Cricket

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7111, 8 January 1930, Page 10

Cricket

(By “Onlooker”). iiimiimiiMimimiiiiiimMimiimimmmiimiimiiingmiiMi

Palmerston North enthusiasts were given plenty of first-class cricket over the Christmas holidays to keep them occupied, and the Hawke Cup matches seem to be improving with each challenge. Manawatu has now defeated Hawke’s Bay, Poverty Bay and Taranaki this season, and the chances point to tho trophy remaining with the home team for yet another year. It is probable that the next visitors will be the Southland representatives, while Nelson and Rangitikei are in the running. The First Test

The first test against the visiting M.C.C. eleven will bo played at ChristChurch on Friday, Saturday and Monday, and the selectors have chosen a strong side to play for the Dominion. It has turned out to bo fully representative of the best strength that can be put in tho field. The side has batting merit right down to the last man and is strong with the willow at that, while as a bowling side the captain will have plenty of talent to call upon and, in addition, will be able to replace bowlers with similar types if desired. Henderson and Dickinson will be able to relieve each other from time to time without upsetting the pace required, whilo Merritt and McLeod should be able also to relievo each other. Pago and Blunt will be in readiness.

As a fielding side tho players are an sound also, and, though dropped catches seem to have been fairly frequent lately, one will expect a New Zealand side to be keen enough not to miss anything. The team to represent New Zealand is as follows: C. S. Dempster, M. L. Page, T. C. Lowry, R. C. Blunt, J. E. Mills, K. C .James, M. Henderson, F. T. Badcoek, W. E. Merritt, A. W. Roberts, G. R. Dickinson and A. E. McLeod (twelfth man).

The Absentees There are several notable absentees from the eleven, and some of those who represented New Zealand in the history-making tour of 1927 have dropped out of cricket through lost form. Included in these ranks are Cunningham and Oliver, of Canterbury; All- - of Auckland, who was not available for the Plunltet Shield game; and Bernau, of Wanganui, who assisted Henderson (Wellington) with the fast bowling. It. is understood that Bernau has given the game up, for ho has played only one club game this season and that was under pressure. McGirr, tho Wellington player, is still capable of first-class performances with bath bat and ball, but his form this year in club fixtures has not been really assuring, especially in the -field, and that is the one department of the game in which the New Zealand side is not able to carry any laggards. Foley (Wellington), Allen and Talbot (Canterbury), and Gillespie and Mat Meson (Auckland) are also absent. Foley, the Wellington left-hander, who showed fine form for tho Rost waen they met New Zealand after the English tour, is not available for the two early tests, as he has a bxl hand caused in fielding a ball in a club game recently. Read apparently had no chance at all, on account of liis age. If any man has deserved better treatment at the hands of the New Zealand selectors it has been Read. Eddie Bowloy described him as one of tho most consistent, bowlers in the country, while he acted as coach, and was looking forward to another battle with the Linwood trundler at Lancaster Park. The Flayers Reviewed As batsmen there is the talent of Dempster, Blunt, Mills, Page, James and McLeod, while there is a galaxy of bowling talent in Merritt, Henderson, Dickinson and McLeod. Lowry could not be left out of the team in any circumstances. Ho is easily the best choice as skipper, and in any case his fielding is not to be despised by oven the best in the country. He can also make runs, as ho demonstrated in 1927, but his form has net been of the best so far this season. So far as batting is concerned, the selectors were not able to pass over Dempster, Blunt and Mills. James will be the wicketkeeper and Lowry probably will be skipper. Merritt, Henderson and Dickinson also looked assured of places for bowling alone. Then there are the all-round players, Page and McLeod.

Of the players mentioned, all have represented New Zealand previously, but Dickinson and McLeod have been out of the more important games, the former because he has not been available and tho latter because he failed to come under the notice of the selectors. Without a doubt McLeod played himself into New Zealand test cricket by his brilliant performance against the M.C.G. side in Wellington. Hawke Cup Games Manawatu has now lowered the colours of nine teams in succession, and with the prospect of still further games during tho current season, the home side may yet enjoy a record number of wins for the cup in a single season. There is no doubt that the eleven is strong in both batting and bowling, it being a peculiar feature of its play that a failure in the batting produces extra sting in the bowling. The bowling laurels must go to N. Gallichan, for after securing five for 42 and six for SO in the Poverty Bay game, he followed up this performance with three for 69 and six for 31 against Taranaki at the New Year. Thus in two successive matches he secured 20 wickets for 172 runs, representing an average of 8.6 per wicket — an average that must stamp this bowler as one of the finest Manawatu has yet possessed in representative games. The mediocre scores also throw light on the bowling of McVicar, who was most reliable —as he always is—when trundling at the opposite end to that of the redoubtable Gallichan. Ho was most successful in thb Taranaki game, eecuring gis foe 51-iand, fotg .f0r...15,.

while tho taking of three for 40 and three for 37 gives him 16 wickets for 143 runs and an average of 8.94 for both matches.

Judging by tho bowling averages for both games, Gallichan and McVicar must bo rated in a class by themselves. However, when a change was needed 'Onglcy, senr., and O’Keefo could always bo relied on to keep tho runs down and, although neither bowled to any extent in the Taranaki game, they secured averages for both games of 28 (two for 56) and 32 (one for 32) respectively. The coming of Broughton into representative cricket again proved that as an opening batsman he is always to be reckoned with. With the failure of Oliver (2 and 1) in the Poverty Bay match, he compiled 23 and 44 respectively, whilo against Taranaki .he proved even more aggressive, notching 36 and 43 not out. With his average standing at 48.66 he was easily the most successful batsman, Onglcy, senr., with 23.75, McVicar 31, Fletcher 11 (two strikes and one not out) and Noiris 10, being tlic only other batsmen to gain double figure averages. . Tho next best performances were registered. by Gallicban with an average of S (four strikes), Spring with 7.33 (three strikes), Onglcy, junr., 5.66 (three strikes) and Baumber, 7 (two noughts in the Poverty Bay gamo and an IS and 13 not out against Taranaki). However, with tho rather indifferent weather conditions ' prevailing during both games, keeping the pitch aud outfield in a slow to medium state, very seldom was it safe for a batsman to open his shoulders, as some found to their expense. Taken all round, the batting for Manawatu was always above the standard set by the visitors, and tho authorities must have little to complain of in this respect. Some of tho more recent entrants into representative games scorned to falter and appear rather embarrassed at the crease, but time will remedy this defect. Four in a Row

There are only about 20 instances in •first-class cricket of a bowler taking four wickets with consecutive balls, but three of tho men who have performed that feat are living in New Zealand.

F. Shaddock, the old Derbyshire, Notts and Otago player, now cricket coach at St. Andrew’s College, Christchurch, performed the feat in 1893, for Notts against Somerset, at Nottingham. Shaddock was a fast bowler.

Alec Downes, one of New Zealand's really great bowlers, got four wickets with consecutive balls for Otago against Auckland at Dunedin in the 1893-94 season.

S. G. Smith put himself on this list, in 1914, when he was playiug for Northamptonshire against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Smith hailed originally from the West Indies. From English county cricket ho came to New Zealand and did fine service for Auckland in Plunket Shield matches. Personal Paragraphs

Invercargill, and more particularly the I.C.C. B team, is to lose one of her newest and most outstanding cricketers before tho current season closes. “Barney” Clark, the B’s and Otago rep. ’keeper, has accepted a positic in his old centre, Wellington, and will leave Invercargill within a month or two. Clark will be missed as a footballer, too, since he showed promising form as a full-back in his only outing last season. For tho first time on record New Zealanders have headed the bowling averages for both Cambridge and Oxford Universities in first-class cricket. E. D. Blundell, of Wellington, headed tho Cambridge averages, and W. G. Kalaugher, the New Zealand Rhoden scholar, headed the Oxford averages. Kalaugher, playing for the London Optimists, in a cricket tour in the south of England, took 31 wickets at an average of 9.6 runs. Barney Oldfield, the Australian XI and A.I.F. stumper, has not had the best of luck during tho past two or three seasons. A severe attack of neuritis undoubtedly had subseqent effects on his ’keeping, as seen in the matches against Chapman’s side, for, in spite of press assurances to the contrary, he was far from the Oldfield of yore. This season ho was showing against Gilligan’s team that he was back to his best, when he sustained a badly smashed finger, which will keep him out of cricket until the eud of January. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he may miss the trip to England. A Sydney newspaper says: “What is the betting that Alan Kippax at last gets into tlhe eleven for England. On two occasions he has been tipped as a moral, but finished down the course. In the past there has been something in Ms make-up which has prevented him showing in the test games in Australia the best that is in him, though he has averaged 30 for 12 innings, and scored one century—loo in tho third test against Chapman’s side at Melbourne. Yet in all big matches in Australia and Maoriland he has tho remarkable average of 66.33 for 108 innings, and a highest score of 315 not cut—23 centuries in all. This would indicate that he is something more than the Triton among minnows that some esteem him. The M.C.C. Skipper.

The M.C.C. has had many valiant captains, but it is doubtful -whether any other leader of a representative eleven can. claim a more adventurous career than Harold Gilligan (states an English paper). Joining up with the R.N.A.S., Gilligan was the pilot who took the first flight over the German fleet. While manoeuvring over the Kiel Canal, a Zeppelin which they had traced and followed up gave the German gunners their chance, and Gilligan’s machine was struck in the radiator by a piece of shell. It was then a question either of landing in Holland or of making an attempt to get back to England, but the engine failed and they were flung into the water. For 20 minutes they were swimming arbout in the sea until the companion seaplane arrived. But the danger was by no means over. Owing to the extra load they could not take off, and the difaculties of the new pilot were increased by the fact that one of the TM&> compelled the voytsi£ fee y . ’’t

agers to take in turns, two at a time, and stand on the other wing in order to keep the damaged wing out of tho water. For three days and three nights Gilligan and his companions were at the mercy of the elements, and the M.C.C. captain, although diffident of relating his adventures, is always ready to tell the story of how a pigeon saved the party from a watery grave. Four pigeons were sent off. Three were lost and the fourth dropped dead at the feet of the coastguardsman at Yarmouth. Tho feathered hero, howevei’, had completed his work, and the story of rescue ends with the skilled navigation of Commander Bannerman otH.M.S. Halcyon,