CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 270, 11 November 1908, Page 8

CRICKET.

Xort-fa Shore are- the only tea.m that lave so far an unbeaten certificate this season. They scored a two-point win over Grafkm and a tl.rce-point win over City. The wonderful improvement in the K<len cricket ground is- a creditable tribute to Mr. (jeo. Mills, who has been responsible for the transformation. It was a foregone conclusion- that the Graiton Eleven would defeat the Eden A-s on Saturday last. On the previous play Gnrfton had tho best of it, and easily holding their mvn when tho game was resumed, they won by seven Tsickeis. Eden A. ; s first innrngs was productive of a total of 120 runs while (Jrafton managed to hit up 225. Of this total 8. P. Jone.» was responsible for UO. scored in faultless style, and the result of a clever display of batting. C. Hay abo stru-ck form, and managed to notch a total of 23 before being stumped by Elliott. .Jones, it is interesting to note, got no Ipss than 12 boundary hits.

Eden A.\s second innings was productive ' of a very ipoor display, with the exception of the form .shown by Elliott and Murdoch. Between - them, these two batsmen contrived to score Sli out of a total of 121. Elliott was in great driving form, and his total of 63 included, nine Jourer?. the of which wrre driven to the boundary in succession. Ciraiton, "wanting only 17 to win, sent D- Hill and E. Horspool to the wickets. The fmajl score neuessary to ensure, a three-point victory took a lot of getting, hruvever. and no less than four wickets fell in the attempt. Hill and the Rev. Eerve each went out for nought, while Horspool notched five a.nd D. Hay a tingle- Ci. Mills and Brooke-Smith were rpsponsiblp. for this, the former taking two wickets for nine runs and' the latter two for sis. Eden Colts failed to make the. stand which was expected of them against Parnell, and their first innings dosed rather unexpectedly for 102 runs, the last four wickets toppling for a total of IS.

FarnPll was keen on semiring a three- , point win, and after putting up 123 for , the !o?s of 6'wicket.a, declared their second | innings closed. Of this total Hutchings ; (who seems to have struck good form . this season) was responsible for :>3, 01- j liff 23, and Sale 21. Eden Colts commenced their second innings at about A o'clock, and tried hard io play out time, but the bowling of Olliff and Faiibi'rn was too deadly, and wickets fe.il rapirily. Yates went out without scoring, and Murray and Fran- j pis likewise had the figure nought to ! their rre.dit. Gordon's was the biggest score, and that only reached 10, the innings closing for 65). thus Riving Parn«?ll a three-point victory. Ollifi" bowled nine overs, and secured seven wickets at a cost of 31 runs, while Fairbura took two for 22. It appears I -was in error in giving Westbrook, of the Normal School, the credit of scoring the first century in school cricket this season, and the honour should go to Earlly. of-the Pittstreet school, who-s'cored 104 -retired, in the rnaix-h" against Ponsonby "on October 17th. . _ _ .„.:". r_. .. " ,_ On Unij:eisity made s big bid to equal the bigfsr-oTe put up against T.hpm by Ponsonby. but when the last. wicket fell they were, in a minority of 150 runs. Jacobsen was again the. mainMay of his side, and rattled up 69 before hi , got. his leg in front of a stragiht one from Woods. He batted in good style for his runs, as did Ellis, who gathered in 43 before he was well caught by White off Francis. Wilke.% 33, also batted freely, but the tail wagged very feebly, and no less than three batsmen had the dreaded "blob" against their lame.

City made a very weak attempt to reach ttte total set them by North Shore, and they were eventually defeated by an innings and 135 runs. In the first innings, batting one man short, they were all dismissed for 57. of which Stemson made 24. nearly half, but in their second innings they ran up 145 before the last EtD left. Cosaey atoning for his absence in the first innings by scoring j<s. 0. Harvey and Heney being the only others to get into double figures, the former getting 2i and the latter 20. Bowling for North Shore in CityVGrst innings, Howden secured 5 wickets for 2f>. and Haddon 4 for 24, and in the second McMahon got 4 for 31. For some ttme past Mr. J. Watts, secretary of the Auckland Cricket Association, has been busy supervising the compilation of a new issn of rule books, ■which will include the Auckland Cricket Association roles, the Umpires 3 Association rules, and the latest rules of the 31.C.C These will be sold at sixpence per copy. The cricket played on Eder. Park by the select of the school teams 'f Auckland was very interesting, inc.• ■. iL The boys bowled, batted, and lieidcc , -rlendidlv. a:ici it is eriient '.hat tiierr ...,c. some £•.<.><.. cricket, --ic-t! <-n .king among tli-. n:. The innings of Cummings at Eden Park on Monday was a very imp exhibition of cricket. Ihe total. ICkS not out, -uas carefully compiled and good cricket was disp'.-iyrd throughout. The batsman received a great ovation on reaching the century. When br w.-.s within four of the century and a-hnlf. lie should have 'ir-en caught. On carrying his bat to the pavilion he was again loudly applauded. Ciuiunings's 103 included twenty fours and several tnrr-ps.

A cricket matc'u between Howick and "U'hkfonl wa.- played on the Ilowick Domain on Saturday last: batted iir-l. and weiv all for 48 run.-. W'uilfonl replying with 44. Jn ilic M>eond inning* Howick ohtained :.'J ■ (Granger 19, Wcodford \i}, Joha?on 7).S whil? Whitford could only total 16. 80-wUnar for Howick, Boyes wok five ■vrickets for 4 runs, Johnson four ior 6, and Cooper four for 3. Hovrick thus won by 47 runs. The Graf ton Club put up a fine per-! foraianee last Saturday, each of the three teams securing three-point wins, which. I think, has not been accomplished sine? the disrriet scheme commenced. Eden's record was somewhat the other waj\ as out of the six teams playing, they failed to win a match, and with one exception three pointers ware eeenred against them.

SECXMOJ GitADE. The second series of matches in connection with the championship was complet- r ed la=t Saturday, and with, one exemption J all blie games resulted in three-point wins. * j There not nmeii interest in the day's f txieket, a≤ Ule state of the gajnes at the J end of the previous Saturday lift little doubi about the winners. l . "(iraitoiL, with a margin oi 95 runs in * their favour oa the first innings, succeed- * ed in riUinissing North Shore B for 81 * ' runs, thus securing a victory by an inn- ( ing* and lit runs. c Andrews top-scored ■with 28, the re- £ suit of good hitting; Wallace contributed ja nicely-made -22, and Strange 15 (not * outj was the only other batsman to add £ ! materially to the score. j Eastgate -was the most successful bowler for Graiton, capturing six wickets at a cost of five runs apiece. Xorth Shore A had no diffienlty in se- j curing an outright win against Pamell B. J Closing their second venture with four J wickets down and 111 runs on the board, I they !eft Parnell the handsome total of 190 to mate before they could secure the three points. The Parnell batsmen, al- . though they did a little better than in j the tirst innings, could not withstand the attack of the Shore bowling talent, and were all out for three runs over the half- : century. ( i Coleman batted soundly for 47 (not , I out I. and Eyre also knocked up 3*l in good style- With the exception of Dv- _ jfaur (1 for 6) the Parnellite bowling averages suffered somewhat. "Bennett (12) andTuxbott (10, not out) were the only members of the Eastern j Suburb's team to reach double figures. j Mt-Neill bowled excellently, taking six j wickets for 2ti. His fast, curly ones were very destructive. Parnell A defeated Eden A by 73 runs ; on the first innings. Tho latter naa.de a , gooJ effort to recover, but tho task was j too big. and at the finish it was only timo that robbed Parnell of a three-point , jvictory. j Denuison (28) showed good form with , ] the bat, and his runs were, obtained in , good style. HarUand (a King's College , lad) shaped well for 21. , Holden and Wiliams (-with three •wie- . ' ke.ts each) were the best of the Eden , bowling combination; both at times mak- , ing the. ball "do a bit." Eden's second strike realised 13S for a ! wicket in hand. Brown's 44 was the best . 1 effort of the match, and included ?oms • ' fine strokes. ;

Gray, with a couple, of dosen. redeemed his reputation of the previous match, and at fi.l.j p.m. re-rnained uubeatrn. C'l.iric rattled up 26 before being clean j bowled by Schofield. Jenkins secured \ the unenviable .pair. Schofield (five wie- j ketsj and Resteaux (four) were tho only : bowlers to make any impression on the I ! Eden batsmen. ' j Ponsonby failed -to reach University's | j total in the first innings, but completely turned the tables in the next. This is the tecond occasion this season that the students have over-scored their opponents in the first innings and then lost the , match. I Stewart (29) was the only 'Varsity bat ; to- pass the ■ twenties, and looked fairly . well settled before he returned one to the i bowler. One of the students' batsmen i has failed in each of the four innings to I score. The Ponsonby bowling was very ■ .even; figures (three for 21) J reading slightly better than the others. | Eden, with, plenty of time iv hand, ( started off in quest of the 84 runs ne- . cessary for a three-point win. The task was by no means a difficult one, ana Eden was rather hopeiol of rising to the ! occasion. With two wickets to fall, Eaen required 24 runs to complete their task, and when the last man (Ralf) was ex- ' eellently caught by Stilwell, eight runs were- -wanted to change defeat into victory. ' ; Kobinson (five for 3S) trundled well j for City, keeping most oi the halls on I the off, with an inclination to turn to- : j wards the wicket. G. Magee also bowled j well and kept a good' length, his three j I wickets costing 25 runs. Tn the third grade matches, North Shore defeated Eden A by six wicket?. \ I City and Ponsonby provided an exc.iti ing finish, the latter securing a wicket I margin; Cottingham (4 for 9) coming j out with best analysis.

Parnell gave University a bad time, and Pierr-e has the honour of scoring the first century of the season in Association cricket. Orafton 111. scored an outright win against Eden B; Johnston coming out iwith the finp average of S -wirdvets for 17. Hewson. another of the colts, scored 85 (not out) in one of the morning matcher.