BIG CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1971, 30 January 1914, Page 9

BIG CRICKET.

HOME ELEVEN & AUCKLAND. : THE BOWLERS DEADLY. BOTH: TEAMS. LOCKUP LEVEL. : splendid bowling of the Wellington trundlers ,was the featuro of tho first, day's play in the Auckland-Wel-lington match which opened on the Ba- , pin Reserve yesterday afternoon. C. Robinson, who.had.nofc struck form at all when ho left here in December to be the ; fast bowler of tho New Zealand team in Australia, was bowling better than we in Wellington have ever seen him. For one thing ho now seems ,to be faster. He was certainly a very disturbing' element to the Aucklanders and it was his duo that he got the best J. V. Saunders andO. Grimmett were 'in form quite equal to the best , shown this year, while J. S; Hiddlestone was surprisingly deadly. The Wellington captain managed the at- , tack Splendidly. The wicket was fast niid'hardj . but the • bowlers made the ball turn embarrassingly at times." Hiddlesfono and Grimmett'B breaks seemed to require a great deal of watching. The Wellington fieldiiig was very fine, except that a couplo of chances were lost near the end of the innings. Howe, behind-the wickets,- missed Taylor, • and Quinn dropped Clarko in the outfield. Apart from that the catching was splendid.. ' V

So far, the Wellington batsmen with the dsception of Howo have failed, and their innings bears, a family likeness to that of Auckland. Half a dozen of the bost wickets'are down very cheap (for. 98), and it is of some interest to mention that when. Auokland also had six wickets -down, thoy were 96 up. Howe saved the situation for Wellington. The Victoria, College man' has plaj'ed ' a sqund, careful, but not- a dull, inuingsy and 1 is still in. While the batting has not been as prolific as was expected, tho play lias been most interesting.

PLAY IN DETAIL/ AUCKLANDERS AT THE CREASE. It. was ten minutes past .two . when, the match commenced. C. M'Cormic!?, the captain of the Aucklanders, and H. Wright went to tho wickets,. and C. Robinson, opened tho bowling.' His third delivery spelled good-bye to M'Cormick. It was a beautiful length ball that'just, swept off the bails. JBrookoSrrfith went in, and Saunders at once had him in sore troublo. The Aucklander poked/ about at the Victorian who' appeared to bo mixing his deliveries With more than evon his usual trickiiiess;, 'He weathered the over, however, aid Wright faced Robinson. Far from comfortable he tapped away at the fast bowler. At last- tie got - one away for .a. , single,. aud ,Brpoke-Sn)ith' dispatched'one to the' boundary; ■ This' brought up,teu after ten minutes' play, but with the,. next ball Robinson got Brooke-Smith's wicket, the Aucklandcr being jvell held in .the slips by Grim--mett. • ... ' vV-,.: Still the Wlokots Fall, The first' ball' of .tho' next' over saw Wright's' stamps spread by a yorker from launders,, this making the third' wio'ket' th'at-. had fallen in a dozen mm--utes.. r ';,l\ro". batsteen«of a Mihewliat 'difr fci l ent'i:tyßS'iionviKot.''togeth'tTy and frbm tlte 'start? they looked confident. These; werA.'F:. Brobk nnd'E. Horspool. They wenT-iri 'no'hurry; they, merely 'puiiishf o^ttiona™&«ffffrip'''hel]Wa sSffel •®rhe' l ''niilKcenfiiiry " wtis'i ho'isted';ivhen side ; ' 1 ting'"for :J f<irty ; min-nte*:'' ■'» ;A-inice,'';.free 1 ba't, ''with "strokes 'of' 'all' varieties, is Brook, an ex-Victorian who has been in. Whangarei for a couple of seasons. Therq seomed ovory prospect that this pair -would, get thordiighly set, but RpbTgson sundered' the partnership, a fast' bne to Brook 'flying 'into the slips', where' Grimmett' wrapped a pair of sure' harids round it. Brook'had made 25, and :had yielded 42. So" far RoDinseii's';.three wickets had' cost 23 runs. : ' v W. J. Smeeton* now went , "to' ' the' crease, and Hiddlestone was now bowling in place of Saunders, "tho idea' of tho Wellington, captain' apparently being lo ring tho' cha'nges wnenevej iny Aucklander. looked Jiko getting set; At abp.iit the same time Grimmett replaced Robinson, whose fast" stuff had, by the; way, occasionally bumped. An hour' and a quarter's play yielded eighty runs and the Wellington fielding had been very fine except that on two occasions hits on the bumpy oiitfield beat Smyrk and got away .over, the, mark. The century was looming up and Horspool and Smeeton looked ' comfortable enough , when Smeeton banged at Hiddlestone, ~and Aldersley (fielding at short; . mid-on). held hipi brilliantly. . Five wickets for .86. G. Sloman went in and out again in a most unnecessary hurry—Hiddlestone beat him all the way.

; .The. Century Hoisted. • R. T: Woods came in, and IJorspool now took .a 'fancy to , jumping in to Grimmett.' Ho knocked him for four, and with the 0110 bang'brought up his own Jialf-ccnturj, and.'tho side's century, The hundred had taken an hour and a : half to compile. Another ball from Grimmett; and Horspool hopped out and" slammed it to . tho boundary. To the next ball he hopped out again, but though ho drovo hard and low, Hiddlestone 'got his hands on tho chance, and held it.up with a -magnificent catch. Sovon wickets for .194. His 64 l's Horspool's best score in representative cricked this, yfcar. - His,provious Mst was 49 against Canterbury. "1 ■ R. T; Woods shaped - to Hiddlestone. The first hall of the over was a ''wrongs 'uii," and. Woods's stumps looked the worse for 'the ,shock. , Eight batsmen had now come and gone, for .104, and Hidtller,tone's trio of wickets had so far. cost. 26." v . The End In Viow,. E, A. Taylor and-'C. G. Clarke wore the ninth-wickot pair.' Taylor looked all over a capable batsman, but 'Clarke's early attempts to copb-with the howling were rathor crude. Howe missed a.chance of stumping Taylor when'tho Aueklandcr was five' on. Taylor went right' out to paste Grimmett, and Howo (who so far had been "keeping" well)' ought to have .seized the chance, but.he failed to gather 'tho ball. Hiddlestono then induced Clarke to ekv one to the outfield, where Quinn got his hands 011 it. and dropped it. The Northern fast boii'lci 1 then- • opened out, and showed much improved form as compared with, his opening strokes. Robinson, was now brought baok to hurl them up from the north end; and he soon wrecked Taylor's wicket. -D. Mayall werit out to assist Clarke in tho last stand.. He made a single off Robinson, and then the second hall of - Hiddlcstone's next over completely beat him. In two, hoyrs the team was all out ,for 136. ■

Wellington Batting. Captain F. Midlano and D. Hay went to the crease to open tho Wellington innings, and Midlnno took the first over from C. 6. Clarko, a ' fast-niediurn bowlor, who appears to take far too short a run. Tho -Wollingtonian got the fifth ball of tho over away to tho boundary. F.A, Taylor, a boiylflr with a peculiar action and a useful off-break, bowled frojn tho south end, and Hay knocked a two off him. Hay was three, and tho totpl was ten, when the Old Boys' crack bat let one up in the slips. Brook, however, failed to hold it. Hay's scalp should, have been in

Clarke's belt. Twenty-nine was knocked off in half an hour, and for the nest ten mintuos tho batsmen kept tjie scorers patiently waiting to register tho thirty;.,but before the thirty went up Midland was back in tho pavilion, snapped behind the wickets by. Mayall,' off Taylor. In the next over. Clarke clean bowled Hay, who had been, in a most uncomfortablo plight whenever facing tho fast man. Tho two wickets had yielded only 89. F. JoplinandHiddlestono commenced a partnership which was all but finished in its earliest stage, and was all too soon ended through Hiddlestone being given out leg-before to Clarke. The earlier chance was ono which Joplin spooned up off Taylor. An-agile field would have got it, but Woods was still thinking about moving when the hall camo back to earth.

The score was 48 when the third, wicket—Hiddlestono's—fell. He gave the freest display, of the day (bo far as he went), and those who know what ho is capable of regretted tlmt he quitted the scene ,so early. ,

Howe Batting Well. Woods went on to bowl at Taylor's end. and J. Quinn went out to bat with Jopliu. The half-century had just been' knocked up. when Joplin was adjudged, out log-boforo to Woods. Tho 50 had tnkeu over three-quarters of an how to compile, an 3 had cost four of tho best wickets. Ho wo went out to' continue; tho innings with Quinn, and shaped beautifully from the very start. Quinn was unusually slow in getting his runs, even after allowing for the fact that he got but, a small-snare of the bowling. Taylor was put on to bowl from the north end, where formerly Clarke had rocked them in, and ho discovered considerably more pace than he had shown suspicion'of- at the- other end. He appeared»to have bad luck in' not getting Howe when the batsman had made a dozen. Slow fielding by M'Cormick lost Auokland a chance of throwing down Quinn's .wicket. Later, Mayall lost a difficult cliance.of stumping Quinn. Quinn had been patiently batting for over- half an hour-for four singles, when Taylor made wreckage of his stumps. Five wickets were down for 76. The Lower Hutt batsman, Aldersley, was obviously beaten from the time lie got to the crease. He had escape first ball, and Wright should have caught him at point a Tittle later. He was bowled by Woods when the score was 81. His was the sixth wicket down, With Smyrk. Howe continued slowly on towards his twenty, /fhese lie reached in an hour. When stumps were drawn at 6 o'clock Howe was still 1 batting well, and had scored 28. 'Smyrk was, shaping confidently. The scores m detail'follow:— .

Auckland.—First inning'M'Cormick,~b. Robinson ............... 0 H. Wright, 1111,.b. Saunders ...... 4 W. Brooke-Smith, 824, c. Grimmett, . ■ b. Robinson 9 F. Brook, 311431444, c., Grimmett, b. Robinson 25 E. Horspool, 14141211223441146444, c.' Hiddlestone, b. Grimmett ..'. 54' W. J. Smeeton, 1111422, c. Alders- ' ley, b. Hiddlestone .'..., 12 B. Cf. Sloman, b. Hiddlestone ...... 0 R. T. Woods,' b. Hiddlostori© .'. ; '0 - F. A." Taylor, 14114, b. Robinson. ... 11 C. G. Clarke, 121221141, not out'... 15 D.'Mavall, 1, b. Hiddlestone'l Extras v '. i....' '5 Total. 136: Bowling analysis.—Robinson took foul - wickets- for 33 tuns: Saunders, one for 29; Hiddlestone, four for 43; Grimmett, one' for . r .' ..How the Wickets Fell.. . ' 'i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ' .2 14 14.56 ,86 96 104,104 134 .13.6 V.. ! ? •• wi!iin^4^fiiJKUQ!)te? F..jHidianc,.-.4421!11H, . Taylor .• •,•••■. .18 1).. Hay, 211141, b. ' Clarke 10 J.^,S. 7 Hiddlestone, 4114, 1.b.w., -b/ : Clarke 10 F.-.Joplin, 21142, 1.b.w., b. Woods 10 Jj; Quinn, .1111, b. Taylor • 4 G, Howe, 12211212212134, not out 1 - 28. A. Aldcrslcy, 4, b. Woods 4 E. W. Sfflyrk, 111,, not. out 3 .. Extras • 11 Six wiokets' for '• 93 . Bowling analysis;—Clarke took tw;o wickets for 34 runs; Taylor, two for 30; Woods, two for 18; Horspool, none for 5. How the Wickets Fell. 1 2 3 4.56 : 29 33 41 50 76 81 THE SHEFFIELD SHIELD. In connection with the cable message published in yesterday's issue in regard to . the .Sheffield Shield cricket matchNew South Wales v. Victoria—it was made to appear (by a paragraph added to tho end- of the message) that New South Wales had not won the competition for fourteen years, whereas it was only,two..years since the State won it. : MATCH FOR THE HAWKE CUP. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) \ Wanganui, January 29. The Hawko Cup match, Wanganui vSouth Taranaki, concluded tor'day in sultry weather, and resulted in the local team retaining the Clip. Wanganui led the visitors by 73 runs' oil the' first innings, and in their second strike put oil 176 (Orton 63, Johnston ,43). Bowling for South - 'laranaki, Dunlop took five.wickots for 53 runs. Requiring 250 runs to win, South Taranaki oould get only 141 (Penny 28, Dunlop 24). ' Bowling for tho winners, Hussey seoured five-, wickets for 44 .runs, and Holland \ five for 58,.■ Wanganui thus won by 108 runs.