CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1617, 7 December 1912, Page 12

CRICKET.

- 1 [By the Breaker.] :.■- •'!; Funds,. .Gentlemen I. A-.Capital, Idea. Considerable eneTgy is being displayed by 7 members;of the .committee of the Wei- >: lington Cricket Association in an effort to improve the funds. Sometime ago the committee hit upon tho idea of enrolling »' honorary, members at a guinea apieoe, and »./ the city has now been divided into dis- £ tricts for the purpose of a canvass. The I? work' is being carried oil-in no half-hearted inanner, and already the guineas are roll•Sing,in. y : . ~ ' ■ Any'.real 'cricket enthusiast.; might'.veil become an honorary membeiy as t liis sub* I' ecTiptioh.' -will entitle him to a ticket for himself and two ladies for all matches V under the club's jurisdiction. These will $ include the New South Wales Teachers *' fixture on December, 20 and 21; the South U Melbounio match on December 26, 27, and 28; and a match against the New South £ Wales Associaton's representatives in FebTuary. Out Three Times? ■ This happened in the. Central-College • -match at Kelbuine' Park last- Saturday. Birch (College),was batting to Naughtons bowling, and the wicketkeeper, taking-the •' ball cleanly behind the stumps, appealed;. Birch, ■ evidently supposing that he. was • out; walked out.of; his crease on his way to the pavilion, and the wicketkeeper, to i make assurance doubly sure, whipped the - bails off. It-all, happened so quickly that - it- wasvdifficult;-to see which umpire it ■- Vas who gave decisions, but Birch was'al-. ' lowed to go back and bat—not out. Where- - upon Naughton clean bowled him with the next ball. • • ■ '. ■ Th 6 rest of the cricket was dull enough. Robinson.'gavo a very decent exhibition of ■ hard -hitting for a. very speedilv-compiled . 22, and afterwards he completely puzzled " the' College batsmen [with his fast stuff, talcing threo Wickets for as many runs in a very Short while. The only , other bats--1 man to show : any,-really aggressive form ?'■ was Fanning, and iEobinson, coming on ' after the College man had made 18, knock- : ed ono of the stumps out with his first delivery. .■ ~ ; , Flourishing. , 1 • Lambert and.Hiddlestpne, of tie-North I team,"'have both gone away.* on,'holiday,. - .Their places will b6 .fiUed- r ;in ,to^loy ? S: match by Luckio and Wynyard; I ,An extra'junior team: is being entered by tho North' Club to-day." '-;This'- means. •• that the club is now .runfling four teams^ l '- . one senior, two junior,, and on 6 . thirdclass. The members of the Wellington North junior team have not had much cricket so . far this yoar. At the beginning of the season they met Victoria College, but since then they have not had a game: The default of " two teams and the.wet weather has accounted for the team's'bad run. Tho active membership of • the North Club is than it has been lat any-.stage since-the district scheme was inaugurated; : .4 1 h«)'active is .. about'so. , ;'... .... What of Central? . Last year's, champions. have not shown j anything to ; justify their title this sea-1 - eon, so far as it has progressed," but their letting seems to be,improving. They have lostjto North, but 'North-is always-their unlucky team—North : and. Hutt." In. • the last'two seasons they have'always, had a Ijad time, against these'.?: clubs, but .'they ■ . nearly always' have-'beaten the doughty East A. :■...;.■

j Central; must. as. the season goes ■jSh^thcy."have"so much latent batting tal!ent,ij:hat: a good showing'.may be -expected 'oil mort Saturdays, and if,'Kobinsori strikes the form he ! was end of last season, they mil have .the., services of the licst. fast bowler,in .Nov.- Zealand. They ought, to 'be : able to beat Petouo iri"the' game" which will: begin to-day if; the.'.wectther allows,' a nd I'eione are by no. means a weak side this season. Accident- to. Rev. E. Oi'-Blamires. The Bev;.;E. 0. Blamires will play for Central to-day, but perhaps he may need 6omeoniil to "run between the wickets for him. Hp had. a fall from a bicyclo last : week which, crippled him for a day or two, but ke;has,now sufficiently recovered from the cuts and bruises to play. A Narrow Way of Gazing at Things. Members, of the Hutt Cricket Club (or Bome of .them at all events) have a narrow . maJiner..bf gazing- at.-things.- A- couple.of weeks ago tho Victoria College bowlers were looking for sawdust on the Hutt ground, and for a long time they were unable to-get ;it, as the Hutt players were afraid itheyi might want it - themselves. Last Saturday the South players were short df a, couple of men. in the field, but no assistance in the way of substitutes was forthcoming from Hutt. . The attitude taken up by the suburban club does not added to the pleasure of,the game. Saving Time—A Good Notion. - The following resolution passed by the Carisbrook'. Committee (Dunedin) for the saving of' time in grade matches might with advantage be followed by other clubs : ; "That captains of Carisbrook teams be requested to see that during the progress of grade matches the ingoing batsman shall; pass the outgoing batsman halfway aoross the field of play." This is a matter which I have been hammering at foT seasons past (says "Full Back" in the "Otago; Witness"). I am pieased'to note .that the Carisbrook Committee has taken it up . in ;the form of the present resolution./' ■ \X '■ ; Did Wellington Break Faith? It appears as if the programme of interprovincial matches arranged at tho oonfererico initiated by the Otago Association at Wellington last year is to bo upset by. the latest action of the Wellington Association (says "Full Back" in the "Otago Witness"). . Wellington broke faith..by requesting the- Canterbury Association to send a teain 'to Wellington/this yew* as Wellington was playing Auckland at. New .Year. This'; datci has- been set aside / for- the; Canterbury-Wellington match for;the past quarter of a century; but Wellington is prepared to sacrifice it for a! match against Auckland for the ; Plunket Shield. It was suggested by the ; Canterbury delegate that' in order to give .Wellington a home match this season, if 'Auckland. did not come south, Canterbury might agree to go to Wellington pro- . vided that ■ Wellington • .visited. Canterbury, and Otago. Now what is the posi- ; tion? Auckland refuses to come south, having travelled last .year, . Wellington refuses to come/south; and, her request is . that Canterbury should visit Otago, Auckland, and Wellington, and have no home match, so that she (Wellington) can play for the Plunket Shield at Auckland. It is very evident, the best interests of the game in New Zealand are being sacrificed for tho Plunket Shield. Victoria College Club. The Victoria College-'Club will have Jameson back in . its senior : ranks-when it .opens' its match' with" South on the Bo,sin Reserve -this afternoon. Jameson played for College seniors last season, but has not taken I .,Up ithi' -willow',so far this season; he 'has Mjeen'vaway holiday-mak-ing.. Otherwise College is not seeing " any changes within itEolf, and none are likely, to occur this sido.of Christmas. Umpiring in England. It seems to be the general opinion that umpiring in England needs attention from tlie M.C.C. (says the" Sydney "Arrow"). In the case of West, the umpire who gave Hobbs not Out l.b.w. to Hazlitt; and later applauded and congratulated the batsman on his. completing 2000 runs for the season, the players consider the incident most glaring; : _ ' , . . The "running out" of Warren Bardsley in the English Test match is also considered to have been an inexplicable blunder bv tho umpire. : The ball was returned from cover-pomt by Hobbs;; and. it passed behind Bards-, lev on its'-way ' to' the wicket, thus, in tlie opinion'of Australians, proving con•clusively that the-batsman was well within his ground before the : wicket was put down. "This deoision" said one ojt the Australians, "quite upset Ransateiahjt. -Hit®,.

came to our dressing-room and extended his sympathy;to the team." "Wo do not contend that we were as good a side as England," said another member of tho team. "But there is no doubt whatever that umpiring in the Old. Country is not what it should be. 'Were'it ordinarily good, the final Test match,would have beenjeft drawn." In expressing these views tho flayers mention incidents merely with a view to showing that tho system of umpire, appointment in England is not effective. ■The-weak spot in the system, they say, is that the county captains have the selection of umpires in their hands, and thus when Colonial teams are playing some of the umpires appear to be afraid to give a decision against the opposing side. In other words, the professional umpires lack independence. The county, captains are. practically their employers, as it -is upon their reports that future appointments depend. In tho last .Test match C. B. Fry stood lon his wicket in playing at, the ball. The Australians appealed, and believe that he was oat. They said that Fry at once turned to the umpire and said: "I am not out," or words fa> that effect, and the umpire said: "Not out." If this is exactly as reported, the cap•tain. of the Australian team should have quietly reported the matter to the M.C.C. without losing. time. Southall Proves Troublesomo. Any chance which Petone had of winning their match against North last Saturday was lost when the first four wickets fell, victims to the slow break bowling of Southall. The peculiar style of delivery, .or the good length which he maintained, to tie Petone batsmen in a knot, and even when Brico had played himself in, the Northerner 6ent up a couple that made "Stan." pause and play guardedly. Bray was another North bowler, who kept the runs down and would not allow any liberties. , ■ ■ Brice was expensive'with the ball for Petone, and should have been taken off a few overs. . Finlayson, however, kept up his reputation by shattering somo wickets for a few. M'Kenzie. came out the best of . tho suburbon trundlere, and during t;he commencement of North's second did some very good work. Blacklock in Scoring Mood. ' - Blacklock gave, a very , fine display, with tho/bat) and his ; innings was timely, as Petone' yrere doing well when this slogger got:to work, and ,had a great chance of '.'winning;-''-The North skipper apparently had a fine regard for the boundary, and seldom did an over, pass without the telegraph showing a couple or more fourers. Crombie' was' next on the list for scores, ' and he w.as going very well when "keeper" Cat 9 whisked his bails off. The remainder put on very few runs. After a cduple of hours of very steady play, withan occasional boundary, Brice carried his bat. Finlayson put in his usual few hits for a fair score, and Mlvenzie looked like a stayer, when he was caught with a blind swing to the outfield. A feature, of this , game was the splendid fielding of both sides,* and throughout the day there Were only-two catches dropped, and these were so .difficult that they could not be called chances. _ The' wicket ,was the worst it has been this season, and the outfield very dead, in ■consequence of the heavy rain.. ■