CRICKET

Evening Star, Issue 19699, 28 October 1927, Page 12

CRICKET

[By Wallabv.]

NOTES AND HUBERTS

An inspection of the wickets by the Grade Committee of the O.C.A. ou Wednesday revealed tho fact that it would be impossible to start oven the senior matches to-morrow. Tho opening of tho season has therefore been postponed until November 5. The Grange Club had a successful opening on Saturday, over seventy members taking part in the practice. Prospects are extremely bright for the club, and it is expected that an extra team will have to bo entered in one of the grades in order to absorb all the young cricketers who wish to play. Mr W. Beal, the old-time wicket-keeper, is again president, and he officially declared the season open. Tho Dunedin Club also had a fine muster on the occasion of its opening, tho number accommodated at the nets during the afternoon exceeding fifty. Tho entries from this club will probably be one senior team, one second grade (A section), three second grade (B section), and one fourth grade. Practices during the .season will be conducted under practice . captains, each member of the committee acting in turn.

Mr L. Casey, cx-sceretary and livewire of tho Dunedin Cricket Club, is maintaining his enthusiasm for the game ou the West Coast. Ho is again secretary of the West. Coast Association. At a recent meeting of this association the question of “Saturday or Sunday cricket ” was discussed. It had previously been decided to change the day and play competition matches ou Saturday, but as one of .the loading clubs notified the association that it could not got a team to play on that day of the week, tho matter was to he reopened, with a strong probability of reverting to Sunday play. Another matter which occupied tho attention of tho Coast Association was tho number of senior teams in the competition, and a motion to reduce it io four was carried. “I want it impressed upon the clubs,” said Mr Casey (the . mover of . tho .motion), “ that oven if Sunday cricket is carried wo will only carry four senior teams. Several clubs have stated that they would enter senior teams if Sunday cricket were carried, but the committee considers,it in the general interests of cricket to lessen the number of senior teams, thereby creating a stronger senior competition and a. correspondingly stronger junior cricket competition.” Cricket, it is safe to say, is played wherever Englishment congregate in any numbers. . Away up .in Rabaul (New Guinea) it is flourishing, and regular matches are played. I am indebted to an ex-Dimedin cricketer (Mr Hamilton) for a copy of his paper (the ‘ Rabaul Times ’) each week. The latest number reports a match between tho Administration and Treasury teams. The scoring was not high, bowlers having by far tho best of tho deal. Administration made 53 and Treasury 95. Nevertheless, a column and a-half is devoted to reporting the game, and the scores are set out in full.

When the question of allocating the English professional, J. Newman, to tho weakest team was being discussed at a meeting of the Management Committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association, C. T. Rix, who on Saturday played against West Christchurch, was asked whether West was weak in batting or bowling. “Both,” said Rix. “Well,” said a member, “Newman’s an all-rounder!” and that settled it.

This has the appearance of being a cricket record. It happened in a minor match in England.. F. Smith opened tho hatting for his team, and after playing through the innings, which yielded a total of 20 runs, ho carried his bat out after, one hour and forty minutes at the wicket. His score was a “duck”—not out!

Australia’s most picturesque cricketer, Jack Gregory, is now opening batsman for Paddington. . Jack denies tho rumor that he is not going to bowl any more. “ I’ll bowl as often as they want me,” he said, “ and will bo available for the Sheffield (Shield games which are played in Sydney.” Gregory is as keen as any fledging on the season’s cricket, is in the pink of condition, and reckons he has “never been seeing them better.” Cheers from all Australia ! . Tho Now South Wales Cricket authorities are still in a quandary as to where to find a new fast howler. Nicholls, of tho Cumberland district club, was tried in a Possibles v. Probable match last year, but did not fulfil expectations, taking only one wicket for 40. Ho hurt himself after that, and dropped out of notice, but has reappeared this season, and is apparently in greatly improved fettle. From an Australian daily; “Blankblank had survived three appeals for Ibw before the players retired, to lynch.” There is, of course, a limit to what a bowler will stand from an umpire. H. L. Collins, tho captain of the last Australian Eleven, was at the Ascot ponies to-day (says .a Sydney exchange), where ho tried all day to hit tho punters to leg. Ho had . been granted a paddock bookmaker’s license by tho A.R.C., and to-day he started his innings. When he opened the batting for Australia, Collins was always cautious, but he did not reproduce that characteristic at Ascot. Instead, he got into his stride immediately, and vigorously called the odds on the field. FlTs first “boundary” came in the initial race, when the favorite, Wallace King, was beaten. However, after that lie was clean bowled race after race as the favorites continued to .stream in. The punters, as umpires, didn’t mind, and for once the Australian captain perhaps wondered why his nickname is “ Lucky Collins.”