CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 111, 3 October 1914, Page 7

CRICKET.

NEWS AND KOTES. With the end of September the football season in New Zealand finally closes. and in a mouth or so cricket and other summer competitions will' be in full awing. Meantime, cricketers are bestirring themselves and overhauling their gear with a view to getting their eye and hand in (with ibat and ball.

In Taranaki, cricket, like football, suffers sadly from the dual half-holiday, and last year Thursday cricket, which during the previous season or two Iliad beet kept alive by the efforts of a few enthusiasts, was compelled to finally givi: up the struggle and leave the field" clear for its Saturday confreres. Several keen players were thereby deprived of the opportunity of playing Britain's national game, as they found it impossible to get the leave or to spare the time on Saturdays.

[ This year prospects for cricket in North Taranaki look very bright. Saturday cricket is in a flourishing condition, and whereas last year there were only five senior teams competing, thin year there is, every prospect of seven, the newcomers being Warehouses, who with Tikorangi, were bracketed junior champions last season, and lAlbion,' a recently formed dub, which will be cordially welcomed into the association. There will also be a junior competition, and as a special committee has been set up to foster this, it should prove an interesting competition.

There is, too, it is pleasing to note, a prospect of the Thursday competition being revived. It is believed that with the help of those fortunate, individuals who are able to enjoy at will both the Thursday and Saturday half-holiday, that one good team, if-not two, could be raised in New Plymouth. Inglewood also could probably enter a team thai would worthily uphold the traditions of the club, and with another team from Waitara or Urenui, the competition ooiil.l bo again started and would give an additional impetus to the game in North Taranaki.

It is pleasing to chronicle that cricketers locally are showing considerable enthusiasm early, and are placing their affairs on a soun'd footing. Meetings have been held over the important question of grounds, which has perennially been discussed, but up till this year with very little actual result. 'The committee set up this year went to work with promptitude, and as a result quickly brought down a scheme, which, while overcoming the grounds difficulty for this year, will also ultimately provide cricketers with a home of their own, a much to be desired result, and one that all cricketers should work hard to sec brought into actual being. The Tukapa Park will make a fine cricket ground and one that Taranaki can be proud of, but it will require more than talk. There is a lot of work to be done, If cricketers will only tackle the subject whole-heartedly, all difficulties will easily be overcome.

An outcome of the meetings already lield has been the formation of a New | Plymouth Cricket Council, consisting of ; delegates from each town club. If this 'Council does nothing more than attend to the preparation of.grounds for competition matches, and so obviate the trouble that has occurred in past seasons over the preparation of wickets, etc, it will have fully justified its existence, but it can easily do rnoro than this, and that without overlapping the functions of the North Taranaki Cricket Association. New Plymouth will this year have live clubs playing who do not possess grounds of their own, and withjout some controlling body there would certainly be confusion. Then, again, there is the question of postponement of matches. This Council can decide when it is fit weather to play or otherwise, and not leave the matter to the sweet will of the competing teams. Particularly, however, in the matter of arranging for the acquirement and maintenance ef the various grounds will the Council be able to exercise usefulness. The revision of the method of scoring the championship points decided on for this season at the last meeting of the North Taranaki Association will be followed with interest. It is following the rule adopted by the Marylebone and New South Wales, clubs. By allatiinK three points for a two innings win, ami two points for a first innings win, and deducting similar points for losses, the Association is adopting an Innovation for Taranaki. It certainly has the merit of making the leading teams fulfil their engagements and play keenly to the end of the season, else otherwise by the process of plus and minus the middle markers would be able to take the lead. It certainly does not seem to assist the weakest teams in the competition, but then a team at the bottom with no wins might just as well call its score minus thirty as zero. It is, of eo-urs:-difficult to gauge the strength of the competing teams at present, but there is said to be quite a sprinkling of new blood in each, and the standard of cricket should at the start of the season be. fully equal to that at the close of last year, and with gTcnter attention paid to the grounds, particularly to the offitifields, should soon surpass last season's display.