CRICKET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 20 December 1928, Page 8

CRICKET.

CONCLUSION OF FIRST ROUND.

NOTES ON THE PLAY.

The first round of the South T«ira<naki competition's wag finished; on Saturday, the first pllace on the ladder being occupied by Stratford, with School and Old Boys equal for second 1 , andi Okaiawa one point behind third. Although weather conditions wore threatening in the morning, bright sunshine greeted the commencement of ay, and except for a strong wind from tho' south, conditions were ideal. The wickets, however, were somewhat holding, but they were by ho means as difficult as some of the small scores would indicate.

HIGH SCHOOL V. OLD BOYS. On No. 1 wicket at Hawera School wore checked in their victorious career by Old Boys, who established a first innings lead of 66 runs. School hatted first and opened with Thomas and Barker. Both batsmen were obviously out to take the sting out of the attack, and played very steadily to some really good howling. In the. eighth _ over Barker drove Chadwick high to Milroy, who accepted a good catch. total was seven, all singles. Five overs later Thomas, who had also scored seven, missed :a straight hall from Hayes to have his stumps .shattered. Petersen, who has been the most consistent batsman on the School side this .season, again contributed a good total, making 38 hv bright and enterprising batting. Although he scored all around the wicket, most of his rune were obtained from chan, straight driving, one stroke in narticulalr, a high drive to the off boundary, being of exceptional merit. Paterson and "Whitehead made careful stands for only seven runs each, but it was not sufficient to tire the bowling, and Lay accounted for six of the last seven wickets for only 24 runs. With onlv 80 _ runs to get, Old Boys’ formidable batting side was faced with an easv task and passed this total in the fifth wicket stand between Cheevers and Lay. Cheevers once again headed the team’"- scoring account, this time with 37. Lay. with: 26, was next highest. Cheevers hit two fours, but Lay did not find the boundarv once, bis two • biggest hits producing _ threes. Jordan and Hughes 17 each, Milroy 16. Hayesi 15, and Moloney 14, all proved the soundness of the Old Bovs’ batting. Strangely enough, of the other four, all of whom have been consistently in double figures, onlv one opened bis account. Barker scoring one. and Chadwick. Walker and Dowdle each making a “duck.” A feature of this innings was the excellent work of the wicketkeeper, Thoma'd Besides; having. onl|v one bye recorded against him in a is core of 146. he accounted for Cheevers (stumped) and caught Barker behind the wicket off Stevens. The School attack delivered 42 over?, costing an average of 3.5 runs per over. Only four overs were maidens, the most, exnensive bein.o- three ovens, off which eight runs each were scored. Barker •sent down 14. onlv one being a maiden, and came out with two wickets for 33 runs. Stevens, with three for 11 in! five overs, secured best figures, and j Petersen bonded four ovens for two wickets for nine runs. j The 32 overs Kent down bv Old Boys.: however, were treated even more re- • snectfnb’ prodheine an average of 2.51 runs per over. Five of them were maidens. Tho only howler knocked about was Lay. who, in his sixth over, bad 12 rune scored off him. His. eight overs, however, nroduced six wickets at a cost of only 24 runs. MIDLAND V. EXCELSIOR Scoring was low in the Midland-Excel-sior game, th© Midland team winning bv 36 runs on the first innings. The wicket was soft, but played! quite truly and as the bowling on both sides wan not up to foirm, higher scores should have resulted. Having first strike. Excelsior opened with Hobdav and Crombie and both played steadily and looked like making a score. Neither, however, reached double figures, getting eight and nine respectively. Millls did not istav long, and the next two batsinen, Hughes and Foster, made al fair stand. Of the rest, Inch, with 20, obtained bv aggressive methods, alone did any good. Onlv three fouirs were hit in the innings, Foster, Busing and ilnch getting one each. Stevens was' Midland’s most troublesome bowler, flighting the balls' high into the wind to hang a long while in the air. Giblin was right off, as also was McKenzie, although he sent down a few good overs at the stairt. Midland’s opening pair, Nielsen and* Young, failed to get going, Young being bowled by a trimmer from Buising in his second over. Nielsen went T.b.w. when nine, and then Giblin and McKenzie saved the position for Midland by a good partnership. Giblin reached 34, playing carefully at first, but later became rather reckless, and was eventually stumped. McKenzie's 21 was well "merited, although he commenced rather scratch! ly,. Non© of the rest reached a two-figure score, although all, with' the exception of Jennings, opened their accounts. Jennings went to a brilliant catch by McNaughton .at square-leg a 'stroke that otherwise would have certainly earned' a. four. Although 10 byes were recorded against him. Crombie emerged with a good record behind the sticks—two stumpings and a catch were to his credit. Only two of the Midland batsmen were clean howled, the other eight being caught, stumped or l.b.w. OKAIAWA v. KAPONGA. J Okaiawa had no difficulty in gaining a three-point win over Kaponga at Okaiawa. The visitors in the first innings could only total 39, Twist making 19 of these. Of the total, 25 runs were made by singles, only one shot reaching the fence. Thomas in eight overs took seven wickets for 18 inns. In two overs, his secondhand also his eight, he secured two wickets. Linn howled eleven balls, taking two for three. In the second innings Kaponga fared, even worse, this time polling two ' runs short of their previous total. Twist was again top scorer, this time with 16. including a four and a six. Albon. who batted last, reached eleven, including a six. Of the rest, four batsmen just broke their “duck.” and the other five each collected the “egg.” Crawford did most of the damage this time, talcing six wickets for five runs in eight overs, three of which were maidens. Okaiawa’s innings was reminiscent of tlieir last season’s form, as Betts and Penny mad© one of their old first wicket stands. Betts fell to a catch by Sadler off Twist at 42, his own score beino- 27. He was more forceful than usual, batting four fours and a six. Penny reached 40 before being caught and bit one six and four fours also. Thrush, Ramsay and Murdoch all ran into two figure scores and. livened matters up, collecting three sixes and three fours between them. Twist and Harrison did most of tho attaching, each bowling seven o.ne.s. Altogether ei"ht sixes were hit in the match, proving that for the enterprising batsman the boundaries at Okaiawa are easy to find.

STRATFORD V. ELTHAM. Taking first use of the wicket at Eltliam qu Saturday, the resisting Stratford team rattled up the respectable total of 143 runs. Five batsmen contributed useful scores. Cole (43 not out") heading the list. F. Young was once more to the fore with a useful 21, the next best total. Wilson, Hamilton and Richardson, all got going and the whole of the side made runs with one exception. H. Donnelly was once again the hardest worked man among the attackers, taking four wickets for 57 runs. lu Eltham’s first innings of 29 no one scored double figures, Donnelly with seven being the highest. Hamilton and Wilson shared the wickets evenly for good averages. EJtliam’s second effort was better, three batsmen this time making double figures. Gower and Ryburn tied for first place, ■with 12 each, and Hopkins made 11. This time Hamilton took only one wicket, while Wilson again took five. Court and Gattqn also accounted for two each at small figures.