WEAK FIELDING HELPS WELLINGTON BATSMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 7

WEAK FIELDING HELPS WELLINGTON BATSMEN

The big feature of the holiday cricket in the Dominion was the heavy scoring by the Auckland batsmen, P. E. Whitelaw and W. Carson, on'the first day in the Plunket Shield match against Otago at Dunedin. Carson contributed 290 and Whitelaw 195, the pair being responsible for a world record third-wicket partnership of 445 runs. Mainly through their efforts, Auckland, after starting rather unpromisingly, scored 550 runs for the loss of five wickets. Rain prevented play yesterday. Wellington's Plmiket Shield team is in Christchurch for the match with Canterbury, which began yesterday afternoon, the state of the wicket and ground after heavy overnight rain delaying the start. The sticky wicket and slow outfield did not help the batsmen, but, according to the report of the match, they received assistance in another direction—weak Canterbury fielding and in particular dropped catches. Wellington put on 91' runs for the loss of four wickets. There were two matches in the Hutt Valley, one between teams representing the Christchurch City and Suburban Cricket Association and the Hutt Valley Cricket Association, and the other between the Hutt Valley Association B team and the Hutt Cricket Club. In each of these games the scoring was on the low side.