CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 278, 24 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRICKET.

The posfcponemenb of bhe sporbs has had a bad effect; on cricket, as the resumption ot the Cup matches was put back another week. The various clubs have, however, kept steadily ab practice, and no doubt next week there will be an increased briskness in bhe game. The Parnell Club is in a peculiar posibioi. ab presenb. Ab one bime you hear bhat ithas decided to retire from fche cup contest,, and then thab ib is going to continue. The players evidently cannob make up bheir minds, bub they will now have to do it very soon. It is a very good thing for the game thafc the sports were postponed from last Saturday. There would nob have been a decent pitch anywhere near where the bicycles went, as bhe ground was in such a sofb condition. As it is,the marks of bhe wheelmen are plainly visible on parts of the ground where fche riders have not been boo careful.

I see Mr \V7 E. Barton has been appointed bo the Bank of i\ Tew Zealand afc Whangarei, Unless he has quite forsaken his old love.he should assist very materially in fostering a love of cricket at thafc place. They have several good players there _as ifc is, and one of fche most enjoyable trips a cricket team can make is to Whangarei. ■

Old Franklin players will be pleased to hear than Frank Marcrofb and his brother are doing well in the cricket field over in .New South Wales. They have been performing excellently both with the bafc and ball.

Cricket; is about done for in New South Wales as an attraction bo the public : the games take too long, and are so dismally slow to watch. One goes oub to Sydney Association ground and spends an afternoon watchino- three or four men give what the papers next day call " a masterly exhibition of careful batting," but which is the most wretched of performances fco look at. Ball after ball comes down, and the careful batsman either steps forward and calmly and methodically smothers it, or draws back deliberately and stops it; occasionally, by some fluke or other, it goes where there are no fieldsmen and runs are obtained. A cricket match, nowadays, lasts through several generations, like a Chinese play. Hundreds ofexpedicntshavebeensuggested for shortening the games and making thorn more lively, but none have been adopted. One crank invented a magnificent scheme : he suggested thab if the bowlers could bowl five successive maiden overs, i.e., overs off which no runs or wickets were obbained, one of the batsmen should go out. This promised to liven tilings up, because after playing two or three maiden overs the batsman would begin to think ib was bime to "shake her up a bib." He confided bhis scheme bo thai first-class bowler, Tom Garrefcb, and Garrett said : "It would nob do ab all. I could bowl five overs running so thafc no batsman in the world could score off them." The inventor then met Sammy .Tones and laid the plans and specifications before him : "No good at all," said Sammy; "no bowler in the world could bowl five overs running without one bein<* able to get a run oil him." This looked rather well for the scheme ; but the cricket authorities in N.S. W. appear fco think thafc no change is needed. In England they are constantly urging some reform to .shorten the games somewhat If bhey don't make the games shorter and more lively they can put up the shutters, because there are so many atbracbions nowadays that there are plenty better things to do than go and watch an afternoon's "careful batting."— " Sydney Buliebin." O