CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 267, 18 December 1909, Page 5

CRICKET.

*'•••• » l INTER-COLLEGE MATCH. - ; By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, bast Night. , " The cricket match. Wellington College •gainst Wanganui Collegiate School, • was won by Wellington by an innings' and 117 runs. The visitors made 117 in the second innings, Wheeler contributing 28 and Pearce 16. SCHOOLS MATCH. Christchurch, Last Ni»ht. The Heathcote-Williains shield mut'ih between the Auckland Grammar jSmool and the Chriilchurch Boys' High School ■was continued to-day. Scores: AuckV land, first innings, 276, second 47: Ili'h School, first 213 (S. Wallis 97 not out) second 18 for one wicket. '

, , (By "Third Blip.") >f! _ Having read a list of players and feel- •' • ing a certain inclination to comment on the probable representative team ;,ir Christmas, I trust Air. Clegg will accept apologies for the possible liberty at tit same time believing that such comments are made in good faith, and for the interests of cricket generally. 'ln the first place Mr. Ciegg seems to , jhave overlooked what is almost univcr- [ sally considered the first essential of a Selected team, and that is a good wicket- » keeger. ' In his list of players I notice F. ■f Eobertson and Alatthews, who are' posfeibly looked upon as wicket-keepers, ibut they are not. Short stops they may' <>e, and as such are absolutely useless ; to such bowlers as Xicoll, Benbow. Southall, and Whittle, should these "bowlers be finally selected. Tiieae bowlers, who depend so much on their deceptive breaks to beat batsmen, must consider it of the utmost importance that they should have a stumper standJ ; ing well up to the wicket. If they have J taot, I consider they are losing 80 or \ per cent of their bowling power, as, seeing the scj-ealled wicket-keeper |t standing 4or 5 yards back, batsmen 3 kan safely leave their crease and make I 'their bowling quite easily playable by j smothering all break. | ' Taranaki is very unfortunate in losijg 3 the services of such a sterling man be- £ Mnd the sticks as M. Robertson but n failing "Monty" I doubt whether Mr. Clegg could do better than Greatbacli, Who has proved himself a fairly good wicket-keeper, and a fortnignt's solid ipratetiko should get him into tip-top Iform; this same player must be an absolute certainty lor the representative team on his batting form alone, as ir !his fine innings against Carrington Road jbe showed a variety of clean forceful strokes, combined with sound defence, V that rank with such finished and stylist \\ batsmen as Clegg, Inman, Hasell, and i \y Eggteston.

;\\ uvb piayers must maKe any ; A team a strong batting combination. Perham, E. Lash, and Matthews have shown fairly good batting iorm this Beason, though the latter is a "smiter" pure and simple; still this same player is often likely to knock good bowlers off their length and thus make the way easier for his Mowers. Lash, besides having his batting as a strong recommendation, should get into the team on ' his fielding alone, as no one could wish for a cleaner ground field and sater 1 catch. Weston has also shown gojd 'batting iorm this season. ' It is a great pity that Mr. Clegg has { ieen unable to get to town t"his week f- to watch practice lorm, and not alo n e j to see the form shown by those who i fcave taken the trouble to attend the practices, but to notice the absence of ; cue or two of those selected. 1 However, E feel certain that our sole • Selector will use the utmost discretion in finally selecting his team, and that it "will be the best possible, selected en- , tirely on individual merits. He has a particularly strong lot of players to choose from, and whatever team is selected should, by their performances, prove of great credit to Taranaki, anf s fully justify Mr. Clegg's selection. ' The Wanderers-Rovers match was C commenced on Thursday last, and one g: or. two individual performances merit a i certain amount of comment. I The chief feature of the day's play S was the brilliant innings by Greatbach. I (Voicing the opinion of a well-known ?. cricket authority, it was the finest j innings ever seen in Taranaki. In makt ing his 116 not out, he gave the hottest i of chances to Arden at 86, and another j hot one to Elliot, the bowler, in makp ing his hundredth run. BUI for there : two slight flaws, it was a capital exhibition of clean hard driving and square cutting in particular, but he proved a most punishing bat all round the s wicket, and his timing was splendid. I s ' None of the bowlers troubled him, and he made his strokes with perfect "sangfroid," and seemed just as fresh at tiie completion of his innings as at the com- „ mencement. | _ The Wanderers' total of 187 was made in about 1 hour 53 minutes, and Great--J bach's contribution was made in about I TO minutes, which must be considered very fast scoring, even for the Recreation Grounds. Whittle and Steeds were the only § other batsmen to show good form, i| although Hill showed an unusually solid 1} defence and was only dismissed by a |g remarkably good catch by Saunders. Williams and Elliot were by far the best howlers tried, and I was surprised that i- the latter 1 was not put on,earlier. ' The Rovers' fielding was very patchv, with the exception of Arden, whose extremely clever work at point must have -> robbed Greatbach of at least 20 or 30 runs. , I Williams and Weston opened the Rovers' innings and both started very confidently, showing good sound defence and strong aggressive strokes, Weston in particular getting in some very fine ■hots past cover-point. He was very inilucky in getting out by mis-hitting a lull toss from Bui. Clarke and tiaseil Jielped the score along to the nineties, but the tail failed, to wag to any exigent. Hasell batttd very well indeed, and looked like making another big I fecore until attempting to block a good * lone from Whittle, he only partially 'g Succeeded, with the result that the ball j§ ietill had sufficient way on to travel to Y the wickets and dislodge one of the } tails.

I Whittle was easily the best bowler 'on the Wanderers' side, allthough Nicoll 'At times put down some very hot ones. Considering the greasy state of the kail, the 1; •' iv-L' of the leaders on eaen Bide mjist ... -dered highly creditable, and ... possibly three, must have bowled themselves into the representative team.