General Gossip.

NZ Truth, Issue 137, 1 February 1908, Page 3

General Gossip.

A' season or two. back when Old. Boys used to come out and take their gruel like sports it was ;- expected'that their actions then would have held to them, 'but since they came out on top it cannot be contended that those sportsmenlike actions have stucte to them. ■ They would apparently sooner win on a sort* of a quibble now than play •{he game for' what it is worth. A few weeks ago they objected to a substitute playing because he was a left-hander, and fell into the soup, over it, allowing Manson to play instead of Joe Smith for Midland, when Manson simply -made chopping blocks of Old Boys' bowlers, and now that Petone have got Connolly m the;' Club, Old Bbvs won't allow Petone to play him against them because he jhasn't been a resident for a month. When a player arrives here from outside the district, brings his family, goods and chattels along, and is located at a steady Job, the Association rules surely never intended tliat he should be debarred from playing right away, and it is absolute rot to think so. No doubt what the, rule. Was driving at is to block the bird of passage player who might be enticed to stay m the district at the end. of a seas-' on simply to strengthen a team for a last match or two. To go on to precedents, we have lots of them,. For instance, Richardson, Wynyard, Mahoney and others. These pjlayers were not here a- month when they represented a club without demur. And why ?. Because they were practically resident's the day they landed hero. And so is Connolly, and no argument that the Old Boys can trot out wiJl palliate their actions. It's .not the residential qualifications that is making them quake, its funk and fatheadetlriess ; likewise its a poor, parochial pot-hunting pastim-a this sort of cricket, and the sooner

Old Boys chuck it ; and .play the game for what its worth, and for what it is intended, the better. If some of the Old Boys declined to be included amongst the team which will probably, go to Auckland to play for the : Plunket Shield because Relf will represent Auckland it could better be understood, because cricket is Relfs livelihood, whereas Connolly cannot be placed on the same footing by any stretch of imagination. But he is ostracised by a few, or-possibly one, of a club that from it's birth was out to be and acts as sports, and the sooner they drop this, dirty business and the instigator, or instigators, of the unsportsmanlike action the better. "A Lover of Manly Sport." writes thus :—"The action of the Old Boys' Club m refusing Petone permission to play Connolly (the recent arrival from Sydney) on Saturday last cannot be said to have been a sportsmanlike one, and -members of/ other clubs were loud m their condemnation, of the ex-Collegiate team. Certainly, there is a rule to the effect that a player must reside m the ■district four weeks before being able to take , part m championship matches. Still senior cricketers m general take it that the rule was only passed to stop cases of ringing-in and importing players for the purpose of winning a game, but never intended to block first-class players who had conae^ to the province to • reside and were ■m regular .' and constant employment. If the rule had never been broken before there may have been some slight grounds for the Old Boys' objection, but if we look back a little we find that Mahoney, Richardson and Bartlettwere allowed to play when he(e the short time of three, five and six days respectively, whereas Connolly has been here 12 days. If cricket is going *to improve m this province a certain section /of players should not be so narrowminded as .to consider their club' only, but should only be too pleased to ' study the benefit ol a first-class, bowler (who has come to reside amongst them) should be to his province". Surely by playing against a liowler who has hekt his own on first--class senior • cricket m New South Wales it would be the means of fur-, their improving oneself. I do not fear contradiction when I say that the Old Boys' Club Js the only one m Wellington which would have attempt ted to blo.ck Connollv from playing, i and by so" doing it has only shown that it was m a deadly funk of meeting the left-hander', 'but that it does not wish cricket to improve m Wellington." ' ■ Cricketers' chirp— Where there's a willow's away. But it doesn't always work. '•''Batter" .luck .next time cries the crank. / The proposal that Auckland should play a team representative of the rest; of New Zealand does not find much favor .with cricketers m the other Island. Otago is dead agin the idea. , .'■"., Four applications from members of the Otago touring team for loss of wages while m the North were entertained by the Otago Cricket Association and £5 ' each was paid to the applicants. The tour cost the . Association 12s 9d< short oi £200. j Prince Ratu Kadavu Levu, captain of the Fiji willow wielders, when playing against the Glen Iniies boys, went out for a duck. As a rule, the ordinary nigger goes m for a chicken. " ' ..; . At a country cricket match m New South Wales recently one of the fielders was suddenly. chased by an angry tiger snake, which was lurking m the long 'grass. The batsman ran out of his crease irt great excitement to slay the reptile, and the cold-bjlooded, wicketkseeper, taking advantage, knocked his bails of! and yelled, "Out" But t? ie umpire, after the snake was battered to death, decided that the batsman should have anoth-? er life. . .. , Says the 'fSportsman's" cricketing scribe; — "It is a pity we have no hitters such as Lyons, -. Macdonnell', Bonnor and Massie to give a fillip to the batting. one time the public growled when Alec Bannerman plodded wearily along for his fifty or sixty runs, per, innings. Now we have the spectacle of a 'whole team, or rather two teams, playing m an equally dreary and uniijfterestrng fashion. The batsmen show a i?7ant of enterprise, and a respect for the bowling which is not justified by its . deadliness." ■ And again;--' 'lt is generally the case that wJien a player begins to slog the bowling about, the surest catchers; m the fi.ejd often m'is.s com? paratively easy chances. Take, for instance, Gutter's hitting m the New South Wales match against the present team; which so disorganised the field for the time being. I remember; George Bpnnor making 87- against' Ivo Blights team, after being, missed seven times, twice by A. G. Steel, 'reckoned one, of the best fields m the team, • one a very easy catch. The man who 'hits up #0 runs" m as, many minutes is equally as valuable to his side, except upon very rare occasions , as the man who Avearily plods along for an, hour an>d : a half for the samei number of. runs." The "missed' catch" plays a very important part m Test as m. all other classes of cricket. Were' it not for the little event, Warner would never have won the first Test match —the rubber. In the long run it generally pans out the luck equal. Everything goes right /for one side to-day ; everything wrong" for it< to-morrow. When an invalid (Hill), and a new chum (Hartigan) to test matches can m tropical heat each make over the century, it says very little for some of the others an the Kangarooitc combination. J. N. Crawford, W. R. Rhodes, R. A. Young, J. Humphries, and J;. B. Hobbs were, the only members of the. English team who, up to the conclusion of the third test match, had: not made a blob on this tour. Bill Howell, who has fought inthe Van of many a contest m the old dart and the new, has for a long time 'been cruelly from* a severe attack of rheumatism, the result of a chill contracted throoigh playing with his temperature abnormal whilst m England with the last Australian Eleven, which has rendered him well nigh helpless ever since, his return. Everybody knows what a clean living sport B,Towell has always been —wish he were m it now m his merriest mood to knock the tedium of test cricket to Ballyhooley by his mighty smiting— and everybody will wish good old Bill a speedy and permanent recovery. 1 After all cricket is only a game,

yet players of Charley Richardson:' s stamp would go on m all their gravity even though the Dominion's Capital City were burning. Pat, pat, pat, fdreary, doleful and dull until the onlookers at the Basin Reserve became so depressed, listless and exhausted that they - hadn't enough energy to wag "their tongues m solemn protest while the funeral dirge wen*fc on. Talk about taking our amusements seriously— no wonder the stolid Britisher is the butt of . the vivacious Frank' or jolly Muscovite. Cricket was never meant to be anything but an exhiliariting recreation, but, pursued: as it is nowadays, it is fast . becoming, m its highest plane, part of ,life's busy strife, and threatens to decline as a means to enjoyment by the manufactured nature of its unnecessarily serious importance. The Victorian Association has a ne^rofit of £4SO on the ,New South , Wales match at Christinas. This, added to £1660 from, the second Test match, gives £21iO front two ot the. four matches played at Melbourne* Tho other two should sweli it to something close to £3000. And two more, including a Test, have still to be played at Melbourne. The V.C.A. and its constituent clubs are beginning to realise what they have lost m years past. The governing bady clear over £4000 profit this season. Despite the large crowds at themiatch.es;^;i§!ikely that the Associr ations o£ -New South Wales', Victoria, and South Australia Will be called upon to make up a few hundreds of pounds to complete the £10^000 guaranteed to the >I.C.C. Was there not some unconscious humor iii the following par from, one of the, Adelaide dailies on the day prior to iUs starting of the third test .match ? It read : i - i 'Hundreds: of people have conic an from the cpuntry to be present through the game. All the hotels are feeling the pressure on their space, and the Grand. Coffee Palace m Hindleyrs'treet reported on Thursday afternoon, that, every room, including all the new buildings, was occupied, and ••shakedowns" \were being improvised to meet the demands for accommodation. The numbers '. of visitors are greater than at show time." If the above be not overdrawn, the good people of Adelaide must have left all the fun to the visitors, as the attendances were only " 6000, 15,000 (Saturday 1 ), 6000, 3000 and 4000. We are told' by a chronicler of Adelaide that "In the days that are gone, Clem's first love was cricket, but now he is married, the great game yhas to take second' place to his wife, his child, and home. John Hill, the father of the Hill family, was. the first man to make a century on . the Adelaide Oval. Peter Hill, the eldest son, played club cricket for years,- and was known as a stylish and hard hitting batsman. ArthurHill ("Farmer' 1 ') was an inter-State player and a good bat. Frank Hilt was captain for Prince Alfred College when Clem was a youngster. Clem comes next. Harry Hill, who died last year, played m first-class cricket. Then comes Roy, and last Stan, who does good service for East Torrens. All the boys were star batsmen for P.A.C. Even the girls can wield the Willow with vigor' and success. The Hills as cricketers are like the Oresorys were m the 70's and BQ.'s m New South Wales, . T*Jw secprid innings of the Masterton team m its match against Carlton on Saturday, *wa» productive of some sensational •bowliji'g. As there was a chance of finishing the match m one 'day, Moss and Swan (neither i of whom 'bowled m the first innings), : were put on to bqwl. The former es- j tabliehied a New Zealand record by ■ taking ten wickets for ten. runs. He j took his last nine wickets without a run being scored off him. His analy^j sis reafl as follows ••HQvers 6 : 5, maid^ \ ens 2, runs 10, wickets 1,0, average 1, j Mr J. Fanning, ,of Wellington, whp personally conducted the New South Wales teachers through the North Island, was. the recipient of a gpltj sovereign-case from the visitors with the inscription : '" J.F., from N,S,W. team, 1908 f " as a 'mark' of theij: appreciation; The patience of a mighty multitude that can sit cramped up all day be-n-oath a broiling sun to watch eyen a , Test match passeth the understand-, ing. That is from' the point of viewof a non-enthusiast. Sammy Jones, the famous 'Aus-r tralian batsman of former days, and now coach of the G-rafton (Auckland,). Club., was married m the.' Northerij towii a few flays ago. ' Ho:wden,. the AucKland cricketer, sustained such' a serious injury m the Reps. y. Next Thirteen match that he will be Unable to play again ibhis season. Indeed, he fears .' that his cricUet career is over.