CRICKET NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 303, 20 December 1917, Page 9

CRICKET NOTES.

• '' at cricket in the district champion- • eUu' ".nee oa Saturday was once again Jfokioejised by heavy scoring, Grafton putting" up 382 against Edenj Ponsqnby I 320 against Parnell,. and North Shore 258 against University. The individual 'eSort of the day was E. Horspool's innings of 225 at tho expense of thto Eden bowlers. FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD. .When Parnell won the toss on Saturday, and elected to send Ponso'nby to the wickets, there was a general opinion expressed that they had made a mistake jn tactics in view of the fact that the iricket lookea good for batting. Ponjonby's subsequent score of 326 satisfied critics that there was nothing wrong with the wicket, and it looks as if an error in tactics had .been made by Parn ell. Anyway, they have' a solid task before them next Saturday.. The Ponsonby scprq was made iv spasms, Smith and Wetherill hitting up • '81 for the first wicket, and Smith and jiißpgue putting up a second-wicket partnership of 73, Which made the total \U for two wickets. The bowlers then did some damage, but Hendy and Roberts got together in a eeventh■iricket partnership that raised the score from i BO t? 260, while Hcndy.' and Robinion put on 36 runs for th.c last wicket. The features of the innings were Smith's opening S3, and Ilendy's later innings of SI. Smith gave an exposition of quick irun-getting on the leg-side. From the jump he scored steadily in singles, 'braces, and boundaries on the leg side, his glancing being very pretty, while his occasional off-d.rives also were

strong shots. His partner, AVetherill, played a quiet innings, driving clean and hard when opportunity o.ffered, but J not forcing the pace, and showing admirable judgment in repressing hie natural tendency to score in the slips ■wien the opposition tried by off-theory to feed him on his slip shots for the mistake that inevitably follows in that quarter. Smith meantime, was scoring fast, and the total had reached : J 81 before Wetherill dravc a catch, up at | mid-off, after having made 24. Smith continued to punish the bowling, with i % Minogue aa partner, and looked well set for his century when he miss-hit Simpson and retired with S3 to his credit Mid the score at 154. meantime, had continued t<he policy started by Wetherill, of playing I steady bat -while Smith continued to I f?or? fastj and the. CpU, though not forcing the pace, got runs consistently by "strong driving, and leg shots, and. kad got near the half-century when he i . put 'tis legs in front pi & an ' trying to force a fast one from Simpson to leg. At that stage Cullimore and Snedden having fallen, to Middleton i irjthout scoring, there were, sjx wickets dbwn for 180 runs, and, it 6eemed as though Ppns.pnby -we.re not gping to make such a great showing after all., Hendj and Roberts, however, dispelled I Parnell's hopea in. th.k direction. They came together for the seventh wicket, ; and played a quietV steady, stubborn game that held the bowlers up entirely. § Hendy varied 'his defence with some nice joVer shots an 4 on-drives, while Rpberts 'went for the. straight derive and' the _ • pull, Md they stayed to"g£it.her tUI 26 ° '- runs were up wh,en I a ..catch to extra iaid.-coi. ienry conS ,tinued. tb-f even tenor of his ;\*ay, while " fwo more wickets fell, tiut .'became aggressive "whan, joined by the last man. Robinson 'hit out and trusted to luck, and the luck was good. ' Hendy, at SI, was beaten and bowled by 3liddletqn, the only bowler who bad troubled during the course of his very, steady and invaluable innings. The score thus'closed "at 326. : i&i' ; the Parnell bowlers, Middleton (three fpr 47) proved the nppet difficult to play, and lyck might easily Save improved liia aYeragel ' Simpson seemed to have been started at ttie wrong end, where a cross-.wind accentuated his tendency to swing to leg, and he went off his len.gth, but improved a • great deal on being tried at 1 the other

end, when he got a, better length, and wkkete, finishing with three for 63. " A feature of the inninga was the fact that extras numbered 47," being made up 'largely o| fours tuat go| past tlie wicketkeeper close in en the leg side, l'rpbably tne trouble was caused by the Tery" large number of swerving balls .lent down, which upset the calculations of both batsman and wicket-keeper. tfOlffiS SHOBE Y. UNIVERSITY. The fast wicket on Victoria. J?ark produced some free cricket in the match between Shore and University. The scoring, however, failed to reach such high figures a3 in the other two, senior games. Shore, who batted flrstj made, a very fiae'etart," and~kept the field more than Bsually busy. Midlane, who went in with Eratep, played with freedom and caution, 'timing' well, and invariably keeping the l»rl well down. Prater took more liberlies, and between them, the two put on 46 in quick time before Frater was caught to the slips for 29. With the arrival of 'SWS things livened up further, and boundaries lifted the total'steadily. The .conditions were'just to Dacre's lining, end he lifted Garrard and Goodwin impartially to all parts of the outfield, > never, seeming to have doubts about anyQfiy cent down. He got a_ good *lare of the bowling, Midlane putting in 1 good many convenient singles, with a few larger figures fiom time to time. The century was soon overtaken, and GraMm and Brennand, who gave-the young-er-bowlens a rest, were" even worse punijaed, Dacre whacking two sixes of? Granam, andthen three fours off one "of his overs. He was going strong, and looked "ke getting an easy century, when Giltteie took over from Brennand, the new bowler smashing his wicket firsf ball. He «d made 77 and the partnership 102. f™oe joined Midlane, and the" two *M%fTthe total briskly up to. 183, when pw a o6i who had| ni'aja a. moit consistent shewing for 62, lost his w-icket to Wtaore. ■ Afblaster succeeded him, and *fle toard showed 208 when Priwe Wt'a , We*, giving Gilmore a third scalp. •lie next quarter of an hour was a dis*PSj»flting one for Shore. Spenee-, Deble, Anderson and Coatea all fell victima for ' * "Mc dozen rune, and the rot was only IJepged by Foster, who stayed rather Wiger than the rest.' The last wioket ¥ Arblaster and Stewart also ffWied double figures, and the innings gosed for 258, when Arblaste? wa^'Ewt : ™ °y having contjihuted 4J. ViUtnare mada the best showing among «c bowlers, getting six wickets Tor 41 in overs. Garrard came second, • r !- e - f w4Binl7overß. ; ' : thpea-(juarters of Qour left, ■,?reity went in {o'inafee tius ..Toefc of *Msfv.^- wettlßM- "-origin, g£* taM aauast Coatea and A4uHi(. -the Tatter most. ' Garrard MLS* fi? s *. %?, and VKttl« latex J .?! ? in the outfield'as & $£ ftrWsl ArlsSiter. " KM &*&! oLUt time, the stowing 87 for two wicket*;'

HEATHOOTE-WILIJAJIS SHIELD, PeaWcotp-Williams Shield match' we » Christchurch Boys' ' Hign Schoo .team and the Auckland Grammar t>cnoql eleven, resulted in a n pasy win for the Auckland school' by seve/ wickets and 2 runs, which-gives them posseseion of the shield for another year. The visitors did not appear nearly as strong as in former years, their batting, witH M A °F . two exceptions, being weak, while their bowling and fielding was only moderate. D. Reese, the; captain, put up a hne mnmgs in the eecond trying hard to save a forlorn hope, and tn P u gn the side made a much better showing than on the first day, they really dtf not lopkh'ke winning, 'i'licy n.ad all the worst of the luck, fpr thq wicket was much softer than it looked on Saturday, and winning the toss made a big difference to them. Fraser, their crack bowler, did not strike his team torni at any stage of the game, \vhiie the others were not very troublesomt,. Outeide the batting" of Reese the two Pages, Gox , , Bowes, and Burns showed the best form with the bat, Si. L. Page doing some, fine work in the field, as did Reese.

Quite the feature of the game was the bowling and batting of AleLeod, ol Grammar, who is fit for a place in any of Auckland's senior teams. In the first innings he captured five wickets' for 48, and in the second 'seven for 83. With the bat he scored 30 in the first innings, and 31 not o,ut in the second. A little hope, came the "way of ti.e Christcjiurch boys in Grammar's second strike, for two good wickets ifell with the total at 6, and when Nixon went with the score three for 33 they stp had a fighting chance. The partnership between McLeod ' and Stretton, however, soon smothered their hopes, and the pair were unconquered when the necessary rune were made. Nixon, McCrystal, • Cox. Harrison., Stretton, and Aietge all .batted well, while the fielding of the whole side was really first-class. HORSPOOL'S BIG HIT. At starting time on Saturday neither Grafton not Eden was ready to' comimence operations, and it was not until h,alf an hour had elapsed that Eden took the The late beginning in no way iaccelerated their return, for they were kept busy leather hunting' all the afternoon, Grafton not :being dismissed until fivg min,uteis past six. Graftqn's big scc>re 0f'382 was really the effort of two batemen, Horepool and R. Sloman, who cemented a splendid partnership that produced 230 runs. They carried the total from 52 to 232, and in all were responsible for 323 out of 389, for extras contributed 23\ Only one. other bateman reached double figures, and that was McCormick. The rest of the side were not able to make good after the treatment ■accorded to the bowlere by Horspool and Sloman. Without a doubt Horspool (225) -was the hprp of the match. He went in- first, and stayed until the last available man came in. He playpd a sterling innings, and it was almost without a~ blemish. He scored freely on the leg side. Going down on one knee, he frequently swung the ball round to' leg, and despite the deep field _found the ience repeatedly. Occasionally he. opened hiia shoulders and drove hard oa both sides of the pitch, but rarely did he place" anything behind the wicket on the off-side. It was an innings full o"f and ~grit7 "and""it was eelijiim ,he laejied one time iour', ;£ six , ; more fours in, succession. "Right through runs came at a good pace, and it was not until within' distance of the eecqnd, J'detf , tury that he seemed at all anxious. In his sterling innings of 25)5 minutes he notched thjeg gisea. arid thirty-five fours. Sloman (98} compiled his runs in good style. There was a little more of the | a.rtktic touch, in his batting, an,d a lot of his runs were the outcome of wrigty strokes, fle gave a. couple of chances to the bowler, 'but both were very- difficult, Hβ also accomplished a good deal of ing. Still, his off work was clean and crisp,-and he had bad luefc in not reaching i the century when co near. Sixty of his runs were the., result of boundaries.

The most successful bowler for Eden was R. C. Taylor, who captured three wickets for including the two high scorers. Hemira (three" for SO) and Saunders (two for Ql\ were the other wicket-takers.