The Cricket Field

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 114, 10 November 1934, Page 22

The Cricket Field

By "Not Out."

It was,unfortunate that playing time in the opening cricket matches-of ..the • Wellington Cricket Association's com- , petitions was- curtailed,'but sufficient wag seen, more especially last Saturday, to create an impression that .this J season's club cricket is likely to nave ' bright patches inplenfcy; 'Much of the batting last Saturday was interesting, j •and. not a little, pf.it exhilarating, ; - while' there was also a good deal^ in ' other. departments to attract notice. ' /The batting,-performances of Parsloe, ' Blandford, Ward, & Morgan, and .Osborn were of the right type to satisfy ' those who seek bright cricket, but there were plenty of others, too, who .- punched the ball hard, though without 'collecting as many runs as those mentioned. -,_ ' '■'■ One Tather regrettable feature of. last .Saturday's play was the arrangement between the Hutt and Peione'.;'captains '. which made the.first innings;of each of ; -those teams farcical. vTh> 'teams,'-of coarse, unfortunatd A& nqt^getting iany play on the first■' -'day;'.butthat .. should have been accepted as being in' .the luck of-the game. .Instead,,,it was ; arranged that each team should let the first ball go to the boundary and then ■ declare the innings closed.?-It was a 'case of working points, not playing for them. Those points do neither side any credit. The same is to be^said of-those , which were taken undef'similar circumstances in other grades. :, ■■"■'" ";... ':■ WELLINOTON , AKD JDDLAND. v For. the 'amount of,; batting talent, in the Wellington ahd;Midland teams the scoring in the match'war poor indeed^ yThe one really bright spot : in the bat4ing was B. Morgan's display. The offside play by'this young' batsman is full of sparkle, and it brings him in. most of his runs. ; He has t made an excellent beginnin.s; of tfia season; the hope is that he wift'carry^brt consistently. V : Cousins, Blundell^and SymesJiave demonstrated in( th^e'.past tha^ any .idea .that they forin:_a batting'tail is not well founded;,'Mictl^nd, with :•■& fair' i bowling string in" "Randall,'. Biley .(«• .'Canterbury). Bryant,., and.vP|Neill; foiind both Cousins and Symes hard to shift last Saturday. : ■ '■'■';. i Biley's slow bowling commanded respect, thbush it did not account-for any wickets. The ex-Canterbury representative was able to turn the ball a good deal, and now and again batsmen were puzzled when the ball turned the wrong ' way.'/ ' •' ■■.-'.■ A pair of excellent wicketkeepers— both good batsmen, too, though not successful in .this match—were seen in the Midland-Wellington match, and both were captaining°tttir"resTiective:teains. They were Tindill (Midland), and Whyte (Wellington). ' Tindill is # now feeing given the opportunity of gaming experience as a captain. Whyte .is experienced, and the-wonder is that he has not been called upon to captain.;.Wei'1, lington ii)K',interprovincial ctjcket.j ■' ■• : KILJUBOTE AlTOt INSTl^tralß. ,fe ■■ Drawn in^l the^first roUnd" against; •'" institute, Old' Bdys,:',on paper one of ths weaker ■iteamsiitt.i the competition, KUbirnie doubtless envisaged the possibility of securing an outright win and a flying start m the championship competition. Thejr seemed in. a fair way to achieve their aim at 4 o'clock on thef first day,when thejr had,disposed o£ eight of their opppneits for 112 runs, but. first 'the-rain," and then Henderson And Stevens,."took a hand, in retarding their .progress. ,'..'.' ' .* Stevens and Henderson .wore still together when play was -resumed last week, and the opportunitymesented itself for a piece of astui% captaincy. The logical Kilbirnie bowler to dispose of a "tail" quickly would appear to be Griffiths, particularly in this instance 'as the batsmen had had'no taste of his bowling on the first day, and the? old ball was still in use.' Experienced general though he is, Christophersen thinks along somewhat conservative lines, and he resumed with Parsloe and Hepburn, against whom Stevens '-and> Henderson had made such a ""valuable stand the previous week. The result was that 38 valuable minutes ,woro occupied in, finishing off the innings^' ' Hepburn's six for 43 was an excellent performance, particularly in view of the conditions,^ the, first day,-and, if used with 4'is,c*eltiQh]i he, may prove as useful.to Kilbirnie with' the ball as he has in past years with the bat. 1 Henderson, batting ably for his 39, which included same of\the typical lef thanderjs off drives .and "leg shots, has served a- somewhat' lengthy; apprenticeship, in the Institute, lower grades, ami made a confident and-' successful debut. • , ; Shadowy as Kilbirnio 's chanco of an. outright win had become, it soon vanished altogether when their innings was commenced. The Institute attack was in the hands of Duffy, a slow lefthander, and Fortune, neither of whom. wag in the first twenty in the Welling-' ton clnb averages last season. Dnffy flighted the ball to some extent,"''and 'occasionally swung away to leg, whilst; fortune bumped an odd one, but neither ■was difficult enough to justify the respect—one might almost say trepidation—with which" Hepburn, Christophersen, and (in the early stages) Ward treated them. The further the game; proceeded the more uncomfortable the early Kilbirnie batsmen seemed,'- and at one stage the bowlers were so definitely on top that Institute appeared <to have a sporting chance of drawing, if not winning the- game. JfWard and Christophersen, particularly the latter, were frequently at fault in their timing, and some ,of the wild but fruitless hits they made on. the leg . ;side hardly bore the stamp of senior ciicket. The curious thing about Ward ; ;was that his weak shots were sand- , ,Vfiched in between a number of excel-lently-timed strokes, amongst, which there come readily to mind a hook off One of Fortunes bumpers, and sotae sweet leg glides off the same bowler." .'-; During his uncertain .period Ward "gave two chances,''and if. either had been accepted'Kilbirnie might well • lave had their backs to the wall, although some of the mo^e resolute batsm'ftn lower down the list would possibly have come to the rescue. , "-'S, ;• ■ Joined by Parsloe after Christophersen had^b,fl^weflv:catight by Tucket , ;afc B^nwd/i-iIS^ Waw^pK^' gradually ■settle^Sdown fcftef . runs {begair^ojcbnie^eely^andjiby excellent pricket. '" WftfeSifneSlnstituto total left 'Behind, and J2. runs .required for his Js poor1' Tunning between -the wickets (Culminated in his running "ihimself out.'; Parsloe drove a ball to jtnid-on, and Ward, instead of waiting vf|or his partner's call, ran down the '^itch, failing to return in time when gent back-,.•;•;.■'«•'■.., ' ■;. ,-»;-,-^. .. :; Parsloe* j&rought in his bat fpj\ 119, madej-by;'sound and forceful strokes jail rountf-.tlie wicket^ the .choicest of rthem being !iho. cover-drive 'which tbok. hhn from 99^0 103. He looks like bein'gia. decideipaequisition to, Kilbirnie, who havevfor a long'-iime felt the want off]a. good^lef^hand batsman. '■.:■. OLD BOTB y.'tfNIVEESITY. A prominent feature of the play in the match between University and Wellington College Old Boys ..was itho hig standard of fielding by the ex-col-legians. Eeturns were mostly smart and well directed, and the bowlers received «verx assistance, Three of-.thej

■■fiAßtir' -l^^-^PRbMtfflK-'IOTLi.

'TKEAK DECLAKATION'S" GEITICISED

University batsmen were, dismissed through the medium of catches, and, on i this • respect, Bird was outstanding for j the manner in which he-held a difficult! drive from. Osborn, . ■ . '; I "'Tricklebank did not make a very auspicious start in the opening game of the season. This, however, may not be taken, as any indication of "his form, as wiclcot and weather were not suited to his bowling.. Dean, on the other hand, met with considerably more success, and his return of four wickets for 83 was quite a creditable effort. The third wicket partnership between OSborn and Blandford contributed largely to University's defeat of Old Boys. Osborn, though not,, quite so forceful as Blandford, played an extremely valuable hand. He will be no longer with University; in fact Sand-' ford was to take,his place today. Blandford, after' a lean -"season, jumped right into form with a chanceless display of 112 runs. „ ' ' HUTT AND PETONE. The arrangement between Hutt and Potone to take 4 points each from their match, by staging a tie on the first innings, robbed the match of much of

its intorest. Though it provided something out of the ordinary. Apparently a sure ■i p'ointa each seemed better than a possible 8 for one of the teams, and they shaped their play accordingly, but both eievens would have earned the gratitude of the .spectators by making their cricket'more enterprising. Neither in,batting nor bowling were there any outstanding performances, the top scora of the day being made by Mark Kicholls with 48, and another Petono man, Smith, recording the best bowling figures with two wickets for 18 runs. On the whole play was very leisurely, and there was little of it worthy of comment. , *