CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 5, 7 January 1922, Page 18

CRICKET.

(By ACTAEON.) A piquant and appropriate Christmas card was issued this year by the Lords ground staff. It portrays a lion with his tail knotted, surrounding the following verse:— Ring ont the old. tbe game that's lost Regretting nought ot what it cost. Ring ln fast bowlers, full of guile, And batsmen of a forcing style. South Africa has only once defeated Australia in a test, that happy occasion for the men of the Springbok country being in Adelaide over ten years ago, when G. A. Faulkner, J. W. Zulch, and S. J. Snooke made centuries, and Victor Trumper rattled up 214 not out for Australia. All matches played in South Africa or in England have been either won by Australia or drawn. Mr. M. A. Noble, the well-known exinternational player, the other day delivered a valuable lecture on the game to a crowded audience of young cricketers in Sydney. He gave practical demonstrations with" bat and ball, and lucidly explained the placing of fieldsmen, etc. His remarks were illustrated with blackboard diagrams. It is hoped to have similar lectures during the season given by prominent cricketers. An unusual incident happened in a cricket match between the Richmond and South Melbourne second elevens in Melbourne recently. When J. Deas, of South Melbourne, toed the crease, his first delivery was passed by the umpire, but the next seven were called. The bowler finished the over with underarms, and then retired from the bowling crease. It puts one in mind of the time when B. Crockett no-balled J. Marsh many times in an over years ago. The aborigine became so incensed that he threw the ball at Frank Layer, who was batting, missing his head by inches. They have both since passed away. With never the slightest evidence of haste, C. Kelleway scored 116 in Sydney first-grade cricket the other day. He 6pent three hours at the wickets, and gained the honour of scoring the first century on the new Jubilee Oval. A Sydney batsman who is ehowng great form is A. Punch (North Sydney). He made 112 on the same day as Kelleway, in two hours of brilliant batting. AH ! his strokes were finished, and hk power-! ful driving and neat late cuts kapti the spectators in a state of enthu-j ■siasm. Another player showing form 1 is W. W. Chapman (Mosman), a veteran ;of portly build, who has scored consistently. He made 98 on the same day 1 as Kelleway and Punch got their cen-j ■ tunes.

j Stan Brice has recently been showing ' a return to his old form with the ball in Wellington club matches, and has been 'included in the "probables" from whom I the rep. team to visit Auckland will be I selected.

J. T. Matthews (Victoria) has the most remarkable bowling effort in tests between Australia and South Africa with the hat trick twice in one match, at Manchester, in 1912. It was with Syd. Gregory's team—the first after the upheaval with the Players and Board of Control. It has njver been equalled in any other test match. Albert Trott, one time of Australia, in his "benefit" match with Middlesex v. Somerset, at Lords, in 1907, did the hat trick twice in an innings—the best effort in first class cricket. The greatest performance in any match is credited to W. Clark, a lefthander, who did the hat trick three times in the first innings and twice in the second for a Kent (England) team in 1912.

That proverbial expression "the glorious uncertainty of cricket" was made to look ridiculous at Otautau, in Southland, last Monday when two local teams, Otautau and Gap Road, ran so true to form that each team scored exactly the same number of runs in the second innings as it did in the first. The scores were: —Otautau 51 and 51 and Scott's Gap 32 and 32. This performance seems to be unprecedented in Australasia, but two performances of the nature which are even more singular have taken place in England. In 1818 in ,a match between' Working and Shire at Working each of four innings amounted to 71 and at Tenby in 1885 Royal Fusiliers scored 51 and 51, and their opponents, Tenby, did exactly the same. A novel way of making a soaked wicket playable was tried out suocesfully by the curator of the Melbourne University cricket ground last month. Seeing the state of the wicket in the morning, when it was literally waterlogged, the curator conceived the idea of spreading hessian over the pitch and rolling it. When the hessian became soaked it was squeezed dry, and the procedure was repeated, until nearly all the water had been soaked up. Not only was the wicket playable a* the appointed time, but it was distinctly in favour of the batsmen, being slow and easy all day, and improving as play advanced. How wet the ground must have been can be gauged from the fact that of six first-grade matches set down for the day, only two were played, and one of those was started hours late. The university game, of course, began on time. A Sydney "Bulletin" correspondent tells this one:—"I was a member recently of a visiting eleven, which took on an outlying settlement on the N.S.W. Irrigation Area. On arrival we hobbled our mokes near the pavilion— a couple of logs—while the pitch was mowed. Of course there was no matting. The stumps were then hewn (from the pavilion) and we, having won the toss went in. The bowling was fast, 'we had no pads, and the wicketkeeper was without gloves. A. Bonnor would ; have been incapable of driving the ball I more than a dozen yards, such was the length of the grass. In the circumstances the scoring was low and as each defeated batsman returned he was greeted by the grandstand with well-known poultry-yard calls. When the wicket was hit the impire would hammer in the stumps afresh with an axe which was lying conveniently near. The field employed the respite picking grass-seeds from their socks and trousers. The game was eventually declared a draw, our umpire having been bitten by a snake; and if anyone can beat this as an example of sport undertaken in a deter- ; mined manner in the face of heavy dis- . abilities I shall be pleased to hear of it."