General Gossip.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 3

General Gossip.

Noticed a couple • of Wicket-keepers at the Athletic Park last week m the outfield, Blacklock and Tilyard. Brdce : and Murphy kept wickets by turns. Haven't seen any, cricket at Athletic Park till now this season, "But it look-; ed a crook wicket, and it's; no wojriH der players growl at hay.ing;to play< , there.- • ■-„ . . . .'• .-.:. •. . v. ■ ' : • They should be able to turn oourt r a tip-top wicket at the Park with > everything- ■ m, its favor, no., youngsters playing .hopscotch, etc, or peds. doing sprints .on the pitches,;, and' other trifling things such as .'battalion par-: sides, etc., which the Basin, has toput up with, and still, the Basin at Pts worst is better? than the Park at its, best, and, the Park proprietors wonder w-hy their ground is not usedlor cricket to any extent: • •The advocates of representative 1 matches being played at the Athletic; Park.. iave.4 nothing to.,' crow oyer .at thje howling success that attended the first Experiment m this direction last week. The two-days' takings aggregated £2 15s 6d, . put of. which gatesmen's . wages swallowed up .' , £2 4s. When the Park Company got its little "cut .m" at the d.ibs, the Cricket Association were left with the munificent balance of 7s ' 6d, The visit of the Ma-nawatu men to . Wellington leaves the Association nearly £13 poorer m funds. This may. be a sordid way of looking at ithe facts, which are nevertheless stubborn enough to convince one that Mr Bate and others will have tp produce more substantial arguments to warrant the Association m changing the venue of local rep, games to the football •ground. ....: , ' ' '■•'■ The coach question has ' hot beenlost sight; of by the Cricket Association, whach will, meet shortly to consider the ways "and means of importing a first-class man to the Dominion m order to instruct our cricketers m the way they ought to play the game, before subini'tting concrete proposals to . delegates of affiliated clubs. - : ; Cricket .umpires are always v working "over" time !- The 'Tall Mall Gazette'? says that . the English team vjas probably outclassed m; the Test Matches. Wonderful what some of these wise old British papers discover. '.'Outclassed" is not bad for a& team that loses four out of five Test Matdhes and -only saved the odd one by the slcin of its teeth. In New Zealand we* would call that "a damned bad licking." From an- American paper :— "His Highness «&am Shri Ranjitsinshji Vibbaji, Bahadur cif Nawanagar—that's the title of tne East Indian potent-* ate who was but recently m England the master of Englishmen at „, their own game of cricket. It is much, longer and more respectful than the fc.ppellation the boisterous Australian 'barracking' crowd used to' hurl at him 'when lie played fdr England. Because of his unwillingness to submit to a' repetition of these insults, ."Ranji' refused to take part m any subse* quent tours' in a country wftere the crowd refused to make a distinction between an Indian Prince and an African dock-walloper." There is a tumor getting '- -round that the Australians, m spite of winning the rubber, have lost the precious ashes— it. is said that they all got wasfhed away m, th? downpour during last match. The fact that Clem Hill left a sick bed at the crisis of the third Test Match, to make a big score and win

many wickets as uny other three bowlers, but the side which has to depend upon such an uncertain bowler is not strong enough to defeat England's best on their own wickets. Certainly we missed Cotter m the last two matches, but,, even with him thrown m, the bowling is totally inadequate for the task required." On one day m the last Test Match there were . seventeen loud appeals from the English fieldsmen, and all of these were disallowed by •» the umpires. -The appellants must have l)een on the bluff, for it is almost against reason ,to suppose that they really thought the batsmen out on the seventeen occasions. There are certain unwritten laws which should be ever m front of the clean sportsman and make him rise above the mere q.uibbler, only too meager to seize an opportunity to best his opponent by either a strict interpretation of the law or else a very loose- appreciation of it. As a result of careful watching, it is alleged thai it tods been discovered, that certain members of v the Melbourne Cricket Club have mis-used their privileges by securing pass-out checks at the luncheon interval, giving ' or: selling them to other persons, and presumably returning to the ground on their niemiber's passes. The assistance of the police has been e*nl'isted by the Victorian Cricket Association, and as the names of ceriiaih persons Were taken, the matter will be -dealt with. by the trustees of the ground. ... . . ,;. „-. -, A nuniber of .tlhglish writers on cricket have been unafole to : understand why Wilfred Rhodes has done so little with the ball m Australia this tour. In the Test Matches the Yorkshireman secured seven wickets at an average cost of 60 runs. It would, therefore, be a matter of wonder if English cricketing people! were not wondering: why the lefthander has not done better:' It is clear that Rhodes has fallen away m his powers as "bowler. He does not bowl on Australian wickets with -the persistency that' marked his efforts when lie was otit there four years ago with Warner's team. When Noble led his men- off the field at the conclusion of t-lie last test match he was loudly cheered :by the members m the pavilion, who rose en /: masse and applauded him. Though the Australians have won four 01$ of live Test Matches,, yet their actual play . (says the "Spoi;tsman"), i did not disclose that they were very, much superior to their opponents for they were pushed very hard on each , occasion. ;and at certain stages of the games the visitors held a. winning hand, but' failed to. take advantase ..of it. The grit and stubbornness of the- early English Elevens appeared ,to be 'wanting m this one. and the traditional pluck of fthe Englishman, which never allows him to know when he is beaten, /was an unknown quantity to them. Certainly the Eleven, weak "enoughs even when/ every member was .available, were^pursued by bad luck m having at various times the best men on the side incapable of .playing for some teason or other. Jones's illness, no doubt, was a great blow to the team, It is rumored that they were not quite as happy a. family as they might -have been, but then, perhaps, Dame Rumor Ketlr as usual. Which was the greater sportsman of the two, Grace or Stoddarty m the following incidents : Grace threw S. Jones out whilst he was off his crease for the . purpose of batting •down a rough spot. Grace was correct 'by. a legal" interpretation of the laws of the game, but was it the action of a true sportsman. ? • Stoddart, on the other hand, recalled one of the Australians, who was obviously the victim of. a. mistake by the .umpire. Then, again, Jackson it was, I thinks who once purposely hit. a catch after \he saw the Australian fieldsmen prevented • from catching him the previous ' ball by the encroachment of the. spectators. Actions such as these, latter make the game of cricket dear to the heart of the true x sportsman, and retain the affections ..of the public, for it is the king of manly games. . The Melbourne willow-wielders gave the Fijian ■■ chappies a deuce of a lea-ther-hunting recently. Qriei Yarra Town man of the romantic name of Onydhs knocked up 152 m th€ first inmiri-gs against the bare-legged brigade. Probably it never took eleven men longer to get a single onyon'out fit the ground as on this occasion. .. To misquote a popular saying, the adverse wind of to-day may be the popular breeze of to-morrow. This is the case, with JVI. A. Noble, : who some time back was on the black books, but is; now elevated to the summit of popularity. The testimonial is glowing day by day, and there ir. now over £400 m hand, with pvery promise of over two thousand, providing that the weather is favorable for the night entertainment and cricket match. The latter is. to be played on the Sydney Cricket Ground on March 20th, between the Australian Eleven and the Rest of Australia. Messrs Ire'dale, McAlister and > C: Hill are to select the teams, and the umpires will be Lraing and J ones . That unique acrobatic performer, Touchy "Touch-line," of the Wellington ' 'Free Grab," m that rag's issue Of the 14th March again performs his renowned double somersault. In referring to captains appealing against bad light the acrobat writes thusly : "It has been insisted m local matches that appeals can only be made by captain to captain. I noticed, however, m the recent Test Matches, that the fielding captain always accepted an appeal from the batsman, and what is a -good enough procedure for the Test Matches is good, enough for our senior championship games." Now, . how did acrobat "Touch-line" notice these things ?)I thought he had been m Wellington "all the season, at least, methqught his figure, was to be seen (quoting his,, own words -m reply to Gordon Russell) "any/ Saturday on the Basin Reserve." Such beifoig the the game . for Australia, would , one would have thought, excited admdra■tion in -the Old Country,' but it seems to have Caused irritation. There appears to be a suspicion that Clem. was playing 'possum as well as cricket. London "Punch" satirises the incident m these terms : With Clement Hill robust and well Bip; scores the English innings. swell, But early promise comes" to nil, We've got'a chance with Clement ill. A "Sportsman" par on the late Te§t series : — "Noble, galvanised into new life by the adverse criticisms regarding his waning' bowling powers, was more like his old self than he has been for several ooasons. Saundcrs, whom many would have cast out, was the mainstay of the side with the ball, and captured almost as •

case, Touchy "Touch-line's" powers of vision must be tremendous, and must almost equal his powers of skite. Anyway, some six weeks ago "Touch-line" had a controversy iwith the correspondent named atyove on the boundary question, but m that case "What was a good enough procedure for the Test Matches Mn England and Australia' was not good enough for , local cricket," that is, according to acrobat "Touchline's" views ""at that time. / One fact is certain (says the "Sportsman") never m the history of the game has Australia been more deficient m first-class bowling talent than at present, and superhuman efforts should be made to unearth a couple of new ,trundlers before the next team goes to England. Had a representative eleven visited us this season, and shown anything like their proper form, how many Test matches would we have won ? How would Charlie Turner, Ferris, Spofforth. and others of that ilk have revelled m some of the pitches upon which the games were plavert I rather think there would have ■..'. pi a few totals under a century. W- h-AVc good fieldsmen, several first 'tss ! wicket-keepers, and f battang talent galore, but b owlets Ye are sadly m need of to carry f s e war successfully into the enemy.'s camp. The Montague Noble TestimonialIllustrious sir, it doth occurThough doubtless very funny— A testimonial after all Is but a taste-o '-money.- '