CRICKET.
[By the Breaker.]
He Went, he Saw. Among those who returned from Australia by- tlifv Willochra this week ivas Mr;.: Frank.'W'illiains,, who was at', one haa a.-quiekioye for the'points'"of" tho game,'.. , and.he had something; of interest to. stty "conceniiug the match at Melbourne. -What struck ,him at. once was the way in wjiich 'the Melbourne .crowd , "chivvy"-'the. players. Almost: every the ladies—understands the.'gamo'fi'om Alpha, to Omega. ''To _ sit tandSiereLviji'steii^.isJCshysi.^lr.: don't thej\;rubxifc*inf,q:Ahe'players!;;ln the mateh ; yictoria--V. i: South Australia Armstrong mado a bit of a. score in . the first innings and was hailed as a '. hero. When he came out to field he was .a bit. sjow and tho crowd hooted and jeered him. In the'second innings, -'however, he made 'another score—and/? at once, the Melbourne crowd took him* to its heart again. ... "To .a . pqor.. New .Zealander.it' was allvery;.funny. In the middle of one of inter-State matches Armstrong rer " "signed the captaincy, and the office was . passed on tB Carroll. The crowd, unaware,.of tlje. .change; ::pres.ently, becam.o ■■ cognisant of the fact that Carroll was ordering the changes of bowling. To the Melbourne crowd—it is a fairminded crowd in its rough and ready . way—this, seemed wrong and, my word,; 'didn't Carroll "catch it! Every tbing he did--was hooted. .- •.« . ' •> * "This I thought was Grit." "The heat, when New Zealand was playing Victoria, was simply Tophet. < Near .where- I,was -sitting two spectators fell off. their, seats in.a swoon.. " That wilrgive you an idea what it was "like;-, I am- quite sure-that it'liud'-moro to" do with the beating which New Zea--1 land got'than anything else.' I felt particularly sorry for Boxshall. All through that long match he stood right 110 to, all tho bowlers—Robinson's fast ones' included—but it was only too plain that he was not the Boxshall that wo know in New Zealand—far from ■ ! it. .
"Speaking of wickeMceepers;" said the reporter, "how about the second wicket-keeper? Tlie Wellington ' touring team have recently expressed a very, favourable opinion of CondJiffe."
"And quite right, too," rejoined Mr. Williams warmly. "With all. due respect to Now Zealand's second wicketkeeper (Tattorsall) I am quite sure that Condliffe would have been 'the goods' for this trip. •
"When the terrific heat and the long Victorian innings are considered," added Mr. Williams, "Dan Reese's position as captain must havo been an unenvi- ' able one.. When the Victorian score was in the neighbourhood of '400, practically the only two New- Zealand bowlors. who were fit to continuo the attack were Robinson and Sandman. They werp botli unwell, but they stuck to :, the job. One of the Sydney papers described'Ne\i\ Zealand as a'gritty team. . Well, this, I thought, was grit." "Weary',Sight„fQSuNew Zealanders." ; :. Sir. Williams went on to ! explain that would think that no great, required to get rid of the tail of oven an inter-State team, but he pointed out that the tail in this ; case va3 no ordinary one. For the Now Zealand match, :Victoria had tried the experiment of putting a number of colts into the team. . The colts were ,■ largely bowlers, but, strange .to .say, almost all "of them'made-scores with the bat. ''They went in early," added Mr. Williams, "and after them came the alleged tail. Don't you think' it must have been a weary sight for the • New Zealanders when they were gasping with the heat,' to see such men as Matthews and Armstrong coming in seventh and''eighth wicket respcc- , tively?" . , . "Regarding Mr. Sim's team," asked ,the reporter,, "how are they viewing it on the other side?" "With the utmost favour," replied ■tho Otago man. ■ "Tho Australians are, in fact,' looking forward to the trip. ■ They are very keen on it, so it should be a good venture. 1 "One thing,'_' concluded Mr. Williams, "which impressed the New Zealanders over there'was the exhibition of baseball which they saw. Mr. Williams is' firmly of opinion that if we could pick up tho baseball way of judg- " "ing the flight-'of; catches 1 in the long , field, and also piokin'g up 'and return- "• ing it'would'revolutionise cricket'. He had nob thought it possible that there j could bo such dexterity in the field. | Why Not Catching Practice? A branch of cricket to which Wellington players pay too littio attention / is catching .praptice. .iyhy,,npt..a regular ' ; system of catching exercise ? .'The. qatch- | ing of Wellington 'representatives' '"'is • often bad. And It; is,,an argument in favour of this suggestion that South ('Australia, probably tho finest fielding team in Australia this season, did very ■badly during the Now Zealanders' second innings in tho receut. match. Reese, who mado tho great total of 130 not out, in his second innings, was missed - several times—onco 'when-he had mado -,2i, Petone Cround. ■„( . Last-. Saturday's ■ game between Vic'.toria College and Petone, though uninteresting in a. sense, had its moments. - banning, won. tho toss for.: College, and elected to bat on a wicket which proved ibumpy—to use a very mild term. The '-•state of the wicket must havo been a disappointment to tho Petono players, who take a-groat interest - in' their .ground, and work liko Trojans during ' the week to preparo them for Saturday. , The Petone grotmd' is well situated for cricket,, and it is a pleasure to occasionally wajxh a game whore boundaryhits worth four and six aiQ authorised. , It is a great pity that some similar scheme for boundaries has not been adopted on the Basin Rcsorvo. It is • understood that the Cricket Association 1 is endeavouring; to devise something of tho sort. Soma College Batsmen. Victoria College mado 114 and should "have made many more. Birch was foolishly run out, while Atmore was given out l.b.w. to a ball that lyas palpably played on to his pads. Tho latter was shaping nicely, and ho has a future before him. He pays more attention to defence these days. As ho knows what ball to hit and when and how to hit it. representative honours will no doubt come his way in due time. Joplin soon hit up a couple of dozen or so. He generally does. On Saturday ho put great power into his strokes, hut some were uppish. He has a tendency to overdo tho pull stroke. Tho only other batsmen to trouble the bowlers were Dickson and Dempsey, with 20 apiece. The former had tor retire temporarily with a broken thumb nail, and on his return a couple of wickots later was ' quite disabled and unnerved, and was soon bowled. RocXing Them in, • Bricc and Finlaj'son were rocking in, some very fast balls and wore doing somo bodily damage, but after Dickson's 'retirement they, in true sportsman fashion, moderated their pace considerably.
I Quito a feature of Potone's work in the field was Cato's wicket-keeping. His work was exceedingly clean, and the particular, items which resulted in tho running out of Birch and tho slumping of Joplin wore worthy of a Blackham. Brice, though ho only took two wickets, was easily Petone's best bovler. His result panned out at a littlo 'ovor one run per over for 19 overs, aud he deserved better luck. Smyrk' also bcwledjwell. v Tho Smlters. Petoh'o "smacked up 103. 'The Petone batsmen are mostly smiters. They go for' the bowling from the jump, and it paysj too, for'their ground suits : a big hitter, and with fours and sixes scored i'quickly , the tally of runs soon mounts up.; It is a 'mistake, however, 'to 'bit Wildly at any and every ball. A chanco pto a'man on tho boundary soon occurs, and that means a wickot to a side of I good fieldsmen. Both Barber and, Donoghue know this to their cost. But thoy are cheerful , batsmen. Cricket on tho. Basin Reserve, would bo all tho better fdr more batsmen of 'their' sort". : Contrasts In Style. Smyrk'was . top scorer, for Petone .with 76, but he bad great luck and was dropped three times. Some of his drives, however, were beauties. He puts great power into thel drives, and his shots just, past cover right along the carpet are good to look at. Cate seems to bo tho only Petone batsman who plays a careful game. His methods are in striking contrast to those of his fellows. Brico, again, had hard luok. Ho was ■out first ball—beautifully caught 'by Griffiths at mid-on off surely tho worst ball, Dickson ever bowled. Brico, ini his liharacioristic fashion,, tried to hit. tho leather into Cook Strait, and should certainly have hit it out of the ground. Cood Players Lost. It seems that you could raise a very good senior eleven out, of "the Warehousemen's Association;'another one out of tho outsido Association also. Every club in these grade's has one or two rattling good players. The Police Club (Occidental), for instance, has one or two batsmen who would do credit to any sonior eleven. Then there is Dind, of The Dominion team, who learned his cricket in Queensland. His last three scores have been 102 (not out), 94, and 77. These men, and quite a number of other Warehousemen, and too heavy metal for tho class of cricket they are playing in. Now, here's the point.. Dind is willing to go . into senior crickct, but will not do so unless South starts again. Throe or four other excellent Warehousemen have also stated, in the writer's hearing, that they would be only too willing to play for South. If, as some of the old South moil state, they hope to -set tho club on its legs again, why do t'hey not get busy? Tom Southall. Speaking of the Warehousemen reminds .mo that Tom Southall, of North, lias heen, leading a varied life this summer. . Liko tho celebrated person in the coster song "'E dunno where 'o are." , For some matches he played in The Dominion team, then the lure of senior, cricket drew him again. Ho is also in the representatives, but—tell it not in Gath—ho is to.be degraded again, affthe end of, the season. Ho is ~tdl to play'for Doju'nion' B team against Dominion A. There's a nice drop for a representative man!- . Apart from" his bowling,, some of Scuthall's catching and fielding is good to watch. To see him taking the chances in the slips above his head off Casey last Saturday was mighty interesting. He fields on the "reach me down a star" principle. Too Modest. Somo of our Wellington senior players are far too modest.' East B is full of modest men. There is "Jack" Hutchings, for example. He kept wickets in very good style last week, and ho is also a very fair batsman, bowler, and field.. We ought to hear more of him .than we do. I dp not think he takes himself seriously enough. Aud Carter,:too! He has ■ a very pretty turn sf- the ■ wrist when it comes to getting on an off-break, but somehow his break does not tel Las much as it should. Perhaps ho would do better if lie pitched it to hit tho wicket, instead of to hit the batsman's pads. An off-break coming across on to the pads is oil easy ball to pull. Lastly, thero's-Collett. Ho only mado a few on Saturday, but he made them prettily, and showed good command ovor Casey's rising deliveries. With such strokes ho ought to make more runs. The Big Match To-day. Nearly everything there was to be said about the match Central v. Old Boys was mentioned in Monday's report. Its continuation to-day should .provide interesting cricket for tho enthusiasts to watch. Presumably Claude Hickson will givo Kinvig a chance to complete his ceutury, and then declare. But he will not bo able to wait very long, or tho afternoon may prove too short to get Old Boys out. By the way, in connection with this match, the umpire's decision which gave Burton out, stumped, seemed to bo an erroneous one. Stray, Singles. The New Zealand team leaves Sydney for Wellington to-day, and is duo here on Wednesday next. The inclusion of Casey, tho North express, in the Saturday representative team to meet tho Wednesday team was a good selection. There are some close followers of tho gamo who will regret that he is not in the team which is to meet Auckland. "Tho practice wickets on Kelbvrne Park are awful —nico pitches to make cricketers on." —Opinion of a member of tho Wellington Cricket Association. Members of tho Wellington Association at this week's meeting again expressed tho opinion that tlioro had been such a muddlo over fixtures this season ''that there was nothing for it but to leave the (Now Zealand Council to mako future arrangements: llowo, who is chosen to keep wickets for Wellington in tho match against Auckland, would havo been taken south with the Wellington touring team had ho been available. The Victoria College player is a useful bat as well as a good "keeper." While on the subject of wiokotkeepers, Cate, of Petone, has been doing particularly well this season, and probably causes tho selector a good deal of consideration when representative caps are being handed out. In tho opinion of Mr. C. 0. Wilson, canterbury's match wicket is a oneday's thing. It will not, he says, stand a three-days' match. It is a pity that J. N. Crawford is not an Australian, that is, eligible to play for Australia in test matches. As an all-round player among those who have represented South Australia he stands far in advance of any man, save tho great George Giffen.—Sydney "Referee." S. Brice was in fine form with the hall on the Petone wicket oil Saturday. His pace was greater than usual, and the bumpy state of the wicket helped him. Frank Irerlale, the oldest international player, is sti 1 figuring in first-class club . cricket in Sydney,
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Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 14
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2,279CRICKET. Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 14
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