CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 12

CRICKET.

IBi THE Beeavkbb.]

, The Fall of the Curtain. , ; Senior cricket last Saturday was in somo Tespects rather dull, .but it ' is quite possible that tile games-in their final stages 'to-day may present feature's- of interest. .[Whatever pitch of quality tlt?y attain, today's contests will mart tlso curtain-fall so far as the premier scction of local cricket is concerned. The Wednesday •'Assodiation is also on tho, point ot closing down; the final games would have been .played this week had rot ,a postponement .on account of weather intervened. .It is now;proposed that the. last ot \V eelnesday. cricket for tho sereou t shall bo played nest week. If anything interferes J-vrith play next' Wednesday, the season ' r will conclude as it stands at present.

/The District Scheme. : . - The district scheme has emerged at the; slose of its second season a little weather--beaten in spots, but. by no means beyond repiiir. Before another season of cricket. 1 opens the verdict of tho clubs lipon tho . scheme, which lias been invited by the association, will have heeia duly weighed ( and considered.' The officwl view. i9_ that ■ Ithe district scheme will easily stand the ; test of any possible criticism, and, in the interests of orderly and " well-organised 'piny, it is to ho hoped tfcat tho official view is not over-sanguine. Individual expressions of discontent .are not infrequently levelled at deh'ils of the 'scheme, 'but in such cases, where a . i remedy is called for, it should bo n matter ! -of ease to apply it. When tlv districts, \ as they now stand, were constituted, the i (association simply cut up the municipal area upon a population basis." It was nn- - . derstood, at the time, that this was.mcrelv ::a rough-and-ready arrangement, good ■ enough to make a start upon. f In all likoi:. lihood the district boundaries will bo r«I viewed during tho coming winter. The ? . East district, for one, is regarded by a good many cricketers as too: large, and a »' .little judicious pruning of its area would make for general harmony. In any event a rearrangement of districts, in the light ' of experience gained during the past two i .seasons, should effectually-allay any discontent that has - been aroused by tho past ; operation of >the district scheme, and endow it with a lease of life'.

I "Hats offlo the Springboks!"-. The Sydney "Bulletin" is complimen--1 tary to tho feouth : Africans. . "Hats off to the Springboks," it remarks, "and their health, in a three times three! Plucky opponents who never sot their tails down, sterling fellows !who played the gamo in the face ,of disaster and took their defeats like gentlemen! Good fellows, too; not a breath against them from one end of Australia, to the oliher. May they live long arid have many, sons like unto themselves!' They started their homeward journey.from Sidney'.full of joy over .the trip. Presentations .poured iii on them in the Harbour City, and 2000 sincere admirers turned up to give them a farewell cheer. At Melbourne there ,wcro more presentations and iwro cheers as -Captain Sherwell and his team of good sports and lino: gentlemen hied away to Adelaide.And, test of all, there aro some amoug.'th'em, including tho mighty Faulkner, who threaten to return and scttlo in the'land of tho kangaroo. They are tho sort of men wo want, ai'.d want badly. "Arrived at Adelaide, tho Springboks made mincemeat of the Crow-eaters. ' The Wheatfielders' totals wore 240 (Crawford 57. Hi 11,51) and 100 (Craw-ford -10 not p.jifc).' Tlie Slii'ihgboks made' 292,'. and four wick-: ets fqr;sl, an easy success, with six wickets Their remaining fixture is the picnic at Broken Hill. Tho result of the tour works out at .21-matches played,

11 won] seven lost, and, drawn three. And <~as the treasurer announces that the gate ! receipts' put everything right so far as the guarantee is concerned, everything in . the garden'is, delightful. , "Although oI the five Test matches Australia won ronr, it cannot bo denied that the Snringvoks had much the worse end of the bat as regards weather. Curiously enough, in the only match" where the conditions were equal (J:hc third Test at Adolnido), Australia'was rubbed out by 38 runs. The African captain also won three of the.live fosses, but was generous enough to send tho Kaiigaroos in on. a ■ damp wicket on two of those occasions. "In five matches Australia surrendered. 83 wickets for 317,") runs—an afrcragd' of 41.86. South Africa realised 2779 runs for 100 wickets—an average of 27.79, which makes an average of 11.07 for tho last ■wicket in every innings; Each side had a champion, as Trumner's effort in nine innings brought 6GI runs at an average I ,of 91.42; the highest score was 214 not out. Springbok Faulkner amassed 732 in ten innings—average. 7D.20.'.' Their Unsurpassed Send-off, The, "Eeferee" confirms the verdict, stating, .that. "the South- Africans, on leaving Sydney railway station on Wednesday night, received a . send-off surpassed in heartiness by that given no other international team which has visited Sydney since eleven-aside matches were instituted. Tlioy made themselves highly popular' with everyone. There was n large.gathering at the station, and hearty cheers were exchanged as the train moved off."An English Opinion of "Googlios," An English paper, undor the abovo . heading, thus touches on the experiences ■of the "googlies" in Australia: "-We don't pretend, like the critics, to comment on a game that is being played thousands of miles away from the venue of the 'armchair,' but there is no harm in having a good laugh at our good friends who have been simpering and fretting about the downfall of batting that was to be wrought by the 'googlier' —heaven save tho word, whatever it means. Our modern batsmeu in England have been suffering from 'bhio funk' in the matter of the •googlie.' It has been left to our colonies to show what to do with them. South Africa look a full side of 'googlie,s' to Australia, and in the first Test Bardsley and Clem Hill—rather accomplished left-hand balsmen whom we would be rating with F. M. Lucas and Francis Ford—made over 300 runs off them._ ' "This' work of the great Australian batslnen is something of a satire on our own methods of playing this modern connivance of the 'googlie.' We should have liked to have seen Kriujitsinhii and W.G. in their slim days playing this species of bowling. They would not havo "had any of the silly respect that the modern batsmen after average cult had for the phantom. It is only a phantom! The superstition has ruined the work of various of i England's best bats. Instead of sticking j to his game, a great batsman nowadays i. is looking out for something that most I likely does not appear. Olio heard oniy ]&«,t summer on the old Eton playing fields (or it might have been Agar's Plough) that every college in Oxford and Cambridge had sundry 'googliers,' but that (he scoring in college . cricket had been heavier than usual, : • "1 i our first-class cricketers would only ?o back to tho, old-fasliioried idea of the firm right foot and tho straight bat for the half-volley this silly bogey about tlio man who bowls you a leg-break with an off-break action would soon bo laid. In other days a straight bat and a good wrist covered a multitude of sins. But ivhen you get big cricketers playing back on quick wickets and forsaking their distance and getting all over their stumps and destroying fieir power of wrist play—no wonder these 'googlies' get them caught in the slips «r get them leg-before with a simple straight one. Mr. Herbert Fowler, now greater in golf than ,in cricket, observed the other summer, at Lord's, that the 'googlie' v-\s easily playable for olio's and two's. It'was mere funk to go scraping bark to the ball on quick wickets and then either getting bowled, or being legbefore. 'Hie superstition of the 'googlie' has been splendidly exposed by Mr. .Bardsley and Mr. Clem Hill. Arid for this relief to cricket much thanks."

Actual Experience in Australia. , There is a good deal that is sound in these remarks on modern batting, comi ments the Sydney "Referee." But it will I lie interesting to note how English and I Australian b'atsm'ch will fare against "the

googlies" on English wickets in 1912. The wickets of England and Australia vastly differ, and this difference- will mean something to tho "googlie" bowler. And perhaps tho batsmen of England and Australia differ somewhat in methods. However, we sha.ll see. It is all very-well for men 10,000 miles away to say that tho googlies have failed. A bowler of tho pace of A. E. Vogler cannot bo considered a "googlie.". And if R. O. Schwarz is a googlie, ho and G. A. Faulkner and C. B. Llewellyn are tho bowling successes of this team. Vogler has . suffered from throo distinct injuries to his bowling hand, and these, apart from anything else, are sufficient to account in a ! large measure for a good deal of his disappointing work.

The Limitations of Schwarz.' And all throo are considered "googlies," continues tho "Referee" writer, though I (i-o not regard Schwarz as a true googlib bowlci', even if his off-break is the googlie ball. If he only had the two breaks, a:id were able to bowl the leg-break with tl.le accuracy of tho off-break, he would be', the greatest bowler of. the;, age. -''Vfatch-in.-j Schwarz bowling grandly on the Sydney Ground; one has. time; after time felt tli.lt if he -could-only-ring intone now and .'tin#n to ',turri.;ffie7.othoi'M.'Nv'iiy, the ascendancy of the bat' i Every Australian batsman plays-Schwarz, with thfJ idea firmly fixed in his mind that, no - matter w hat action-tho bowler may go tlu'ongh, the ball will turn only from the off.' Even at the risk of losing his length one has often wished to have seen Schwarz set the batsmen a fresh problem by bringing in the leg-break.

Googlis^Prospects. The googlie has not conquered on this tour, .is how the "Referee" sums up. the position, but it is a mistake to conclude that it has failed. The googlio has been n.sked to do too much. The other South African bowlers have not given the googlie anything liko the assistance essential to the aide's success. J. H. Sinclair has howled well-,-he bowled splendidly against New South Wales. .But it' the South Africans included a good fast bowler and n thoroughly accurate niedium-paeo bowler, the googlies would have had the support the Jack of which has been their misfortune. i Googlies gCiing at both'-.ends on these wickets is not sound tactics, for .it means fast scoring as a rule. Howover, this is South Africa's first visit to Australia. Next time tho combination of bowlers might bo numerically weaker, but much more formidable as an attacking force. .

Junior Championship. ' The 'junior championship games will conclude, on Saturday next. Positions now held by the teams aro'as follow:— ' • — t It If £ J (LX [La Petone 10 9 : 1-26 30 St. Mark's 10 8 2 .21 30 East 10 G I IS 30 Hutt 10 G 4 17 30 Johnsonville 9 5 4 15. 27 Y.M.C.A /. 9 -1 5 12 27 North 9 3 G 9 27 South 10 3 7 9' 30 ■Well." College ... 7 2 5 6 21 Victoria College... 8 2 G G(?) 24 Central G 1 . 5 3 18 Central "withdraw from the competition, and Wellington College did not play during vacation. A match between Y.M.C.A. and Victoria College will conclude to-day. To-day and on Saturday next Wellington College play St. Mark's, Petone play Johnsonville, and Hutt play South. In addition a 'fnatch'will be played to-day between East and North. If a ground can be obtanied the game will be continued next Sfili&rday.

City Third Class Final. There will be worse matches in Wellington to-day than that now beginning betweim the two leading third-class teams— Catliolic Young Men's Club and. Templars. The result cannot chango the 'championship, which must go to tho Catholic Club, but tho match will be keen. Catholic Club have a particularly strong batting side, while on the other hand the Templars' bowlers require a great deal of playing. The Catholic Club bowlers also are very fair, while the samo may be said of Templars' patting. But, in the main, it is a match in which a batting, team .meets one which* is 'strong- in, bowling. That ought to. inako a good : set-tol The positions of the various teams in the grade have not yet been made out. but the three leading elevens stand as follow-.—

1-"; :r s . d $ »*> -jj "Z d £ v° o 2 *"■ P H P (S Catholic Club 18 16 1 1' 37 Templars 18 13 5 0 3i ■Wellington East ... 18 12 5 ■1, 27 Wellington Schools' Championship. Pride of place in the schools' cricket championship has .been nnnexed by the Mount Cook School. This establishment entered two teams, senior and junior, each of which played ten games, and won them all. A' previous report that the Clyde Quay School hail obtained tl;e championship is therefore incorrect; <•