PLUNKET SHIELD PLAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 11 December 1946, Page 6

PLUNKET SHIELD PLAY

COUNTRY XI PROSPECTS P.B. BOWLER MENTIONED ] Two players who caught the eye as possible Plunket Shield prospects were F. Newton, Poverty Bay, left-hand spin t bowler, and D. J. Ewart, Bay of Plenty, ; right-hand batsman, states “Cantab” in the Auckland Herald, in commenting upon the Town v. Country cricket * match which concluded at Eden Park, .. Auckland, on Saturday. Town declared with 372 runs for nine wickets in the first strike, the New Zea- “ land opening batsman, P. E, Whitelaw, i accounting for 109, and other leading scorers being L. Kent, 64 not out, D. D. Taylor. 50. and W. M. Wallace, 44. Country replied with 168 and 105 for . five wickets. “Cantab” states that Newton bowled well in taking four Town wickets for 96 runs on the first day and gives the > opinion that he would obviously improve under good coaching. Newton . bowled 38 overs, including 10 maidens. ■ He showed good control of length and ; worried the batsmen with variations of pace and turn.

Ewart had a good double with 48, top •score in Country’s first innings, and 20. He is described as a free type of batsman who uses his feet well and goes through with his. shots, among which a powerful drive was very effective. Shaped Like Batsman

The commentator states that the Country captain. T. M. Sharp, Poverty Bay, failed to get a start in either in- '• nings, although he shaped like a bats- * man. Sharp was responsible for catching' Taylor off Newton and was notable throughout for alert fielding. In Country's first innings Sharp was ( bowled by C. Burke for seven runs: in ' the second he was bowled by J. Cowie ‘ for nine.

The last man in. Newton was the not out batsman in the first innings, but the tenth wicket fell before he could open his scoring account. The third Poverty Bay representative in the Country team, S. B. Martin, was unfortunate in being unable to get set and show the Auckland selectors the form displayed in recent club games when he ran up scores of 192 not out and 131 not out. In the first innings Martin was dismissed at 15 by Auckland’s most successful bowler, L. Partridge, who took four wickets for 37 runs. With his score at 10 in -the second innings Martin fell to C. A. Snedden. whose figures were two for 32, That he also was on the job in the field. Martin showed by smartly catching B. Sutcliffe off Newton.