CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 96, 22 April 1905, Page 12

CRICKET.

i The interprovincial cricket match beI tween Taranaki and Auckland was to commence in the Domain to-day. With favourable weather next Satur- | day will see the curtain rung down on j the 1904-5 crick*et season. | April is no month for cricket as the i form during tl*e last few Saturdays has indicated. Decent batting without I steady practice is impossible and as I there is no light after the players knock I oil' their daily work nothing worth speak- | ing about is clone at the nets, with the i expected effect in the matches. On Saturday tlie cricket, with the bright exception of Dug. Hay's innings, was, to say the most, mediocre, and was as dull for the spectators as the proverbial ditchwater. 259 runs for two ! matches—even though one match was j stopped through rain—means very slow play, and, indeed, poorer crcket has not i been shown in the Domain, taking it all through, for many a long day. The wicket was in fairly easy order, giving the howler no more than the average assistance, but the light waa wretched the whole afternoon owing to the low, heavy clouds. With the exception of S. P. Jones and Dug. Hay, Grafton's inning? was a miserable procession, nine batsmen col- ) lecting 2ti among them, though it must be coni-eded that two were run ouT. Bow- : den repeated his previous Saturday's performance by retiring lirst wicket without scoring, and then 1). Hay and j Jones got together aud made a creditable I stand, until OlifF passed Jones with his I score at 20. made in the coach's usual patient style. Hay continued to bat in ' his best style, hitting all round the wicket at anything loose, and keeping ; the good stuff out of his wickets. The other batsmen could do nothing against the bowling of Oliiff and the last wicket fell at 141 with Hay not out for 82. j Kallender had bad luck in being run out in attempting a single. Frank Clayton being similarly disposed of. Oiliff clean bowled six of the Grafton ' side for 06 runs, a remarkable performi ance. Fairburn got one for 35. and | Resteaux one for 29. The Parnell fiehl--1 ing was good on the whole, though a eou;plc of chances were not accepted. With fine weather Parnell should be able to J win the match on Saturday next, and in anything but a sticky wicket they must be given a good chance, especially as Stemson will not be bowling for Grafton. The Eden-City match was even slower j for the spectators than the Orafton-Par-nell game. City wore all dismissed for I the moderate total of 118. of which 40 ' runs were ou the board without the loss i of a wicket. Renwick then lost his wicket in a peculiar manner, bring caught off Xeill, the batsman at. the other end, jtlie ball cannoning off the latter's pads 1 witliin roach of the howler. Neill made .30 before being caught in the outfield. lie played c:uir. : ously at lirst. but made some nice drives later on. Wickets fell .quickly after the departure of these two, until Edwards and S. "Mnger became asI social cd. and improved the condition of affairs, a little, the former with 17 and j tho latter with a well-played 25. The Rev. Smith, promoted from the ' juniors for the last match, took five wickets for .15. and had the batsmen in difficulties all through. He has a nice I easy action, while the flight of the ball is very deceptive. Douglas put up an even i better performance by taking five for 24. Eden should score a comfortable win. At Devonport, the had an afl ternoon mud larking, the pitcll cutting 'up terribly, pieces of turf coming away j with every delivery. The consequence was that the-batting was not of a high ordpr, and Ponsonby, who were defe.at- ' ed by Shore n the last match, had to i be content with the moderate total of I 111. Assisted by the wicket. Husspy I had a merry time, capturing six for 33, jand bowling seven maiden!", out of 10 overs. Pomeroy, who was put down earlier in the season, was reinstated in the seniors, and made nearly half the total j scored off the hat, putting together 42 iruns. His innings was. however, marred by a couple of chances. Although the pitch was mnde easier by rain, the homp team did poorly in thpir innings, four wickets being bagged for 50 runs. the match being thus left in a very open I position. Hussey made 20 and Prime ! 15. j Marcroft. a member of the Auckland I Railway Workshops team has scored 282 j for once out in games played by his I club, his innings reading 45. 109* 89 s , and 30*. his ay; rage thus being 282. In his last innings h? scored 39, while the others in with him put on 11. The I team has plavcd four matches, winning' all. I Eden A. second-grade team, are to be I congratulated 011 winning the second . chuninpionship. and on going through the j season without a loss. Ponsonby. a | strong team for the grade, accounted for the fifth-grade championship. The North Sydney Club's record for the year just closed is an extraordinary one. They won the lirst grade, were only beaten in the second grade by the margin of,' two right out wins against two on the ; first innings, and secured the third I grade. Just a little more luck and they I would have swept the board in all compe- I titions. 1 The Canterbury Cricket Association has decided that Mr. J. H. Bennett should be engaged as ground bowler for the season 1905-6 at a fee of £30, to in- : elude the retaining of his services for in- ! terprovincial matches, on the understand- ' ing that the Sydenham Club should con-1 tribute the sum of £15 for his services as I 1 ground bowler to that club. [ j Hawthorne heads the batting averages j in Wellington this season with 31.4 jn j j 10 innings, being once not out. Dredge, I 131.1, is second, _md Upham. 29.4, third.! I In bowling, Upham was easily first, and I in his sixteenth season as a senior j ; player puts up the best performance 01 , his career His bowling was never once j really collared, as may be judged from I the fact that over a third of his overs were maidens. He took 57 wickets at j rui average cost of 5.0; Redgrave, 28 at 9.03, was second, and Tucker, 57 at 9.5, third, "J

At Haverford College, in America, they have a huge, admirably-designed and well-built cricket .-bed, where tbe men practise during the winter months. Tbe excellence of Haverford College teams may (says the "American Cricketer") be ascribed entirely to this system of winter practice. At the last meeting of the Canterbury Cricket Association the secretary presented a list of players and districts they would represent under a district scheme, and the sub-committee appointed to consider the proposals for introducing district cricket was asked to consider the list and draw up a scheme or schemes for consideration by the committee. English files to band announce the sudden death of W. G. Grace, junr.. eldest son of the great cricketer. He was born on July 6, 1874. In his efforts to gain success in the cricket field he was a good deal handicapped by always having to play in spectacles. .Still, he had a fairly successful career at t'lif:on College, heading the bowling averages in 1593, and in 1895 and 189(1, he played for Cambridge against Oxford at Lord's. In the former year, scoring 40 and 23. he had a considerable share in Cambridge's victory, but in the sensational match in 1896 he was on the losing side, and did not make a run in either inning>. lie played frequently for 01oucester_hire, but without any marked success. In the course of an article on "Decadence of Sport." which appears in this mouth's "Baily's Magazine." the author, "Spartan." ha* something to say about the payments made to amateur cricketers. This remuneration may. he. says, be a necessary evil, and may have come to stay: but with the multitude of first-class gentlemen, university, military and others, who now play cricket, perhaps in the proportion of 100 to 10, as compared with those in the 'forties or the 'fifties in the last century, he believes that the best sport in cricket n.ight still be. had if such payments were more generally discountenanced in the future, and if each county had to depend, as of old, upon the freely-given aid of i.s gentlemen in support of the paid professionals who would always form the backbone in every team. The less, indeed, that cricket becomes a "cut-and-dried" game the better. We venture to depreca.e the eternal sameness of the identically same eleven going from place to place, arriving halffagged out. after a long night's journey, going in to bat in one stereotyped aiid prescribed order, without reference to the bowling, or the weather, or the circumstances, matters which used often to be a matter of generalship and management in other days, and used often "to snatch a victory, or at least to prevent a draw, by putting the hitlers and fast scorers to the front when the more correct artists would be !o-ing time elegantly, and leaving tillable balls alone in liest scientific style. Less playing to the gallery and to the press, and an absolute disregard, not to say contempt, for the "averages" list in every Monday morning's newspaper, would be desirable. These arc some of the items which we would like to press upon all who wish to preserve cricket as the manly and sportsmanlike game which it had been for nearly two hundred years, until overdone lawn pitches and heavy rollers, and one may add. overdone means of locomotion for onp particular set of players, deprived it of that "glorious uncertainty" and variety which was notoriously its chiefest charm."