The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1939. SHIELD CRICKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1939. SHIELD CRICKET.

For the cause that, lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistanoe f For the future -in the distance, And the good that we can do.

It is a curious fact that while tlie presence of a mere fifty people at ordinary club cricket.at Eden Park on a Saturday would constitute something of a " crowd," Aucklanders —and for that matter,. Xew Zealanders as a whole —have shown themselves willing to sit up until the small hours of the morning to listen in to a broadcast of Test cricket. The same sort of thing is true in a lesser way about the Plunket Shield matches. Public opinion, quiescent for the greater part of the year, seems suddenly to spring to life, with the result that there is generally -a fair attendance at the park for an interprovineial match. The game in progress now is the forty-sixth between Auckland and •Wellington, and of them the home side has won twenty-six and Wellington fourteen. The other five have been* drawn. Since the Shield was awarded in December, 190/, 126 games—excluding this season's series—have been played, of which Auckland has won thirty-six, Canterbury one fewer, Wellington twenty-six and Otago ten. Nineteen have been drawn. Now in the present season Auckland has had two. wins, Canterbury one win and a loss, Wellington the same.

The rivalry between Auckland and Wellington, keen at any time, is doubly so at present, for this match is one of the two critical games to decide whether the home side shall retain the Shield for the year. Auckland leads on points, but if the home side secures only a first innings win and Canterbury takes an outright win against Otago in a game now in progress, the Shield will go to Canterbury. On the other hand, should "Wellington gain an outright win and Canterbury fail to get more than a first innings win against Otago, the honours will go to Wellington. The upshot is that in this game Auckland requires ail outright

win. Another point of interest lies in the newcomers to Shield cricket. In the Wellington team Pritchard, from Manawatu, is at {he moment the chief .rival to the Aueklander Cowie for inclusion in the New Zealand side as fast bowler. Then in the home team is Skeet, from Hamilton, wicket-keeper and a useful bat, who began his first Shield match yesterday. Officials and old-timers will followtliem with interest.

There have been periods in the past when Shield games .were dominated by a few outstanding players,, one or two of whom had been imported by one or. other. of the provinces as a player-coach. In-the past decade, however, New Zealand talent has developed so greatly that in more than one province the professional has not been selected on merit, while in that time no coach has been more ■ outstanding than the best of the local amateurs. The effect, then, is that these provincial matches have retained practically an amateur status throughout, commensurate with the best traditions of the game. These traditions have meant keen rivalry, not as expressed in one match or one series, but right down the years. Canterbury and Auckland, especially, have fought many hard battles from the. earliest.times of provincial matches. AYellington was not really prominent until it adopted the policy of developing local players and using the best talent from affiliated."country centres. Otago's success has been spasmodic. This rivalry has been good for cricket, having been an important •factor in finding new blood and improving the general Dominion standard of the game. That is why the fortunes of both teams in this match-are being followed closely, both in the province and in*the South.