HAMILTON CRICKET

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 12

HAMILTON CRICKET

CLUB MATCHES RESUMED CLAUD ELANDS SUPERIOR THE -LEADERS DEFEATED HAMILTON WIN AGAIN OBv “Long-stop") HONOURS BOARD Batting J. Everest (Hamilton), 50 not out; O. Harding (Hamilton), 43 not out; H. Going (East), 37; G. J. West (Old Roys), 32; A. Davies (Frankton), 60; Rogers (Cambridge A), 53* not out; R. Acres (Claudelands B), 46; G. Sutton (Whitiora), 39 not out; D. Crozler (High Schoo'), 33; Golby (Claudelands B), 33; HofF (Cambridge A), 33; J. Belcher (High School), 32; N. McKinnon (Cambridge B), 43; L. McKinnon (Cambridge B), «*6 not out; Woolley (Cambridge B), 37. Bowling Harvey, 7 for 46; Innes-Jones, 5 for 16; Litchwark, 5 for 43; L. Higglnson, 5 for 34; Humphries, 6 for 37. Roth the A grade ?nmrs provider! something of a fight by East and Old Boys to overtake the scores made against them the previous week, but both failed. Not much of the batting was spectacular or vigorous, though the bowlers were not troubling the batsmen unduly; what seemed to be most lacking was the confidence to make scoring shots. The wickets were in excellent condition, and the ball came through at a more consistent height than usual and practically no player could attribute his dismissal to any peculiarity in the pitch. False Standards The visits of sporting teams of any kind may reasonably be taken to have the two-fold object of extending the experience of those playing and of teaching, by their play, those who watch. The first of these must be accomplished to some extent, the degree of improvement depending more on the individual and his ability than on anything else. Rut whether the second object is ever achieved, even to a slight degree, is more doubtful; certainly some of the lessons that might be learned are not altogether desirable. For instance, last week's match against Sir .lulien Gatin's XI can have provided very little of use. to any of the loc.al cricketers who watched them, as far as batting is concerned anyway. With few exceptions their rate of scoring was no faster than is generally seen on a quiet Saturday afternoon here; and, strangely enough, the exceptions were not the worldfamous batsmen. It would almost seem that to roach the highest batting fame, a player must cultivate, first, last and all the time, patience; he must play hall after ball without, any attempt to score until he receives one just where he is expecting it. Obviously these tactics will pay. from an average point of view, and then, apparently, when a player has established his fame by the scores he makes, irrespective of the time taken, he becomes a draw and attraction to the paying public. Rut it would be the greatest of pities if club cricket were consistently as uninteresting and unenterprising as games between representative and visiting teams. Deciding Start East’s task of making 200. in itself no difficult total but one that has seldom been reached this season, was considerably affected by one of T. Lyons' early overs in which he had both Badclcy and Bright caught. While they have one nr two others capable of making plenty of runs, this pair’s dismissal for a small score put the later batsmen on the defensive and made them disinclined to take risks. On the whole, East made a valiant effort to get the runs against solid bowling and never gave up the game. While Jordan, T. Skeet and Going were batting, runs came along slowly hut steadily, and as the total grew there seemed a chance that the finish might be exciting, but they lost their wickets before reaching real striking distance. Catches Accepted While every possible chance was not taken, Claudelands were fortunate enough to make no mistakes in their Melding at the really critical moments and their success was largely due to this. Frequently batsmen like Badeley have been dropped early, sometimes more than once, and they have gone on to score a lot of runs, but generally the first chance was the last in this innings, and some of the catches were quite difficult. Fast Attack Claudelands relied, in the main, on their fast bowlers, with M. Lyon and Hunt in addition. The bowling was all steady enough to make run-getling hard, or at least slow. Roberts' performances with Hie ball have usually been good enough to entitle him to more opportunities; he impresses as being a better howler than some who howl regularly. Going had some swings at the over-pitched halls, but his eye was not in sufficiently well to connect often, nor was the bowling quite accurate enough to find the wickets on those occasions. No Big Scorer Old Boys lacked any big scorer to offset the efforts of McKenzie and E. Everest for Hamilton. R. Clough has been quite out of touch with his bat for some weeks and cannot get into scoring style at all. This weakens Old Boys' already unimpressive batting list, and the younger players are not rising to the occasion, at any rate not to the extent of which they gave, promise. Nevertheless, the display of the team on Saturd .y was s i!i>i.ieing’ feature was the fact that too'm.mv of the wickets were thrown away when (he batsmen had been in long enough to avoid making Ihe mistakes Mow did. West continued the g 1 Mar! he had made at the end of the first day and was playing soundly to go-.,] bowling. Fraser. Rope and Graham all had long innings, the two former, ho f ver. losing many runs by Bowling Changes Effective Although K. KverrM and Lisselte did most of Ihe bowling for lUmhfon. it was their change bowlers wlio did

most of Iho clam use. J. Everest obtained West's wicket just when ho appeared to have sot the measure ot die stock bowlers: and later Pedrotti secured a couple of wickets in one over at a critical point in the game. The Hamilton fielding was no better than Old Boys' had been, but Harding took a spectacular catch in the outfield. Help to Averages Hamilton’s second innings provided some of their batsmen with an opportunity to improve their batting figures. Old Boys went the rounds in bowling and some of the stuff sent down was not of the steady nature of the customary attark. Even then it was somewhat surprising how some of the non-bowlers managed in heat the batsmen: McDell, for instance, might have caught and bowled .1. Everest twice in one over, but his fielding was at fault. Senior B Notes Frankton t nifed put up a very poor showing with the bat. ,\. Davies contr buting f»0 nut fit Oh runs scoi 1: head at the beginning of his innings and made ill his runs in revenge. Mid Boys could be quite satisfied with their performance in dismissing j Hamilton for just over the hundred, j

but their own batting was deplorable and they ended the day in a hopeless position* Harder in the season this team c-mld - r ot runs, but failed to dismiss their opponents, but they seem to have slumped : m their batting. Inn'es-.tones' bowling was very accurate and tie kept that dangerous length that l'Mijnd the players in two minds. Humphries? again bad good figures with his fa."' bowling and seems a bit too good for tiiis grade but hardly o s ik« beimr class enough* for iny of the A -r.uie 'e ):11". lingers, also nf i i.-irnin'id-e. lias been getting good runs regularly, while the MrK •mi •!!-' names figure every week both in the batting and bowling.