CRICKET CHAT.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9330, 3 February 1896, Page 2

CRICKET CHAT.

«o. [By Dark Blue.] " Weekly Press and Referee." The weather overhead in Christchurch on Saturday was fine but a disagreeable nor ' wester blew nearly the whole afternoon, it 1 being so strong at times that it frequently ! displaced the bails from the stumps. Other--1 wise the conditions wote favourable and as but little rain fell dining the week, the " various wickets were in good order, and the ■ run-getting consequently above the average. At Hagley Park, the Lancaster Park team i finished off their innings against the United, i for the good total of 320, but, nothing , dismayed, the United responded with a pleasing old-time effort and at the end of the day's play had put up 191 for the loss of but i six wickets. This is by far the largest score the i old club has made during the preservt season, '• and it is worthy of note that it is only five runs short of the total recorded in the two < innings played in the opening .match as-ainst r the Lancastrians. The remaining four U. C. C. ' batsmen, can generally b. relied on for a i few runs and if they can make a stand the \ total should not be so far behind the Park's 1 at the end of an innings apiece. In the '■ second innings, Lancaster Park will be I without the valuable services of Labatt, so the final result is not at.all a foregone ■ conclusion, for them, although at present they appear to have a little the best of the situation. ; Harking baok to Saturday's play I must congratulate the tail end of the Park batsmen 1 on their performance, as it was no mean '■ achievement for the last two .wickets to add 75 runs .to the total. i Fowke was mainly responsible for this 1 pleasing state of affairs, from a Lancastrian ! point ot* view, and his 37, not out, were obtained by more freedom than he usually ■ exhibits. The two colts, Cederwall and ' Stringer, who were promoted from the i club's Third Eleven for this match, are also 1 to be commended for their share of the ■ stands made. The former batted very 1 steadily, his 18 being made up by ! fourteen singles and two 2's, while 1 Stringer hit out lustily, his strokes including a 5, a 4, and a 3. The United > fielding was bolow par, the returns at times • being very inaccurate, and the bowling calls 1 for no special comment. Of the United batsmen Medlow, who was t top scorer with a well-played 53, has never L before been seen to such advantage in r Christchurch. He played well all round the wicket, but his strokes on the leg wero the , most effective. R. D. Harman, notwithstanding a chance or two, gave a good , exhibition of batting, and he appears to be rapidly regaining the form he used to ( show a few seasons ago. He hit a 5 and four , 4's, while Medlow hit six 4's, and the stand J the pair made for the first wicket took a lot of the sting out of the bowling. Clark's 36, not out, was made by spirited hitting and his ! total was made up by six 4's, three 3's and singles. He gave no chance, and all the '. bowlers were treated alike. Cotterill contributed a fair 26, in compiling which he ' showed both good defence and punishing '. powers. Sims, who has scored so well for \ the High , School this season, only made 7, but he shaped well and when he gains [ confidence will, I have no doubt, hold his [ oivn in senior cricket. He fell a victim to . Wilding, who is just the class of trundlev to j get a young batsman without the cxperienc. i of senior play. The Park fielding, like that , of their opponents, was below the usual j standard, and of the bowlers tried Wilding , was the most successful with three wickets J for 53 runs. Cederwall, who bowls fast round arm, failed to come up to expectatiohs, j owing, it is said, tp a strain. His six overs , cost 19 runs and he failed to get a wicket, t while Hasell took one for 29 runs, North one for 38, and Guff one for 39. [ At Lancaster Park the tail end of;the i Midland team, playing against Sydenham, • made amends for the failures of some of ( their cracks on the previous Saturday and • the last five wickets all but made twice as I many runs as the first five did. This was . mainly due to the long stand made by De - Maus and Forsyth at the start of Saturday's play, the pair adding 87 for the sixth | wicket, while Macfarlane and D. Reese - added as many as 62 for the last wicket, the i total finally reaching 267. De Maus was I the principal contributor with a finelyr played 86, his total at the start of the day's !)lay being 45. He gave one hard chance to ong leg close to the boundary, but his disk play was otherwise free from faults. S. Forsyth was responsible for 42, in compiling . which he gave a couple of chances, one in the slips and one at the wicket, [ but neither was an easy one. He started by scoring much faster than De [ Maus, making several telling cuts, but after [ adding about 20 hesloweddown considerably. , Both aiacfarlane and D. Reese played freely ' and scored at a merry pace, until the colt [ was given out leg before wicket for 35, . obtained in excellent style. Macfarlane also . played well, and his 34 contained as many as five 4's. Ogier just reached double figures '. and Treweek wa3 given out caught at the wicket from a ball which he states he did not hit. The fielding was fair all round, . and MeMurray and Malone both bowled steadily, the former sending down 59 overs '. for only 57 runs.. Sydenham were 210 to the bad and after t Halley and Lafferty had quickly been • disposed of, C. Lawrence played out time, ! the score being 31 for two wickets. Pearee , again bowled very steadily, sending down , nine overs, seven of which were maidens. De Maus made up his mind to gat the , century on Saturday, and at the outset he played very carefully. He started with 19 singles out of the first 21 he made, but then warmed up to his work, and of his last eight productive strokes four were 4's. He then played a ball into the Hon. E. C. J. Stevens' hands and had to retire with still *-4 wanting I to complete his threo figures.

Fowke's two innings for Lancaster Park acainst the United this season have been 32 and 37 and he has carried his bat on both occasions. It is worthy of note that the Lancaster Park's total of 320 against the United contained but fifteen fourers, while the batter** 191 included as many as twenty four. A coincidence—The two last wickets of tho Lancaster Park and the Midland teams eaoh added 75 runs to the total on Saturday. A correspondent writes :—Waimate played Upper Waitaki (Kurow) at Waimate on January 20th. Scores:—Waimate, 168 (Studholme 67", not out, Goldstone 25, Evans 17, Francis 12, Hamilton 11, extras 19); Kurow, 55 (Pochin 24 not out, McLeod 13). Foi Waimate, Goldstone got four wickets for 28, Studholme three for 14, Drayton two for 7. For Kurow, McLeod four for 23, Wain three for 33.* Kurow then made. 55 for five wickets, Garforth 25, O. Borton 15. The Sydney Mail publishes a short resuvu of the tour of the New South Wales team in New Zealand, but some of the statements are hardly in accordance with facts. In the first place it says tho feature of the N.S.W. second innings against Canterbury was the grand display of Walton for 122, which, ol course, should be Walford. Then again the paper saysthe match againstNewZealandwas flayed at Auckland instead of Christchurch. n an interview with Mr Waine, the manager, he is reported to have said that from 1200 to 1500 people were present at tht reception given to the team in Christchurch. There was certainly a representative attendance, but nothing like the number named. It would be very nice to be able to say that Mr Waine's estimate was correct, as it would show that the Christchurch public'evinced a keener interest in the game than is the case. Mr Waine repeats the statement he made when here that Pearce, Fisher, and De Maus were the best players they encountered on the tour, and he says Pearce is the coming batsman. The Press of Australia (says " Not Out' : in the Sydney. Referee) seems to ignore all claims for inclusion that Lyons possesses. I was very curious to find out from the New South Wales team how much truth there was in the Adelaide reports that the great hitter was done as a batsman ; that he had lost all form. And lam glad to say that all to whom I have spoken oh the matter hold different views from those promulgated by the Press of Adelaide. They say he batted splendidly against them, and is merely a bit out of luck. Talking to Alick Bannerman a few nights ago, the inclusion of the big South Australian came up, and the little hero of so many big battles, who is as keen on cricket to-day as he ever was, told mc that he regarded Lyons as one of the first men to be selected. " He'll win matches for you," said A.C.B. "How did he bat with the last team?" Yes ; how did Lyons bat. He almost tied Graham for the highest figures, the Mclburnian averaging 28.7 and Lyon. 23-27, but the latter scored nearly 100 runs more than his young comrade, viz., 1527. He had an average of 5 runs per innings better than George Giflcn. I sincerely hope that Lyons will be a member of the combination. In reference to the above, English papers to hand show that seven of the first class counties are engaged on the opening days of the Australians tour, besides which the M.C.C. are playing Lancashire and MiThornton's England Eleven, Cambridge University. Under these circumstances Lord Sheffield will not be able to get a very j strong team together. | Yorkshire and Lancashire settled their , dispute about the dates of their matches next season just before the meeting of county | secretaries at Lord's and they have arranged I matches for May 4th at Manchester, and July 20th at Leeds. I The Midland Club's batsmen were in rare ! form on Saturday, their three teams in Cup matches scoring 557 runs for the loss of i twenty-two wickets, while their opponents | made 144 runs for eleven wickets. I am pleased to hoar that pearly all the I best players in Christchurch have already I intimated that they will be able to visit Dunedin with the Canterbury* team next month, and there is a likelihood of leave of absence being obtained for those who at present have not consented to go. In the course of ah interview with a representative of the Sydney Referee Mr Cobcroft on his return said : —" We had a splendid time, ami were most hospitably j treated everywhere. In fact, we could not have been entertained better. The people at each place wo visited tried to out-do the j others. At Christchurch it was beyond description, and for the kindnesses heaped ■ upon us we All owe a debt of gratitude to Messrs C. R. Smith (secretary), j Oilivier, Harman, Cuff, De Maus, ! Labat and Lawrence. Mr Smith, who is a j brother to the Manly Smiths, may come over to Sydney shortly. . . The first two | matches paid expenses, the gate being being £246 at Christchurch and £5226 at Dunedin, so that they (N.Z. Cricket Council) had takings at the other matches as profit. . | Our best performance, by a long way, was in the opening match against Canterbury, without Callaway. I think the Canterbury team stronger even than New Zealand. They all bat well to the last man. In this I .natch our fielding was grand, but afterwards ib was poor, and numbers of catches were missed. . . I think New Zealand's victory will encourage them to send a team to this colony next year. They, of course, are not good enough to meet our best team, but I think they will play a good gime with one about the same strength as purs, though on our fast wickets I'm afraid we would beat them. They have some really good cricketers, but not enough of them. The grounds, you might mention, are splendid. At the Lancaster Park Ground there is a swimming bath 50yds long. The Auckland Domain is also a fine ground. It is large enough to play 24 matches, all upon turf, with equally good fielding ground.