CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1289, 18 November 1911, Page 12

CRICKET.

[Bt Thb Bkeakee.l EAST'S FIGHT AGAINST TIME, Is There a Trial Ball?

Peculiar enough was an incident which happened in tho Oriental-Rivals match on Wednesday. Rivals sent in their pioneer duo and, oftor tho usual preliminaries, ono of them took guard, and faced tho bowling. First ball, ono of Gonrlay's ."expresses" swept through under his bat dud scattered tlio stumps. No ono said Anything, and tho batsman (although it is stated that he had nsked for "trial ball") left tho wickets. Was ho ont? It seoms that he was. Tho interesting point was Teferrcd to Saundcra by the writer, and tho ex-Anstralian states that, in cricket on his sido of the walor, tho time-honoured "play ball" is very much like tho crinolines which ladies used to wear in the mid-Victorian age-it is quite out of date. Tho umpire. meToly gives tho batsman block, calls "Play!" and thero is no othet preliminary.

Peculiar Ball Indeed. It was a strange-enough ball with which Lambert (North) sent Beechey back to tho pavilion on Saturday. He seems to have put a bit of spin on it, but' tho cross wind caught it in its flight, and it eworved across, from tho log stump to tho jff, while it was still in the air., Ihen, touching tho turf, it took the spin and broke back again, knocking down tho leg wicket. This bit ,of "boomeranpr bowlin" soems liko a Do Rougemont story, but it ia truo enough. Beechey stated afterwards that he had never seen anything liko it in his cricket experience. Findlay Leaves for the North. The "North's express" bowler has left by the north express for Auckland, where lie intends to assist his father (bir John ■i'indlny) in bowling out political opponents. "Of course he can hardly expect Tltn Dominion to wish him anything other than a very bad "average,' but thai is by the way. Findlay left on Wednesday, and will be away for about a month, during which time-his side will jniss his services very much. !A Pleasant Note re Blacklock. Every follower of cricket will be pleased to hear that .T. 1 , . Blacklock is soon to "rejoin his regiment," as tho military people have it, and will probably bo playing for North on Saturday next. He has ntiw almost recovered from an attack of tho sciatica, and his usual exhibitions ■of free, fearless batting are looked forward to with, pleasure. This year Blacklock is club captain for North, Crombie being field captain of tho first eleven. ■Good Men in tho Run Factory. Attention has already been attracted, ■this season by the batting of Joplin of the senior Wellington College eleven. Sq far as things havo gone, ho has figured in three matches and, in two of these, he lias topped tho century. The majority of crickoters never wear tho centurions crown in their whcJo career. Another batsman., whoso doings often nttracl interest, is. Warne of the. Union (Wednesday) team. On certain kinds of wicket, Warno seems to be tho hardest of men to "dig out." He is at present in tho middle of one of his long scores. Union ought to prove a hard team to put down in tbe Wednesday competition this season. They have a lonij array of batsmen in their cloven, and, in, Harris, they also appear to possess a capital slow howter. He bowls with a very fair curl from log, and controls his.length better?, than many 6low ■ bowfers do. t*iil, I ;.- ■ ■ •■ (They Called it a Match. S stands for eteadineSs, T for "Treat 'em carefully," A for "All dangerous on<?s blocked," P for patience, L for "let offballs alone," E for nothing in particular, nnd S for steadiness pnee more. When the capitals are all joined up the legend poems to read: S-T-A-P-L-E-S?—that very f»ood aggregator of runs who gave jnst the faintest tingo of interest to rheshockingly tame Hutt-South encounter—he and Isherwood. Otherwise the match was nil very like Fronde's celebrated story of the Melbonrno Cup. On a notablo occasion Froudo was chartered up bv tho Melbourne "Argus" to "do Bompthing" about tho Cup, nnd promptly gavo tho "ArguS" two columns about the ladies dresses, the icones and fights, tho bawling of (ho bookmakers, the forlorn person who had played "the sport" all day, and had- no ticket on which to get homo from Flemjngton. Then the-great-literary artist, Fronde, addressing himself to the main RUbjpcl in tho last lino and a half, naively said: "I beliovo there were also some Tacos that day." ' •

On Saturday the gulls were flying over Somes Islet, the trout were jumping head and shoulders out of the river, the squalid I'tAurban trains, with the. cheap tank enf.'ines, were running the present suburban ■ service, and the bush was, growing, on the. mountains and —there was also some cricket between Sonth and Hutt. Perhaps that part of the scenery had better not be followed up 100 far. Indeed' it will .not—tho Hutt match is sawn , off here with one last note of respect' to Staples and Isherwood.

What About Schmoll? Apropos of the possible obliteration of lht> Wellington &mth Club for its sins, alleged or otherwise (tho case is snb jildico), a point of some- interest arises. 'I'lte association has stated that if Sonth terminates its affiliation its members will not bo permitted to join other district clubs. In that event the services of Schmoll as a representative wicket-keeper will bo lost. It is, to say tho least, an <ipen question whether Wellington enn nfFord to lose him in that capacity. TheTo ore other men in the South Club, Grace and Fenton among the number, who ivould be a decided los 3.

East Pitted Against tho Clock. Of course tliero h.-is really been only one topic this wock among cricketers, end that topic has been the effort put forward by East A against a brace of enemies—Petono ami tho clock. When the match was drawing to a close nn the Petone oval every oho caught liis breath with pardonab'.o excitelnonf. Jnst at tho last, when the ultimate l'etono batsman was coming in to tako strike to tluit beautiful ordeal —Hickey andGibbos—Dalploish. tho Petone captain, exercised his undoubted right to claim the customary two minutes , 'interval. Tucker protested; Ws watch showed a half minute to spare. A consultation between the umpires and captains resulted in a deadlock—two being for and two against. After a little argument, Eaat began to fib off tho field, and there was no farther development. It was a great fight, for East, and' a moral victory. It might, of course, have .ehowrai what is called "real sportsmanship" if luul sent the last man in, but Dalgleish is an old cricketer, and it is hard to resist tho feeling that his action was other than right. He did just what any experienced skipper would and should have done.

.The Play—Mahoney's Century. "Jack" Mahonoy had a day ont. His score of 103 was pot mostly by splendid loff hits and cuts, but ho began to "bang them through" with drives as his innings progressed. Strange to say, ho got rery fow boundaries, although tho outfield was fast. Brico's bowling seemod to suit him, and, a ooutilo of times he sent the Petone man to the asphalt. In tho courso of his bi£ innings he gavo four chances—on«, to Hardham, whon ho was 97, and this should never havo been missed. His drives had tons of steam behind tlmm, and he kept tho field busy nntil he made tlio lust fatal mishit over his head, and Nuiin got him. All through his master stroko was tho cut, w<l. up till 80, his rate of scoring was rapid. This was apparently due to having the field placed too t !o?c in. Brice, who was unavoidably lato. took up tho bowling at tin's stago, and itninpdinlply placed thf> field in wider posil.ions. This Steadied Mahoney's gn.it. Of tho others Baker nnd Ilickey, tho two Inst nwn in, uiado things boom for a time. Grimmett is a batsman .who is

somowTiat deceiving. Ho lias a pcmilim stylo at tho wickets, which. gives ono tho impression that lio is going out witli ovory straight ball. Ho mnkrs run*, however, aild plnc-PS well. Hiekson wiu "a bit like old times,' and played tho bowling with ease. ... ~ M'Kenzio was best for Petono with (ho ball, and was responsible lor Uio relirenioat of four Rood bats. He. sont in soino really puzzling stuff-medium pace, and of a splendid length, with a bit of a swerve from log. . . Niinu, Petono's slow leg-breaker, got Hit about a bit. but. finished with u fair average. . "Stan" Brico kept tho rims down, but did not add to his average. Owing to tho deadly trundling ™ Gibbes and Hiekoy, and tho smart fielding of East, something suspiciously lilco a "rot" set in among Potono in their second tnrr. with the bat. CornoLl was tho only man who appeared to play with any degree of confidence. Qaken all round the match speaks eloquently enough of thoso'two "big chires, Hickey and Gibbes, who camo back with qiuto a lot of scalps added to the big collection which already dangles from their bolts. , , , Bait must bo congratulated on their fielding, which was-perfect in orery department. Tho same cannot be said about thoir opponents,' who wore slack, and apparently had little consideration for tho oowlers' averages. ■ A word of advico to the PetonOj team may not be amiss. Somo of thorn are at present inclined to quarrel with their best players—players who will bs probably the means of winning matches for them. This should be avoided. Being only newly appointed to senior ranks, petty wrangling will do no good.

The English at Adelaide, Talking over ths arrival of the English cricketers at Adelaide tho Sydney "Bulletin" remarks that they commenced practice on tho afternoon of arrival, having first imbibed the cup of welcome. The cup of welcome, says the "Bulletin," is not a good thing to practise on, but, apparently, they were anxious to, get rid of their sea legs,' and waded in with eommendnble promptitude. Warner is accompanied by his wifo and two children, so what with looking after them, running his team, and keeping up his end as a talker, tho captain is in for a busy time. Of course, it is quite possible that the wifo and two children will look afier him, and soothe his troubled brow when the bowling gees wrong and tho batting starts to rot. Things are not Always what they seem. .r ; Shocking College Effort. Should College be seniors? ( Not on form. On Saturday they gave the most hapless display of fielding that hag l>een seen on the Basin for years. It was tlio record "bod exhibition." Kast B may be worth a good many runs, but not nearly so many as they got, nnd their best scoring man was missed time after time.

Typical■ was the case of a.student who stepped back from :a" very: legitimate catch, and took it on the hop. His idea was to savo runs by making sure of the ball. That student ought to bend his solo energies to double refraction, interference, and polarisation of light, or apy other caper in physics. Cricket has no uso for him. _ _

On the day the- luck favoured East B, inasmuch as'they got the best of the conditions, but, oven, so, the.v ! seemed to tower right abore College. College's business was attack, and the sample they trotted out va? not nt all up to market requirements. Sounders bowled well, but his assault would have been many per cent, mors effective had tho team been abler to ring tho changes. However, the Australian carried the burden of the side, axxl carried it creditably. Important Nsw Device Coming. This brings us to a point where one feels inclined to act the part of the irate parent towards the College boy. Thero jdoesn't.seem to be any reason why College refuted the-catches the/batsmon pent along. As far as could be seen at the time tho batsmen .were 'quite within: the bounds of etiquette. They did not seek an unfair advantage by smiting unreasonably Imrd, and they gave every intimation that they were about to aim at tho heavens. Tho only omission appears to have been that they did not nnme tho particular fieldsmen to whom the Jjall was going. Beyond this, no blamo is attachable to the. batsmen. While on this point it should bo stated that College intend to protest against the association's proposal to buy a patent scoring device, and Tiave substituted a decision to obtain a prevention-of-scoring- . device specially invented to catch criokot balls, bo badly directed by the batsmen that they travel more than an arm's length from where the fieldsman is stationed. It would be decidedly child-like and friviloiis for grown-up fieldsmen to go bounding and frolicking about the paddock after a ball, and as the machine would do away with the possibility of such unedifying sichts, it is sincerely hoped that, in the interests of botli tho spectators oiul the player?, it will be procured as speedily as possible.

Prehistoric Ideas on Fielding, If tho day lias passed when cricketers do not think it out of place to make an attempt to reach a ball which is making no attempt to roach them, the lav? has not yot been made public, and players who do- not object to the ridicule tho spectators are sure to hurl at them if they become undignified, and move about otherwise than sedately, will have to keep, very careful guard upon their impulses, lost somo uncontrollable- and mistaken enthusiasm prompts them to lapse into an unpardonable breach of tho new otiquotto, and go.chasing boyishly after the ball. Everyone knows that tho prehistoric ideas about tho duties of fieldsmen are dead beyond recall. Everyone knows that tho modern interpretation of fieldsman is u man who is employed to stand at attention at a givou yoint in the same section a.s that on which tho gamo is being conducted, who is to place his hands by his sides, stiffen Ids back, hold his head erect, and provido diversion during the change of bowlers by moving theatrically from one position to an"other. At the afternoon tea adjournment tho fieldsmen go in with the players.

.Several prehistoric authorities, notably Dr. W. G. Grace, used to get very angry if fieldsmen dropped catches.' Several of these misguided people would have gone raving mad had they seen the dignified College players refuse en principle to have anything to do with the ball on Saturday. Had Grace been Saunders ho would have ejected several of these players —beg pardon, fieldsmen—from the ground and gone on with the affair without them. Grace even held with tho idea that to bo a thoroughly good fieldsman one must not wait till tho ball drops to calculate where it is going, bnt must , find that out, approximately, when the ball is struck, and get there when the sphere arrives. Howovcr, lots all do all we can to get that machine.

For the First Time—Clean Bowled I ■ Until Saturday last, tho fiev. E. 0. lilamires had never had the of being clean bowled in- Wellington cricket, but on Saturday he-was out in that manner to Findlay. On one occasion last season, the rev. gentleman was I<owlcd oft his pads, but mostly ho has been out to a catch. North's Day Out. Having lost the services of Mason, Laws, and Hawthorne, the Central Club 'lacks variety in bowling this season. That was very apparent on Saturday, when the two North batsmen, Crombie and Wynyanl, got going, and the" position 'was made worse by tho absence of C. Hickson. On last Saturday's play, it looks as if Central was lucky to win its first match. Wonderful How the Luck Runs, It is wonderful how tho luck runs at times. F. O'Siillivan had been fielding very poorly during tho Central inning; fin Saturday, and on a number of occasions the bnll slipped through his hands to the boundary. At tho close of the innings, however, a catch camo his way off Lnckib's bowling, mid he accepted it in quite an off-hand manner. Ho could scarcely have mis.<ed it, but' everyone seemed to expect that he would.

CloaTanco of Stock of best makes of Crickot Bats, at he.ivy reductions. Estate of late Oeorgo Donton, 58 Willis Street.— Adrt.