CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1342, 20 January 1912, Page 12

CRICKET.

v . [Bi THJ Beeucgs.]

HOME MATCHES AND OTHERS, . Resin Used by Bowlers. Rather surprising is tho newa whioli 'has just oome through that two of tho . Australian bowlers—llordoru and Kelleway—had been using resin in tho last Test Match, presumably with tho aim of getting a bigger spin on tho ball. It •certainly does ' not look sportsmanlike. Tho miter remembors a New Zealand bowler who, ono Saturday, doveloped an ■ astonishing off break with a big lack off the wicket. As tho day. woto on it was noticed that tho ball was becoming very sticky, and, at length, ono of tho batsmen called tho attention of tho umpires to tho matter. Play was stopped, and it was then discovered that the bowler had armod himself with a small packet of adhesive material. This ho had been applying to tho foro and middle fingers oi his bowling hand—a protty practice, indeed! Tho umpires stopped it. Officials; Attention I Finding fault is tho cheapest occupation on earth, and this note is not intended that way, but rattier as a suggestion made as pleasantly as possiMo. It is not often that on emergency weather occasion, such as that on Saturday arises. It began to rain heavily about noon, and partially cleared aboat cricket time, though tho clouds, still looked like raining moro. Tho ground, in the opinion of tho umpires, was iitj and tho weather was fit, but where wero the teams? In fiorao cases the muster was vcqy small, and other teams with greater musters might havo claimed their respective matches. But no captain cares to do that. Would it not be better, if some responsible- official of the association _ assumed chargo in these emergency situations, and said definitely what should bo done? Saturday's Bumpy Patch. The thing which seems to (have most surprised, the players on the Basin Heservo on Saturday' was the pu.szling wicket. An hour or two before the time fixed for the commencement of play rain fell. From then.' on tho afternoon was showery, but it was. the general impression that tho w«t would, at least, not' affect tho pitch for the worse. However, the wickot bumped and kicked. Tho ball often rose waist high, and occasionally reared to the level of a batsman's head. Central's. Promoted ColtsOno would have liked to Geo the two young players who pioneered Central's innings make a few, but it was not to be. Unluckily the ordoal of tlie wicket wag considerable, and' t'icry went soon. Some of the hypercritical blamed Claude Hickson for sanding them in to open tho innings, but the /Central' captain.. was undoubtedly rigit. Hirst -wicket ; is a capital place for colts,' as it obviates the nervousness which is apt to grow..when one has to wait and wait for his turn to go' ■ in. It was ; Dr. . W. G. Grace who ..first stated this-, point, and all experienced cricketers know it. '' .Why' Did He Not Walt? , Quite a. peculiar, incident, teippened at the commencement of tho u>Jlego-Contrai match. One of tho Colfegians smote Bragge uppii&ly to mid-on. Tho fieldsman snapped the ball low diowal near tho grass, and, next instant, he half lost it, but contact with the turf pot it back in his hands again. Was he oat? That was for the /umpire to (lecidej, but, apparently, did not {wait for a decision—ho, Just walked awayi. "Didn't y oi; .decision i?: said/someone as he reached' the pavilion. "No," eaid the batsman. But it would hayeibeen better if he. had. ' Jwo Good; Efforts afiho Bnsito. It' was a Spotty performance—that match; between Central <}nd College. Beechey, and Berendsen, Salknond, Saunders, ' alnd Dickson, were t(right spots; others only shone with dimiiSshed lustre. Some of BeeoheyY driving was grand, and Berendsen, at the stiiiks, was as smart as an acrobat. Ho iStamped one batsman like a flash, of lightilring, and off a fant-medium ball, too. I Strangely enough Central firo not doing .very well against College, bat it will be etranger still if to-day's play does not reverse the position. The .game should fbe one-worth , watching. r Every Ball Tore off Turf. Questionable was' the division of the i,umpircsl at Hntt to, go on with plar on (Saturday! and, no doubt, .they realised lit when She, proper; state pf the wicket nbecame apparent. The. conditions were (Bueh that tlie play iraa no leal trial between the tvo teams (East A and Hutt) jand the net liJsult of fine umfpires 1 opinion (was that an .axcelleat. wicket was somol.what destroyed. I . Splashes and insecure > foothold did not, tin fact, prejudice the l&ttiag side very bariously as tiling* tarnjed out, but this frwaa due solely to the .extreme caution, pnised, perhaps, with a sjvico of good luck, Krf the men- at the wickets. Every ball tore off a piece of turf asi it -pitched and frtid straight;, through faitly fast in a .most disconcerting way, arWl, but for the rfact" that the' bowlers simtpty could not (get foothold to deliver a ijail, could not [even hold the greasy swoftttai leather, the •batamen nrast hare had a flying time The latter planted their y feet deeply >and firmly in the black npud in taking jtheir stand, and in that frame position [they had to play every ball. Footwork icf any sort was out of the question. I For Oris reason it seen led that the fHntt trundlera mads an tjrror of judgment in not seading up m<»re slow stuff. It would have been quite impossible to wnnsh it by going to meet itt, and if slow bowling must be waited foi;> it is always the most pruzding-..t0 time .and to score irom. TTlre Cotrtlnuow Runkof Glbliet. Gibbes added furtbta to hisi almost con)tmuiou3 ran of batting successes Jfor the season by m kilting ffl not ont, Jand it was very hard \\o makla 82 on that ground. So dead and slow was the turf that big hits could lx!>, left ont of the Bowlers' reckoning, and .not a single man iwas placed in the c. yun.try. Mighty -cracks which would be \certain fours on hny ordinary day produced only singles iond twos, partly because! tho ball would hot run, and partly becaiiso the batsmen •could make no pace between the wicket. Once or fcwioo, however, 'CHbbes got the ifaco of tho bat fairly on} to the ball, and counted boundaries. | Mostly these shots came.from pulls in front of square(leg and cuts behind oovot. Hickson batted practically-: all tho afternoon for 55—a sturdy tletfensivo in- • :iiings. His scoring pace wast slower than Gibbes's, but ho never gavo a.dmnca .■until ha made a mistake ab<»ut tho pace of ono from Prirglo, and was-'BkLttled. Bowles was boiled off his-jiads after, being somewhat nneasy on itto wicket, the real 'character of which, was not discovered when he went in. ' Midla.no threw his wickct away through an attempt to draw a good length ;baU. , It is a stroke he'has been trying too often, and failing too consistently .with, this spaeon. ■ Geo. Gunn's Curious Baiting. George Guim's batting whetn opposed to slow bowling is touched upon by P. R. I/; Contour in "Cricket" in tho following terms:—"lt is important to tho side that Cleorge Giinrl lias strnck fonn. ' He is perhaps the most interesting batsman in England. To a slow bowler ho is the most interesting. His unorthodox habit of coolly walking down tho pitch and covering the wicket whale the bowler is pt.i.ll in (lie act of delivering tho ball, is disconcerting. Jlany batsmen attempt it. but few succeed as he does. It results in a curious division of tho bowler's attention, with a bad effect as n rule upon liia length. Tho fast full-toss at the body, which ho usuali.v attempts on such occasions, ssoms tn have no effect upon him, and goes to leg for four. I Iwlieve that he is tho batsman oil tho English side meet to be relied upon for breaking up llordern's length, if the left-handers are not allowed by thoir opnonents to do so." The Svdaev "Reforoo" says that so far the English toft-bonders have not had the

best of their contest with Dr. Hordern, and that, too, without his having had any great assistanoe from tho othetr bowlers. George Gunn tried the walkingtactics, _ the paper adds, and got a few runs in the first lest Match; but tliero ( was little to suggest . that it would bo either regularly di«;oncertiiig to the. bowler or successful tor tho batsman. Our Shield Challenge. In commenting on the - action of the Wellington Cricket Association in challenging Canterbury to a Plunket match for January 2(j, the "Weekly Press"' says:—'lVo - months or so ago, Auckland arranged a tour, the match with Canterbury to to a Plunket Shield match, provided that in the meantime Otago did not take the shield. The niatch was to bo started on February 9, if it was a shield niatch. After the CanterburyOtago match, tho date was made a fixture, so that there is a possibility that .Auckland's desire to make tho first match; of their to.ur a Shield match may be unset. According to tho Plunket Shield rules, Wellington wore quite within their rights in challenging, and those rules left Canterbury littlo option but to accept. The "Press" continuesTho Canterbury Association could, of course, have replied that the notice was too short, and so have turned the challenge down, at any rate until after the Auckland match. Tho matter would then havo boon referred to tho New Zealand Cricket Council, and though that body would probably havo uphold Canterbury, \it would probably nave cansed a certain amount of ill-feeling between Wellington and Canterbury, and left the. latter association under the charge of being "cocktail." However, there is a good deal of disappointment that tho next Plunket Shield match is not to be with Auckland, and in many quarters Wellington's action is classed a 9 unsportsmanlike, seeing that (hoy have challenged for dates only a fortnight earlier than the match with Auckland, which had been fixed for some time. Tho Plunket Shield rules could with advantage bo elaborated in the matter of stipulating the amount of notice necessary for a challenge, and liking a niiniinam poriod of time that must elapse, between • any two Shield matches. Arthur Sims, of Christchurch, left New Zealand yesterday on a trip to the Old Country, and will be absent for about two years. He will be a loss to Canterbury cricket, and will be missed even more by the East Christchurch Cricket Club. One has to go back 15 years (says an exchange) to find a Test match in which. Clem Hill did less with the bat. In 1596 when he was but 18 years old, he scored 1 and 0 at Kennington Oval; now, in 1911, he makes -1 and 0, after two fino innings in the Sydney match. The ups and downs in, crickct are over with us. Clem has a remarkable Test match record on his native heath at Adelaide, for ho has there scored SI, OS, 97, 83, 16, 5, and ICO against England. C. D. B. Wright (says the "Arrow") has had six innings with Sydney District second eleven this season, and been given out l.b.w. in each one. This has the sound of a world's record. . Does anyono know of anything like it ? Who Was the Best Captain? Roger Hartigan, who went to England with the last Australian eleven, has been giving Brisbane people some of his views through tho medium of the "Daily Mail," and this is one of them"There was ono very important point which impressed itself on my mind, and I think that most poople in Australia will think the same before long. I refer to the, captaincy of the team, and with all duo respect and deference to Hill, Australia, badly needs Noble; ,1 Raid .once before in my notes that-I.'.considered tbat;.Hill was not the man to lead Australia, for he. has not tho proper disposition. And now I re- . peat that .the Australian team would be a 25 per cent, better combination if Noble was in ■ charge. . . "Had ho been captain in Sydney, do you think that these, fieldsmen of ours would have slacked it, and that they would have been fielding in so many different places? Not for a moment. Thero is something about Noble as a captain which makes every man playing with him put forth every ounce that is in him. It is simply his personality, and tho confidence he inspires in those whom ho is leading is ono of the greatest factors in the success which attends liim on practically every- occasion. "A test team is like lots of other bodies —composed of different units with different dispositions—it requires a longheaded aqtl tactful man to get the best results. Some of the mon, I know, take a bit of handling, but Noble could always manage them." Tho Test Selectors. The selection of tho Australian team for the third Test match doea not appear to have been carried out with the friendliness essential to thorough success in such a matter., A wire from Melbourne is to this effect: "It is stated that C. Hill, as one of tho selectors, was specially deputed to watch the play of C. G. Macartney, W. J. Whitfcy, and It. B. Minnett, each of whom has some chance of being excluded in favour of J. Matthews, the Victorian. Mr. Hill in his wire to Mr, M'Alistor suggests that he and Mr. Armstrong should select the Australian team, ignoring the New South Wales selector, Mr. F. A. iTedale, who did not go over to Adelaide. This, however, Mr. M'Alister would not agree to." There, turely is something wrong with this message. Apart from the want of authority in Mr. Hill sending such a message to .Melbourne, the reasoning is bad. If Mr. Iredale should be ignored because "he did not go to Adelaide," Mr. M'Alister should be ignored for the same reason, and, of course, tho same argument and othora would pat Mr. Armstrong out of court. , Barnes Beats, the Bat. A scribe in tho Sydney "Befereo" writes of the second Test match: "Within the memory of the writer, no finer exhibition of acourato mcdium-paced bowling has ever been seen in Melbonrne in a big match. Without assistance from the wind, tho Staffordshire crack made the ball swing away 'to tho off to an extent that completely baffled tho batsmen. When tho ball struck the pitch, as a rule it went away still further with the leg spin, but every now and then, without apparent .change of action, Uarnes alternated a beautiful break-back that had tho Australian cracks on the guess stakes. With such a trimmer ho dismissed Hill, the ball pitching between the leg and middlo and knocking the off peg back. Bight at the outset of Trumpets innings an off-break just shaved the off stump. Barnes dominated the plav before lunch, and had the Australians literally, as well as metaphorically, in the hollow of his hand. Thdre was not the faintest scintilla of luck about the performance. After tho intorval the Australians did better, Hansford showing a roturn to his elegant fonn, and Hordern rising to tho occasion with cool and sound crickct. It only seems neccssary for the doctor to set his mind on a thing to achieve success, and after to-day's performance he must bo nearly tho greatest potentiality in Australian cricket. Old Jack Blackham said on Saturday that he would have loved to keep wickets for Hordern when in the prince's form of a quarter of a century ago, when the 'wrong 'nn' was an unexplored field. What a combination! Hordern bowling, Blsickham at the wickots, with tho signal working! Fostor bowled well,''but was completely overshadowed by the professional. The English performance in dismissing the flower of Australian batting for 184 on a perfect wickot, will livo long in tho annals of cricket. Australia's grip on the 'Ashes' cannot bo too firm if the tall Staffordshire bowler is capablo of often rising to such a pinnaclo of trundling. 'Angels and ministers of grace defond us" from a repetition. Although ho fell away comparatively after lunch, 38 runs being . scored off hi in without securing a wicket, his figures of 23 overs, !) maidens, 41 runs, and five wickets will rank amongst flio greatest achievements iu Test cricket." Clearance of Stock of best makes of Cricket Bate, at heavy reductions. Kslate of late George Denton, 58 Willis Street.— \dvt. |