STEADY CRICKET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1909, Page 7

STEADY CRICKET.

By "Half-volley." The little (in a cricket sense) northern county has begun quite respectably against the Australians. Of the county eleven both Wells and Thompson confirm by their performances the good things said of them in The Post yesterday. The first-named played vigorously for his runs, Armstrong stopPing him with a solid catch, while Thompson, who against Warwickshire last season took four hours and a quarter to make 76, stayed 140 minutes for his 46 not out, and one can imagine his display was not exhilarating. Pool, the only century scorer for Northamptonshire last season, when he got 111 out of 146 in two hours against Essex, had no luck. S. G. Smith is a West Indian, a free bat, a heavy left-handed bowler, and he has^the advantage of youth. Buswell, who is keeping wickets for the county at present, is described as a willing and energetic 1 keeper, and a crude bat. He will be displaced next year by Ellis, of Lancashire, who will then have qualified for the county. Twenty-one sundries in a total of 203, and on a good wicket, is hardly the thing in a match against a county, though" not a crack county. It is more than probable that Cotter was bumping them down erratically, and that being the case, little Mr. Hansen Carter would require a stepladder or a long-handled shovel to intercept the flying ball, especially if the wicket possessed one or two insidious spots. On this matter judgment should be reserved. It is to be hoped that Layer is not making M'Alister too much a slave of the pen, though the East Melbourne "good comrade" is expert at big figures, both in a cricket and an accountancy sense. A. J. Hopkins, too, is "resting," and it is a fair anticipation that this allround man will get among the runs like a giant invigorated when the selection committee asks him to step up. Last season for Hopkins was a brilliant batting success, and with previous experience of English wickets this man must be counted on for some big scores in the near future, Carkeek, of the horny hands, has not so far been called upon to use them, but those hands will be needed v;lien Cotter opens fire on some lumpy prtch that the weather has made fiery. Macartney, the New South Wales left-hander, is the bowling success of the first innings, and his length and* precision will always make him a trouble agamst batsmen, particularly the more unenterprising kind. Summer and winter has the little man practised — up at daybreak, cultivating that length without which no bowler may hope to succeed. His deliveries lack "whip" or "sting," and for that reason Macartney may never be a great bowler ; but he is an excellent change. Armstrong, two for 47, and Cotter, two for 46, hardly do so well as would be anticipated, and none o£ the figures are flattering against such an eleven. Bardsley, 75 not out, continues his good work with the bat, and it will increase his confidence for the crises ahead if lie gets the century here. Hartigan, though Inrdly in the same class as Bardsley, will, ne\ erlheless, b.e no passenger. If he does not get runs, then he can save them, for he is an uneiring slip. Smith has three of the four wickets down, all apparently clean bowled; he should materially assist the county in its weak branch — the bowling.