CRICKET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 12 January 1924, Page 3

CRICKET.

. The local cricketers have had a quiet time -since Christmas, and no competition matches took place last Saturday. The fresh round starts" to-day and as several of the teams are runnmg close

the competition should be keen. Further to my remarks of last Saturday, it is a great pity that a first-class turf wicket is not available locally for representative matches. In the "smaller places, where the groundsman difficulty^ is ever present and perhaps the water supply also is not of the beat/ a good matting wicket is preferable, but of course such a wicket Always militates against teams of firsfcrate calibre paving visits to the local centre. The greatest drawback of all as the lack of decent practice wickets, and until such time as these are available cricket will not progress at the rate- it should. The trouble with practice, wickets does not apply only to the smaller, towns, but applies with, equal force to the larger towns and cities.! The. writer ha* been connected with crickei in the cities, and knows the; conditions prevailing there, and there ia only one opinion to give, and that is that cricket generally in New Zealand suffers a great handicap while such conditions exist. Coaches cannot , be expected to be precise in their i , work, nor can pupils put into action! "tike upfhraetion* given. There must bo m. reasonable amount of trust in the wicket for young players to make profNii. Footwork cannot be taught on , wickets where one does not know «• what the ball is going to do after it pitches. If one ball soars past the batsman's face- and the next raps him on the lower shins, it stands to reason Chat confidence is not going to be the prevailing note in the play. i The Plunket Shield matches played during the Christmas and New Year nave produced a great deal of interesting cricket. Wellington and Auckland appear to. be much stronger than the South Island teams, and the success of the country players in the former side will do the game a great deal of good. . j The greatest distance a cricket ball las been thrown is 140 yards 2 feet by B. Percival on the Durham Sands racecourse in 1884 j 140 yards 9 inches by Boss McKenzie, Toronto, 1872 j and 140 yards by King Billy (an aboriginal) at Claremont, Queensland, in 1873. The late William Yardley, while a boy at school at Rugby, threw 100 yards with his right hand and 78 with his left. ■- - ' ■ ' . ( There axe. over sixty instances of an eleven being dismissed without a run in minor matches. Jfar a first-class match, such as an England XI versus Australia, at Birmingham in 1884, F. R. Spoffoath's seven wickets for .3 runs takes aome- beating. • G. Elliott, playing ,for Victoria against Tasmania, at Launceston, secured nine wickets for 2 runs. The total of the innings' was 33. After the presentation of the freedom of Worcester "to Mr Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, The Times, he concluded his round of engagements -with a happy little speech »t. the opening of the County Cricket Club Bazaar in the Shire H*lL Here, as elsewhere, he fed a hearty welcome.? He said it was a very remarkable thing that through' all the cataclysms of the last quarter i of a century one* thing remained con-1 xianti. and that wa» the debt of the I

, Worcestershire County Cricket Club.! * (Load laughter.). If they ever Jet that club^ die down .there, would die "down with it a* gloriou§\?a tradition . «f clean sport as exists* in, any county in England. (Cheer*:) He recalled . that he himself had~ collected the copers for the club, and hurried them into, the bank before someone else snatched f them. Mr Baldwin then made - a presentation to R. Pearson, the leading county professional, of a cigarette case in commemoration of & ▼erv great season—los 2 runs and' 111 —wickets. - (Cheers.) "la answer to the Prime, Minister's "Come on,-- Disk," Pearson advanced to the front of the platform and received the gift. "If I were you/'. Mr Baldwin said, "I should ~ keep tobacco in-this, and not cigarettes, (Laughter.) 'They are nasty things. , (Renewed' laughter.) Cigarettes, are bad for the eye and bad for the nerves. • You take to a pipe and stick to it." (Laughter.) Half a ' dozen English cricketers sailed from Southampton for Capetown recently on the Edinburgh Castle— Livsey, Newman, ' Kennedy (Hampshire)? Bowley (Sussex), Hallows -and - B. Tyldesley. (Lancashire), going to fulfil coaching.engagements for the winter in South Africa. . Livsey goes to Potchefstroom, Newman an~d Ken-" nedy to Capetown—the last-named to - as coach for Cape Province Club—Hallows to Kimberley, and Tyldesley to Port Elizabeth. Newman and Kennedy are making their fourth . visit to South Africa. -. j A unique incident was created in cricket^ circles. in Dunedin the other day, when three ex-pupils of the Auckland Grammar School—Worker, Duncan, and Dunning—playing for Carisbropk, - compiled a century each. Worker «&red*l94 runs, Dunning 117, and Duncan 104- Worker and Duncan's 221 runsTs a record for a firstwicket partnership in Otago. j The first full-blooded Chinese to figure in inter-State cricket in Australia is H. Poon, of Toowoomba, wKo 1 was- chosen- twelfth man for Queensland against New-. South Wales. A graduate of Brisbane University, he is a lecturer at the Technical College, and served with the Australian Imperial Forces. For Country against Metropolis, in the trials prior to the selection of the Queensland team, he . top-scored with 70 not out. Playing for Hastings river against Sfaeleay river, Kempsey, N.S.W., on a recent Saturday, R. Cox, of-Wauchope, established a bowling feat. He performed the hat trick, and} with the fourth consecutive ball, took his fourth wicket. Macleay, with one down for 110, required only 40 to win. Coxj who had bowled.- before the luncheon adjournment at. a cost of 13 runs for no wickets, .resumed after lunch, and skittled the remaining nine wickets for four runs, winnimr tliA matoTi