TALL SCORING.

Evening Star, Issue 18159, 27 December 1922, Page 4

TALL SCORING.

Centuiues were almost as plentiful as blackberries in the Christmas cricket mutches played in various parts of New Zealand., In the English-speaking portions of the Southern Hemisphere Christmastime is the cricketers’ carnival. An international game is being played in South Africa, the time-honored fixture between New South Wales and Victoria is in progress on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, while a Plunket Shield match occupied the Basin Reserve at Wellington, Lancaster Park was the setting of MacLaren’s team’s first appearance in the South Island, our own eleven was in Invercargill trying conclusions with Southland, and there wore many other games having more prestige attaching to them than the ordinary routine fixtures. Contrary to experience New Zealand was more favored by the weather, so big a factor in cricket, than other places. Something approaching a bowler’s paradise seems to have been the state of the Melbourne pitch, conditions which so suited our former coach. Macartney, that he secured five Victorian wickets for eight runs. His left arm has not yet lost its cunning, though he dates back almost as far as Rhodes, now an accepted "veteran.” But in the two big matches played in New Zealand the bowlers wore treated; with scant courtesy by some of the batsmen, and the 'fieldsmen came in for some real leather-hunting. Kortlang with 113, Bernaix with 117, and Collins with 116 were the century compilers for Wellington against Auckland; Daore on the other side reaching 145. In Christchurch that wonderfully prolific and consistent run-getter, Chapman, helped himself to 183 before being dismissed, and even then none of the local bowlers could claim his wicket. He promises to rank with Clement Hill, Darling, Bardsley, Philip Mead, and F. E. Woolley as outstanding left-hand batsmen in the last generation. Another of MacLaren’s eleven, Wilson, scored 102, and Blunt worthily upheld Canterbury’s game with a superblyhit 174. This last was a fine performance indeed. It was registered against a team which has tried out strong interstate elevens in Australia, and which is reputedly relying more on its bowling than its batting for its strength. To complete the list of the scores reaching the coveted three figures, there is Lambert’s 180 at New Plymouth for a Taranaki eleven against an Auckland team? Has batting made such rapid strides in Now Zealand that big scores have been so frequent this week? Or is it that few of our bowlers rank above mediocrity when the wicket refuses to flatter them? We suspect that just at present there is a dearth of really first-class bowlers in the dominion. Presently, however, local enthusiasts will have an opportunity of judging for themselves. Beginning with the first week in January, a very attractive programme of representative games is scheduled for the Carisbrook Ground. Otago will need to put in the field a stronger eleven than that which wont to Invercargill if wo are to extend Auckland, Canterbury, and Wellington, let alone make a respectable showing against MacLaren’s men. Shepherd’s inclusion will immensely strengthen our batting, however. M'Beath’s record of eight wickets for 42 runs against his former colleagues suggests that ho may prove a useful successor to Fisher and Torrance as a left-hand bow Kir, generally a strong point in Otago’s attack.