CRICKET.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 3, 9 February 1914, Page 10

CRICKET.

» SATURDAY'S HONOURS. SENIOR BATTING. H. B. Whitta (Riccarton) . . 145 .W. Hayes (Sydenham) .. 86 A. Norman (Riccarton) . . 76 D. Sandman XSt. Albans) . . 71 E. R. Caygill (Riccarton) .'. 62 • ■> SENIOR BOWLING. D. Sandman (St. Albans) 5 for 21 B. Miles (St. Albans) .'. 3 for 17 RICCARTON'S GOODLY SCORE. A first wicket stand for 127, by ,Whitta and Caygill, and a second wicket stand for 119, by Whitta and Norman,, in which the former brought his score past - the century, made the Riccarton men exceedingly hopeful of winning their against West Christchureh. Two wickets for 27G runs looked very nice indeed, but after that the wickets fell more rapidly. Still, Riccarton are in a good position, with their seorc at 438 for eight wickets, and despite the weakness of the Riccarton bowling,' West Christchureh will have to go some a win. The Riccarton batting was sound rather than brilliant.- Indeed, it could well have been a little more aggressive, considering that the; bowling lacked sting, and .Riacarton had a batsman's ( wicket to play 6V However, it was a good display of orthodox batting. H. B. Whitta made his score of 145 by steady, chanceless batting. He was very cautious at first, scoring at about, half the rate of his partner, Caygill. Later, Whitta livened up and then he scored about twice as fast as Caygill did. He, reached 100 when he had been batting for an hour and .55 minutes. The only chance against him was that v/hich terminated his innings. He reached oui to a ball, well on the off, frqm Crawshaw, and turned it into the wicket-keeper's hands. Whitta 's score included 19 fours, several of which were made with well-timed, crisp square.cuts. His hitting to leg was also good, especially some nice glances. Whitta has been splendidly consistent in club cricket this season, his run - ©f--«cores' reading: 53, and 145 7 »ftfi~-aggregate of 664 runs, for innings, giving him an average of 110.6 per innings. In representative cricket this season Whitta has .scored 20, 1 % 32, 25, 14.7, and;4l, anag-* gregate of 262 for six innings, giving an average of 43.66.^ E. R. Caygill made his 62 with steady | batting, in which driving predominated. He, too, was caught at the wickets by Bannehr. Norman was not quite so sound in making his 76. He made several uppish strokes, . but the only real chance he gave was that which dismissed him —Young, deep at cover, taking him off one of Crawshaw's deliveries. Norman hit two sixes, one off Young's bowling and the other off Crawshaw's. Bain started Briskly, but two balls after he had hit a six off Reese's bowling, bringing his score to 10, he was caught by Bannehr. E. Harper showed nice form in making his 34, timing the ball well and making good strokes on both sides of the wicket. The partnership between Taylor and Harper promised well until Taylor was given !• out l.b.w. to Donnelly. Theee two batsmen, however, showed a very inadequate idea of running between the wickets. A. H. Guiney (25 not out) and S. J.

Smith (31 not out) were much more brisk between the wickets. They batted brightly, too. There was nothing outstanding in the West Christ-church bowling. D. Reese kept a good length, as a rule, but he seemed somewhat stale after his Australian tour, and he did not get any devil into his bowling. The West Christchurch fielding was capable of improvement. Matthews was worst offender. One mistake in fielding caused a little amusement. Grawshaw fielded a hit by Whitta, who ran a single, and in throwing the ball in he managed to get it hard over the wicket-keeper '» head to the opposite boundary. . ; HAYES BATS BRIGHTLY. ! Out of the Sydenham, total of 273 against East Christchurch, the firstwicket partnership );between Woods and Hayes accounted for 102, and a fine partnership time in getting to work, scoring irijjht from the jump. tiajl-most of the bowling, and his score mounted the faster.\Neither Menaghan nor Carlton, both representative bowleg, could make any impress sion, though the ;.'lbrtaer had Woods *'scratching" for. a couple . of overs. The half-century was hoisted in 32 minutes. Hayes reached'so in 45 minutes,

but slackened down after that. The century occupied 80 minutes in the making. Two runs later Woods chopped a ball from Carlton on to his wicket. He gave no actual chances, although he had a narrow escape from being run out at 20, Dwyer throwing the wicket down smartly. Hayes went merrily On to 86, and hopes were high that he would score a century, but he uppishly square-cut a ball from Carlton into Crichton 's safe hands at point. Hayes was at the wickets for 102 minutes, and played sterling cricket all the time, without a single charfce until he. gave the one that Crichton accepted. Patrick (23) was vigorous while his innings lasted, he helping himself to. a brace of sixes in one over from Monaghan. Wickets fell rather freely after Patrick's departure, Fraser, Conradi, and Wilson all going in quick succession. Patterson, however, came along with a very vigorous 48, which : included 10 ■ fours, and Bennett lost little time in running up an uncompleted 21. The innings lasted three hours and five minutes. Crichton, at point, was an invaluable man to his side, and he brought off three good catches, the one which dismissed Patterson being particularly smart. And not alone, in his catching did he excel; his ground fielding also was of a very high order of merit. Taken all round, the East Christchurch men were very nippy in the field, but Crichton was easily the best of the bunch. Boxshall did good work behind the stumps. He had a hand in the dismissal of four men: he took two catches off Ward's bowling, one off Carlton's, and one off Monaghan's. •■•-.' Carlton was the most successful of the East bowlers, though he suffered considerably at the opening. He and Monaghan opened the attack, and with the batsmen going for the bowling so freely it was rather surprising to see no change rung on until 67 was on the board. Then- a double change was made, Beale and Ward taking up the attack, but it was not until Carlton came on again that a separation was effected. East Christchurch have not made a very promising start, two wickets already being down for 38, both credited to Wilson. GOOD WORK BYJp&Mrtflt^ cricket characterised the match between St. Albans and Linwood, played, at Lancaster Park. Sandman's batting and bowling were the outstanding features. In opening the bowling for St. Albans .Sandman took two wickets for. one '.'run, and then three more men were out in his next few overs. If the trouble was stage fright, it was fatal, for Grant, Smith, Taylor, Bead and Thomas made but six runs between them. Perrin was the only one who refused to take Sandman seriously. He laid about him vigorously, smiting everything that ■ came his way. His batting was really forceful, and he sneaked ones and forced fours for about thirty minutes, finally retiring to a catch by Bishop when he had made 50. *Jones topped score by three more runs, and his play was equally pleasing from the onlooker's point of view. Doell made 33, and the next best 'score in all the team was a six! In parts the Lin wood timber was sound, but there was a lot of dry rot in it. Sandman came down like a wolf on the fold, and when he had finished his coup tie Senaccherib he had taken five wickets for twenty-one runs. With the bat he was no less successful, atid he matte his seventy runs in

forty-five minutes. Mostly he hit fours, showing a healthy contempt for anything less than boundaries. Once he banged for a six. Not satisfied with sending it over the fence, he went one better and put it clean oyer the pavilion without touching wood. ,The last three batsmen were dismissed for a very few runs, and the innings closed for'2o6 runs as compared with 179 made by Linwood. SOUTHLAND'S REPRESENTATIVES. For the match against Canterbury tomorrow and on Wednesday, three alterations have been made in the Southland team which met. Wellington. M'Neece, Darragh, and Groves replace J. Hamilton, T. Crocket, and. Gilbertson. All the f players, with the exception of Darragh ' . and" Groves.' have represented Southland , before, and these': two have ■■certainly justified their inclusion -by theiv performances'in club matches this season. Both are left : hainded : batsmen, and in addition Groves is a^pd:fast bowler.., M'Neece is one .of : the batsmen Southland possesses .and he is field. - He has;.been, in Tetiremehjfc for most of the season,.but a ajat;in r . iungs of 58" on his fe-atroearance a'fort;

night ago evidently has given him his place. . ■ Taken all roi'.nd, the batting is fully representative of Southland's best. The weakness lies in the bowling, the bulk of which will probably fall on the shoulders of Doig, an old and tried veteran, Kavanagh, who is the allrounder of the team, and Bannerman, though the last-mentioned Ims been an unsuccessful trundler all through the season. The duties of captain will pi'obably devolve upon Don Hamilton. The Southland team is apt a strong' one, and Canterbury should have nc difficulty iii winning. SQUARE CUTS. A few days ago, in a "house" match in Sydney, a bowler took all ten wickets in an innings, at a' cost of 36 runs. The first match between Auckland and Wellington was played in 1860. Of the 20 matches which have been played Auckland has won 14 and Wellington four, two having been drawn. What a ? waste of-stimulant there was at, a Christchurch suburban ground the other day! In the press reports of an innings there occurred this line: Beer thrown out, 9. It was a pity to throw Beer out on a hot day. '•' The two senior wicket-keepers at Hagley Park on Saturday had something in the nature of a"cricket day out. Boxshall, behind., the stumps for East Christchurch, took four catches, and Bannehr,. who kept wickets' for West Christchurch, snapped three. It is not surprising to" find that Auckland won the first cricket match with Wellington, away baek in 1860. The Wellington team included two Brewers. .■ _ ', Au effort is being. ; mad*-' to bring about a better understanding between the Victorian- Cricket. Association and the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is understood that the Melbourne Club prepared to relinquish its claim to hive a'jbpecial Conseason may find VicO,l ?orm's leading club in the Melbourne pennant competition, with a proper district allotted to it. The individual batting averages in the Sheffield Shield matches in Australia, during the season are. headed by C. G. Macartney, who in six innings (once not out) has made 445, an average of 89.... Warren ,Bardsley is next with 68.75, and.H. L. Collins third with 63. L. A. Cody, who is a member of the Australian team now in the Dominion, \ made 68 in . tVo innings and A. A. Marley comes out with an average of 24.5 for five innings, (one not completed). The bowling averages are headed by C. Kelleway, who took 18 ! wickets at an average cost of 17.66 runs. Some of Australia's outdoor girls are . very proficient at cricket. A few of ■ them provided, a few days ago, one of those exciting finishes which are all ] too rare in the game nowadays. The i hom,e team scored 84, and when the last ; batswoman, or batsgirl, of the opposing side went in three runs were needed for a win. One run was scored, so that one was still required to make the score ] even. The bowler sent down a long : hop outside the off stump. The batter swung at it hard and got fairly on to it. i All appeared over for the home side. But they were reckoning without Miss Donnan.* This young lady was: fielding close in at point, and as the ball flew past she jumped sideways, threw out

herJeft hand, and all was over. It was a beautiful catch, and it well merited the applause the fielder got. Miss JDonnan is a daughter of the old international, Harry Donnan, arid Syd. Gregory is her uncle. HAMBLEDON.