WELLINGTON BEATEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 5

WELLINGTON BEATEN

MARGIN OF 236 RUNS

MULCOCK'S BOWLING

(By Telegraph —Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, January 2

Canterbury defeated Wellington in the Plunket Shield cricket match which was concluded, early this afternoon at Lancaster Park, the match ending a

day early. .. . ; The Wellington first innings concluded on Saturday for 209 runs, giving the home side a lead of 140 runs. A stand of 63. by J. A. Ongley and W. G. : Rainbird was the best of the Wellington innings. A second-wicket partnership of 127iruns. by F. W. Bellamy and J.L. Kerr and another of 77 for the fifth wicßet were outstanding features' bf Canterbury's second innings, which-totalled 308. Requiring 4®, to win in the fourth innings, Wellington were all out for 212, and Canterbury won by 236 runs. One of the most pleasing features of the game was : the improved fielding of the Canterbury team, which took some beautiful'catches. This was the main reason why this match was won and the match- against Auckland lost. The Wellington fielding generally was good, the catches that were missed being mostly hard ones. The weather- for the who^ match was ideal, bright sunshine with a light noiith-west wind prevailing on Saturday andiaXlight north-easterly today. The wicket for the whole game was good and'thfe <qutfield fast. There were, good attendances, specially on Saturday. The; gate takings for the three days were'£33s. Webb and Anderson looked like giving trouble this morning, with Webb, despite- two nasty knocks from Pritchard, showing up quite as well as the young ■ left-hander who had done so well \in tfte first innings.. Incidentally Webb: has been appointed captain of his club team in deference to the New Zealarid Cricket Council's desire for youth at the helm, and as he appears to be making quite a good job of it it-is not unlikely that he may be found leading his province before long. Anderson' executed some good coverdrives and square-leg shots, but finally Ashenden got him ;to 4ift one into Gallichan's hands halfway to the fence at square-leg. Webb cocked Pritchard up to mid-on, and although the two bowlers, Davis and Mulcock, made a batsman's shot or two the end soon came, and Wellington were left with 449 to get and-the best part of two days to get them; in. Ashenden again took four wickets, this time at a smaller cost, than in the first innings, 'and oh the good wicket with the opposition batsmen taking'full advantage of it, put up a good performance. Pritchard bowled with more sting than on the first day, and Rice, apart from three . overs in-' which Cromb dealt somewhat harshly with him, was very steady and required' careful watching. Tindill again gave a fine exhibition behind the stumps and set a good example to his men in the way he tried iorievßi^hihgS^XX'A.' X •■'' --fey-

SANGER TO|*OUNG PLAYERS. Mulcoock should present little difficulty to an experienced cricketer who is/ prepared to- let his in-swingerspgo harmlessly by;tbiit: he is a distinct dangeritOf a ybia%lplay.ers, and dt?was nqfr lon^befo*|i.^^ iriglJjfevDat:?osit*^«neath&t..'flew past* his "legs -and -into Bellamy's hands.; This niisrafeie. might have begn put down to? inexperience; but it' Was. a -surprise to sfpl yindill, ten minutes later, flicking; at# rising ball on the off from -DavisTdnd paying the pehalty.""With two wickets down for 16 Sheffield and Ell faced a difficult situation with confidence, and treated the spectators to fiftjj? minutes -of bright and enterprising batting^ in the course of which they put on 71 runs. Ell had; an uncertain spell against Mulcock and | was.hit several ;tfines on the legs and j body,' but- apart jfrom that he was never in difficulty, and he executed] some beautiful "strokes on the off side in bis: very best style.. He did not l^esi-' tate either to step' out to re^ch the slow bowlers on the full and hit them

hard to leg. Just before lunch, however, he picked Cromb off his leg. stump and hit him hard to the fence behind square leg, only to fall a victim to a fine catch by Roberts, who ran very hard along the rails to get to it. There was some criticism of Ell for making such a risky shot at that stage, but a four is a four at any time and it was only the fine work of a highly capable fieldsman that made the stroke a dangerous one. Sheffield played Mulcock fairly well, lifting one safely over the heads of the leg trap and another along the ground through a gap in it, and he too capitalised on the slows of Donnelly and Cromb, reaching out and hitting them hard to leg. Ultimately, however, he fell- a victim to Mulcock, hitting a halfstrength shot into the trap. Mulcock was.the dominating figure now, and any comment one might wish to make almost necessarily resolves ' itself into a consideraiton of how the 1 batsmen were able to deal with him. ; They all seemed to find him a puzzle, t and Ongley, who had been playing very soundly, making his strokes-with his bat close to his legs and getting ■ well over the ball, in due course played the fatal shot, pushed his bat out in faith, and was caught by the wicket- ' keeper. Rainbird chose a return to ■ Mulcock as his way of getting «out, but not until he had made a confident 30, ■ in the course of which he was able to. . take quite a number of runs off Mulcock by stepping'out and getting him Jon the half volley. A CRUSHING FINISH. Gallichan also picked the caught and . bowled route for his method of self- ' destruction, but escaped through a misunderstanding between the bowler ' and mid-off. Thereafter Mulcock appeared, so far as Gallichan was concerned, to alternate between off-theory and leg theory. The balls that ran away to the off Gallichan chopped past Donnelly/ the solitary slip field; the others he swung hard at and more often than not missed them altogether. When he did connect with one he hit ■ it hard into the hands of Davis at square leg. Wilson essayed to hit Cromb out of the ground but, handicapped by an injured groin, failed to carry the fence and was brilliantly caught, one hand, by Bellamy. • Pritchard and Ashenden indulged in some hard hitting, but- the end was onty a matter of time. And so Wellington's second , Shield match ended in a defeat as ' crushing as that which they inflicted on Otago, while at the same time, Otago, such is the uncertainty of the game, were making runs freely against the Shield holders, Auckland. The reasons for this defeat deserve more detailed consideration at a later date: suffice it to lay the blame in the meantime upon • bad catching and batting which, against the wiles of Cromb and the unusualness of Mulcock, just fell short of representative standard. WELLINGTON.' , First Innings. E. W. Tindill,-lbw, b Roberts .... 60 H. F. Rice, c Webb, b Mulcock .. 16 J. R. Sheffield, c Kerr, b Donnelly 9 J. Ell, b Donnelly 14 J. A. Ongley, run out 33 W. G. Rainbird, b Davis 42 N. Gallichan, c Donnelly, b Cromb 2 D. S. Wilson, b Cromb ....... ll T. L. Pritchard, c Kerr, b Davis . 0 J. Ashenden, c Kerr, b Davis 11 J. McKeown, not out ............ 3 Extras 8 Total N209 ' BOWLING ANALYSIS. O. M. R. W. .H. Davis 7.6 1 25 3 M. P. Donnelly .. 21' 6 64 2 E. T. Mulcock ... 23 6 47 1 - A. W. Roberts ..11 — 32 1 F. W. Bellamy . 3 — -I' 4 1 LB. Cromb 8 1 19 2 Second Innings. E. W. Tindill, c RobertSj-b Davis 11 H; F^ Riceytf Bellamy,-^ Davis;-.. 0J. '"*R:: ! Sheffield,. "-.&,. .Menzies^ b Mulcock ..;.;;.;....;;;...;... 38 J. Ell, c Roberts, >b Cromb 41 J. A. Ongley, c Webb, b Mulcock 25 W, G. Rainbird, c and b Mulcock 30 N. Gallichan, c Kerr, b Mulcock .. 27 D. S. Wilson, c Bellamy, b Cromb 4 T. L. Pritchard, b Cromb 23 J. Ashenden, c Kerr, b Cromb .... 5 J. McKeown, not out .'... 0 Extras -. 8 Total 212 BOWLING, ANALYSIS. 6. M. -Ry W. H. Davis ...... 9 1 28 1 E. T. Mulcock ..22 1 85 5

A. W. Roberts ... 3 1 8 — M. P. Donnelly .13 2 35 - I. B. Cromb ..... 7.7 — •48 . 4 CANTERBURY. First innings 349 Second Innings. F. W. Bellamy, st Tindill, b McKeown 69 W. A. Hadlee, b Ashenden 0 J. L. Kerr, c Gallichan, b McKeown 66 R. E. J. Menzies, c Rice, b Gallichan ...... 34 M. P. Donnelly, c Tindill, b -. Pritchard 0 I. B. Cromb, c and B. Ashenden .. 55 W. McA. Anderson, c Sheffield, b Ashenden ■ ,37 A. W. Roberts, c McKeown, b Ashenden ••• 5 R. C. Webb, c Harpur (sub.), b . Pritchard 21 H. Davis, lbw, b Pritchard 5 E. T. Mulcock, not out 7 Extras 9 Total ~..,. ■: '"•■ 308 BOWLING ANALYSIS. O. M. R. W. T. L. Pritciiard .19 1 62 3 J. Ashenden .. 19 — 75 4 H. F. Rice .... 10 2 27 -r D. S. Wilson ... 7 — 38 — . N. Gallichan ... 13 1 55 1 J. McKeown ..7 — 42 Z