CRICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 6

CRICKET

v li* *yZ"NoT Out" shield 'Success'

WELL PLAYED, OTAGO!

TABLE AND -AVERAGES

Few followers of cricket in New

Zealand will begrudge Otago their win-

provided,' and that, if the captains agree, there shall be a similar interval on all other grounds. A decision regarding the interval is to be made before the start of tho match, and tho umpires informed accordingly. Complete. Shield j&ver'ages. ■•~:- ---i The -following are the averages -of all players who participated in the Plunket Shield competition this season:

\ning of the Plunket -Shield for the vj.secoiifl,tiine M the history of the game. Much of the; credit for the success must b© handed to F. T. Badcock, who since leaving Wellington has been carrying out coaching work in .Otago, and, it is'evidept, to really good purpose. Badcock was given the honour of leading Otago this season, and' his ability to play a captain's part is reflected in the results achieved. His ■ team did not have the; appearance of "being anything out of the way, but it won through by consistently good performance, with Badcock's inllenee always apparent. Wellington won the Shield last year, but on this occasion take last place. No doubt, it would have given, the local authorities great pleasure to hand over the trophy, but •unfortunately' ■Wellington""" have seen nothing of the Shield since last proving their claim, to possession. It is to bo hoped that Otago will not be left without the - valued jrtoken of victory. Otago are to be,congratulated upon securing for the-second !time-in.i-'tlio,.history of the Pliinfcet Shield contests-the premier place. ■";'.'- . ' The following is the final flunket Shield table:— ... Won £ost 'Gut- Ist Out- Ist right. Inn. right. Inn. Pts. Otago 2 1 0 0 20 Auckland 1 o 0 2' 12 Canterbury 1110 "12 Wellington 0 0 3 0 0 :'. Not Unpromising. ' Batting-—form...".generally—-in-— this season's Hunket Shield contest has left muen to be desired^. Except in odd cases the figures read none too well. _ Tfie jascendancy of bat over ball, has given risein other seasons to a eryfi-om soniej qiiirterp..thai .New., Zealand is lamentably. weak in fowling. • As-, has1 been! pointed^out[; previously ".'.T>y£ tlie writer;-; the; trouble has been that tho "bowlers have not received the reeogni--tion due "far: them. f -'At';ariy> rate,- therei should be a change; firorifthe.croaker's' this year. An end t<r the;'carp* ing criticism would be; betters still, but as likely as not the falHngr;away-in\ batting will provide the change of tuneJ ; -3?rom, Otago/s:;; experience and from, the fact that:^Wellington" is so rich jin young; talent^ (much of it untried; in big "crieket).'there need be no misgivings about'the future standard :of play in Shield 5-?erieket. Auckland and Canterbury," too,' have the right material td-"^srelL\the ranks: of those who will ' seef <to\-it that the. general all-round standard :if.thevgame in, the' Dominion, is sufficiently ".high to be' worthy of the ■•■ recognition received' when the last New Zealand team^waSr in England. ' i -.' Redpath Cup Claims. '.'. Although' many' iatsmen in this season's: Plunket Shield series have struck a'lean'patchy there have" been ..<<jfiiii"ei Ik-. fiiimFervof onlstafiaiigr individual performances. J. L. Kerr "(Canterbury), a fine young batsman, carries off highest score honours —a grand innings against Wellington having yielded 196 runs. In five other visits ~to the crease, however, Kerr has aggregated only 72 runs. Postles is the only Aueklander to reach the century "mark.—lo2 against Wellington. No Otago player made a three-figure score, nor did..one gain anaggregate of 200 runs. E. O. Talbot was Canterbury's other century-maker apart from Kerr. Wellington also supplied two —K. C. James (108) and E. W. Tindill (106), the latter making his first appearance in Plunket Shield cricket. James takes highest aggregate" honours with 269, closely followed, by Herr with 268. No other batsman, has made over 250 runs. James stands'out-for consistently good batting, and up to the present, with performances against the M.C.C. still to be considered, he appears to hold strongest claims to possession of the Kedpath Cup. ■-- ■- ; leading Kguxes. Only eleven batsmen have averages of over 35 in this season's Plunket ■Shield competition.,,. They are:— . "Inn. jk.6. "ES.-Total. .Avg.! -Talbot (C.) »..« 4 - 1 117 ' 192 64.00 Kerr (C.) ..... 6 1 196 268 ;53.?0 Tindill (W.) ,>.. 2 ~-ir 106 : lOC 53.00 James (W.) .6 —• 108 ,'269" 44.83JUII3 (A.) 6 — 73 247 ' 41.16 Cavanagh (O.) ... 5 — 7T 197 39.40 ■Whitelaw (A.) ..6 — 81 235 39.16 Weir (A.) 6 1 93 195 39.00 Dempster (W.) ~6 — 52 231 38.50 Smith (0.) ...< 5,' 1 52 147 " 36.75 3>age (C.)- >..., 5 — .78 183 36.60 Some fine bowling performances have been recorded in the Shield matches, those by; Otago being particularly goods Badeock again, has been a leading lighi^ and he is entitled to chief honours, in .the bowling department. He has taken the greatest number. of wickets (21) at an average of 14.80. Merritt has the nest best aggregate, but his twenty •wickets have been rather more costly rthan those taken by Badeock. Wellington's bowling performances were affected to some extent by the numerous changes made- in the team. All. told, eleven: Wellington players were tried ■with the" ball during the series. Nirie ■bowlers took ten or more wickets during the series. They were:— ,■ ._ ' "~";-.: Buns. Wkts. Avg. Badcock (O.) ...... 311 21 14.80 Garrard (A.) 220 13 16.92. Burrows (C.) .....; 194 10 .19.40 Merritt (C). ...... 415 .20 20.75 Dunning (O.) ....... 314 14. 22.42 Bush- <A.) ..i..i.. 252 10 25.20 Matheson-(A.) ...... 352 13 • 27.07 Cromb (C.) 382 14 ' 27.28 BlundeU (W.) ...... 363 11 33.00 Disputing •Umpires' Decisions. There have been official discussions in local cricket circles regarding, umpiring and the disputing of umpires' decisions. -As a result the umpires are "being advised to report any case in which it is considered that the action of a" player in disputing a decision is deserving of censyo. It is understood that clubs.are being notified that the sporting thing to do is to accept the decision of an umpire without continent. The same matter has cropped up in 'Auckland. .It is :reported h% : . the "Auckland Star" that an unusual 'charge came before ; the Auckland Cricket Association at ;its meeting this week, when a letter was ireceived from the Umpires' Association "reporting" a North Shore player for misconduct in disputing a decision--in the senior match against -Ponsonby. Tho executive decided to request the player to appear at;next Tuesday's meeting. ■ The Auckland Council decided to circularise clubs asking for captains to report to the association on the urtipir-' ing connected with their games, and to appoirita special sub-pommittee to deal ■with these reports, which will be summarised and the result passed on to the Umpires' Association (which had suggested this innovation). The success of the recent conference between captains of Auckland senior teams and the Umpires' Association led to the junior ' advisory committee suggesting to the management committee a similar meeting of junior captains and umpires. The matter was referred to the Umpires' Association, and the latter body has intimated that it is agreeable to the conforence^ which will be held next week. • Another matter discussed in Wellington is the%afternoon t.ea interval. An agreement has :beehfeached>that there •hall be art;adjournment of ten1 minutes: on all grounds where afternoon tea is

[Notes.. ;~. ~• ■*•: -•> ' • ':' A. P. V. Chapman is" among .those^ keen cricket enthusiasts of" JSftglandwho. are;wondering why_M> W.,Tate has riot been played'in the..present seriesof Tests. . ~;"•:;. ..'". ;. . Bob ■ Crockett, the: .famous: Test umpire, has offered the foUowing opinion. oaa ; .mueh debated subject:— "Body-line bowling, as far as I can see, can only be defined' as "bowling straight at the man. The only solution is the limitation of the jeg-field, according to the pace of the'ball."' __It is reported from; Perth that E. Halcombe,'State eleven and CentralProvince fast- bowler, has 'been exonerated of .the charge that he employed body-lipe tactics ?in the Port v. Central match in January.-Complaint waß^made by M.;lnverarity, captain of, .the Port team, at .the conclusion of the match,: that?-Halcombe deliberately delivered the ball in lino with the batsmen's bodies. A special meeting of the cricket:committee of the Western Australia- Cricket' Association decided to-ignore the; complaint. . The M.CJC, team's match at Toowoomba will-be remembered for the number,.of sixers hit, but more than anytfung should the fact be'iecorded -that during the second innings of the Enghshmen two balls were hit over the grandstand at square leg, and were lost. Allen was responsible for the first, and, Paynter for the second. After vainly waiting for the balls to be returned, the^ umpires had" to seek another. y: Whether, they were lost in the long grass-or souvenired 'is not known,.but .the/second loss heia up the game .for five minutes before the ball could.be replaced. ' " M: -f• Noble%ave; :the foilowdriff opinion on AnstraUa's selection for thl fourth Test:^'lt,is-;:revolutionary," but there_ are possibilities in" it. I think they have picked the side too soon. It lsva^pityxthatCXJ'Brien: arid Singleton were.\left; H ont'before they had been SV?"? n sufficient chance to prove "themselves;" '*, '-.-" ■ ■ • The Hawked Bay Association, which recently^ent-.a^team onvtour, is anxious to have^,.Tisitifrom an Auckland team beforevth^^e; of the season. Mer«intae;;liagvie^Uv • '.'!■''■ ""■' spell causing some of the Mercantile League wickets to^become re.aUy; ;daig g ron the rain last,week camo-just^rheri it was badly neeaed, and fewiplayers wDI begrudge the Saturday's respite;- The downpour should give the wickets a chance to last for the ; remaiß.der J ,of:i ; he season. Despite on pitches m?l?n,ea.vto bejwajrward, some splendid averages-are being imaintained, ,;and' so far ;32 individual centuries iave been recorded, the' A graae'batsmen haying retnrned?il3, the ft'sS, the'-C's 7,'and;the B' s yt- f : . - S. Brpoks (Cpwans). has been .tho most .prolific': scorer in'tho League.to date, vand-withy normal luck he should aggregate 1000; runs. Marchant (Exchang©)jbeen;the : has ; most successful bowler/:;:lusC6o;wickets having been taken at-the small,, cost of 6 runs vei wicket. "■;■"• <c-;:,y . ■ • I. A re? oest-. recently from the Christchurch;- Suburban Association for a game at "Wellington over the Easter period was considered fully at Tuesday night's meeting of the Management Committee^ but, as the League's programme of representative matches was.already complete, it was decided- to reply pointing out the position, arid-asking that the matter be reopened' at an'early date -. next season. Should this game eventuate ana an annual fixture result, it would, probably lead to' an :interprovincial competition; after.;.; the style of- the •Hawke Cup contest,..with .the Auckland Suburban /Association;-: included. Finance, of courseVrwould be a serious f acto'rv:;;;lt'f(^ia/"i6^;siorrib;;: years, Showever, before "suSh' a competition could be estabiisKed'" " "