Sports Shorts

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1949, Page 7

Sports Shorts

The MCC has unanimously agreed to invite retired England professionals to become honorary / life members. The Duke of Edinburgh, as president, put forward the proposal at a special meeting at Lord’s. The Duke said that this life membership would be restricted to ‘‘the really great” and would be a genuine recognition of their services to the game. s Reports from Manchester predict that the wicket for the third cricket test, which opens at Old Trafford on July 23, will give more assistance than usual to the spin bowlers, partly because of the recent dry spell and partly because the Old Trafford groundsman has been heavily rolling the pitch and cutting down watering. This, it is considered, is likely to produce a hard dry top, which will show wear and tear well before the end of the match. Support from three other major associations was given to a remit from the Auckland Cricket Association, proposing an alteration to the points for Plunket Shield matches, at a meeting of the New Zealand Cricket Council at Christchurch. The president (Mr D, E. Wanklyn) ruled that this alteration would have to be considered at the annual meeting or a special meeting called for the purpose and would have to be passed by a three-fifths majority. The proposed changes are as follows: —Twelve points for an outright win', four for a win on the first innings; two for a tie on the first innings; eight for a lead on the first innings and four for a deficit if the scores are equal when both sides have batted twice, even though the side batting last has not completed its innings; four for a lead on the first innings if the team leading on the first innings loses thehnatch; and two for a tie on the first innings to the team which loses the match. The points at present arc;—Outright win, 8; win on first innings, 4; loss on first innings, 2; tie on first innings, 2 each; tie on match, 4 each; no result after six hours’ play. 3 each. Under the present system the incentive to go for an outright win was hot always present, said Mr L. B. Schnauer, who presented the remit on behalf of the Auckland association. The proposed alterations were in line with the system which had found favour in the English counties’ competition. It would provide brighter cri.cket for the public and players.