Cricket.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1111, 3 April 1930, Page 8

Cricket.

HIGH SCHOOL GAMES. ! Teams from the Te Aroha High School visited Matamata on Saturday to try conclusions with the. representatives of the local school. In a girls’ game the visitors won by a ! margin of 16 runs, but the local boys i proved too good for their sporting J guescs, who received a fairly severe ! drubbing. Details of play are as 1 follows: — j '• Girls’ Match. / Matamata.—First Innings: (Jean i; Wilson 11), 41. Second Innings (Nance Caitcheon 7), 25. Te Aroha.—First Innings (Maud Johansen 12, Phyllis Barker 8 not out), 48. Second Innings: (Jean Frear 9), 34. ‘ The best bowlers for the home team were Millie Mason and Lelia Blackburn, while for Te Aroha, Kathleen Mairigay, Maud Johansen and Marjorie Smith did best. Roys’ Match. In this game the visitors in their first innings could do nothings with 1 the bowling of Bidois and Hill, who disposed of the team for 16 runs. On taking their knock the home team compiled 47, the Shief scorers being Hill 10, Simpson 11 and Hawke 9. I Graham and Magill did the bowling for the visitors. i THE ENGLISH TOUR. Enthusiast writes: I cannot agree with “ Midwicket’s ” opinion that the weakness of bowling is becoming a 1 parrot cry. I am afraid it is far too true, and as far as doing harm it is only the continual repetition that will I arouse realisation and do good. “ Mid- ' wicket’s ” arguments rest on two points; the improvement of batting and billiard table, or, as he puts it, “ shirt front ” wickets. Has batting i in New Zealand improved to such an extent that it dominates the bowling? I believe on the whole batting in New Zealand is better than it was, ! but it cannot be said that any of the modern day great batsmen outshadow the stars of twenty years ago. Each generation produces certain great batsmen. But to compare is impossible. When “ Mid-wicket ” writes about “ shift front ” wickets I am wondering where he has seen them : in > New Zealand. The nearest approach to the perfect wicket was the old Caledonian ground at Napier when Groundsman Faulkner was .. in charge. After that came the Carisbrook ground at Dunedin, and which is to-day the best wicket in New Zealand. Lancaster Park and Hagley Park in Christchurch are good wickets, but far from billiard table ones. The Basin Reserve at Wellington always shows signs of wear on the third-day, and at .the best is inclined to be fiery. No one would say that Eden Park was a shirt front wicket. The trouble Is that “ Mid-wicket ” desires to apply a condition applicable in the main to Australia only to New Zealand. After all, cricketers start in clubs before becoming representatives. No stretch of imagination can say that club wickets in New Zealand are of the shirt front variety. Why is it that bowlers are not produced if the wicket is the reason? Obviously one has to go further. Examining the position there has not been a fast bowler in New Zealand since Robinson, the Wellington trundler. The English tests revealed the fact that we had very few length mediumpace bowlers. Allcott and Badcock stood out by themselves. In slow bowling New Zealand is stronger tliaif ever before. But slow bowlers j are J very ' expensive, and variety is needed in attack. All our slow bowlers*'are practically of the one type, and are right handers. The decadence of length bowling dates from the advent of Bosanquet and the “googlie” school. Length and turn bowling demands constant practice and coaching. The fact that it demands regular practice is probably the greatest reason for the absence of' length bowlers, just as it has brought about the falling off in fielding. Natural wickets are just as plentiful in New Zealand as they were 25 years ago. The trouble is that the present day bowler does not know how to take advantage of them, and that is why New Zealand bowling is weak.