SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10407, 30 August 1911, Page 6

SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

CRICKET NOTES.

[By "Leg-Break."]

Judging by present indications there is likely to be considerable improvement in local cricket this year. Al ready a good deal of enthusiasm is being shown, and this, considering tho earl mess of the season, augurs well for local cricket this year. Tho Carlton Club ihas promise of strong suport in the senior section, and two or three good, all-round oliyers new to Masterton intend thro win <> in their lot with this club. It is almost certain that "Bob" Moss will again take up the game this season. Tliis will be pleasing news to interested followers of cricket, and it is to w hoped ithat Moss will reach his oentury this season, as he only came four runs short of it last year. He played in two matches last season, and averaged 72 runs for each of tho four innings. The Wairarapa is badly in need of a good fast bowler, and Moss in top form easily fills the bill. It is to >o hoped, them, that this old representative player will find it convenient to ta>ke up the game in earnest this season. The Carlton Club also intends entering a junior team in the competitions this year, and, judging by ':ho warm support already accorded, a fairly strong team will be put in 'ho field.

I am very pleased to notice that tho seven-a-side football tournament, that was to be played on the Park Oval, has been transferred to the old showgrounds. I heartily endorse the sen timents expressed by the correspondent signing himself "Indignant Cricketer,"" in these columns. As, !hc mtattei-'has been satisfactorily settled, it is not necessary for me to urge '.he claims of cricketers further. Tho Carlton Club intends holding its annual meeting in about three weeks' time. The Marylebone team for Australia has 'been completed with the* acceptance, of J. Vine (Sussex). So far as one can .i"<lg e at present the team { will probably consist of the following, though there is some doubt as to Breariey and Hearne:—P. F. Warner '.(captain), Middlesex; F. R. Foster, Warwickshire; S. P. Kinneir, War-

wickshire ; J. Vine. Sussex-, H. StrudMick, Surrey; F. E. Woolley, Kent J. Iremonger, Notts; W. Rhodes, Yorkshire; P. Mead, Hampshire; G. Gurm. Notts; J. B. Hobbs. Surrey, S. F. Barnes. Staffordshire ; W. Brearley, Lancashire; J. W. H. T. Douglas, Essex; J. W. Hearne, Middlesex. The manager,of the team is to be Mr T. Pawley, Kent. The, bowling element iri the team is Woolley, Rhodes,. Iromonger. Foster, Vine, Hearne, Douglas and Brearley, while the first wicketkeeper is H. Strudwick, the Surrey and M.C.C. professional. G. J. Thompson, the Auckland Gricket Association's new coach, has come out on itop of the English bowling averages with 15.20. At a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference at Lords recent ly, + lic following arrangements ■ were made for the Test matches, in' connection with the Triangular tournament of

next yeiar:—May 27th, South Africa v. Australia, at Manchester; June 10th, England v. South Africa, it

Lords; .Tune 24th. England v. Australia, at Lords; July Bth. England -. South Africa at Leeds; July 15, South Airida. v. Australia, at Lords; July 29th. England v. Australia, at Manchester :. August, sth. South Africa •-. Australia, at ' Nottingham : August 12th. England v. South , Africa. ?.t .Kensington Oral; August 22nd, England v. Australia, at Remington .Ovai ;.• A' great, deal of aa.xiefw' is b'ein< ir fetl in South Australia over the condition of W. J. .Whitty. He has already undergone three operations for citin this year, and is no^ r in Sydney to undergo another. Ais the season ,s ftast approadbing, the anxiety felt for the health of the crack,': left-hand bowler is only natural, and in view of the approaching tour of the English eleven, this anxiety is not coufrned to South Australia alone, for Whitty,is easily the best bowler in Mie

Commonwealth. <and hir. exclusion from the Test teams would very considerably weaken the side. It h very much to be honed that the interna-

tional bowler will recover his health, and play up to last year's form. :

A fin© bowline: record has iust been established at Home. J. H. King, olaying for Leicestershire against Yorkshire, took seven wickets for five runs, the last three wickets being taken with five balls., without a>ny score being made. Yorkshire were defeated by an innings. The English papers are agiain lis;cussing the question of the highest aggregate off an over. The editor >f

'"GJrioket" joins in ..with a story. He •saysVthat in 1893, in the course of a .Kafme-'jai* .■Bunbury, We,ss r Australia,, a player skied a ball into a three-prong • ed .branch of- a tall jarrah tree. The umpire, declared iihiarfc. as the ball was in sight, it could not be lost. No axe was procurable to felt the tree, and the ball was eventually brought down by a shot from a rifle, but not before the batsmen had run 286. . "So far as wejare aware," naivelv added the editor, "this stands as the largest number of runs obtained in an over." Commenting on the inclusion of F. A. Tarrant, the ex-Victorian, in • the English team, an English writer says i —"lt is a defiance of the tradition of , Test matches, and an evasion of their i purpose. That, we take it, is to dis--1 coyer the country which produces the [cleverest cricketers. Can it be said that England produced Tarrant? We trow: not." The M.C.C have informed English

umpires that one of them must supervise the sweeping and rolling of tho wicket when an innings is completed. Even in England it is becoming a. recognised thing that many amateur cricketers are amateur in name only. One authority, the Rev. R. S. Holmes, writes: —"Of course, in the far distant period, the amateur was a bona fide amateur who paid his own expenses ; there was no veiled professionalism then. Country committees did .not create bogus secretariates for men who wished to play cricket without losing caste —men who are professionals in everything but tho name. That is the greatest evil of modern cricket, and should never have 'been tolerated. I have listened, with hearty endorserr.?nt, to the frequent mention by professionals of sundry amateurs >vno were making more money out of cricket than tho players themselves."