Otago v. Wellington.

NZ Truth, 4 January 1908, Page 3

Otago v. Wellington.

. The first interprovinei-al match of the season made a beginning on Friday week last under tip-top weather conditions and a good wicket. Otago Won the toss and took first hit. A ■ good fast wicket was expected to bring heaps of runs to the* first hitters and as ,the Burgooites had /just come off the Christchurch ground after putting ..up a fairly good score m their second innings there, it was expected they would shake tilings up a bit, especially as some of our star bowlers "were absent, but the innings was a sort of third rate kind of thing, and Otago's men were '..all out for 115. ' The wicket was too fast by yards for them, and the pace of the scorning -was as cheerful as a funeral. ;. Wilson, Otago's skipper, is keen and: a good man for his side, though : .he didn't give a chance of . seeing .what sort of a bat he is, scoring 3 and 0. Adams took his time m mak- r ing 10 and was making buttons the 1•whole time. Siedeberg got to work, slow.ly, and^ after getting 21 Mpnaghan got/ ■ #.* straight one N on to him, which w,«s 'taken on the pad m front of the middle, pin.. Siedeberg didn't like the. l.b.w. decision a bit, and tried to .kid the crowd he played the ball. Speaking to the umpire. ovjer the. 'decision, he said, "Yes, Siedeberg played the.ball, but only after it hit him on the leg." Several fieldsmen .•were"exactly of -the, same opinion. He's no iceberg this Siedeberg person, m fact he's rather warm stufi ■from the remarks he passed generally while under shelter of the pavilion^ and any that can't take his crickex gruel isn't much of-a sport anyway. That reminds me. Happened to see .a short account of the match m a country paper, per Press Association, and it was stated that this Siedeberg person had been given out wrongly. Seedy Berg must have had the lug of the Association pretty strong for it to make a rash statement of this sort. Funny looking team on paper isn't it. Only one Mac amongst • -them, and! right from haggistown, too. Three out of eleven, Siedeberg, Eckhol.d, Eckhoff, dammit don't it look liko Kaiser and Limburgher ? Anyway, if the push can't bat they hd"ve one bowler. Torrance on the opening day simply made hacks '-of Wellington, and it lopked like a godsend when six o'cloclc arrived with six out for 55, and this Torrance tornado swept the board. Someone said.he sent down a yorker to Hickson, who failed to play it. It wasn't a yorker, and. Hickson did play it, to his cost—played it on to his wicket—had he massed it he would probably be batting still. Torrance has a fine . easy delivery, and comes across beautifully with his left, and a dirty left ib; proved. He chucks them up pretty well and .comes off the pitch at a great, rate, the pace beating our chaps badly. Jack Mahoney was the only one on the first day who could negotiate things at all, and he wasn't too sure about it a-t times. The match was nearly ending sensationally a few minutes before six after Laws went home after making one . nice drive .for four A , ' The next man to come m took four minutes to get down from the pavilion, and Skipper Wilson claimed the -Wicket, but as -the rules don't provide* for claiming a wicket through a batsman taking more than two minutes "to get to the crease, Wilson was informed he could claim the match and not the wicket, and as he was too much of a sport to do this things went on with the advent of Hickey, 'but possibly his modesty prevented him or his tart was waiting for him, so he made his bow and scrape to Torrence-who burst up his timberyard and the game was over for the day. ; ■ It would perhaps liven up some of our players if, on some Saturday afternoon, the fielding- si3c claimed the game through the dilly-dally batsman, there's 'plenty qf opportunities, but how would it count for Cup points ? Winning a match and Nnever striking a blow ! Saturday was -even, a more per- 1 feet day than Friday and the wind m the opposite direction. Torrence bucked 'them down with the' wind this time, but there wasn't the same, amount of swing-in about his work as on the previous day and Mahoney and. Blacklock got to work. The scores totted up by tens, *51ackloek doing the most, Mahoney

keeping his end up and doing it real-; ;well, Otago 's 115-! Was passed, and still there was rib shitting this pair, up went the score and the devil was belted out of the bowling. Blacklbck . simply pasted everything ; and anything. Torrenee had no terrors 'for him, Fisher ditto, boundary after boundrv was planked down to him. He drove cut and pulled with great timing that made everything look simple, and it was the innings of his life; How was it wanted, and how did the crowd enjoy it S: Sixty m 55 minutes, then he ]yul a go at Fisher, a rising ball on the i off glided away into the slips like 1 a shot right into Echofi'S' mauleys,: where it stayed, and there was a sigh of relieJ amongst. the' fieldsmen., It was a brilliant innings. Mon- ; aghan seemed contented to keep \ quiet as Mahoney was -getting-" within.-, touching, distance of a- i century. : Mahoney :. got a bit of a quietner •from Austin under the heart and. stiffened him out for some- -.time. When 'he got going again" it was.•very slow for some time. Mackersey; had a go vcdth the ball and Mi&hpn- . ey went out to ■him and. pasted nun'several times, finally sending one; back to Mm softly and Jack leftffi ior a long wet. shandy with 84 on .the sheet to his credit. Williams wasn't like -Williams ate all' and -his- 10 was a sort of an^ anyhow eff.qrt. It was thought the,, •fast wicket would have suited 1 ' hinii, ; .and people were waiting to see second Blackfock performance, butjj •were disappoihte<f . ' t Still t lie plum ot the. day; was mO .the basket and right from the- stm,ny side of the orchard. "Snowy,", could be heard from, hundreds ' of.;youngsters as Tom Hales fharohed; down from tike dressjing-rbom, -sun^; bake,d and blistered', \the fruits of,; .yachting. • >■ . j He and Monaghaa simply, made no^ race of it: ''Al£ bowlers look alike,--; ;.to one" 'is the 'impression Hales gives , one as he lets loose, and eitheE- . loses his, wicket or fine's tlie-boujrd- . ary, and he was finding the,«bound-. ■ ary and diditft take long about* catching Monagjian's score. ' Then . Monaghan ; wens mad and, ; started hitting sixers by way of di-' 1 version atfc'er kidding 1 the field he couldn't hit for nuts, -he just broke., loose, and the pair demoralised the .field. ■ ■ . The score would have, been 20 or 30 more, possibly, but that Hales the hitter . got one on* the knee that "brought him down quicker than ever he was dropped at full-back, still he ■stuck to it until Tie was finally 'caught, and so ended a sensational recovery .with Monaghan- unbeaten an<| :full of , fight as a barber-'s dog. Monaghan deserves all praise for the way he kept his side lip from the jump. All's well 'that ends well, and the result of the innings perhaps lets Williams dowjn a bit easy, but was he justified ifr reality by keeping batsmen like <Mmself and Blacklock back so far m the order of going m. Was it fair to practically .youngsters at . an interproyincial to put' Beechey and Bruce m so early. , This is not club cricket and not giving them a, chance. When he saw things were, 'going 'badly, certainly himself or Biacklock sliould have gone fin to" stop, or try to stop the rot. .This part of" his skippering was m contradistinction to the way he jiandled his ten men m the field, v Hickey dosea'..t count as a whole .fieldsman, Ijels, a. fowler', ami a fine bowler too. If the- Oitagqites had had any idea of using a bat they :would have belted the cover off the stuff he sent down to them. He does graft, does Hickey, after his own bowling and fields it well, puts one m mind of a speared crayfish ; but it would be bad manners to make any rude remarks anent this player, as it might bias the selection ■committee when the next/ team is to be picked. \ Haven \t noticed 'what the "Dominion" has had ; to say on its selection yet, it might-, give us an idea of what it thinks . of Hickey as a fieldsman. Wellington's fielding was good— with an exception. Hickson. took a couple of nice catches, especially the one that sent Mr Fisher back. It' was worthy of the next best man that could be trotted along. Cobcroft was right onN his mark and won easily every time with 'the ball. Four for 20 doesn?t want much talking about. What would have happened if the wicket had given him a Mt of help ? Otagp will be short of a bowler m Auckland. -Mr Fisher goes back .from here. Mr Fisher doesn't live at the same pub with the rest of the team. Isn't the team good enough for Mr Fisher to associate with, or isn't the New Zealander tony enough for Mr Fisher. Was it this Mr Fisher's brother who bucked up against skipper Richardson, of Wellington Club, at .Athletic Park, and kidded himself he could teach Richardson a thing or two. These sooperiar, positively demmy sort of people should ask Warner for a bililct m his next deucedly, demnibly fine team/ doncherknoW: Third and last day's play finished up m a northerly gale at 4 p.m. on Monday, Wellington winning by eight, wickets. Nothing very startling to relate about' it either. Otago did much .better m second stride, but 'there'' were a few (lives m the effort, and 255 resulted, Siedeberg getting. 45 after a fashion made on the Continent;. ' Mr Fisher made 30, and should have been put first ball, which he put into Williams' hands, and got the benefit of no doubt on the appeal. Torrance played about the best cricket of the day for Otago. Eckhold and Mackerscy getting 41 apiece were pretty patchy. Siedeberg had a substitute fielding for him, as he went on part of the journey to Auckland. Mr Fisher returned to Dunedin by the night boat, and the 'team were not saying a word about him, as he h-a-d promised to go on if Austin would go. Austin got the necessary leave, and at the last minute Mr Fisher declined to go on. It was a dirty scut of a thing to do, and the explanation was that his wife had wired him not to go on to Auckland on any account. As he had left her m Christchurch a couple of days ago. it was only necessary that; he should return to her immediately, if not sooner. ' The sooner Dunedin drops Mx Fisher from cricket the better Dunedin cricket will be for it. To hear him yap about the rotten fielding, bowling, and batting of the rest of the team shows what sort of a sport he is, and perhaps the team are a darned sight better off without him, and if they are to capture Plunket Shield it would be

good to do so without the assistance of Mr Fisher, who would probaibly lay claim to it, and have it irechristened the "Mr,,Fisber Shield, won by me, and alone I did it." Cohcroft~ had . them all m knots again, but Mr Fisher considered it "tripe 1 " bowling, and he ought to loiow. If it was "tripe/ what was his own.. In comparison it was .stanking fish, and that's not much account to anybody. What was wjong with Laws that he wasn't bowled against the • wind pn Monday. Surely Williams forgot 'all about him. Laws did good work an the field; and saved heaps of" runs. > ; The team did well m the field, and should show up ag-ainst Canterbury .- . Jack Mahoney carried his 'bat out, for 22 second strike, and played some pretty strokes. Claude Hickson and Biacklock were , taken with similar balls by Mackeisey, and these were the two wickets that went down m getting 1 the 60 odd. runs necessary to win" the match. It was a good win after a poor star.t, ,and some interesting and extctCiitg cricket was shown, also some poor stuff on befth. sides., .