THE WORLD OF SPORT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1657, 25 January 1913, Page 12

THE WORLD OF SPORT.

{JRICKET.

[By the Breaker.]

M'Glrr's Batting Record. /'ln view of MfQirrV sensational performance at Kelburne last Saturday, it is .interesting to glanco back over his batting • record for the season. .. "On the wholo it 13 a story of rise. He Btarted with. a humblo ' duok and his • fijmres since have run: 11, 9 not out, 1/, 4, 105 not out. At the moment M Girr s tverago ; stands at'6l. * l jContrai Capture an Aucklandsr. ' Central Club will have the services for their nert match of that promising young batsman, Jackson, who has/beon in Auckr 'land for .' the greater part -of the season to date. When Jackson was last Been Wo ho appeared to have tho skill and - temperament which fco to malco_a re ,P r ®~ pontative batsman, and ho ehould strengthen an already strong batting side. f'Head Work" In Getting Buns. I .There are many .ways, of getting funs; tut Watson, of East A emploj-ed a novel method on Saturday. Batting: against College he had made a stroke for one and cot to the other end just.as the ball was Toturned, - It Jbit Watson on tlie head and glancing off flew into the outheld. jXJnhurt by tho blow, Watson instantly started out again and his "head work , got him two moro runs. . ... . - ■ . • Saundflrs at His Best.

K 'John ■y. Saunders . : last Saturday that ,h© can .bo a . bit of;&,,nia- • gician . with tho .ball when ho likes. In tho matoh between East A and College at Kelburne .conditions were favourable to good bowling and .Saunders ihado the most of them, ' ■■ ft\So fine an attack /did,he put -up that ibatsmen like'Midlano, and Hickspn were reduced te/soratchiliß.'j'-SaTmdew kept'a good length throughout and, his deliveries • were varied'. His'well-known leg-break • was varied unexpectedly now and then by a ball that turned in sharp from the ;other side of-the wicket,; and gave batspen; a most unwelcome surprise 1

North's Newest Recnuit. ••• 'Manning, a young. Melbourne player Who'has been transferred to tho TJiiion . Company's Wellington offico after, a short • sojourn in Dunedin; has .made a good start for. the North .Club. 110 has only played two innings in Wellington- and -have.; yielded .60 runs. . 1 Parades And SJckness I" Tho idiffioulty .experienced of .late : in Alaoing two junior teams':in tho field eaoh -' . ; :Saturuay t i has forced- the' iNorth ' dlub to -iv-itli3ra-.vone.ot its secoixl-j'rado conibinationa from, the competition. Asked for ' '••••; 'p,' Teason for tho withdrawal .the-,secretary - of the club ireplied briefly :. "Military parades .and.Bickn.es9..", : : . v. leaders In the Thlrd-Geade. • ''' Third-class jteams in .the 5 competition .. havo a habit of failing prery regularly to send in'their;returns of matches won. or ■ 'lost, and from the. incomplete/records ob- -: 1 -tamable it is impossibl6 v to .say how all : v the teams stand in the merit Toll. All ,■ that' can he said, is-that .Brooklyn and . Karon are leading for tho: championship, |! • tind that Petone' are close enough tie to j; imako things interesting. - . fTransforred From Wellington. 7 f JJoddington, who played senlor for the North Club/last .year,is! being transferred from the Wellington office of tho Bank of : Now South: Wales to ijhe . Christchurch branch. . • . A'Friendly -Critic, on our Play and ■ . Grounds. k ■' Sitting on the bank in. one of the city . ' . grounds last Satnrday'"'jSio Breaker" foregathered''with Mr. 0. .8.. Smith, who'was ; wicket-keeper. in the Niew South Wales teaohers' team which re cently toured the - Dominion. At Rotorna '■ Mr. Smith was prostrated, by an attack of appendicitis. He, is now convalescent and will spend a fow'.Cwesks'recuperating and! incidentally casting a friendly, eye upon- the prospects of Now Zealand crickot. Although ho. comes from o . State in [which cricket is the great gaime Mr. Smith as readier with praise than, with criticism of.what he has seen of the summer game on this side of the.Tasman Sea. ' . Ho: wngiders.'that our fcricketors play ' the- game.in a 'particularly^sportsmanlike : way,';. One; of ..the first thiags that. 6trtick him in his early games in this country was that there' waa no. unnecessary ap.pealine to. the umpire. ■ Ho dissents from muoh of' theVoriticism that has been levelled at 'New- Zealand fbatsmm. : v"You : 'lave , : to ,watch- ! tho ball on . he 'said., "The New ' ■ iZoaland •,wickets.'hav.O i too many -paces j itho ball does not come straight through. (If your latesmen got on to the true wick- • - ots that we have in New South Wales they would soon open out. Tho soil here . does not 1 lend.itself to.the making of wickets." . Mr. Smith went on to describe the Bulli . soil wickets of New, South Wales, hard as table and as trae. It 'is just possible, however, that if ho had seen the wickets made by Saunders,on tho Ba.sin .Eeserve , > ibefore it underwent its recent overhauling ■lio might-have found'reason, to modify to • . some extent his opinion of New -Zealand . .wickets. ■ ■■ - ■ Thero is Something to he eaid, too, for the view that a batsman (foes wisely to . ittidopt aggressive tactics wheal tho wicket -; ■Ha playing, against him" and to play cau--tlously. on the ..best .wickets wihero . his skill V- ' will bo duly rewarded. At Kelburne, no longer ago. than last Saturday, expert .batsnlen 'like '■ and Gibbes, played cautiously, and went out ...cheaply, while'M'Giny wielding a 'prentice :,bat By comparison, hit out .valiantly at everything that came to him and topped tho century. Impressions of Our "Out" Cricket. ■•Now Zealand bowlers, Mr. Smith oon- ■ aiders, give a very good account of them- ■: eelves and remarked that very few visiting teams compilo extraordinary , scores. ' .. As fieldsmen, also, he cocsiders that New Zealauders stand well. They are at their worst, he said, iji returning the ball to the; wicket. - A thing he has noticed ■ ia that-msny New. Zealand wicket-keepers and fieldsmen return tho ball to. the bowJor in. a.slovenly way so that he is compelled to stoop to Recover it. Anyone who iti familiar with' flew Zealand crickot will agree that tho comment as just. To pick up a ball from' the ground now and then involves only a trifling expenditure of eaioTgy,, but-when n bowler ■has to keep on doing it time after time it ( takes a lot out of him. Sydney," Air. Smith remarked, 'every .wicket-keeper picks up the ball nnd .returns it to -tho bowler 'on the ■ full/ ' ■' v'--. A Picture of' Cricket As It Might Bs. Tho way in which cricket is managed in, Ne w: Sputh Wales (as Mr. Smith) suggests . amongst other ■ things that-tho local authority can easily do more for the advancement'of cricket-than it shows 'any inclination to do in Wel- - lingtoh<;V ■ '• , .

Tho game, of course, is better played in New South Wales, and, even apart from .international games, 1b infinitely more productive of "gates," but withal, tho local-bodies are wonderfully helpful. Tlio--thirteen;isenior clubs which enjoy representation upon the New South Wales' ..Association-.aia all comfortably provided with grounds.. In a majority of cases tho local, authority makes wickets, provides the necessary improvements, and employs a .caretaker, reimbursing itself for tlio/expenditure involved by taking tho!"gate".for.the'season. - The clnb. under this arrangement. obtains revenue irorii/-members' subscriptions. The .Central''.Cumberland Club, to which Mr. Smith belongs, is on a different footinc.f -it rents a strqnnd from trustees, in whom it'i.S vested,oti;beJialf of tho pnb r li?." nt : an, annual I 'rental ,/• The MiiliUia*'inipi-nVsmonts -and plant oil the' . •»r"Ui!il- tn figgrecrate,-value .of about •Wiwa.-i T.nst .year ft litid" a rovemie of .SHi'Vand after nieo';:irig all expenses for tlm «round< in order, carina ■ o

'& WEEKLY RECORD OP SPORTS AND OTHER PASTIMES.

caretaker,. and spending a considerable sum "on plant, it concluded the season with a balance of JMO.

Where the Money Goes In the Great ~ ''Ma" State.

New South Wales cricket has a revenue calculated to make a Noiv- Zealander's mouth .water. ; International .games provide a rich harvest in "gates." Tho Now South Wales Association cleared some £2000 from the games with South Africa, and as much from the last English visit, About iEISOO of this amount has been spent, and tho bnlanoo will carry on the association until the next sorie3 of international games arrives to rofurnish tho exchequer. Being thus liberally provided for, the association extracts no affiliation fee from its component clubs and Bub-associations. A portion of its revenue is spent in enoouraging cricket in the country districts. A special committee of the association deals with applications from tho country clubs, and makos recommendations •to tho parent body. Grants usually of about ,£25 aro made to clubs. willing to' put down turf wickets, and,, in some cases loans for larger amounts are mado to the country clubs at low rates of interest.

Mr, Smith is a delegate'from his club to the association, and is also a member of the Country Committee. Country cricket is assisted in other ways than financially.' One or'other of the Sydney clubs has,a bye every week in the grade games, and sends an eleven into a country district to meet a local eleven.

■ From Mr. Smith's account, outside associations, as a thorn in the flesh, seem to be unknown in New South Wales. Nearly all the junior associations are affiliated with the New South Wales Association, and where they are not it is usually because they are situated in districts 'remote from, tho capital. The position'of affairs is illustrated by the following littlo incident. The Broken Hill club recently applied for a, wicket-grant; . The application was refused, not because Broken Hill is outside the association—a scrape of the pen would have rectified. that—but because Broken Hill .has ho prospect of putting down a turf wicket. . Alpe Behind the Stumps. An interesting feature of the 'Wellington Wednesday representatives' match against Trott's South Melbourne cricket.ers was the wicket-keeping of Alpe. The wee caretaker of the stumps was in excellent form, and during the first innings, of the visitors not one "extra" went ta their credit. .This fact, of course, does not conclusively prove that. Alpe's keeping was good; but it is very strong circumstantial evidence in that direction. Wellington cricket' followers will remember the story yf the southern wicketkeeperwho wag-lavishly praised for allowing only five extras to a former Australian .team, and against whom , it was said by. the men from , across the water that they only missed five balls all day. No similar argument applies in Alpe'a case. Ho stopped many a ball /that' a less alert or less nimble 'keeper would have iet goi Of course, he was not facing any fast bowler. , His catch which dismissed M'Cormack" was ; a smart one, and altogether his performance on Wednesday was one of the best seen on the ground. Smiter Robinson. Only one thing worth writing. about arises out of the Central-East B match. That is Robinson's batting. On. more than one occasion this season the extensive Central "express" has shown that he can bat. ' , . . The mqst, notable, occasion.' was;: when -he proved to be an' oasis in the desert whioh Wellington sent to Auckland. He has a. tendency to turn on his "peat occasions" when the orack bats fail.

This applied last Saturday. The Central batsmen wero going down fast before the East B attack. When "Robbie" went to:adorn tho crease six wickets had fallen' for G9'runs. The big fallow stayed the rot by collaring the .bowling, and banging it morciiessly all over the paddock. Before the seventh wicket went down 125 were np. Robinson's total was 57, and to get these he gave as fine -an exhibition of big -hitting as one could wish to see. ■ Victoria' College in Christchurch. ' In their match against Canterbury College, in Christchnrch this week, Victoria College made 126, in their first innings. Of these, Howe contributed 48 and Caddick 31. {Canterbury College's opening innings yielded 262. On going to the crease, again 1 the Wellington men did ex-ceptionally-.well, and for a loss of seven wickets knocked up 332 runs. Broad made 134 of these, Howe 54, Dempsev 50, and Birch 48. Broad played a stubborn innings, in which the defensive work> was unusually good. Ho was past the cen; tury boforo he gave a chance. _ .When the . Wejlingtonians "declared" in their second-.innings,'Canterbury needed 189 runs *for a win. They lashed out at everything, and in the G5 minutes at their disposal scored 10C at . a cost of ono wicket. The match was • drawn. Father M'Menamin—Batsman. The Rev. Father M'Menamin, who has donned the flannels for Petone, is an old Hutt bov, and: five played cricket for the old Wiiiwetu Club some fifteen years ago. Since that time ho has played off and on, but not in the senior grade until this season. His S2..agaiast North last week was eot in free stylo and without a chance. "Fred" Laws eventually lowered his wicket with a beautiful ball. Treaoar—First Class Fieldsman. !"Bert" Tregear seems to be the finest • Petone has got at present. This season he has brought off some brilliant catches, but none to equal his dismissal of Burton last Saturday. Burton swiped one'nearly to tho boundary and Tregear ran at top speed for 30 yards, timed the ball with preoision, and finally got to it. It,was a magnificent effort and, was loudly applauded. 1 Petone and South Match. Burton gave a capital showing with the bat for south last Saturday. At first he aDpeared to bo uncomfortable, but after the first over or two he settled down and: played himself in with great cricket. Fenton, Sontli's well-known bowler, was a thorn in the flesh to timid batsmen and there are a. few at Petone. In fnct, there wero only three who cared to have a "bang.",- Laws also retired with' a good average. Cate, tho Petone skipper/ is a fine club man and a reliable bat. His ono trouble is that he does not bat early enough.