With Bat and Ball

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 326, 11 April 1928, Page 11

With Bat and Ball

A Cricket Causerie

The 1927-28 cricket season in New Zealand has come and gone, and taken all round a particularly successful one it has been. The fly in the ointment for several seasons past, the weather, proved particularly agreeable for once. Many more seasons, possibly, will come and go before New Zealand is again visited by a team of the calibre of the Australian XI., which has just completed its tour of the Dominion. , For Auckland the season has seen a big change in fortunes, with Wellington's recovery of the Plunket Shield. The club competition has been close and, latterly, interesting, but it has not produced that sparkling cricket the public is longing for. With promising colts coming on, we can look forward to an improvement in this direction next season, however. Dickinson’s Bad Luck George Dickinson, the Otago fast bowler, whose injury on the first day of the second Test put him out of action for the rest of the match, has been unfortunate in the matter of hurts. Twice has he had his collarbone broken at football, and now he has torn a ligament in his groin. Dickinson is one of those exceedingly rare birds who has gained his silver fern in both Rugby and cricket, and is one of the most popular athletes playing. Hamilton s Rapid Rise On his first appearance for New Zealand, I. M. Hamilton made the very good total of 40. He has always been a prolific scorer, and appears to have plenty of confidence. Hamilton is a former Christ’s College player, and it is interesting to recall some of his earlier performances. He first represented the college in 1922, playing for the first eleven. Against Otago Boys’ High School at Dunedin in 1923 he scored 102, while in one knock in the 1925 season he ran up IS6. The latter innings was chanceless and remarkable in that while he was at the crease not a run was lost, his judgment never being at fault. During his last term in 1925 his scoring was a model of consistency: 58, 84, S 9, 73 v. Boys’ High School, 20, 66, 66, 26, 186. His best innings excepting 186 was 89, "made against an eleven which included Cunningham, then at the top of his form. : The Mistake of an Umpire “Give your decision, but not your reason. Your decision may be right, but your reasons are almost sure to be wrong,” is a good maxim for umpires. In an old-time match iA Victoria the home umpire gave a decision which was admittedly wrong, yet his reasons just as indubitably right. There was an early appeal against NS*. G. Grace fo.r Ibw, and the umpire gave it 'not out.’’ The bowler seemed disappointed, and a little later remarked to the umpire, "I could have

sworn that Grace was right ia front.” •Of course, he was,” said the umpire candidly, "but you know as well as I do that there are hundreds of people on this ground to-day who have driven 30 or 40 miles for tne sole purpose of seeing W. G. Grace bat. I would never forgive myself if any decision of mine spoiled their day." 1 Tongan Choir v. Y.M.C.A. An interesting match will take place at Victoria Park at 2 p.m. to-morrow between the Y.M.C.A. Club and the Tongan Choir at present touring Xew Zealand. The visitors are keen cricketers and are said to have some able players in their ranks. The Tongan team will be as follows: John I Bosesi (captain), David Saumaki, Daniel Mokofiji. Samuel Fonua. I Charles Taukava. John Latu, William Helu. David Fugalei, Joshua Man. Charles M. Havea, Filisione Benitani j (12th map). The Death of Roy Kilner The recent death of Roy Kilner saw the passing before his, time of one of the finest all-round cricketers England has produced in modern days. A sturdy, square-jawed, eagerlooking man, the late Roy Kilner has been likened to George Hirst. He bowled and batted left-handed (Hirst batted right-handed, to be sure), and if he lacked something of the great "Jarge’s” masterfulness and command, he had most of the qualities which big cricket calls for. He was always an experimenter with his medium-paced, abrupt-rising bowling, * which a succession of struggling bats- : men liave so often found awkward j to keep out of their stumps, and hard to get through a cleverly-placed ring ■ of fieldsmen. Born in 1890, he first ( played for Yorkshire in 1911. He did : not* meet with much, success until 1913 | and 1914, when he proved a very successful batsman, but he did not develop as a first-class bowler until j after the war. It was owing to H. M. j Booth being killed at the war, the death of Drake, the retirement of George Hirst, that he was called upon to do a good deal of bowling, and in 1922 he became one of England’s leading trundlers. That year he captured 101 wickets for a little over 14 runs a wicket, and he improved upon these figures in the last three seasons. At the time of his death he was regarded as one of the best allround cricketers in England. As a bowler he possessed accuracy and | length, and was able to spin the ball well, and with these attributes he ' combined a fine imagination, and was . regarded as a very heady bowler. 1 Unlike most left-handers, he bowled over the wickets, and this formed a valuable contrast to Rhodes when , they were both on together- He also possessed a very cheery temperament, and this, of course, was a great asset. “Wisden’s” regarded him as one of the five English bowlers of the year iin 1923.