PLUNKET SHIED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 814, 7 November 1929, Page 14

PLUNKET SHIED

N.Z. CRICKET COUNCIL’S MOVE “RULES NOT SATISFACTORY” “Some very interesting games were played in the piunket Shield competition and, as Wellington and Auckland tiled on points, ultimately the management committee in accordance with the fules, awarded the shield to Auckland. It seems to the management committee that the rules governing the Plunket Shield competitions are not at present satisfactory, and the associations have been invited to supply, and have supplied, suggestions for amendments.” THUS the annual report of the New Zealand Cricket Council, to be presented to delegates at the annual meeting to be held at Christchurch on Tuesday evening next, refers to the system of awarding the Plunket Shield, which caused some heartburnings in certain parts of the Dominion last season, when the council awarded the trophy to Auckland on averages, when Auckland had been defeated by Wellington. The report also refers to the tour by a New Zealand team to England in 1931 as follows: “At the Imperial Cricket Conference held in London on May 14, New Zealand was invited to send a team to England in 1931. The management committee communicated with all affiliated associations and asked for the opinion of the associations on this proposal. The replies were all favourable, and a cable accepting the invitation was sent to the M.C.C., provided suitable financial arrangements can be made. “The financing of the tour is a matter which must be considered by the council duringr the coming season. It is not the general intention of the management committee that New Zealand teams should go to England at such short intervals as four years. It is felt that the visits to England should, as a general rule, not be oftener than every six or eight years. However, the management committee is of opinion that an exception should be made for our second tour, so that we may still have the services of some players who toured England in 1927. The committee recognises that we must guard against the possibility of our young men playing so much cricket that their life’s work may be prejudiced or affected. However, the

committee, after consideration, is in favour of a tour in 1931. LATE MR. PEAKE The financial statement shows the effect of the preliminary expenses connected with the forthcoming tour of the M.C.C. team. The management committee was faced with a heavy charge for the fares of the team, but satisfactory arrangements to meet this were come to with the council’s bankers. On the success of the tour will depend the future financial position of the council, the report says, but the arrangements come to will, as far as it is humanly possible to foresee, at least enable the council to avoid a deficit. “By the sudden death of Mr. J. F. Peake on November 11, 1928, the council suffered the greatest administrative loss in its history. Mr. Peake was first appointed a delegate for Otago in 1911-12. He was a member of the management committee Until 1914. After the restricted activities of the council during the years of war he became honorary secretary in 1919, and retained office until his death. “From the season 1920-21 to 1928 five Australian teams, and one English team came to New Zealand, and our cricketers went to Engalnd and Australia. Mr. Peake was manager of our Australian tour. By common consent the success of the work of the council during his term of office must be credited to the tactful, ceaseless and unselfish labours of Mr. Peake. “His merits were as well recognised in Australia as in New Zeaeland, but most of all by his colleagues on the management committee who, by reason of their long association with him, know best the burdens he carried, and the duties he discharged so efficiently, modestly and for so long a time. The

government of cricket in New Zealand will always bear the stamp of the fine character and personality of Mr. Peake, and the management committee has already expressed to his family the deep and grateful sympathy of the cricketers of New Zealand.”