Cricket.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 399, 22 February 1908, Page 19

Cricket.

THE final matcli few the Senior Championship will be commenced tomoriow (Saturday) between, the Midland and Old Boys teams. That they are entitled to contest the honour, by reason of their performances this season, will not admit of much argument, but it affords food for reflection at the same time By resolution at the annual meeting of the Wellington Cricket Association it was decided to limit the play in the senior matches to two days — a win. on, the first innings only to count two points, and a full win — that is, a match in which the losing side had had two innings— four points As to whether this manner of conducting the matches has proved a success I will not discuss at the present time In accordance with arrangements the whoJe of the seven teams in, the championship played against each other, with the result that the Peto<ne, Wellington, Midland, and Old Boiys teams had scored the greatest number of points, and semi-final matches between the quartette were played, with the result as stated at the beginning of these notes. That the number of points scored m the qualifying round is not a fair index of the relative strength of the teams can be gathered from the fact that Petone and Wellington,, the two leading teams, were deo-isivelv beaten by tHe OTdßovs and Midland teams respectively in the semi-final matches. Bight from the commencement of these games to the finish the supporters of the winning teams hardly had one anxious moment, so superior were they to their opponents in actual play under the conditions that prevailed. • ■* « I have dealt fairly in previous issues with the first two days' play, so a few comments on Saturday's display is all that is necessary at this stage. Petone started out to get 359 runs in the afternoon a contract beyond the powers of the best teams in Wellington under ordinary conditions, if experience is anything to go by. But they failed miserably on a good wicket, the last man retiring witti the total at 135 — three runs less than at their first try — and Old Boys were the winners of the game by 214 rums, a fair index of the merits of the two teams on their performances therein. The double-figure sooreTS in this total were • Taylor 55, Smyrk 19, Senior 18, Green 12, and Cobcroft 10. • • • The Wellington team had a steeper contract on hand than Petone had to justify their position in the semi-final matches of the championship. They had to make 199 runs to save an innings defeat, but even this was too much for them, the Midlanders — without their captain's assistance — routing their opponents for the small total under the circumstances of 148 — 51 runs less than they required to save them from an inglorious defeat. Towards the total Mahony and Vare each contributed' 30, Naughton 27, Quinn 24 (not out), and S. Hickson 13. • • • The destroying agents with the ball in these matches were • — For Midland : Mitchell, five wickets for 62 runs , C. Hickson, five for 41. For Old Boys • Tucker, three for 39 ; Monaghan, three for 42 . McGill one for 13 ; Lomax, two for 24. Tom Taylor had a chequered caieer as a senior player wiien a member of the Wellington Club. He would be promoted practically as a stop-gap, but on' the first available opportunity Ihe would be pushed back again to the juniors. That he became dissatisfied is only what was to be expected under the circumstances. Therefore, when the chance came his way he threw in his lot with tihe Petone team, and he has fully demonstrated that his abilities entitle him to rank as a senior player as we know tlhem in Wellington. Last Saturday the Wellington players must have felt like kicking themselves, especially when the Midlanders were making hacks ~0l them, when they cast their eyes across to No. 1 wicket while Taylor was batting. Without a doubt his waa the finest exhibition at tihe Basin Reserve last Saturday, his driv-

I ing being clean and nne, and with a lot of povvei behind the strokes It is true that the buily one survived a <xmple of appeal^ fox leg-befoire-wicket, and that he also lifted many balls high vi the an, one in paiticular bouncing out of the hands of a fieldsman before it touched the ground, yet there is no gamsajing the fa-ct that his batting was the bnghtest aaid best last ueek oi the twenty-one who wielded the willow Harry Senioi, stiange to relate, tried to make his runs in a hurry He did hit an© across the fence by the pavilion, but the next Tucker pitched him a bit shorter, and Skipper Blacklock gave him the hanpy despatch long before he put his bat do«n Teddy Sniyik said to Tommy Taylor when the lattei came in to bat "No short ones, Tommy. 1 don't want to be mn out this week " This was good advice, and well meant-, 1 have no doubt, but Smyrk called Taylor foa many runs on Saturday that were not attempted — -some of them may have been possible, but many of them were impossible to Taylor, -even if his comrade could have, got them. Of course., the fact that, Teddy is training for the amateur spo"ts may account for the eagerness he displayed to jump off the mazk. Smyrk is a very promising bat, but this over-keenness of his — to coin a word — proves his undoing most of the time He wants to score a lot of runs in a little while, but if he can check himself every time until the right ball comes along to make runs from, he will be a better batsman than he is now. Tom Cobcroft was caught off a ball that generally he would have let go bv — a long hop just outside the off stick. Stan Brice also> was got rid of rather cheaply, through dragging a ball that was going past on the off on +■<•> his wicket. Just a word here of congiatulation to the Petone team. Though they may be feeling a bit sore over their defeat at the hands of the Old 1 Boys m the match under review, they have done well in their first j*ear in. the senior championship. If anyone had predicted at the beginning of the season that last year's junior champions would have scored the most points in, the qualifying round amongst the seniors this year they would have been laughed a,t, but such was the actual happening, and I extend to them my congratulations on their good performance. We have been so used to combining the name of Petone with that of champions that we began to think that the realm of football was not the only one m which the suburban team would reach the top. They haven't missed the honour by much in this their first season, and maybe it will not be long before the cricketers of Petone will follow the lead set them by their football brethren • • • Charles Richardson was beaten by one of the finest balk delivered in Wellington for many a day. Charles Mitchell, the Midland trundler, gets a fine swerve on occasionally, and it was one out of the box that found its way into Riohaidson's timber-stack. Besides swerving, it broke as well, and came quickly off the pitch. There was nothing startling in the batting of the Wellington team, although Na-ughton Mahony, Hicksoai, Vare, and Quinn all put plenty of vim into their strokes while tliey were at the wickets.

The pioposed match between the Rest of New Zealand and the holders of the Plunket Shield — Auckland — has been abandoned. As nobody in the Dominion took the match seriously, it is just as well it has been, dropped. The Newborn — Phoenix senior match, arranged for last Saturday, was abandoned, owing to the former team not being able to raise a. full eleven. The argument that interest would be kept going by the clubs not m the semi-final matches seems to be defeated' by piesent happenings. Here is a curious cricket coincidence to which attention has been drawn by an Australian writer • — In the last Neu South WaJes-Victona match, played in Sydney, J. Saundeis bowled 121 balls in the first innings, and M A Noble made 121 runs. In the second innings Noble made 128 runs, and Saunders bowled 128 balls I dropped across a paper the other day — an Adelaide one — with ,a full list of fixtures of a certain cricket championship, and the names of the ooinrleting teams were rather surprising Here a.re some of them : Sir James Fergusson. Sir William Robinson , Lord Melbourne, Duke of Brunswick, Royal Oak, Oak of Miitoham, Angel Inn, Duke of Leinster, Sir E. T. Smith, and so on. The different competing teams must have drawni their names out of a hat. "Felix" in the "Australasian": — "It also gives me much pleasure to note that the English captain, A. 0. Jones, has donned the flannels once again after his serious illness. He met with a perfect ovation, on entering the arena, when it came to his turn to bat. Not even on his own Trentbridge ground at Nottingham could he have met with a more thoroughly cordial and spontaneous outburst of plaudits. . . Be sure that Jones himself was touched bv the sustained heartiness of his reception. There was in it the genuine touch of nature that makes the whole world kin " (Continued on page 20 )