CRICKET.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10069, 10 February 1909, Page 4

CRICKET.

AUSTRALIA v. REST OF AUSTRALIA. [by electric telegeaph.—corteight.] (Pee Pbess Association.) Received February 9, at 8.55 p-m. Sydney, February 9. Australia secured a victory for the loss of two wickets. The weather was fine and the wicket good. Noble played brilliant- and faultless cricket. Gregory played a patient game, with a splendid ixhibition of strokes behind the wicket. He gave a chance just before reaching the century. The partnership produced 251. Parker, the West Australian colt, did fine work in the field which was much admired. Scores:— REST OF AUSTRALIA. First Innings 311 Second Tunings 159 AUSTRALIA. First Innines 202 AUSTRALIA.—Second Innings. M'Alister, run out 0 Noble, b Barnes 125 Gregory, not out 126 Ransford, not out 9 Sundries 9 Total for 2 wickets ... ... 259 THE SECONO TRIAL MATCH. For the second match, commencing in Melbourne <m Friday, the teams selected are : Australia —Xobie, Macartney, Ransford, Hazlitt, Armstrong. Gregory", M'Alister, Bardsley, Cotter, Dodds, O'Connor. Uest of Australia —Parker, Simpson. Mavne. Hopkins, Barnes, Uehrs, Saunders, R. Hill, Gorry, Dolling. Whitty. CHOOSE THE AUSTRALIAN TEAM. Owing to the arrangement of a second trial match we have decided to initiate another competition, to close on Saturday, 13: h inst.mt, at 5 p.m., or when the team js chosen, if before that. The conditions will be the same as those for the last competition—los 6d to the person who picks the actual team or nearest to it: 6d to be enclosed, which will be devoted to the Children's Bread Fund. Twenty-nine lists were sent in for the first competition. MEN AUSTRALIANS WILL MEET. (By L. O. S. Poidevin, in the SydneyMorning Herald.) In a previous article I endeavored to show that the chief conditions of play themselves—weather, wicket, light, etc. — are of such a variable nature as to be constantly putting before the Australian cricketer new and unfamiliar problems; that the young batsman will, for instance, be early called upon to adapt his style and methods to new and most varied conditions. It is now my purpose to deal with another more personal aspect of the same problem.

Xow just as the conditions of play vary but little from time to time in Australia so also does the personal side of tiie picture. Year in and year out it is very much the same l>owling that batsmen have to deal with. It is always the same Saunders, the same Armstrong, the same Xohle. and .-u on that the batsman lias to meet and master. Bowlers do not change their style, and they seldom alter their particular methods of attack. In Kngland, however, tiie touring Australian is meeting something different in every match, new and old iueas of bowling in strange and unfamiliar setting. It becomes a very real and very interesting experience for the young Australian. Letme picture a few of the most prominent antagonists the tourists will mee*—excluding those who have been to Australia. Perhaps the most formidable bowler, if in his customary form, our men will have to face, wilt be Waiter Brearley. A beautifully built athletic figure, standing well over medium height, he is generally regarded as the finest fast bowler in England. He is not as fast as Cotter, nor does ho take anything like the length of run that modem fast bowlers do. He takes in reality seven to nine steps in all; the first three lie practically walks, with the ball held poised in his left hand, and for the rest he simply bounds towards the bowling crease, finishing the whole action v.ith remarkable body work. To the onlooker his pace is nothing like so impressive as it is to the batsman, who finds the ~nzt'' off the pitch tremendous. He has had a marvellously successful career, having at one time or another bowled almost everybody who is anybody at cricket. Last season was one of his best, ilcowes iiis success not so much to his pace as to his facu'.tv for "doing things" v.ith the rail. The ball which gets him must of his wickets is one that "'swings away" from the right-handed batsman -. i.e also gets many wickets v.ith the ball that ''nips back" very sharp from the oil on almost any Knglish pitch. There's nothing to tei! you in his action which ball is coming. except that he bowls the ••off-break" from the extreme outside edge of the bowling crease, and the "swerver" from close up beside the wicket. However, since his run only alters in the last coHijle of strides, the information it gives is very meagre, tiud hardly worth the effort to get "it. His lasting powers are marvellous. I have seen him bowl all day, and faster in the last half hour, when the

"rabbits' appeared, than any other time during the day. In tiio field and with, the rat his behavior is so obtrusively energetic as to be highly amusing. Everything lie does is greeted" with laughter and amii.-e----ruent by the crowd. X'o player id possessed of more supreme self-confidence. Even before his place was assured for Lancashire he wagered that he would play for England against Australia within two he" did. You must make up your mind to play ium if you would_ make any sort of lengthy stay at the wickets. It "is no use trying, to bluff him. as Truniper ant! Duff used to pretend to do. rogul.ir'y and so often did he get the former out during the las', tour as to almost tire of the feat, as well as giving rise to the impression that Trumper could not deal with fast bowling. There is a chophouse in Manchester where large photographs of celebrities of the sporting world are-jisolaved. and occupying a prominent place is "that of Walter Brearley. with ""The Victor of Trumper" written large underneath. One could fiil volumes with amusing incidents clustering round the Lancashire fast bowler, but I must pass on. Xevilie A. Knox, the Surrey express, is the fastest bowler England has had for some seasons. A thin young fellow to look at. you would never suspect him of being able to work up the furious pace that he"does. He takes a very long, hard-work-ing, cantering sort of run from somewhere oat, behind where deep, mid-off would field, lie seems all arms and legs and hair as he comes towards you. His long fair hair waggles up and down like-a hand held over his""head from behind, beckoning the batsman to get ready. That hair always fascinates my attention: it is worse than a loose sleeve flapping. He is exceedingly fast for a few overs, rather inclined_ to be erratic, both in length and direction., and a very nasty bowler to meet on a "bouncy" "or "fiery" wicket, because he makes "the ball crowd in so on to the batsman's body. Our men will meet him —and remember him—nest season if his musical studies which he has been pursuing abroad permit of his being available during the summer. Wass is another fast bowler whom our men will meet in the openinz match of the tour. He is different from any other fast bowler that one has ever seen, inasmuch as he makes the ball break from the leg side when the wicket allows of any "bite." Peculiarly enough, h* is at his "best, or worst from our point of view, on soft, sodden wickets, where, according to ail the canons of the game, most bowling is comparatively harmless, and fast Ixywling most of all. On such pitches with that strange wrist waggle of his. he sends along his wonderful leg break, •'doing" the" width of tho sticks every time at his top pace. On his day, and "on his wicket, he is practically unplayable. I have repeatedly seen England's greatest batting giants reduced to the veriest batting pigmies when opposed to him. His~ professional comrades in the Xottinzham team when they want a special effort from Wass tell him that So-and-so has said "that he cannot bowl," and they read out to him fictitious statements supposed to have been made about him bv the best batsmen of the other side. There" is a large field for character study in English cricket circles. Wass and Hallam together practically won JSotts tie championship the season before last—a particularly wet season. Hallam bowls a medium-paced, good-length ball, very difficult to get away. He reaped a specially fine harvest in "that wet season, because manv batsmen, glad to*'get away from .WasV end, took undue liberties at his end, in the vain hope of snatching some runs—with fatal results. Apart altogether from that, Hallam's bowling was in itself a wonderful combination of accuracy, en- j terprise and guile. It was conceded by all that he was the finest medium-paced right-hander of the season. Xewstead was the bowling '-find'' of | the last English season. He came into

the Yorkshire, team in the previous August, doing so well from tie jump aa to ensure him a permanent trial in the county eleven. He captured 140 wickets last season, and is well up amongst the leading division in the averages. He is a tall man of about oO years of age, as hard as nails, and with" an exceptional capacity for work, a typical Tyke, char ; acteristically cheerful, and stolid in a crisis, and always prepared to make the best of whatever fortune happens along. He bowls right-hand, a little over mediumpaced, with a tendency to three-quarter rather than what is generally understood by good length. His methods are quite orthodox —the usual breaking back ball, and the slightly faster one that invariably goes away and gives the catch behind the sticks or in the slips. I do not regard him as the "star" that most people in England do: he is just a vary good medium-paced bowler, who keeps a persistently even length, is persevering, and has been backed up by good fielding and good management. I do not regard him as a test match bowler, though I am prepared to believe that a reproduction of last season's success will gain him a place. He is a very solid, useful, and, no doubt, improving bat, giving the impression of having to work hard for his runs. The best feature about his batting, however, is its reliability at a pinch. Many times last season he palled Yorksliire out of trouble with his useful, if scarcely elegant, methods. He made 927 runs at an average of 25.05 per innings, so that he narrowly missed the distinction attaching to the capture of 100 wickets and the making of 1000 runs in his first county season.