HONOURS EVEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 184, 6 August 1927, Page 9

HONOURS EVEN.

IN SURREY MATCH

Sporting Finish Leaves The

Game Undecided. McGIRR BATS WELL. 'By Cable.—Tress Association.— C"pyrish*\) i Received 0 a.m.) LONDON, .*». With a draw seemingly inevitable the final day at the Oval of the New Zealand-Surrey cricket match opened without vim, though for the fi»-st hour there was apparently some unusual life in the wicket on which, as a result of the soaking dew, the ball occasionally capered. Dempster hesitantly played the first ball of the day backward into point's hands. Lowry just managed to get his thousand runs for the first-class matches of the tour, and then gave the tamest sort of catch in the slips. Page played outside a swinger and was taken at the wicket. James early skied a catch to mid-on. Thin in lialf-au-hour four wickets fell fi>r 21 runs. Blunt and MeGirr resorted to forcing tactics and put on 57 runs in 4."> minutes, both making delightful cover shot:?. When Blunt was out to his first weak stroke, at mid-off. the consistent Merritt alone stayed to help MeGirr, who was there for 110 minutes and hit seven fours. Surrey hega.i in a bad liyht and oft' the fourth bali Hobbs wa-> caught at long leg. Saiiuhani and Ducat retrieved Uie position, putting on lot) runs in an hour, till .Sandham dollied one up behind the wicket, where James, who was keeping splendidly, took the catch. After Ducat went, the wickets fell cheaply and eight batsmen were out for 207. There was just a hope that the tourists would win, but the youns exOxford 'Varsity player. McC'anlis, assisted Barling to play out time. The match was drawn. Details of the scores are: — NKW ZEALAND. Fii->t Innings j[;j Second Inning-. Dempster, b Geary ." joi Mills, b Holmes 2:3 Page, c Machin. b Geary fis Low ry, c McCaiilia, b Peach 4 Blunt, c Geary, b Shepherd 30 ■Tames, c Sandham, b Gearv ;j MeGirr, b Peach ' Go' Dacre. b McCanlis 13 Allcott, c Machin. b Shepherd .... 0 Merritt. e Sandham, b Geary 39 Henderson, not out ". 5 Extras 13 Total 37 ] Bowling: Geary four wickets for 79 runs. McCanlis one for 68. Peach two for 77, Holmes one for 61, Shepherd two for 'A, Gregory none for 19. SURREY. First Innings 377 Second Inning?. Hobbs, c Merritt, b MeGirr 0 Sandham, c James, b Merritt 50 Shepherd, at James, b Merritt 3 Holmes, st James, b Merritt 23 Ducat, c Blunt, b Allcott 100 Peach, b Merritt 0 Barling, not out 7$ Gregory, lbw, b Merritt 3 Machin. b Blunt 2 McCanlis, not out 19 Extras 6

Eight wickets for 284 Bowling: MeGirr one wicket for 4."i runs, Allcott one for "-•>. Blunt one for !>-*{. Fa go none for 30, Merritt rive for JO.*), Dempster none fur 4. N.Z. TEAM ENTERTAINED. LONDON, August 5. The Surrey Cricket Club gave a dinner to the New Zealand team at the Oval. The New Zealand captain, Lowry, said the players had done far better than they or anyone else had anticipated at the outset of the tour. The manager of the visiting team, Mr. D. Hay, alluded to the progress the game had made in New Zealand and to the educational advantages secured from muddy wickets. He said he thought that, in addition to Lowry, they had four or five batsmen, who would give a good account of themselves on slow wickets.

THE TEAM'S RECORD

v. M.C.C.—drawn. v. Essex—lost by five wickets. v. Cambridge "Varsity—lost by five wkts. v. Middlesex—lost by three wickets. v. Royal Navy—abandoned. v. Sussex—won by eight wickets. v. Oxford 'Varsity—drawn. v. Worcestershire—won by 194 runs. v. Northants—lost by 82 runs. v. Leicester—drawn. v. Yorkshire—abandoned. v. Notts—abandoned. v. East England—won by eight v. i. k-.-ts. v. Civil Service—won by innings l.» runs. v. Army—abandoned. v. West England—abandoned. v. Warwick—abandoned. v. Glamorgan—won by 206 runs. v. Surrey—drawn. Thus out of nineteen first-class games played so far two were drawn with honours even, and of the remaining seventeen the New Zealanders have had the experience of abandonment on account of rain three times when they had had the worst of the opening play but yet had time to make a recovery, while in four matches rain on the last day has almost certainly robbed them of victory. Of the nine matches played out they have won five and lost four. On the tally of five wins and four losses the New Zealanders' record is not imposing, but their bad luck in the matter of weather interposing to save their opponents is best exemplified by noting that if the present county method were used of recording a win on the first innings in the event of the game being unfinished in the three days their record would read: Ten wins, seven losses. It may be also fairly argued that two of their losses, against Essex and Middlesex, resulted from their having the worst of a wicket affected by the weather. The comforting part of their record is that their losses all came in the early part of the tour, when they had not become acclimatised, and that far from being outclassed by the county teams they have shown themselves worthy opponents of the best county sides where there has been anything like e«pial conditions. In all matches, the tourists' record, on the ordinary method of counting a win on the lirst innings in one-day games, is: Played 28, won 9, lost 4, drawn and abandoned 15.