WOMEN’S CRICKET

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 80, 29 December 1936, Page 5

WOMEN’S CRICKET

Cancellation of Otago Game (By ,- Boadicea.’’) THE decision of the New Zealand Women’s Cricket Council in Christchurch to-respect the infantile paralysis danger by cancelling the representative match to have been played between \\ ellingtbn and Otago at the Basin Reserve at the New Year, is a great blow to the progress of the game in the capital city. It is wholly unfortunate that the epidemic should have come at a time when cricket here is steadily gathering strength, but is not yet fully established. The Wellington Association has been in existence only four years, but it has already proved itself. In the match last year when it took the Haliburton Johnston Shield from Auckland, the standard of play surprised and -impressed men critics who had, admittedly, come to scoff. Nevertheless there is plenty of room for improvement and need for practice in the best company. Only representative matches can put the final touches of polish and experience on good teams. In Wellington particularly this is the case. Here the senior grade comprises two strong teams and three weaker ones. The representatives are drawn almost entirely from the two leading teams, and consequently these girls are, in ordinary competition play, meeting opponents ot representative standard only once in five weeks, by the necessity of the draw. The natural tendency is'to slacken effort when opposed to weak teams and weak players; and slackened effort means in the long run less ability. Wellington leading . players therefore urgently need the anticipation of a hard representative match to keep’ them up to’ scratch. Otago’s challenge for the Haliburton Johnston .Shield, which bids fair to become to women cricketers what the Plunket Shield is to the men, gave the necessary impetus and interest to the senior grade this season. The match should have been a closely fought game and a fine school of experience. It is unlikely now tljat the fixture will be arranged for some date later in the season, since the duration of the epidemic is too uncertain to make forecast possible. . Nor is there prospect at the moment of any other representative game being held this year, unless the executive could arrange a friendly match with a northern association. FailingAhat, the remedy for lack of interest is in the players’ own hands. They will have fo make a conscious effort to avoid a fall from form as the weeks go on. Possibly donations of trophies for the best all-rounder and the best bowling and batting figures for the season would give them assistance. In the intermediate and junior grades, the cancellation of the. Otago game will have only an indirect effect, ami the teams are showing so much interest at present and are improving so steadily that it will probably not be felt. J. H. Fingleton,. Australia’s opening batsman, stopped a nice trot when he made a duck in the second innings of the first Test match at Brisbane. His hundred in the first innings was his fourth consecutive Test century, the others having been made in South Africa in the third, fourth, and fifth Tests there.

John Henry Lewis, world cruiserweight boxing champion, who successfully defended his title against Len Harvey on November 8 in London, is to have another fight in London early in the New Year against an unnamed British boxer.