CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2134, 7 March 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRICKET.

(Notes by “Short-,Slip.”) To-day the four clubs enter oji th ( e final and deciding round in the Saturday competition. For the first time this season, both matches will bb played on Victoria Domain. The results of last Saturday's matches places Wanderers and To Itliu level in the lead for the Saturday competition with 12 points each, while United are within striking distance with !) points. The matches in the round commencing to-day should be keenly fought out, and interest should be sustained up to the bitter end. The overwhelming defeat inflicted on To Kau by Wanderers last Saturday. was the severest ever sustained in fcjhe coni petition. Wanderers totalled 193 in their only innings, and Te than could only make a feeble response with 37 and 61. It is hard to account for the double collapse of Te Kau, and the only reasonable explanation is that their batting strength has been overated. Harry Babb put up a splendid bowling performance in this match by securing seven wickets for 12 runs in the first innings, and six for 11 in the second, giving him tho phenomenal record of 13 wickets for 2G runs in tho match, an average of exactly two runs per wicket. Babb is a consistently steady and accurato bowler, and varied his length and paco with excellent judgment throughout the faille. In Te Ban’s second innings, Jack Wack was the only batsman to stand up to the bowling. The comparative case with which ho played all the Wanderers’ bowlers m putting together his total of 33 made the utter failure of all the other Te Rau batsmen most difficult to understand. Wack is a left-hand batsman of the aggressive type. Although not a big hitter, he goes at the bowling resolutely, and is particularly strong on tile off. The match between United and Taruheru was full of incident, and interest was sustained right up to the finish. Taruheru scored 113 in the first innings and 115 in the second. As United made 178 in their initial essay, they were left with 50 runs to get in less than half-an-hour. “And then and there was hurrying to and fro.” The light was very bad, but the batsmen lashed out at anything and everything, and the runs came at an amazing pace. Reynolds, in particular, played an invaluable rapid-scoring innings, but Gorman, Bowman, J. Gibson, Teats, and McLeod all entered hot-footed, in the mad race for runs. The risks the United men took in running between tho wickets were hair-raising. If the ball rebounded but a couple of feet from the wicketkeeper’s pads, “Come on” was the cry ,and away helterskelter up and down the pitch dashed the batsmen. Their very audacity carried them through, and the. runs wore obtained with a few minutes to spare. United had a good deal of luck in winning, as had Young and Charles, who were absent during the last halfhour, been bowling .the runs could never have been, obtained in the time. The Taruheru Club have now got together a fairly strong team, and may upset tho calculations of the town elevens in the final round. W. Sharp played a capital innings for 39, not out, against United last Saturday. Ho was in scoring vein, and severely punished anything loose. Ho made some capital hook strokes, and found the boundary by forceful strokes all round the wicket. Three years ago, 1 singled out Billy Sharp as a coming batsman. He has not played a grea fc deal in the intervening seasons, but bo has all the qualifications of a tip-top batsman, and I believe, if lie follows up the game, that ho will have many long scores credited to him in tho future. Jim Bowman has risen like a new meteor in the wicketkeeping world. His work with the gloves during the past fortnight could not have been excelled by Hallamore or Arnold Williams at their best. His stumping of Young, off Hallamore, at Taruheru on Saturday, was as brilliant a bit of work as one could wish to see. Bov man is very good at .stop- 1 ping on the leg side. To-day Wanderers and United meet on the turf wicket, and Te Rau and Tariiheru on the concrete, . both matches being played on Victoria Domain. It was unfortunate that the weather turned out so ill on Thursday evening, when the concert arranged by the Cricket Association was held, \Vhat struck me forcibly on looking round the hall was the poor patronage accorded the concert by the cricketers themselves. By far the greater number of our enthusiastic knights of the willow were conspicuous by their absence. There are six clubs in existence in Gisborne, and if the elevens representing these had attended the hail would have been much better filled than it was on Thursday evening. The apathy shown by the cricketers was not at all to their credit. There are unfortunately in all branches of...sport people who want things iicat so. They complain loudly if paraphernalia and appointments are not of the very best, but when it comes to a question of raising the necessary wherewithal to improve the sport these gentlemen are nowhere to be found. Tho old adage, “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” is a very true one, and the public, c.nmot be expected to aid the cricketers financially if they art- too apathetic and lukeyarpi to roll up to their qyn entorta jiffnents. What promises to become an annual fixture ill Gisborne is the meeting of the Old Boys of Wanganui and Christ’s Colleges. This fixture . li is been arranged for to-day at Taruheru, and two strong teams win take the field. This match is usually arranged when the country people are all in town for the Polo tournament. There ire many first-class players in this district who claim either Christ’s College or Wanganui as their Alma Mater, and the annual foregathering of the oast representatives "of the rival colleges results-in a happy reunion mil some ‘capital cricket. Christ’s College will be represented by:—H. B. Williams. Hugh Williams. K. S. Williams. A.'ll. Williams, "Gi Cotterill, E. V. Palmer, A. Seymouy, J. R. Murphy, E. R. 'Lqdbrnok, L. 15. Cotterill, an([ A. Butt ray. Thu; is a strong all-round combination, and if the, eleyep were in form would give a representative team a good g nne, D. Reese, the West Christchurch skipper, has, in all matches, interprovincial, Association and grade cric- • -Icet. made lflfl9. nine o~

heavy season’s cricket. As there are another three Saturdays’ cricket, Reese has an excellent opportunity of creating a New. Zealand record, viz., 1000 runs and 100 wickets.