Cricket SECOND SERIES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 283, 13 November 1936, Page 12

Cricket SECOND SERIES

Bright Prospects of Three Outright Wins TECH.’S ENTERPRISE (By “Mid-off.”), Performances on Saturday last for the commencement of the second series of matches in the combined cricket competition indicate the possibility of all three games being definitely concluded tomorrow, with four points distributed to the three winnings teams.

Technical Old Boys made the journey out to Hastings and enjoyed & harvest of runs at the expense of ' Hastings Old Boys, a bare three hours netting them the really excellent score of 309 —and this for the loss of only two wickets. Right from the outset the Technical batsmen took charge of the bowling and the Hastings attack was as completely mastered as any attack has been for some time past. Never a strong side on attack Hastings Old Boys do not appear to have improved this department this season and their prospects of bettering last season’s performances are not at all bright at the moment. ,

Credit must be given to the Technical batsmen that they grasped the opportunity that came their way with both hands and indulged ip some prolific scoring. Burns and Doug. Rees summed up the strength of the bowling in quick time, the former getting busy almost from the outset. Both played with the utmost confidence and with delightfully free and easy styles. Rees was the more captious of the two and it was ultimately this attri-' bute that led to his missing the coveted century. Had he displayed some of the aggressiveness that marked parts of his earlier innings upon his resumption after the interval he no doubt would have run into double figures. Actually he should have done so in the first over after resumption. With such a fine start by the opening pair Evans and Kauter naturally followed the example and they too put together excellent tallies without any loss of time, and upon reaching the limit allowed for the declaration of the innings, a halt was wisely called, and the home side were put at the wicket in tho fading light. It was altogether a very creditable performance and certainly provided bright and entertaining cricket. Hastings Old Boys necessarily had to fight up-hill and their batting did not compare at all favourably with that of Technical. However, Snaddon and Waymouth deserve commendation for their tenacious first-wicket stand of half a century. With two wickets down for 67 runs their prospects are dismal indeed and the Indications definitely point to an innings victory to Technical.

Hastings Face Defeat. The surprise of the afternoon was tho complete tailure of Hustings, .the championship holders, against Napier Old Boys. The team as a whole lacked confidence, though Geddis and McCann gave the impression in the early stages that runs were likely to be fairly plentiful, even if a little on the difficult side to collect by reason of good fielding. The bowling appeared to be flattered for it was by no means accurate, none of the Old Boy trundlers being effective in this respect. With the opening pair separated Geddis steadily held on until Les. McCarthy and Dick Mitchell each put in quite enterprising knocks, the former shaping very well, if somewhat fortunate to get as far as he did. Still he played the ball with crisp hard, strokes and gave promise of some good scores to come this season.

The disappointing feature of the in, nings was the complete failure of the tail-enders. A grand total of seven runs from six contributors will provide Hastings with some thoughtful matter -and I would suggest that when considering it more than casual attention be given/to practice at the nets during the week.

It is just as essential for the, man usually placed in the lower half of the batting list to have practice as it is for the stars of the side. not altogether a question of run-making,'but developing an ability to at least remain at tho wicket with some assurance of knowing what ball to play and what not, and also developing footwork. This comment applies not only to Hastings, but all the teams, particularly the Hastings teams. Old Boys did not make an auspicious start to their reply, but the Reaney Brothers came to the rescue, witlt Harold in dashing form and pasting tie Hastings bowlers good and hard- Later Cane and Hickey made a good stand at the end of the afternoon and by so doing they have paved the way for an enterprising side to-morrow to bustle things along early in the afternoon and make a strong bid for an outright win. There should be an interesting finish to this game.

Napier Fixture. United entertained Rugby in the solitary senior fixture played in Napier last Saturday, and taking first use of the crease ran up the tidy total of 286 runs, a tally that Rugby will find difficult to match. The features of the United knock wore the 85 from the bat of the opening batsman, R. Brown, and 60 bv R. Morrissey. Brown is a uroduct of the High School and spent last season with United juniors with one or two matches with the seniors. On Saturday he commenced quietly, but having got a good sight of the ball, proceeded with great _ confidence, although I noticed he waited ftlwaja

for the right ball to hit. His innings was chauceless until the closipg stages and just when he appeared all set for a century.

Morrissey was prominent in school cricket up to two seasons back, and after leaving did not play at all last season. The spell has done him no harm, in fact his batting his improved considerably, and on Saturday he proceeded along with all the confidence of a veteran, and with forceful strokes to either side of the wicket ran to his full total without delay. Youughusband and Armitage, who also assist United, were in the school eleven with Brown and Morrissey. M. O’Brien was going along nicely until, at 27, he got in front of one of Errol Mitchell’s tricky ones. For a batsman of his class O’Brien goes out by the l.b.w. route far too often. It is a weakness with' him and a weakness that should have been eliminated long since. Rugby triea no less than seven bowlers, and four of them gathered wickets. Mitchell was the most successful, and at different periods sent down some excellent overs. At stumps Rugby had two down' for 42 with Bigger unbeaten at 16 and going along nicely. Napier Juniors.

Touring the junior wickets one is struck with the number of players taking pa,rt who are on the elderly side of life. The combined ages of United B for instance must reach over 500 years. Playing for this eleven, Kavanagh, the ex-Bay representative, ran up 82, but despite this assistance United went under to Scinde on the first innings. A good performance was that pf Krogh, for Ahurirj against (Cecbnical. With the ball he took in two innings 10 wipkets for 48, and in between made 65 not out with the bat. Krogh would be pn acquisition to any of the three local senior elqveps.