CRICKET

Evening Star, Issue 20409, 14 February 1930, Page 14

CRICKET

[By SußSTmrr*.]

NEWS AND NOTES

OTAGO’S PLUNKET SHIELD FIXTURE. February 28, Mar -h 1,8, and 4.— r. Canterbury, at Christchurch. Saturday’s game has left the premiership position in as interesting a state as ever. By virtue of a win against, Carisbrook Albion heads the list with two points to spare. Grange, Dunedin, Christian Brothers, and Old Boys, all lying level, with Carisbrook a further point back. The situation is fraught with possibilities, and more than usual interest will attach to the meeting of Grange and Albion to-mor-row. Any one of the other teams is liable to upset calculations, and every match. now will be followed with the greatest of interest. DUNEDIN’S CLOSE CALL. Dunedin closed without going to the pickets again in the match with Christian Brothers, = in the hope of getting the Brothers out twice in the afternoon. At no stage, however, did it look aa if this would be accomplished. Indeed; Dunedin may be accounted fortunate in securing a two-point win, for not only did. Christian Brothers get within 5 runs of victory, but the atrocious fielding of the winning side 1 warranted their losing the match. On the occasion of the run-out early in the innings the decision was a very fine : .one.'.-. . With, perhaps, two or three exceptions the fielding side appeared to be actually asleep; and whenever a ball was put into the air the fieldsmen were appreciably late in starting for a possible catch. At times it appeared as if they were not anxious Whether they .won, the match, or even whether they . played cricket. / The bowling never looked particularly dangerous, though in the early stages Monk was 1 getting a bit of pace and M'Gregor kept a fairly good length, but both bowlers went oT after a while, and M'Gregor particularly was heavily punished by the hitters. Torrance had the unusual experience of being hit for a 6, M‘Garten clouting him over the square-leg boundary.; ■ Blair played a good innings for the . Brothers, laying on the wood in sound style and making some effective strokes on both sidds of the wickets, more particularly in straight driving. The score mounted by 4’s from this source very quickly owing to the absence of any fieldsman in that position. Even White, the Dunedin wicket-keeper, seemed to be affected by'the prevailing languor and allowed ‘ several to .pass him that he would ordinarily have taken easily. , M'Carten hit hard and fearlessly, Several of his strokes going over the ' boundary line on the full. F. Tooiney, batted soundly as usual, and. was unfortunate in being run out, Sand the whole side did well,, for in facing a big total the new senior eleven showed grit in getting so close to Dunedin’s score, GRANGE’S TWO-POINTER. It would have taken about half a dozen batsmen of the Giles calibre to carry Old Boys beyond Grange’s 337, for there was plenty of variety in the Grange bowling, and although thq ground'was fast the fielding was keen and sure. ' When the field was beaten £y a ball it was almost invariably the result of the bumpy patches. Giles lashed out as though he were determined to give the 1 side a good, start, and his powerful driving brought him in boundary after boundary. For a start he could not get to ChettleK’s slows, t but for the most part iwling was all alike to him. Gallaud it was who eventually put a stop to hia career. ■ Giles times his strokes beautifully,, and there was tremendous power behind his cover drive. Gale obviously meant business, too, but unfortunately for Old. Boys Elmes picked ' him up in the slips in the vital first innings before he had been of much service to the side. 1 , ~ Moloney batted solidly for his 30. Unlike Giles, he was more content to wait‘for- the loose balls, but when he did .-get' one to hit it flew towards the boundary. Dickinson was accounted for by a catch off Chettleburgh’s bowling before hereached double, figures, and Alloo was shaping well with well- ; placed strokes .when Chadwick snapped him up off the trundling of Lenun. Galland's great throw-in froirl about thirty yards in* a straight’ line beyond til© opposite* wicket settled Leader s chances, the Old. Boys’ plodder being run but before he had scored. Harraway hatted with characteristic steadiness for his dozen, but none of the others made very successful efforts, in the second innings Gale gave a good in- ' dication of what might have happened had he /managed to get going in his first strike. ' , , Galland did not come on bowling till fairly late in the afternoon, but his appearance was the signal for something resembling a rout. ! Good length ■ and well-controlled, flight were the main factors in his success. Lemm at first was a trifle short with too many balls, hut he varied his pace nicely, and . ended up with a sound average, ihe wicket apparently did not suit Elmes, off whom 80 runs were scored m the afternoon without the recompense of a wicket. Chettleburgh sent down a Crafty ball, and at one stage it was difficult to score runs off his bowling. ' BATSMEN’S POOR FORM. The form shown by the batsmen %he second day of the Albion-Cans-fcrook match gave the spectators little cause to enthuse. The whole uf the afternoon’s play produced ( only 188 runs, 98 by nine Albion batsmen and 90 by seven Carisbrook men. It would appear from these figures that the howlers were . very much in the ascendancy. For the most part such was the case, but still the bowling was not nearly so difficult as these scores would indicate. In Albion’s second innings most of the batsmen did not at all appear eager to score ns. The running between the wickets was exceedingly slow, and many runs went a-begging. After Cansbrook’s .first innings closed, very little enthusiasm was shown by the players, < ispite the fact that an endeavour sho-ild have been made to finish the game. For the loading team in the competition, the total of 88 for an innings orra good wicket was not very .creditable. One of the outstanding * features of the match was the great stand made by Nimmo and Hawkesworth in the last wicket of Carisbrook’s first innings. These two colts carried their sides total from 99 to 134 btefore a separation was' effected. Nimmo batted most attractively and scored his runs all round the wicket. It was hoped by Carisbrook supporters that Blunt, for whom a place Jad been- kept, would come, to with a useful taffy, and thus bring victory to : his side; Silver, however, ■ had different plan's, for he had the ; New Zealand representative' caught ; near .point when lie had scored only 7'|. runs. Silver finished tho innings,

with a bag of five good wickets at a cost of only 42 runs. He did not bowl so well in Carisbrook’s second venture, being a little erratic, and sending down too many on the leg side. Shepherd failed with the bat in both innings, but his services with the ball proved valuable, as he captured four wickets for 33 runs off' fifteen overs in the first Innings, and two wickets for 9 in the second. The best bowling effort during the match was recorded by Douglas, the left-hander, who, off nine overs (five of which were maidens), dismissed four Albion men for a paltry 9 runs. The •. \)kot evidently suited Douglas, his tricky deliveries plying havoc with the northonders. The wicket-keeping of K. Wilson for Albion was the subject of ipuch favourable comment, and he must receive consideration for the Otago team against Canterbury. PLUNKET SHIELD. The following table indicates the positions of the various provinces in the season’s Plunket Shield competition to date at. the conclusion of the OtagoWellington game last week: —

THE CANTERBURY MATCH.' Undue perturbation seems to have been shown by some members of the •Otago Cricket Association in regard to the possibility of getting a representative team together for the Canterbury match, and some have even suggested that the match should be cancelled. That would indeed be a drastic action to takCj for even allowing for the fact that many of those selected in the last Otago; team are unlikely to bo available, it should still be possible to get together a solid side, and there ,is no reason why one or two Southland players should not be considered. Apart from those who have expressed doubts as to their ability to travel, it should be possible to'get together quite a sound side from such players as Dunning (Carisbrook), Torrance (Dunedin), Lemin (Grange). Strang (Dunedin), Galland (Grange), Monk (Dunedin), Blair (Christian/ Brothers), Cameron (Carisbrdok), Wilson (Albion) or Hawkesworth (Carisbrook), Vorrath (Albion), Giles (Old Boys), Gale (Old Boys), and Coupland (Southland) ; ; Under 1 the special circumstances, Blunt may be induced to make the trip, and there is a hope that one or , two of/the players who are required for the military camp may be able to get away for the game. In any event, while the side may not be as representative as some which have done battle in the past, there is nothing to say that it will not make a good showing, and it would indeed have been a pity to have called off so important a fixture. . NOTES. - / With only three matches to go and the club competition; in a most interesting position, it would hardly be fair to allot F. T. Badcock to any one of the clubs, and as there will be but two matches after his return from Auckland, the whole of his time until the end of the season will be taken up with coaching. The association decided not to allot him to play with any club until next season, but in the meantime he has made a start with his coaching activities, members already being most enthusiastic about the way the new coach is .setting about his work.

Playing in a lower grade match recently, a Christchurch cricketer tried a stylish late cut—very late, in fact (reports the ‘ Star ’). He brought the bat down right on top of the wickets. Then hi presence of mind came to the rescue. As soon as he realised the' awful fact that the bails might fall off he kept the bat in position on top of the wickets, allowing the bails to settle. and then removed tho bat. The bails remained absolutely stationary, and he resumed his innings! As predicted, M'Girr’s fino all-round showing in the Wellington-Otago match landed him in the New Zealand team for the third test, and in the absence of a fast bowler (Dickinson being unavailable), it looks as if the Wellingtonian will be kept pretty busy. He is the right man for the fob, however, and should certainly lend strength to the batting. Given fine weather, there may he some exceptionally interesting cricket in this gam© An interested spectator at tho Oval last Saturday was Mr J. C. G. Robertson, an old Melbourne Cricket Club player and formerly captain of that famous club’s side when the players of Warwick Armstrong’s generation were in their youth. ’ Mi Robertson was in England when tho last' Australian eleven visited there, and is now making an extensive tour of the dominion. In visiting Dunedin he made a special point of laying a wreath on Harry Graham’s grave in the Southern Cemetery. He also had a look around the various cricket grounds of the city. There is a youngster at Blockhouse Bay (Auckland) who looks like rivalling “Les” Dacre as a schoolboy cricket prodigy (says the ‘Sun’). A fortnight ago young Charlie Thom got his first chance in second-grade cricket, and this ten-year-old Trumper proceeded to hit up a useful 9 runs for All Saints against Balmoral It is said to be the first time a boy of this age has played second-grade cricket in Auckland. Two months before he made 136 for New South Wales against South Australia, Allsopp “was playing in tho bush and was unknown ” (says a Melbourne writer). “ His advance has been meteoric. Like Jack Ryder, Allsopp is at his best when attacking, and when at his top h© is perhaps even more devastating than the tall Victorian.” ’ ■

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Wellington . 2 2 0 0 0 16 Auckland .. 2 1 1 0 0 12 Canterbury . .. 3 0 0 1 1 2 Otago ... , ... 2 0 0 2 0 0