Cricket

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 96, 10 April 1926, Page 10

Cricket

s*s*®*®*®*<®*<®*<®*<®*<& TTAWKE’S BAY CRICKET is undoubtedly strong this season; in fact, it is doubtful if there has ever been a time when so many good young players were available as at present. It looks as if the province is in for a revival of the * cricket glories of a few seasons back, when the Bay team had aspirations con'cerning the Plunket Shield. At the same time it would be unwise to take too much notice of the Easter match against the so-called Manawatu “rep” team. The team which played in Napier bore very little resemblance to the team which played Wanganui in the Hawke Cup match a week or two back. As a matter of fact, only five of the real Manawatu rep. team made the trip to Napier, and Pal merston papers speak of the party as the “Manawatu colts team.”

However, the Hawke’s Bay team gave a very convincing display, both the batting and bowling being really first-class. There was a good deal of curiosity manifested as to how our batsmen would face against R. W. Hope, who was the fast bowler with the New Zealand team in Australia. Hope’s performance here, however, was far from convincing. His pace turned out to be little more than a fastish medium, and had no special terrors for the Hawke’s Bay men, though bowlers of any pace are rare in this district. Certainly Hope showed nowhere near the speed sometimes attained by Bernau when the latter found sheer speed desirable. Hope came to light with a good score in Manawatu’s second innings, when he hit up a very breezy 56, incidentally knocking the gilt off a remarkable bowling performance by Mitchell, who at the time of Hope’s advent had five for under 20. but thanks to the fast bowler’s attentions wound up with six for 60. Gallichan. the tall ex-Palmerston High School boy, made a nice 23 in Manawatu’s second innings.

The Hawke’s Bay batsmen made very light of the Manawatu bowling, and had reached 484 for six wickets with Tom Lowry and Cvril Beu th both past the century mark and going strong when the innings was declared closed. Lowry’s 119 not out was a very high class performance, characterised by sound defence and clean, powerful driving. Lowry has run into his host form of late, and there are very few better batsmen in the Dominion at present. Beuth also eave a fine display, though ho had the curious experience of being onueht three times off no-balls from Hone. Stenhenson’s 84 was nho a first-class knock, and he had hard bmk in not getting his century Cano had the had luck to got a clinking good ball from Hone before he b r <d scored but all the other Hawke’s Bay mon scored well Rennov getting 49. Owen 4.1 Paterson 36. and Mitchell 19. Manawat” tr’od six bowlorß. of whom Blank who hoxvlnd renlly well, was the pre! successful, taking two tnr 9°. while Gnlliehan got two for 129. Hawke’« Bay’s win by an innings and ??? runs was a true reflex of the merits of the teams.

The remarkable paucity of representative matches in this, district is a matter for regret. 'l’his season, with the exception of the ill-starred adventure in search of the Hawke Cup. the only rep. games played here have been two, games against scratch elevens from Wellington and Manawatu. The standard of play here at present is very good, and one would like to see more frequent trials of strength against outside teams. Hawke’s Bay should waste no time in getting after the Hawke Cup iiext season, and on form should stand a big change of bringing the trophy back here.

That very fine bowler, J. Newman, of Nelson, put up a great performance against Wellington at Easter Wellington ran up the huge score of ■197 for eight wickets, and it was dm mostly to Newman’s fine bowling that the runs took no less than six air' a half hours to put together. A tall left-hander, with a beautiful easy action. Newman pegged away fo: part of Friday and all day Saturday with the most undaunted spirits He swung dangerously at times, and the Wellington cracks found it impossible to take liberties with him as is shown by the fact that he sen l down 47 overs, 13 of which were maidens, for 138 runs and two wickets. Something under an average of three runs per over were scored off him. He is also a fine field and a good bat. Kortlang, who should be a pretty fair judge, puts Newman down as the best loft hand bowler he has met in the Dominion. A younger brother, A Newman also bowled splendidly sending down 30 overs for 113 runs and two wickets. One of the Wei lington selector’s rejects, W. Christopherson, took advantage of his first representative match to hit up the useful total of 211, made in firstclass style.

Clem Bill made short work of all the nonsense spoken and written about the omission of Kelleway from the Australian team. With characteristic bluntness, the old South Australian crack put his finger at once on Kell ©way’s weakness. “He is a weak slip field; in fact, a poor field in any position.” And that settles it. # # # In the 1921 Australian team there were only two players who were not teetotallers. A very fine record, no doubt, but one that is beaten by the present team, who all ride on the water waggon.