A Moot Point.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 69, 22 March 1941, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Moot Point.

Should Cricket Competition Be In Two Divisions? "THE luck of the draw in the scries of matches completed on Saturday week at Dunedin played a prominent part in the building up oft one of the most interesting finishes for many years in the Otago Cricket Association's grade championship. Before that series Carisbrook B, Albion-Y.M.C.A. and Kaikorai were at the top of the list, and Old Boys had slipped back. But while Carisbrook B and Albion were fighting out a keen drawn game and Kaikorai was being beaten on the first innings by Grange, Old Boys were scoring a very easy outright win against a weakened University team, and one of the bottom teams, Dunedin, was dealing* similarly with a Carisbrook A side that was a long way below strength. The consequence is that Old Boys are back in the lead, but only by one point, and that it in still possible for any one of six teams to win the championship.' It was a wise decision by the association "to play two more series, although this involves playing on April 5, or,' if this should' be impracticable, the playing of a whole-day match on March 29. From the point of view of the grade' committee, which makes the draw, it was hoped that the series beginning on March 15 would clarify the position to some extent. Otherwise tho making of the draw for the final series promised to be a tricky problem. At that, stage (states the "Otago Daily Times") the position would seem to be a justification of the contention that toward the end of the season the com' petition should be divided into two divisions, so that each of the top teams would be drawn against another team in the top half. It is not intended to suggest by this that Old Boys are not entitled to their position. They won against University by good cricket. But it is apparent that in a competition as close as it lias been this season the syste«n of merely starting a second round with no prospect of completing it may give an average team the chance of winning outright against weak teams while the top teams aro holding each other in hard games and so of "stealing"' the championship.