CRICKET.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 443, 28 February 1912, Page 7

CRICKET.

On Saturday last on the Domain a match was played between an eleven from Te Kuiti Club and a team of telegraph linesmen. The game resulted in a win for the latter by 3 runs, the scores being—Linesmen 84, Te Kuiti 81. The Te Kuiti Club's best players were absent, but, nevertheless, the game was a well conducted one. For the winners the principal scorers were Dewar 20, J. Martin 20 (not out), McQuillan 14. For the losers Read made 19, Clapham 18, Matthews 14, Feran 11. For tha Te Kuiti Club Matthews and Clapham were the most deadly with the ball, the former securing five wickets for eight runs, and the latter three for 20~ For the linesmen Trust and Dewar were the most successful bowlers.

The following are the test match averages of English and Australian players in batting and bowling up to the conclusion of the fourth test:— England:—Batting: J. B. Hobb3, 7 innings, 1 not out, 187 highest score, total runs 585, average 97.50; W. Rhodes, 7 1 70.83; J. W. Hearne, 7—1—114 259—43.16; F. R. Foster, s—o—7l— E. F. Woolley, 5—0—56 —145—29.00; S. P. Kinneir, 2—o— C. P. Mead, 6—1—46 105—21; J. W. H. T. Douglas, s—o —35—76.—35.20; E. J. Smith, 3—o 22—34—11.23; S. F. Barnes, s—l— H. Strudwick, 2—2— 121—12; J. Vine, I—l—4—4; J. W. Hitch, 2—l—o—o. BowlingDouglas. 21.92; Foster, 22; Barnes, 22.81; Woolley, 34.40; Hitch, 43; Hearne, 196. Australia Batting: Ransford 35.66; Armstrong. 32.25; Hill, 30.75; Trumper, 30.57; Minnett, 30.50; Hordern 28.16; Carter, 28.14; Kelleway, 22 12; Matthews, 17.75 Bardsley, 16.12; Cotter, 14; Whitty, 11.50. Bowling: Hordern 28.13; Minnett, 31.40; Kelleway, 41.50; Cotter, 45.66; Armstrong, 51.40; Whitty, 61.66; Matthews, 164. In writing of the Barnes and Foster combine, a Sydney writer says that these two bowlers threaten to go down to cricket posterity in the same category of international greatness a3 such renowned pairs as Turner and Ferris, Spofforth and Boyle, or Lohmann and Peel. Australian bowlers have repeatedly hunted in pairs— in the past but it is seldom that English bowlers have been associated in success to anything like the same extent as Barnes and Foster. Match after match, they have performed with conspicuous success, first one, then the other and sometimes both together. Their records which are well worth repeating bear a remakabie similarity ; up to the end of the first innings in the fourth test they were:—Barnes 218 overs, 4 maidens, 569~runs, 25 wickut's, 22.76, average; Foster, 10—48 each has taken some wicket 3 whilst the first innings in Sydney in the first test match is the only one? in which one or other of these, bowlers has not taken as many as five wickets. Each has done so three times in an innings; in point of fact, in his 16 test matches, Barnes has taken 5 wickets or more in an innings no fewer than 11 times. Mis test record is one of | great brilliance. He has captured ! more wicket 3 for England than any j other right-handed bowler, and only three left-handers beat him in the aggregate, Peel 102, Brigga 27, and Rhodes 94. Barnes up to the end of the first inning 3 in the fourth test has taken 92 wickets at a cost of 1958 runs, so that it is quite on the cards that before the tour closes he may secure his hundredth wicket or even take the lead as England's greatest wicket-getter. He requires eleven more wickets to achieve the latter distinction.