CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Issue 123, 24 May 1919, Page 18

CRICKET.

\ Tom Hayward has just celebrated his , forty-eighth birthday, and. he has de- J cided to retire, after having been a memher of the Surrey eide for t%venty-five > years. Before the war he found diffi- j culty in going down to the ball even in the easy fielding place of point, and his Ibatting had lost some of its freedom. Hayward was never a batsman who made cricket "bright" ac we use the , •word to-day, but for correctness of style and steadiness he is unsurpassed by his contemporaries. Hie methods were j specially suited to the building of big scores, and though ' one often wished that he would give his play a touch of recklessness —that recklessness -which lands gaiety to the batting of Hobbs, j Jessop and Spooner —he was a splendidly . safe and sure man to have on your eide. j ■7. T. Hearne, the England and Middle- ■ sex bowler, is also to go into eemi-re-tirement. He has accepted the post as coach to the Oxford University team, and began his new duties last month. Hearne is fifty-two years of age next > week. So long ago as 18i)l he headed the English bowling averages, and during all the intervening years he has kept his form in a surprising way. -when one recalls the amount of work he was j called on to do for Middlesex and the I M.O.C. Perhaps his most notable feat ; was to perform the "hat trick" in a test match against one of Darling's | I Australian elevens at Leeds. Some remarkably fine averages were obtained in the past season's club matches in Victoria, Rays a Melbourne i critic. Vernon Ransford headed the batting list with the magnificent average ' of 115.4 rune per innings, whikt W. Sewart with 96.10, J. Ryder with 86.8, O. Spicer with 70.25, E. Mayne with \ 01.66, and B. A. Onyons with 56.1, all did i very well. Ryder had the highest ' aggregate with 608 runs, Raneford and I Sewart tied with 577, and Onyone is j next with 561. The crack left-hander, , jH. Ironmonger, was easily first in the I j bowling department, with 42 wickets, at j ; a cost of 8.76 runs each. J. Ryder was ' ; second, with 44 wickets at a cost of 11.2. A. Kenny third with 32 wickets for 11.6, -and E. A. McDonald fourth with 61 wickets —the greatest number captured by a bowler —at 12.44 apiece. On the season's play, Jack Ryder is undoubtedly the beet all-round cricketer in Victoria, and is one of the finest ever turned out i by this State. | BOXING. Is Johnny Kilbane, holder of the (world's featherweight title, through? j That's the question that rises uppermost I after what happened in Philadelphia the other night (says an American journal), when the marvellous little Clevelander. lost a six-round battle to an unheralded,' unsung, but nevertheless clever and hard--1 hitting youngster by the name orFrankie Brown, who hails from New Yorlc. The king of the feathers came back from Army work for his first ring contest since being stopped in the third round by Benny Leonard at Shibe Park, Philadelphia, on July 25,1917. Brown won. He won I not by a close margin or a shade, but by ! leagues and mlies, smothering Kilbane's j mighty right cross, whipping a hook over to the champion's jaw, and making it ■ generally unpleasant throughout the j whole proceeding. It was a surprise, a j I bitter surprise, for Kilbane. Always a ; ! popular champion, a great little fighter ! with a terrible right cross, he was a topheavy favourite, and it took a long time for the crowd to roplise that he was not merely stalling. He simply could not ; get started, and when he did show flashes of speed, Brown met him punch for punch, ehift for shift, although such exchanges were few and far between. Most of the time it was a holding, wrestling sort of an affair. In tiie first round—in fact, during the first four rounds —it seemed as though Kilbane was Just taking things easy, stalling along to test | himself out. He met every rush of j Brown's and wrapped the New Yorker up so completely that there was no use of exchanging blows in the clinches. i Shortly after the start the champion let go w.ith his right hook. The speed and punch were there, but Brown was expect- • ing it and ducked out of harm's way. That was the only real attempt at a punch during the round. i

Eugene Corri, in the "Sporting' Life," says:—The popular impression is that McGoorty is an old man. It is true that he has lost much of his hair, but he is one year short of thirty, and I am with MoGoorty when he says he is hardly yet a veteran. Since he came over with the American Forces I have only seen MoGoorty twice—first aeainst Wells at Albert Hall and a few weeks ago in a match with Harold Rolph, the Canadian- lam not going to ask you to believe that he is as good and ax fast as when he last visited us, but I am sure that he may still claim a place amongst the best present-day boxers. And "ho would not be averse to meeting anybody,! though if he were to tackle the "heavyweights he would be obliged to give many l pounds away. There has been m'uon' written about the likelihood of his fighting Joe Beckett. McGoorty is quite prepared to take on the conqueror of Welle, and will find most liberal backing. Just now Beckett is exploiting vaudeville, but I have an idea that the Ameri-j can would wait at any rate a reasonable' time for a match with the man. What McGoorty would like most' would be a match with Carpentier, but such are the Frenchman's arrangements that one would scarcely be passible this year (at any rate, in.London-). g 0 Mc-j Goorty, who is out of work, will most 1 probably concentrate on Beckett and Goddard. It will be interesting to see' what happens.