CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 16

CRICKET.

Fitzroy (Victoria) Cricket Club is developing into a big concern. Wages amount to more than £900 a year.

The statement in a leading Sydney daily that J. N. Crawford, the international cricketer and late coach of the Otago Cricket Association, ie returning to England now that hia engagement with Otago i 3 concluded, is incorrect (says a Dunedin writer). "Jack" Crawford has no intention of returning to England at the present time, but may return Home for the next cricket season after the war. Meanwhile he is remaining in Dunedin.

At the meeting of the Canterbury Cricket Association held recently Mr Thompson, suggested the adoption of the New South Wales innovation of eight balls to the over. It would brighten cricket and avoid so many breaks in the field. The chairman said that six balls was the happy medium. The matter was not very favourably received, but Mr Thompson was recommended to 'bring it before the next meeting of delegates.

The Otago Cricket Association is in no hurry to open the season (says a Dunedin writer), and, indeed, there is little activity- amongst the clubs, the majority of which have not yet held their annual meetings. Until these annual gatherings take place it is not possible to forecast the prospects of the season, which, however, should be no worse than last y«ar. All or practically all the eligible cricketers left for the front before last season, and those who left with recent reinforcements belonged to the junior ranks. The policy will be "carry on" as last season, with no interprovincial matches. Some of the clubs will have a difficulty in placing more than one team in the field, and that once numerically strong club, Carishrook, will content itself with one senior eleven. In the brief space of two years what changes have taken place! Prominent players who were associated with the game for years have dropped out entirely, and were an Otago team picked to-day it would scarcely include one player of note of the season just prior to the war.

Thus a speaker at the recent meeting of the Victorian Cricket Association: But for the war, the incoming season would have been one of the greatest in the annals of cricket. With all the old troubles cleared away, and with peace reigning among the managing bodies of the game, we should probably have been looking forward to a visit from tha English Eleven. When war broke out we had the makings of a great Australian Eleven in such, men as R. J. A. Massie, J. Ryder> fc."Aj. Cody, F. Bering, K. Ij. Park, and A. G/Moves, backed up >y the more experienced players liko Warwick Armstrong, C. G. Macartney, ■Warren Bardsley, and Charlie Kelleway. Such an eleven as Australia could have put in the field would have provided a great fight with England's picked men. But the war has altered all these hopes, and no one can say when the great Test games will be resumed. Mr Donald Mackinnon, who presided, asked Mr H. E. Rush, at the annual meeting of the association, if he knew where the nest Test match was to be played. Mr Bush replied that in the ordinary course of events it would have taken place in Australia. "Wherever it is played," continued Mr Mackinnon, "I ehould liko to be present. I feel inclined to hope that it will be played in England. Fancy the reception that would be given our boys as they walked on to Lord's Ground, for there is Bβ getting away from the fact Australia has raised herself enormously by the attitude adopted in this terrible war. I ehould be proud to be present at the next Test match, whether it is played in Melbourne, Sydney, or England." But international, and even inter-State, matches are things of a hazy future. What we have to do now, again to quote Mr Mackinnon, "in to just keep alive the lesser game of cricket while the biggest and most terrible game of all is in ; progress." That is the policy of the ruling body. Mr Mackinnon agreed that the Association was doing right in keeping -the game going in a restricted way, so that those* who cannot go to the war may have a little healthful relaxation. The annual meeting was a record in every way. All the business was transacted in half-an-hour. Nobody was looking for trouble, the report and balance-sheet were adopted without question, and there was an utter lack of competition for tha various offices. FOBUC SCHOOLS CRICKET. It has 'been definitely decided to continue the first round fixtures of the public schools' cricket competitions on 14th October, and all delegates have been duly notified. The Public Schools' Cricket Association hae, through its Executive, arranged for the purchase of cricket gear at reasonable prices, and school clubs axe advieed to avail themselves of this arrangement. Appended are the results to date of the matches played in the three grades of primary schools' cricket for the seaeon 1916:— A GRADE. _^_ —ii Matches. eh. P. W. D. L. Pte. Devonport ..... 5 5 _ jq Vermont Street 0 4—lß Richmond (Road 4 3. Iβ Mount Eden ..4 3 _ j g Mount Albert— 6 3 — 2 6 Normal 4 1 ' — 3 2 Remnen 5 1 — 4 2 Newton Bast ..4 — — 4 Edendale 4 — — 4 — B GRADE. . Matches. 'eh. P. W. D. U Pte. Newton West.. 6 5 — — 10 Grafton 5 4 — 1 8 Napier Street.. 5 3—26 Bayndd 5 3 «— 2 » Grey Lynn 6 2—34 Berestord St. .. 5 2 — 3 4 Epsom 6. 1 ~" * 2 Manngawtaau 5 — — 5 ■ — C GRADE. Matches. Ch. P. W. D. I* Pta. Stanley Bay ... 5 5 — — 10 Newmarket ... 5 5 — —■ 10 Pt Chevalier.. 5 4—lß Avondale ...... 5 2 — 3 4 Takapuna ..... 5 2 — A * Ellerslle. ...... 6.' 2 1— 3 * Belmont ,_~ 6 .*- > *—' g ■"" Northcotß m~-* ' A ■*-*,'....«**.*—*..-*-i