the disposal of the ~SI.CC. next year. That wo'ild tie his last trip abroad, he added. Havward declared that tho Australians had no f>ne but themselves to j for their failure to get an English t.e;ini over this year. Asked if he was not disappointed over Surrey losing I the championship, he said. "1 a,m, most I distinctly, and chiefly for the reason '■ that we were led by one of the best I sportsmen and most .successful of Surrey 1 captains, one who had sacrificed so much ;to help his county. Wα have failed this year, but we mean to have another good try, and out prospects for next season axe mast encouraging. Mr, Knox, after a winter's rest, should be as 1 destructive as he was during tho early j part of the season. Marshal, the Aiis- , tralian, after his wonderful success, j should considerably strengthen the tejim." "Do you consider Kent deserved their triumphs?" "Yes; they were the beat all-round team in the championship. The fact must not be. lost sight of that they were made up principally of young men. who were I very, very nimble in the field." Answerj ing another question, llayward eaid i that ho was very disappointed over not ; getting his fourteenth century; but he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had put up several records. ■Hβ was, of course, very proud of them all. but he very much appreciated a cigarette case given to him by his captain for .his performances in the Notts and Leicestershire matches, when he made 144 not out, 100, 143, and 123. This he considers to he the greatest achievement of his life, and not a bad week's work. JJayward is more than proud of I his aggregate rorord of 3olS, which, be ventures to think, will stand for some years. The New .South Wales Association has adopted several amendments in the constitution of the Australian Board of Control. These provided that the board should have power to arrange for visits of English and other international teams, and that South Australia be given three representatives, and Queensland two. The provision that the Melbourne Club elect one of Victoria's delegates was struck out. Queensland was also relieved of any financial responsibility in connection with English visits, South Australia being substituted. I