Is Manawatu Good Enough For Plunket Shield Cricket ?

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 99, 21 January 1936, Page 14

Is Manawatu Good Enough For Plunket Shield Cricket ?

(By

THE WATCHMAN.)

QOME of the Southland players who were engaged in the Hawke Cup game at Palmerston North last week thought Manawatu a harder team to beat than Otago. Nelson men who took part in the previous challenge game offered the opinion that, provided luck was equally divided, it would be some time before any side took the cup from Manawatu.

It is interesting to consider whether Manawatu cricket is strong enough to warrant the inclusion of that district in the competition for the Plunket Shield, or whether a new district should not be created for the Plunket Shield competition in the centre of the North Island. Certainly country players have shown in the Town and Country match in Wellington in recent years ability equalling and sometimes surpassing that of the city men, even though the Town team has not always been representative 01 the best available in Wellington. It is also beyond question that country players have difficulty in fighting their way into a fair trial in first-class matches, because they are seldom seen by the selectors, unless they happen to be men with ready-made reputations, as T. C. Lowry, E. H. L. Bernau, It. de R. Worker and D. A. R. Moloney had before they were picked for Wellington. There are many difficulties in the way of enlarging the scope of the shield competition and previous experience of more than four teams has not leen happy Hawke’s Bay used to compete for the shield, but had to be relegated to that for the Hawke Cup. Nevertheless, if the standard of cricket in centres like Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki is maintained, some attention to. the claims of the players in these provinces will have to be given by the New Zealand Cricket Association. Cricket and Football.

The English cricket team now touring New Zealand may play a game of Association football in Wellington. For a touring cricket team to be able to field a football side is unusual, but there if an earlier case of a football team being able to engage in a cricket match. The English Rugby team of 1888 included among the players and in the official party several fine cricketers and played a one-day game with Canterbury. A. E. Stoddart, the English captain, a grand three-quarter, was also an international cricketer, and in the match with Canterbury he made 16 and 13, and took three wickets for 16. Arthur Shrewsbury, another of the great cricketers of Jiis day, being about the beet professional batsman of that time, scored 32 and 46. Shrewsbury toured New Zealand with the English cricket team of 1881-2, topping the batting averages, hnd again in .1887-8, when he was fourth. J. Lillywhite, another famous player, took two wickets for 18. and A. Paul, full-back in the football team and a good fast bowler, four The Englishmen made 88 and 88, and Canterbury scored 54, the wicket being tricky. For Canterbury F. Wilding, a clever slow bowler, captured five for 33 and two for 31. H. M. Reeves made 11, G. Raynor 11 and A. M. Labatt 12. Stoddart and Shrewsbury, one dashing and the other careful, accounted for 107 runs of the total of 176 made by the Englishmen. Players Transformed.

Interesting transformations in the play of I. B. Cromb and A. W. Roberta in the past five or six years were illustrated in the second match against the Englishmen. When Cromb toured with the last New Zealand team in England he was a medium to fast-medium bowler, and, the heavier atmosphere there suiting him, as it suited E. D. Blundell and J. A. Dunning when they played in England, he was conspicuously successful. On that tour he usually went in to bat about eighth or ninth. Cromb’e medium-paced bowling was never so successful in New Zealand as it was in England, and after a time, in which ill-health caused him to qease bowling altogether, he became a slow bowler and quite a handy one, too. Meantime his batting developed steadily and he now goes in fourth or fifth for New Zealand. Roberts was chosen for New Zealand against Harold Gilligan’s team as a bats-

man alone, and on his batting almost made the New Zealand team to go to England. Shortly after that his batting started to fall away somewhat, but at the same time his bowling began to advance. Nowadays he is chosen for big cricket primarily as a stock bowler, though his batting ability is still great enough to make him an uncommonly useful all-rounder, especially as he is a fine fieldsman. Roberts is now one of the most useful bowlers in New Zealand. Unlike many trundlers he is useful on all types of wickets, and his steady length, combined with his physical fitness, enables him to keep going even on a hard true pitch without giving away runs and always with the likelihood of taking a wicket.

Test Sidelights. D. A. R. Moloney, opening batsman for New Zealand, played 10 of hig 16 scoring strokes in the first innings to leg. He survived two l.b.w. appeals before being given out to the third. . . J. M. Sims,' the English slow bowler, is known as ‘’The Nightwatchman.” If a wicket falls within half an hour of the drawing of stumps he is usually sent in to hold the fort. He is a handy man for a difficult situation. . . J. A. R. Blandford, who made 40 against the Englishmen, scored 27 of his runs past point or through the slips. Fifteen of his 22 scoring strokes were square with or behind the wickets. He fell trying one of his favourite late cuts. . . C. J. Lytteiton, H. D. Read and A. G. Powell, of the English team, may return to England across the United States and Canada . . Denis Smith, the professional left-hand batsman, who has not played in either of the games in Wellington, is the humorist of the English team, though the most volatile person on the field ie J. H. Human. . . A man who saw the game in Wellington and also that in Dunedin says that the New Zealand opening bowl ers were just as impressive in the first match as in the second, the difference being that in the first they were bowling on a fast, truei pitch and, more important still, all the catches offered were dropped. In Wellington every chance off the faster bowlers in the first innings was taken. . . Several members of the touring team, with experience of cricket in many countries, consider that the afternoon tea provided at Invercargill was not only the .most sumptuous but also the most daintily served they have been given anywhere. Strawberries and cream and ice-creams were among the good things provided.

Technical Old Boys. The “New Zealand Observer” (Auckland), publishes the following: “One of the features of Wellington club cricket during the last two or three seasons has been the success of boys from the Technical College. “The Wellington team includes five of these boys in J. Ell, R. T. Morgan, M. Thomas, M. Meech and R. P. James, whilst another, J. Potier, has been included in many matches. H. F. Rice, who scored 38 for Kilbirnie on Saturday, is another Tech, boy with a good record. R. J.' Kemp has done well for Hutt, and J. Mallard made quite a sensation when he appeared in Christchurch with a junior representative side. Mallard had quite sensational figures, and Christchurch critics rate him as the most promising slow bowler seen in Christchurch since W. E. Merritt made bis debut. “Technical College Old Boys already run a highly successful second grade team, and it is possible an attempt will be made in the near future to run a senior team, enlisting the aid of old boys at present scattered among the other senior clubs in the city.”

Footballing Cricketers. A southern newspaper remarks: “The. news that the M.C.C. cricketers may take part in an Association football match against a local side in Wellington recalls a similar fixture in 1906 when Captain E. G. Wynyard’s team was touring New Zealand. The team included J. W. H. T. Douglas, P. R, May and G. H. Simpson-Hayward, the bowler of “curly underhand*:.” “A team was chosen from the senior Wellington Association sides to provide the cricketers with a football match, and the local players thought that their job would be easy. The Wellington side left the field well licked, the margin being seven goals to nil.”