Cricket Ends On Flat Note

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 88, 14 April 1945, Page 3 (Supplement)

Cricket Ends On Flat Note

WHETHER Middlemore will win the cricket championship, or ' whether it will share the honours with Eden-Combined, will not be decided until the management committee of the Auckland Cricket Association meets next Tuesday night. It all depends on the decision in the Parnell (2) and Grafton-Y.M.C.A. match default or abandonment. Perhaps nobody is very vitally concerned which way the decision goes. That is- the impression one gets from happenings in the championship towards the end. There is definitely a lack of seriousness about the matches. For instance, Middlemore had an outright win in prospect against University on March 17 when that side had been forced to follow on. Yet with nearly half an hour left for play stumps were drawn. On the same day Parnell (1) made a farce of the conclusion of its match at North Shore by making no serious attempt to get the Shore batsmen out. Admittedly there was nothing at stake, Shore having won on the first innings, but spectators do not appreciate a joke being made of a game—and that's what happened at the Shore. The management committee abided by a minority representation in deciding to make the last matches of the series two-day games in every instance, waiving a suggestion that only the championship final be so played . . . and the team which wanted a full two days did not turn out for the finish. Further proof that most of the players had lost interest was provided at Devonport where Parnell (No 1) could muster only seven men last Saturday . . . and the two captains to keep the game alive decided to allow Parnell to follow on in circumstances which the rules do not allow.