CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10473, 31 December 1927, Page 3

CRICKET.

NOTES ON WANGANUI. VIEWS Off CTMTtCS. (By “Willow.”)

- §J(yes of all local cricketers, during ffif* next few days, will be centred oiii Wanganui and (lie doings of the poverty Hay team in its finest for (lie Hawke Cup. Play in this game degins on Monday. ■poverty Pay lias been fortunate in Wing njnst ot i t.s- ‘•star’’ p layers available for the trip and the ehancp| of the visitors appear distinctly Mid. Wanganui’s howling strength ill really far from formidable, and. tlfile their batting is certainly good, iliere is the comforting fact that 'Poverty Bay’s team is strong in both lapse department's. Those selected lave been attending practice regularly during the past week and should be right at tlieir top- when lipy take the field against the Cup holders. All local enthusiasts will .join in wishing the tourists the best of luck. .

How Wanganui Won. /The following comments are hy a .New Plymouth critic in reviewing the 'f»pnt match when Wanganui won tint' Hawke Cup from Taranaki : !|rOf the Wanganui batsmen the VTjiter liked Koir, Orr and Holland lipla. Kerr, though slow, has some nice off shots. Orr is a polisheci liarrsninri, while Holland showed that he) is still in the first flight both as ailiatsman and a howler. He and Harris were the only two batsmen tojliave a go at the howling. Bunny, die Wanganui Collegiate hoy. gained tlii* highest score of the match, hut as lie scored at the rate of one run every four minutes, it may he readilvj understood how desperately dun lit* was. He had innumerable opportunities to score hut would not take the chances. His defence was. impanetrable, however, and it was he who played the biggest part in breaklag up the bowling. Bernini was more sedate than usual; in fact, neither howling nor batting did he s**em to lie taking the game as seriously as his team mates. H. Williams was the lucky batsman of the Wanganui side, for he should have 1-een out on several occasions. Once after grazing a hall which was lietci la' Kingstone he departed for the liilvilion, but the Wanganui umpire li.-biight him back. Kingstone could liajvo stumped him when he walked awnv. and lias been criticised for not doing so—but fortunately for the \g|)d name of Taranaki sportsmanpstVip comes first with the captain, and he refrained from doing so. j‘‘Bernnu howled well at the tomtnifncement of-Taranaki.’s first inf iiliigs, but fur the 'remainder of the '<i|me his bowling was quite iinpoMit. He seems hardly as fast as he was, and stiil as erratic. Holland was the most consistent of the visiting howlers, and is still a power to lie reckoned with. Thakaliau kept good length, hut appealed for let liefore too much, and delivered nearly' every ball over the crease, a fact which escaped the notice of the Waiignnui umnire, although lie was acquainted with it on many occasions from the terraces. I . G. 'Williams bowled very well indeed in the second innings, when his fast deliv cries caused a good deal of trouble to the batsmen. He varied his pact and flight considerably and gainet a few wickets in this manner.” A Wanganui critic reflects in the following vein on the same subject- " The team proved much stronger in howling than had been anticipated. H. Williams bowled seven overs m the first innings' lor 17 runs and two wickets and could have taker charge of an end for a long while had it- been necessary. ■‘Timkaban bowled ‘22 overs for 4runs and two wickets in the second Jlc kept bot'li flic professional and Nasmith bottled up lor an hour ant. a-half. ‘‘The fielding of ilie side was sound and clean. With heller throwing in. it. would have been very good indeed‘•Orr tilled the arduous post ul' captain to the .satisfaction of all. His bawling was an inspiration and was responsible for the quieting of the opening batsmen and the beginning of,what U. Williams later turned inti/ a procession. “The field generally was well placed. especially in the second innings. ‘ Were the same team available to stall off challengers, if is difficult to sec who won HI be likely to- deprive Wanganui of the t up.

ponsford’s Advice to Bowlers. \ .Some people might sisk liy what w rigid l presume to give hints to bowlA e rs, seeing that l am not a bowler L riiyselt (writes \V. H- I’onsford in * the Melbourne ‘M-lornld”). I can only answer that no one is in a better position than the batsman to jiijclge the merits of a bowler—to reaJjtje bis strength and to pick out Ins Weaknesses. On this account, therefore, a. batsman may he able to give hints that are of some value to aspiring voting howlers. For instance, any man with any pretensions to being a batsman jciiows the difference between good length and bad length bowling, and the way to profit by the lat*>r. Give him a bowler who is sending them down onlv a couple of feet short of ;i good length, or over-pitching to the same extent, and a harvest of runs should be the result, iThere is undoubtedly a dearth ol plallv high-class bowlep in Australia at present, and any lad displaying bowling ability at all lias a wonderful chance of reaching the top of the ladder. Perhaps the secret of tile weak bowling at the present time is that the wickets are too good. Numerous young bowlers can spin the ball on ordinary wickets, but they must be dismayed, on receiving their first big chance, to find that tltev ea.n. hardlv turn the ball at all. This certainly is heart-breaking, and it? is no wonder that they time then; attention to some other department ‘of the game. . . , dPerhaps another reason ts that -niost young players look upon trundling the ball as hard work, with very little result. They dodge the hard work and turn their attention to something more congenial—batting, for instance. ... n . The first thing a lad who desires succeed as a bowler must learn is I'To command a length. This is essen- • lially the first and foremost' thing in Ty&owiing. One has only to spend a / Mv hours in the parks matching the youngsters pl&y t& discover that they do not realise that length is essential. We find them sending the ball

down fast, or, on the other,, hand, turning it either way, without any idea of length. Most of the old length-howlers will tell you that they practised lor hours, just trying to pitch the hall on the same spot . Some of them became very expert, and could pitch the hall almost on a shilling piece, as the saying is, live tunes out oi six. , A good idea is to mark a spot on the wicket which will give you a good length ball, and concentrate on this until you can say that you have complete control of your length. When you have satisfied yourself as to your length, the next thing is to learn to spin the hall. A most peculiar feature of spin howlers is that so many prefer the leg'breaK turn to the off turn. Perhaps it is easier to bowl the leg break, yet it is peculiar that we have not more off break bowlers. When young howlers can command a length and can spin the ball, the next important thing is to learn to ••night” it—to try to deceive the batsmen by variation of flight and pace. There is nothing more disconcerting to the batsman than the fact that lie does not know: what is coming along from the bOwlor. A. bowler who can vary the flight and pace of his deliveries without apparent change of action is likely to be more effective than the mechanical bowler who does not change his style- of deliver v at all.

Freakish Cricket. The following remarkable incidents of freakish cricket have been culled from English papers : Four men out with one ball is surely one of the strangest performances ever seen on a cricket field. Air. AY. E. W. Collins (Marylebone Cricket Club), the bowler concerned, obtained his record .in this manner: The eighth batsman was lilt on the hand so badly that it bled a lot and caused his retirement. The batsman- at the other end fainted at the sight of the blood. No. It) refused to go in against what he-con-sidered a dangerous bowler; so, although No. J 1 was prepared to face the bowling, there was no one to go in at the other end. Thus the innings closed—the last four men being disposed of with that one bail ! Smith, the Gloucestershire player, was once out in a very curious manner. A Sussex player, fielding in the slips, attempted to catch a ban from Smith that was coming very low down. He missed it with his hand, but felt it catc-h the toe of his boot. Involuntarily lie kicked it up and, running forward, secured it before, it touched the ground. How many players have ever scored 17 runs off two successive hits? Mr. .1. B. Stevens, when captain of Winchester, hit his -first ball for ten and Ins second .for .seven, all being run. Two players in a Bepton lioi'sematch did all the batting for their side and all the bowling. Going m first, they scored 304 between tin in, when the innings was deekve-i‘clos-ed. Then the other side went 'n, were dismissed, followed on, and were dismissed again. During the two innings the same players howled continuously. The record for length of drive bv a batsman was made at the practice nets at Christ Church, Oxford, when Mr. W. Fell owes drove a ball 1.75 yards. The longest drive in an actual match was made by Air. V. ff. S. ‘Crawford, when lie hit a ball 160 yards. Bowlers, however, have sent the ball as far as 300 yards, while C. B. Turner, bowling through electric screens used for measuring the velocity of projectiles, was found to bo sending the ball along at 55 J miles an hour.

Random Notches.

“The real reason why hoys are sent to school is to play cricket,” said Air. Stove Barrett, when presentlig a. Boys’ Cricket- League cup to 3K Bede’s College (Christchurch) at the annual prize-giving. ‘They may s,et a grounding in character there, but the real reason why hoys g<> to school is to learn to play cricket.”

The Rev. E. 0. Bhumres, who has been such a help lo Otago erickoti lor the [last few years, is putting 1 in his last season in Dunedin, having received a, call to. Master ton. It.is believed that he will not leave till the end of March, at the earliest. “The Padre,’’ as he is railed by bis fellowcricketers, has been a good influence in the game besides putting, up some splendid performances with hat and ball, both for his club (Albion) and bis province. The one record lie is not proud of is the “pair of spectacles” which he secured on his first and only appearance in a Test'match. Phis was in 11/24, against New South Wales. .

It is said that neither Blunt, Shepherd. nor Dickinson will he available for Otago’s northern cricket tour at Christmas. IT this is so, the team will be greatly weakened. There .m no new blood in Dunedin this season, and the backbone of the team must be A. W. Alloo, McMullen, Knight, Zimmerman, and probably Torrance. Gid land, though slow in striking form, came to light with a century last week, and lie is too useful a man to risk leaving out now that his leg is sound again. With such a scarcity of batsmen, too, E'. O. E-lam ires must be lithe running, in spite of his slowness in the field. The wicket-keeper will be either Wilson or White, and the rest will doubtless come from Cherry, Douglas. Rimes, Blair. H. 0. Allco, Cavanagh, and Hargreaves (of Oamaru). It is lioped that a strong effort will be made to get Blunt and Di ckinson away. Shepherd is always a hard man to hire from home.

The recent trial in England with a white football recalls that some years ago there was a serious suggestion. that the cricket ball should be white. About the earliest references to a • crieket ball in literature was in the fifteenth century 7, but during the reign of George JIT., a poem dealing with a. match played at Seven oaks referred to “the crimson ball.” The polo hall, is white, so is the base-ball, and the hockey ball and th(4 lawn-tennis ball, and so on. but the cricket ball is red, , and will no doubt remain red.

S. M. J. Woods', the old Somerset captain, has made the following, comments on modern cricket: (1) Theis . too much first-class cricket ; (2. Modern batsmen take too long u make their runs; (3) There is too much time wasted—fa) between tin fall of the wickets, (b) at the tea, interval, (c) on the third day, when matches are stopped early for the players’ convenience. t