CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1922, Page 3

CRICKET.

THE LOSS OF MACDONALD. A’.;> •“ ®?*4iso,. -■ By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright, Sydney, March 7. The. Telegraph, commenting on Macdonald’s acceptance of an engagement in England, says: “With the retirement of Gregory the loss of Macdonald will be a severe blow to Australia. The pair were a matchwinning combination. Australia is now left with at the best only mediocre fast bowlers.” SUNDAY PLAY. * Adelaide, March 7. The Methodist. Conference passed a resolution that a telegram be dispatched to Mayne, captain of the Victorian cricketers in Western Australia, commending the team for refusing to play a match on Sunday.

BRIXTON V. TARURUTANGI, On Saturday afternoon the Brixton Cricket Club played a friendly match with the Tarurutangi Club on the latter’s ground, and considering it was their first match of the season, acquitted themselves very well, defeating their doughty opponents in a one innings match by 12 runs. Tarurutangi made 70 and Brixton 82. P. Street 12 and J. Sampson 9 were top scorers for Tarurutangi, and Gilmore 50 and L. Longstaff 15 were the only ones to reach double figures for Brixton, the team having a decided “tail.” Longstaff and Gilmore did the bulk of the bowling for Brixton, Longstair securing 6 wickets and Gilmore foun Hamblyn was the most successful bowler for Tarurutangi with 6 Wfckets to his credit. After the match the visitors were most hospitably entertained at afternoon tea in the hall. Mr. Grayling returned thanks and assured them that they would receive the same hospitality when the return match was played. SOUTH TARANAKI MATCHES. A very close match played at Eltham ■on Saturday between Midlands and Eltham resulted in a win for the former by 2 runs. Midlands, who batted first, made 71 (Kean not out 24) and Eltham 69 (Marsh 22, Keillar 13, Cole 11). With the ball Cole (Eltham) with 7 for 31, Fogarty (Midlands) 4 for 32, and Oakes (Midlands) 3 for 8 were the most successful.

A comfortable three point win was secured by Manaia over Okaiawa at the grounds of the latter. Manaia, taking first strike, ran up 112 (Bairstow 48, H. Hughes and Hobday 18 each). Okaiawa replied with 23, but did better in the second innings, when they compiled 55 (Penny 11). A Hughes (Manaia) with 6 for 9 and 3 for 6 got the best bowling average. A match at Kaponga between Manaia B and Eltham B resulted in a win for, Manaia by 12 funs on the two innings. Manaia’s first innings realised 70 (Daley and Jones 13 each, Purser the second innings 53 (Guise 21, Broomfield 12). Eltham’s totals were 31 and 79 (Donnelly 19, Shipton 18, Davies 17). 'The outstanding bowling performance was that of Kelly (Manaia) in the first innings against Eltham when he secured eight wickets for eight runs.

The Sydney Sun’s special representative in London recently cabled to his paper:.—Mr. Pelham F. (“Plum”) Warner, lecturing at Westminster last night, said they had some nice “plums” in Australia. “Australia beat us,” lie said,

“because they were the better eleven. There never has been finer fielding than theirs in the history of the game. English cricket is not up to its pre-war standard, especially the bowling, but in a year or two will be as good as ever You have to hit an Englishman in the jaw at least three times before lie will take any notice. Why can Australia, with one-ninth of the population of the United Kingdom, come off victorious? It is mainly because the young Aussies learn on the most perfect wickets. Australia is the greatest bowler-producing country. Australians are wonderful people—full of grit and tenacity—and are never so dangerous as when you think you have got them whacked.”