PLUNKET SHIELD FIXTURES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26615, 28 December 1951, Page 6

PLUNKET SHIELD FIXTURES

THREE MATCHES IN CHRISTCHURCH

MANY NOTABLE PLAYERS TO TAKE PART The next three weeks will be nothing less than a festival for Christchurch cricketers; in that period, thrfee Plunket Shield .matches will be played at Lancaster Park, and most of New Zealand’s i leading players will take part in Them. Te-morrow the match against Central Districts, which is at present leading in the contest, will begin. Next Friday the Auckland match will start, and the following Friday Canterbury’s last game, against Wellington, will begin. Among the more notable, or interesting, of the visiting players expected to play in Christchurch, are M. E. Chapple, a former Canterbury all-rounder, J. A. Ongley, a familiar and popular figure at Lancaster Park, H. B. Cave, A. E. Cresswell. I. B. Leggat (a cousin of the Canterbury player), G. S. Botting, a possible New Zealand wicketkeeper, and D. D. Beard, best known in Christchurch for his vigorous play With the Wellington Rugby pack, and more recently the hero of Central Districts’ win against Wellington. All these players are from Central Districts. In the Wellington team there will be three players well known in Christchurch —J. R. Reid, the captain, and one of the few reaHy good players in New Zealand at present; F. L. H. Mooney, the New Zealand wicketkeeper, and E. W. Dempster, who has batted with success against Canterbury before, arid whose slow left-hand spirinfers are bringing hilh considerable success. R- Blair, the Hutt Valley fast-rnedium bowler, is an interesting newcomer.

The Auckland team will include V. J. Scott, who has not lost his peculiarly military bearing, but who showed at Basin Reserve last season, in the second test again England, that he can hit good bowling with anyone; J. C. Laker, the England off-spin bowler and forcing batsman; J. WorraH, a stylish youngster who may open the batting; L. A. Kterit, Who made more than 90 in his last Christchurch innings against Canterbury; H. Moyle, a fast-medium right hand boWlfer; G. O. Rabone; whose presence iri the slips, as a batsman, and as a bowler, wfil provide Canterbury with food for thought; d. c. Cleal. the captain, Who wds selected for New Zealand last season; P. Iles; thought a tew years ago to be a star leg break bowler, but now purely a batsman tn Auckland club cricket; D. D. Cblfeman. who may yet becdrrie the batsman he has long promised to be; and. perhaps, the most colourful of .the Auckland players, T. Hambrook, a left-hand bowler bf fair pace, and a particularly hard hitter. Canterburv’s team is not a cbllefctibh of nonentities, either. It seemed probable, when the team was selected, that it would be thin in the bowling and brittle in the batting, and the recent Otago match bore this supposition out to the full. It was anrionunchd last evening that the same Would play against Central. Districts, and although the presence of another bowler Would have been welcomed, it would have been difficult to drop either A. G. Duckmanton or N. Bennett—th6 most likely to go—bn the strength of one match. Canterbury’s battihg tttetiM be good to watch, especially as.both F. B. Smith and A. R. Mac Gibbon made runs in Dunedin and should be all thfe betteThe°Plunkht Shield contest is rather like the local senior competition; no one teatn can boast of outstanding strength, and .at this stage of the season any one Of the five teams could Win. In each team the batting seems unreliable, the bowling rather an unknown quantity. As far as test prospects are concerned, it. is not a particularly happy state of affairs; but the evenness, perhaps even mediocrity. of the five teams should make for excellent sport To-morroW’s Match Canterbury to-morrow will face a central Districts team which .must be encouraged by its success in Wellington, but if Canterbury is an unreliable team, Central Districts has strict limitations. It will miss G. F. Cresswell, who is unfit, and L. S. M. Miller, the stylish Taranaki left-hand batsman, now in England; its bowling consists almost ehtirely of medium-paced right-handers, arid its batting, if steady, does not seem tb have the quality to take charge tit the Canterbury bowling. It has shown, however, that it can fight hard, and it should be a notable game. It is not often that Canterbury has fielded such a potentially brilliaht team, yet one which could fail dismally. Neville Cardus once described a Manchester innings of W. A. Hadlee as having a tubercular flush, and southern reports indicate that his brilliant Dunedin efforts held something of that quality. Smith and Mac Gibbon may Win a match. or fail to save it; Emery batted well at Dunedin, and bowled with a resource and skill which might surprise some of the sceptics. J. A. Hayes and T. B. Burtt are among Nfew Zealand’s best bowlers, and both Duckmanton and Bennett havfe the ability to make good. Bennett, in particular, is said to have been unfortunate in his dismissals at Dunedin. R. T. Dowker did enough at Carisbrook to keep his place, and he is reported, to have been one of the few to play A. M. Moir’s spinners well. J. G. Leggat is‘in his element in the tension which almost invariably accompanies a shield fixture, and although the wicketkeeper, A. E. L. Britton, did not have a particularly good match, he is a fine player and one likely id do his best when the presStirfe is being felt. Canterbury’s prospects in this game must be regarded as fair, but come what may, it should be entertaining cricket.