SOLDIERS AT CRICKET

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21246, 17 October 1940, Page 11

SOLDIERS AT CRICKET

BOWLING FEATS BY BETTS MATCH AGAINST ALDERSHOT From the Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces in Great Britain.) ) SOMEWHERE IN BRITAIN, September 16 Recent unexpected changes in the training and service programme of tne JN.Z.E.F. (L’.K.j have interfered | with games fixtures. Nobody com- ( plains oi that; sport is only inciden- : tal t oour presence in this country, I and all nancis would much rather get J on With the real job than be kept hanging about playing cricket or tennis. None the less, it would have j been a pleasure to have visited the ! Australians’ camp for the return ! cricket match, now postponed and i likely to be abandoned for this sea- , son. because of graver things to concern the two sides, , The New Zealand team for this i i match would have been slightly | stronger, on paper, than that which | , ‘ beat Australia at the first meeting, i Also it would have been more experienced. Many of our regular players hardly had a bat in their s hands last season, and some in the team had not played regularly for several seasons. None the less, it gave a very heartening display j ■ against the Aldershot Command just ' before we left the base camp. The Command XI (in which nor--1 mally Eric Tindill would have been keeping wickets) included two English internationals—B. H. Valentine and A. L. Gover—former captains of Yorkshire and Oxford Univer- • sity, A. B. Sellers and M. M. Wal- ' ford, a Cambridge Blue, another Oxford Blue, and three other county players. Against such talent it was a noteworthy performance to play \ a creditable draw, i Command declared at the tea interval with nine down for 248, and at stumps New Zealand had fcist six for 162. Gover’s one wicket cost him 63 runs, and 53 were hit off Watts of Surrey for three wickets. On the other hand S. H. Betts, of Taranaki, took six for 59, including i two with successive balls at the ' close of one over, the second being Watts, clean bowled. The scores were:— Aldershot Command

E. H. Moss (Oxford) lbw, b Betts 32 M. M. Walford (Oxford) c. Tindill, b Betts 13 E. A. Watts (Surrey), b Betts 0 A. B. Sellers (Yorkshire), c Monk, b Betts 51 B. H. Valentine (Kent and England), b Thompson 91 W. S. Lithgow, not out 35 K. G. Harvey (Gloucestershire), lbw, b Betts 0 D. C. Wilson (Cambridge), c Stace, b Thompson 2 R. T. Northcote-Green, b Thompson 12 A. L. Gover (Surrey and England), b Betts 5 K. B. Stanley, not out .... 3 Extras 4 Total for nine wickets .... 248 Bowling.—S. H. Betts, six for 59; F. S. Thompson three for 82. N.Z.E.F. (U.K.) C. P. Wareham, c Harvey, b Watts 55 E. W. Tindill, b Watts 70 H. E. Reaney (Hawke’s Bay), lbw, b Wilson 14 W. B. Coupland, c Moss, b Wilson 5 P. E. Stace, b Watts 4 A. B. Gillespie, not out 1 P. G. Monk, b Gover 5 S. H. Betts, not out 3 Extras 4 Total for six wickets .... 162 Bowling.—Gover one for 63; Watts three for 53; Wilson two for 41.