N.Z. XI In Victory And Defeat.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 200, 24 August 1937, Page 15

N.Z. XI In Victory And Defeat.

ILL-EQUIPPED. NO EXPRESS BOWLERS. SURREY BEATEN AT OVAL WELSHMEN TOO GOOD AGAIN. (By Air Mall.) SWANSEA, July 30. The Dominion cricketers went on to the field rather ill-equipped for the matches with Surrey (at the Oval) and Glamorgan (at Swansea), eta tee the epecial correspondent of the New Zealand Prese Association travelling with the team.Roberte was still feeling the effects of hie shoulder strain, -Cowie had gastric influenza, and Dunning wae livable to bowl owing to a strained leg. This meant that the team was without its three main bowlere for two hard games, played on hard wickets in hot weather, against strong batting sides. The wicket-taking was left to Vivian, Gallichan and Moloney, with Page, Weir and Carson to use the new ba.ll. The elow bowlere had to get through an enormous amount of work, eimply because there wae no one else to do it, and they bore their heavy taek with great credit. Vivian's stamina and accuracy were remarkable. In both matches he bowled an extraordinary number of overs, including over two 6core in one innings at Swansea. Yet he was never collared, and the scoring rate from his bowling was seldom more than two an over. Even Verity at his beet could hardly have bowled more accurately. This was done, too, despite a bandaged left hand and left leg. Gallichan was also very steady in both matches, his length being excellent. He hardly flighted the ball as well as the vice-captain, but it was uncommonly good bowling all the same. The success of these two in these two matches served to give some idea of what would have happened on this tour if the summer of 1937 had been as wet as those of 1927 and 1931. New Zealand would probably have won two games in every three. Moloney bowled his elow breaks with good control of length, taking useful wickets in each innings. By practice and thought he has improved greatly on the tour, even though he is no Merritt. Brilliant Fielding. With the three main bowlere out of the match New Zealand did very well to dismiss Surrey for under 300 each time at the Oval. The wicket was perfect, and the outfield fast. The ground, in fact, was as burned and as hard as Lancaster Park in February. The New Zealandere, however, fielded brilliantly. Gallichan took three slip catches in the first innings, and three batsmen fell in the second to Tindill. Fast running and good picking up saved scores of runs in each innings. Page, too, has the placing of the field for run-eaving down to a fine art, especially for the slow left-handers. This was shown at the Test at Manchester, when the New Zealandere almost worried ont Hammond. Time after time he hit the ball hard, only to see it go straight to one of the off-side fieldsmen. At last he jumped out to lift one over the ring, missed it altogether and was bowled. It is very worrying for a batsman to have hie best strokes stopped all the time. Before long he becomes sick of it and plays a rash stroke. Grand Innings By Donnelly. New Zealand's score- of 495 at the Oval was the team's best in England. Donnelly, with beautiful foot and wrist work, played a grand innings of 144. The youngster plays most of hie strokes with only a flick of the bat, yet the ball flies to the boundary like lightning. The only time he seems to really "punch" the ball is when h« jumps out to drive*" past' mid-off • < b* i cover point. Wallace played two fine

doubles of&Dfsod 48. By this time, however, he wae beginning to show; elgne of strain from the enormous number of times he had played, and he was sensibly rested from the next match againet Glamorgan. Weir also did well, with 29 and 71, The second innings; wae a .very fine one, with plenty of tieatT gliding, good "cutting and strong driving.. \ Two drives went straight for 6ix—bis favourite stroke—on to the roof of the' pavilion. ;Page scored a steady and sound 90. \ Four players topped the half-century in'the first innings for one of the beet days of the tour. Gover, Surrey's express bowler, had little or no chance on euch a wicket. Still, he always looks the best fast bowler in England,' except, perhaps, K. Fames. He make* the ball move more than any of the other fast bowlers, and he can keep up his pace like Cowie. New Zealand won the match easily. It ie peculiar that the team always seems to do well in London. It would have beaten Surrey in the first game, and probably Middlesex as well, if there had , not been rain, and played very courageously to make a draw of the first Test. London people think the term a good one. They simply cannot understand wby it fßSee not do better in the provinces. Neither, for that matter, can anyone else. E. Davies and Clay Destructive. From London the team moved, on to Swansea. There they were beaten heavily, for the second time, by Glamorgan. The loss looked bad : on : paper, but the wicket had a lot to do with its. New Zealand again lost the toss on a Saturday, and eo Glamorgan had the wicket at Its bestwhen it was new and firm, t and when it was still true on the Monday. When New Zealand batted, in the first innings the pitch wae rather lively, and in the second it was venomous. Unfortunately for New Zealand Glamorgan have two bowlers for whom such a wicket-might be made—E. Daviee. slow left-hand, ™d Clnv, slow right-hand off-breaks.. Clay is. perhaps, the best bowler on that kind of pitch in the world. Dnvjps took four for 16 and five for ?0, and Clav five for 24 on the last morning, when New ZealaDd lost seven wickets in just over half an hour, the whole innings realising only 110. Useful Scores By Hadfee. Hadlee made a useful score in each innings, but none of the others could keep the ball out of their etnmps or eke away from the semi-circle of leg-side "isharke" waiting on the end of the bat. Kerr had an unusual experience. He scored a four off the bails. He evidently touched a ball and it enicked the bails. The wicketkeeper, thinking' - the Mil' was going to clean bowl him, did not try to stop it, and it > went down to the fence for four.

There was a conference about what happened. Neither umpire was prepared to give the bateman out, the opposing skipper was in favour of "getting on with the game," the umpire signalled four runs, and the game was resumed. The bateman wae dismissed next ball. The lose was disappointing to New Zealand, but victory probably meant a lot to Glamorgan. The Wekh county had been struggling for years, and is now on the up grade. With more success has come greater public support, and fine crowds watched the New Zealanders at both Swansea and Cardiff. The New Zealandere can say that if they did lose twice to Glamorgan they did some good by helping to put cricket "back on the map" in Wales. PIAKO' ASSOCIATION. There was an attendance of over 30 delegates and players at the annual meeting of the Piako Cricket Association. Officers elected were: Patron, Mr. E. Bowler; presi-j dent, Mr. J. Pohlen; vice-presidents, Messrs. J.. Lundells (Matamata), A. E. Strang (Pntarnru), ,R. Bruce (Okauia), F. E. Hughes (Wardville), J. W. Simpson (Old Boys), S. Brooks (Gordon), P. B. Hawke (Hinuern), W. J. Aitken (Morrinsville). P. Halligan (Te Aroha), J. Shannahan (Paeroa); secretary, Mr. A, Jones; treasurer, Mr. R. Beaver; executive, Messrs. R. Hughes, F. Montague, /E. Willinms. A. G. Read, M. Simpson, J. Tapper, J. Ell, and Wither Silk; selectors, Messrs. F. Montague, G. G. Griffiths and A. Wilkes.