LEAGUE CRICKET

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 11

LEAGUE CRICKET

DEMPSTER'S VIEWS

STRONG APPEAL TO PUBLIC

Of~Xeague cricket in Lancashire, C S. Dempster, the Wellington • and Kew Zealand cricket representative who played with Blackpool last season, gives some interesting details in a letter to "The Post's" cricket, writer. Dempster became associated with Blackpool as an amateur and i played in the Eibblesdale League, which has no connection with the Lancashire League, though one of numerous leagues in that part of England. Most of the teams have a. player or, two who h!as figured prominently in Better class cricket; in fact, some leagues could put a really powerful representative side into the field. Dempster appears to bo well satisfied with the manner in which he is progressing in his new sphere. He does not say much of his own' doings in cricket, but. from other reports it is quite obvious that he. is1 regarded as one of Blackpool's greatest acquisitions of all time, and so fax as the Eibblesdale League is concerned Dempster in one season has proved -himself to be the. greatest scoring batsman to have ever played through a; season's competition. Dempster, it is recorded, broke all records in compiling oy?t 1000 runs at an average of over 100. Moreover, the New' Zealand representative needed only ten visits to the cTease to beat the previous, highest aggregate for the League. . , ; Dempster is. so much -taken ' with League crieke.t that, he recommends it as being-worthy of a "trial here, though not for the full season. "Cricket matches in this league," he -writes,,"axe purely Saturdays afternoon affairs. There are many drawn games; some of them come about through the closure of an innings being applied too late, possibly for safety.. But in this league cricket there is the \spir,it of. the game. Play generally goes along at .a fast clip, and with risky declarations interest is held from start'to. finish; If this type of Saturday afternoon cricket were introduced in Wellington,- say, after the first-round of the championship matches, .1 am- sure, the public would respond to such exciting entertainment. The games are billed to start at 2.30' p.m., and if one side or -the other is not out to time the minutes

lost are added at the call of the allottedtime—7.3o,'p.m. There is no tea interval,' but 'fifteen minutes ,-arei allowed between innings. Can you imagine from this how the public love these encounter^?. And- no . wonder, from what I have seen, that county cricket suffers!"- ■■ -■ ..;

The Blackpool pitch, Dempster states,] is a batsman's paradse,,but generally speaking such a picket as that at Petone (where Dempster played before leaving for England) would be an excellent one in the league. Dempster adds that he .is still interested in the coaching side of the game, , and,also statesthat ho would very much1 like to. coma back for the next season i here, ■■?' ■ ' ... ".- '.' .. :