THE INNOCENTS ABROAD.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1018, 6 April 1883, Page 2

THE INNOCENTS ABROAD.

TOUR OF TARANAKI PROVINCIAL cricket" TEAM. Taranaki cricketers having long wished to try conclusions with other provincial clubs, and test their ability and prowess on the “tentedfield” decided on sending a team to Auckland, where they would meet the representatives of that province who had performed so successfully during their late southern tour, besides playing other matches arranged with town and country clubs. With the above view the following gentlemen wore selected to proceed north, viz,, Btlyly F, Bayly G, Berosford, Biddiford, Cunningham J,Fulton, Foley, Mathieson,Farrington,Bead F and ConttsA. These names do not represent the full strength of tho province, but are quite up to the generality of teams who have to go away from home to play. Tho trip may be said to have commenced when these players all met at New Plymouth on the 17th March, when they practised on tho local ground before starting by the Union Company’s boat “ Wanaka.” This boat was advertised to start at 4 p.m. on the 17; th, but did not get under way till 8 p.m. Besides the team above named Messrs Mason and Harden accompanied them in the capacity of umpire and scorer respectively. After the passengers had shipped and were awaiting the start A Happy Thought struck the representatives, that no more fitting opportunity would offer for the election of their officers. The idea was no sooner mooted than acted upon, and the smoking house on deck was chosen as

the ballot room. The chair was occupied by Mr F, Mason, _ who in his usual humorous way explained the object of the meeting, but thought the surroundings rather peculiar for a meeting of this sort. After discussion, Mr Hiddiford was elected captain, and Mr Cunningham secretary ; and after still further discussion, it was thought unnecessary to adopt a code of rules which had been very thoughtfully provided for the occasion, as each one present promised their captain to stand by any course of training he might think necessary for- the success of the trip. The time occupied between port and port was long, so as to suit the tide at Manukau, and the delay was not relished by the Few XJnlbrtunate « who were physical victims of the deep. When wo arrived at the Onehunga wharf, we found an array of Auckland and local gentlemen awaiting to welcome us. The Cricket Association, through their active and energetic representative and secretary, Mr C H Osmond, had provided a four -in - hand drag to convey us to Auckland, where quarters had been engaged for our reception at the “ Royal Mail” and Victoria Hotels. The next morning, Monday, saw us all on the Domain ground starting a course of steady practice, in which we persevered throughout the day, so as to be able to give es good an account of ourselves as possible in the match to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday against the Country District Clubs; and the necessity of accustoming ourselves to the pace and tendency of the ground was only too plainly shown on the first day of this match, when an innings on either side was completed leaving us 25 runs behind our opponents, and very poor scoring on both sides. The toss for innings having been won by Riddiford, he elected to take the field, so as to give our men as much opportunity of judging the pace of the ground as possible, and, after

Rather Loose bowling from nearly all our trundlers the innings of the Auckland Countiy Clubs closed for 88. Considering the fast ground this score was not looked upon as by any means an insurmountable task and the Taranakiites went to the wicket with every confidence in their own ability to cap it. This, however, proved a “ fond delusion ” as the bowling was too straight and wicket after wicket fell. But for the careful batting of Beresford with the timely assistance' of Foley, the collapse would have been complete. However, at the close, 63 runs had been put together. The captains decided as the afternoon was well advanced not to start the second innings till next day, fho2lst instant, when commencement was made at 10 o’clock. The aspect of the game to-day was quite altered by the good bowling of the Bayly Brothers, who were both on the spot, and proved themselves capable of maintaining the good reputation they had previously won in this department of the game. The local men were all disposed of for 47 runs, leaving ns a fair field and not very heavy task of 72 to lie and 73 to win. In this innings Beresford again made a stand and materially assisted in the win by our men by one wicket and two runs to spare. The excitement towards the close of the game was intense, and each separate run was greeted with applause, doubles, trebles, or more with comensurate ' Howls of* Delight in proportion to their value. The innings worth recording during the match are those of Howard for Auckland, and Foley and Beresford for the Taranakis’. The Coast “Reps” were anything but elated at this their first success, which after all was too close'to be comfortable, and was anyone’s game up to the last minute. The Thursday and Friday which intervened prior to the big match were both occupied in steady practice, and without doubt all our players improved with these chances. Saturday morning shone out fine and clear, and augured auspiciously for the play and the attendance. Fate turned the tossing coin against Taranaki, and the local men elected to take charge of the stumps, sending out Barton and Wyhyard to face our bowling, which they succeeded in playing for the .first 14 overs. •: When the score stood at 271 —2, the latter had to retire before Fred Bayley. Arniel filled the vacancy, and commenced scoring fast. These two players kept the ball rolling merrily, and ran up the respective scores of Barton 74, and Arneil 48, but not Ayithout each giving the field a chance to catch them ; the former when he had scored 16, and the latter when he had scored 9. I may safely say, that had these two chances been taken, a win by the coast team was within the bounds of possibility, at least the figures of the innings Avould have been materially altered. But these two errors seemed to Throw a Damper

on the game. O’Brien 33, Lankham 20, Testro 17, Gill 14, Gardiner 12, were the other double figure scores and the innings closed for the total of 241 runs. The way our “reps” shaped with the bat at once proved that the bowling and ground were both too fast for them, and quite unlike anything the} 7 had been accustomed to in their own district. It is needless to individualise the play, of the visitors, as the small total of both their innings will speak for itself, viz., Iqt innings, 63 ; 2nd innings, 55 : thus losing the match by an innings and 123 runs. As an on-looker throughout the game, a few remarks may not be out of place. An error was committed .by .-the Coast captain in keeping on the two Baylys from the start, until onr opponents had knocked together 80 odd runs off them. The want of practice, together, was only too palpable in the neglect of one and all to back up the throw in from the field. The scoring was fust enough, without their extras. Speaking on the other side it is ©nly fair to state that when the Auckland men had run up about a hundred to their credit, the weather became shower} 7 , making the ball greasy and

Almost XJ nil an cl able for the bowlers, and continued so for the rest of this innings. Our 'men had to bat in a bad light for the last 20 minutes of the first day, and were fortunate enough to maintain their position until time was called for the day. On Monday, after Sunday’s fine and hot weather, the ground was almost unplayable, and assisted the bowling of Lankhamwith his high delivery. Gill is the fast bowler of the Northerners, and proved fairly effective. Tuesday and Wednesday bad been set apart for a match against the Waikato men, hut it unfortunately fell through, as these gentlemen found it impossible to come down to meet us. For the Tuesday, a one day’s match was now arranged against 15 coifs, and resulted in a drawn game muchly iiv favour of Taranaki as the scores will show. Taranaki, 206 ; Colts, 9 wickets down for 44. In this game the visitors made the following individual double figures. Farrington 51, Coufts 47 C not out), Fulton 41. Riddiford 15, Beresford 13, Cunningham 11, and were doubtless assisted by the looseness of the bowling which had been fairly broken by our first few bats of whom Farrington

Stands out Conspicuous. In this game the 9th wicket fell for 115 runs and the 10th not until the score had been increased by 91 runs. The next day was looked forward to as a day of rest by all our “ boys ” but it was not to be. Judge Fenton was anxious to see the Grammar School boys turn out to meet us and got them a holiday for the occasion. The original agreement was that we should meet a team of a larger numerical strength than our own, to be composed of present pupils of the Grammar School ; but on our appearance on the ground on the match day, we discovered that the team was elected from both.past and present scholars. Our captain was rather surprised at the outcome of the preliminaries, and placed the question in the hands of )iis supporters, who decided to decline playing a handicap match except with the present pupils, as the old pupils comprised such names as Arneil, Wynyard, McCormick brothers, Meldrum, and others of equal merit, some of whom we had already met to our cost in the representative match. The decision of the Grammar scholars was to play with the support of the past pupils, and to play on equal terms ; so the toss resulted in a win for Riddiford, who elected to go in. The innings on this occasion closed for 136 runs, computed by the following double figures. F. Bayly 22, G. Bayly (not out 20), Foley 19, Coutts 17, Cunningham 14, Mathicson 11, Reid 10, together with the smaller scores of the rest. On the opponents’ side, the only two who made any stand worthy of nole-in the first innings were Arneil and L. Meldrum, who contributed 18 each. In their second innings, however, McQormick and Arneil were not disposed of until the total had reached 85 runs for the loss of two wickets, and the game thus ended in Taranaki’s favour on the first' totals of 136 against 69. The last match of the series to complete our engagements, came off on Friday,and Saturday the 30th and 31st inst., and was played against the second eleven of united Auckland Clubs, and was looked upon as A Moral . Certainty for the Aucklanders. The chances of cricket are always open to doubt, and our opponents found that they had miscalculated their share of them on this occasion. Riddiford was again successful with the coin, and elected to bat, sending Beresford and Farrington to open the innings. The former of these gentlemen mainly contributed to the grand total by remaining at the wickets from first to last, carrying out his bat for a well gained 49 runs. The only other double figure contributor was Coutts with 12 to his credit. The Aucklanders’first venture is best described by the state of the telegraph board at the fall of each wicket, which read thus : 1 for 2,'2 for 3, 3 for 6] 4 for 20, 5 for 24, 6 for 24, 7 for 52, 8 for 59, 9 for 62, 10 for 79. This success on the part of Taranaki was mainly owing to the efficient bowling of F. Bayly, who scored 8 wickets to his credit, and was doubtless assisted by the slowness of the ground, which made the ball hang. The Taranaki team’s second venture closed for the total of 122 runs, mostly compiled by Foley 45, Riddiford 32, and Coutts 11, and at the close of the game the wickets were drawn at 5.80 p.ra., Blair and Isaac, who first faced our bowling, had maintained their position which was mainly owing to the wet state of the grass, as a very Heavy Squall

came on during the interval between innings. So much for the cricketing part of the tour, which sums up thus : Three wins, one lose and one drawn game by the Coast representatives ; and my humble opinion is that letter things could not have been expected from a selection of men who had not previously had an opportunity of playing together. Our friends, the Auckland cricketers, were most indefatigable in their attentions to our welfare, and did not leave a single stone unturned to make our trip a thorough success, and one to be looked back to by us as a red-letter day in our cricketing annals. On the only spare day away from cricket, our team were handsomely driven out to the Stud Company’s farm, where they had an opportunity of seeing the best stock New Zealand Can boast of owning, Major Walmsley, who was acting for the Company doing all in his power to make the trip as interesting as possible to us. The concluding scene, wherein all cricketers took part, was. the dinner held in Mr Dallen’s dining rooms', and it passed off successfully, with the usual toasts and speeches. This dinner was made the occasion of a presentation to Mr Barton, in the form of a bat, for bis highest average during the successful trip of the Aucklanders to the Southern Provinces. The English mail arriving a day earlier than due, and our steamer leaving on Sunday instead of Tuesday, there was nothing for it but for one and all to move round after the dinner arid JBi<i Fai*owell

to our kind hosts. Some of these partings were remarkable, considering the small spare time we had bad at our disposal for improving sentiments. The run home to New Plymouth in the “ Penguin,” was not a treat owing to the heavy sea, but as we all safely landed, the old adage may fairly apply, - that “ All is well that ends well.” From our landing from the surf boat the tour of Taranaki’s representatives may be said to have concluded. As Mr Robinson said at the dinner speech, “ that no doubt the reunion had taught all the contending teams some lesson, and it was by such games that cricket was promoted, and it was generally understood that Auckland will next year send a team to try conclusions with the Coast.” I sincerely, trust that it may be so. Old Cricketer.