STRONG COUNTY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 139, 16 June 1927, Page 11

STRONG COUNTY

LEICESTERSHIRE'S SUCCESSES

(By "Not Out.")

In the present match the New Zealanders are up against a side which has performed remarkably well this season. Leicestershire in their first match for the county championship beat Worcestershire, Astill taking six wickets for 30 runs and Shipman three for 15. In the next match they drew with Hampshire, Astill making 10X not out. Then, after defeating Oxford University (in which match Shipman took five wickets for 3G runs), Leicestershire went on to have a fine run of success in the county championship competition, defeating in turn Gloucestershire (Skeldirig taking five for 33 and six for 38), Sussex (Geary five for 45), Essex (Shipman 108 and Skelding sis for 93), Glamorgan (Astill-164 not out, Shipman four for 19 and Skelding five for 67), and Northamptonshire (Armstrong 113 not out, Skelding five wickets for 85). In the match immediately preceding that with the New Zealanders Leicestershire met their first reverse of the season, being beaten by Surrey. Skelding in this match took five wickets for 100 runs.

Leicestershire's record for the present season is at present as follows:— Matches played 9, won 7, lost 1, drawn 1. Already the county has scored more wins in county championship matches than it did throughout the whole of last season.

In view of that fine record the performance of the New Zealanders is a very meritorious one. No doubt, Leicestershire's excellent showing in the county championship competition accounts for Geary's absence from the present match, but in any case it would seem from the brief reports of county matches to hand that Geary is not up to form.' Skelding, who put up a fine performance with the ball against the Australians last season, and Shipman are the bovlers who have been doing most damage, as the figures given above indicate. These bowlers have been dealt with rather-severely by the New Zealanders. The New Zealand team has made a fine recovery from the disappointing form shown on the final day of the match with Northamptonshire.