NOTES ON THE GAME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 72, 24 February 1937, Page 2

NOTES ON THE GAME.

(By “Point.”) In no representative match this season lias such a strong side taken the field in defence of the Hawke Cup as that selected to meet the Hawke’s Bay XI at the end of this week. In hatting and bowling the combination is the strongest the Alanawatu Cricket Association can offer, and all the association’s guns have been brought to bear in what is expected to he the sternest battle so far encountered. The Hawke’s Bay side is undoubtedly a strong one. At a superficial glance at the Alanawatu team it might be thought that the ball is to he the main method of attack rather than the bat. The array of bowling talent is certainly a fine one—N. Gallichan for the slow spinners, T. L. Pritchard for the fast work, G. Berquist to bowl opposite Pritchard against the wind and swing the hall, J. Murchison to use as a change howler in the same position, D. A. R. Aloloney to help in the slow attack, and J. A. Ongley and C. AlcVicar to fall back on if required. Such a combination should he able to deal effectively with any situation as to pitch or weather conditions. On the other hand, the team may bo regarded in the light of a batting side, and here again the prospect is pleasing for supporters of Manawatu. Moloney naturally heads the list of anticipations for run-getting, and there are great possibilities from Gallichan, McVicar, Robertson. Norris, l’ollitt, Waters, Pritchard, Ongley and Murchison. Hawke’s Bay cricketers may have a great deal of confidence in their representatives, hut they will be required to play cricket of a very high standard to take the cup from its present holders. Batting performances formed the feature of Saturday’s play in tlie_ club competitions in which three items stood out—N. Waters’s fine 110 on the High School ground, T. L. Pritchard’s slashing 103 on the Sportsground oval, and A’.M.C.A.’s defeat of Old Boys (leaders in the senior B division). Waters, who may be expected to make his mark also in local Rugby, came to Palmerston North from New Plymouth with a cricketing reputation from his membership of the First XI of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School in the years 1932, 33, 34 and 35. The school XI plays in the senior grade in Taranaki, and Waters had also taken part in Taranaki North v. South and Town v. Country matches, so that his standard of play was naturally expected to he quite comparable to that ol the Palmerston North senior grade cricketers. His hatting average this year is such as to bring him consideration for inclusion in a Alanawatu representative side, and the departure of A. S. •H. Cutler for the south brought him his opportunity. He has been fielding well out and gives a,good account of himself there. His fortunes in his first representative match here will he followed with interest. Pritchard, who. like Waters, has been improving his hatting, appeared to come into his own with his century, and used liis strength with effect. Alany regretted 'that lie was unable to complete his innings, which had been such a bright patch in the (lid Boys —United- game, for his hitting was solid, not wild, and he sought all parts of the field with ihe ball.

In the senior B competition interest has quickened with Old Boys brought four points nearer the other contestants tor chanxpionship honours with their defeat by Y.AI.C.A. The faci that Old Boys have been worsted once may give the opposition hope, and the matches yet to come should give a good finish to the closing stages of the season in that grade. Alany followers of cricket in Palmerston North Will agree with some of the following comment which appeared in the Evening Post a few day’s ago. The article reads: “It is not to he expected that the OtagoCanterbury match will have any great bearing upon the selection of the New Zealand team, and certainly, it would seem, the special match at Palmerston North in which the Wellington Plunket Shield team met a combined country team was of no consequence, though it had been held up as one which would he taken into account in regarding the Plunket Shield matches as trials in view oi tlie selection of the team lor England. The New Zealand selectors, of whom there are four, must have made up their minds about the players to be named as ‘certainties’ before the match at Palmerston North was played. Only one of the four selectors—Air Duncan, of Wellington —was present at the Palmerston North match. And not until the Auckland-Wellington match at Auckland just previously had the full selection committee been present at any engagement offering talent for the New Zealand team. The system of finding the right players for a team fully representative of the best that New Zealand can produce should provide for something more than has been done- this season in measuring up the candidates tor the big camP<l “Another thing, the playing of the Palmerston North match as a trial was not fair to some of the players, especially those who had come straight from a strenuous match in Auckland and a night’s journey on the train. It should have been arranged differently from that. Probably that was a reason why the New Zealand selectors did not pay much attention to the match. Just how some of the players felt was indicated by Air A. Ronaldsqn (manager of the Wellington team) in his report to the Wellington Cricket Association, when he mentioned that on going into the ‘dressing-room pist after Wellington’s innings was under wav he found several of the players asleep, one of them with the pads on! “No doubt the New Zealand selectors will find a very good team, but it goes without saying that some very excellent men will be left out. .-here is so much to be taken into account that, one ventures to say, a greater feeling of satisfaction would be created if the trying-out of players took a wider range and engaged more direct attention from the full selection committee.”