EDEN SET STIFF TASK FOR NEXT SATURDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 213, 28 November 1927, Page 10

EDEN SET STIFF TASK FOR NEXT SATURDAY

Y.M.’S BEST TO DATE In England this year, E. H. Bowley was rated among the top-not-chers of county cricket, his consistent all-round merit securing for him a place in The Rest against All England. At Eden Park on Saturday he supplied abundant evidence of how he came to be ranked as one of the outstanding batsmen of the last English season. A MONTH ago the player-coach ushered in the Auckland season by scoring the first boundary at Eden Hark, a vigorous preliminary to a score of eighty odd. Since then, Cooper, Colebourne and Montelth have all gone close to the coveted three figures, but it was left to the Y.M.C.A. skipper to put the first three figure innings of the season to his credit. Entering the eighties, Bowley had an exceedingly narrow shave. Possibly as a graceful recognition of the honour, Mills liud achieved for his club in England, Gillespie put the New Zealand representative on to bowl after his regular bowlers had failed to dislodge the opening Y.M.C.A. pair, and after wheeling up some tempting off breaks. Mills nearly got Bowley caught and bowled, but just failed to get on to the ball soon enough. MASTERLY BATTING With that single exception, it was a flawless innings. One is rather led to fcuspect that Bowley has cultivated a wider variety of scoring strokes in front of the wicket since he was last

In Auckland. "VVe knew him last season as a master of back play. On Saturday ho showed us the straight and Cover drive, the pull shot between long on and square leg, and he also found time to lift three balls clean out of the ground. It was a delightful exhibition in every sense of the words, and one that should supply a much-needed tonic to the game, which has been in the doldrums these past weeks.

Elliott batted under restraint, and it is just a question whether that frame of mind enables him to give of his best. There was a lot of stiff-arm work that slightly marred his batting, and many of the somewhat undecisive hook shots to leg which yielded him a small harvest of singles on Saturday could have bec*n bottled up if Eden had placed an extra mar. on the leg side. The real Elliott is a dashing, crashing wrecker of bowling reputations, and one likes him not at all in the unaccustomed role of batting stylist, if it is going to interfere with his natural talents for taking heavy toll of bowling that shows the slightest tendency to stray off the eight-inch strip. QUESTIONABLE POLICY

After the first wicket partnership was broken, the Young Men lapsed into a dreary spell of laborious cricket. Wayne took 20 minutes to open his account. and judging by the way a much harassed field was able to gain the ascendancy over the bat, it was questionable policy to send a youngster in at that stage, full and all of possibilities, as Wayne showed himself to be. From then on Eden tightened its grip on the batting, and it was not; till well on in the innings that some venturesome hitting by Otter and Wells prized it loose again, and caused the faces of the Eden supporters to grow longer and longer.

Thrust into a somewhat embarrassing position in having to follow hard on the heels of two veteran players, Wayne, a rapidly-risen second grader, could be forgiven for being weighed down by responsibility, but his educatior as a cricket neophyte under the watchful eye of the player-coach certainly provided an interesting indication of the work Bovvlev is doing among the younger players. For a good half hour it began to look, as one onlooker sceptically put it, as if Wayne was “all style and no score,” but presently the colt seem to gain more assurance, and the field, which had clustered round him like "flies round a meat-safe,” started to spread out again after Weir had missed a chance which he would probab y have secured had he been half a dozen yards further out. OUT OF THE HUNT!

Otter contributed a tempestuous 35 before Brooke Smith "sat one out” in the deep field. When the last man, Hunt, went in. lie cheerfully remarked’ to his fellow players in the stand that he was "going to have a hit.” but he left his hit too late. Otter got in on him, and off the last over of the innings gaily smacked 20 runs—off five balls! That brief knock made one wonder if the othr batsmen hadn’t got themselves out against Cooper by poking at His slows. Otter hit a brace, three fours in succession and a glorious sixer off five successive balls. In trying to hit another sixer, he paid the penalty, but it was great while it lasted. In a fading light Eden knocked up 27 for the loss of Postle’s wicket (it was a neck and neck run out) before the umpires decided to call it a day, on account of the poor light. Eden has a big task ahead, but it need have few regrets about the big score registered against it on Saturday. The ground fielding was first class throughout. Cooper especially making returns to the wicket that were a lesson in itself. The bowling perhaps lacked sting, and Cooper’s figures rather Haltered him considering the high percentage of “tripe” he sent

down. But the ordinary' canons of the game scarcely apply to a slow break bowler. It is his peculiar privilege, and right, to bowl rubbish for the purpose of getting the batsmen to take risks. On that basis (and it applies t.o the best of them anywhere) Cooper deserved the success which came his way. G. L. Weir sent down some clinking stuff after tea adjournment, and the ball he got Wells with was a beauty. Scores: — Y.M.C.A. First Innings. BOWLEY, c Whelan, b * Cooper .. 110 KLLIOTT, c Gillespie, bA. Weir .... 55 WAYNE, c G. Weir, b Cooper .... 27 LYON, c and b Cooper 3 RIDDOLLS, lbw, b G. Weir 22 PEOPPEL, c Gillespie, b Cooper .. 5 WELLS, b G. Weir 22 PEARCE, b G. Weir 6 PATON, b Mills 7 OTTER, c Brooke Smith, b Cooper .. 35 HUNT, not out .. .. 0 Extras 4 Total . 296 Fall of wickets: 142, 177, 198, 199, 207, 248, 249, 254, 276, 296. Bowling: Cooper, 5-93: G. Weir, 3-61; Mills, 1-21; A. Weir, 1-71; Whelan, 0-11; Postles, 0-14; Butler, 0-21. EDEN First Innings MILLS, not out IS POSTLES, run out 4 BENNETT, not out 5 Extras *. 0 One wicket for 27