OUT DOOR SPORTS AND PASTIMES

Free Lance, Volume X, Issue 499, 22 January 1910, Page 17

OUT DOOR SPORTS AND PASTIMES

By Touchline.

Cricket.

ONCE again cricketers were favoured with glorious weather for the continuation of matches last Saturday afternoon, a warm sun and a light southerly (breeze making things very pleasant at the Basin Reserve. The usual -good crowd of '.spectators was, there, and so '• interesting were two of the games that most of them stayed on till the drawing of stumps. * * * .. • In the North-Victoria College match the former were in a bad position at the conclusion, of play, on' the first day, the total of 156 scored by _ them having been replied to by Victoria College with 155 for six wickets. The remaining four wickets, however, did not cause the North men much trouble, the whole side being out with the total at 175. Recognising that his side wanted runs quickly if they were to recover the position lost, in the first innings, Captain Richardson changed his order of. sending in the batsmen from the North., and the instructions . were _ to force, the pace as much as possible. After the fall of the first wicket two good quick-scoring : batsmen in Stan Hickson and Pearson Blacklock got together, and the runs mounted up m fine style. So much so that at half-past four the North'innings was declared closed with six wickets down for 163. The opening Victoria College batsmen—Dr.: Foster -.and Sid Dempsey— made a valiant effort to defeat the.intentions of their opponents, and it. was not' until 39 runs were .on the board that the latter was caught right on the edge of the boundary off a fine sweep to square-leg. After Deanpsey's departure, however, things went gradually from bad to worse with -the Collegians and at twenty minutes past six the whole side were out for 89 runs, North winning, the game by 55 runs. * « • . . • The East A team had no difficulty in registering a three-point win at the expense •of their B team, for, after closing their innings with five wickets down for 337, they eventually won the game with an innings and 98 runs to spare. Petone collapsed badly before the bowlers of the Central, team,, being dismissed for 103 runs and 132 runs m the first and second innings respectively Central, in the meantime, had put together tallies of 171 and 128 for three wickets .(innings declared closed), and therefore won by 64 runs. At the Lower Hutt. the South triumphed over the local team to the tune of an innings and 40 runs.

Matches, concluded last Saturday .resulted as follows, , the, .double-figure scorers in last . Saturday's .play being stated in. parenthesis >..... North, 156 and 163 for six wickets (Hickson 61. Blacklock 31, Oharleswo'rth 26', TJpham 21 >. not., out', - Sheriff n 11); Victoria.jdpile|ge\ 175 and .'B9. (Foster 37, d0..1a 'Mare 10). East A, 337 for five wickets, innings declared closed (Midlane 140 not out, Mahdny 62, Tucker 33, Hutohings 19! Wills 18, Gibbes 18,. N. Hales 10' not out): East B, 83 and 156. (Bowles 42, Claridge 30, Collett 19, A. E. Wilson 14). Central, 171 and 188 for three wick,eas. innings declared closed (Hawthorne 40 not out. Birch 33, Naughton 25, Roberts 23 ,not out). Petone 103 and 132 (Freeman 28. Dalgleish 19, .Isherwood 17 Bennett 15, Brice 14, Nunn 13). South. 255: Hutt. 140 .(Wilson 30, : Collyer, 25. Matthews 22, Judd 18 not out. Primgle .14 ' Climie 13) and 75 (Aldersley Staples 20). ' * . * « Successful bowlers . last Saturday were :—South : Cobcroft, eight wickets for 36 runs; Dind. two for 33. Central: Laws, eight for 30: Mason, two for 27. Petone: Brace, two for 42.; Nunn one for 32. East B: Miller, two for 76; Nash, two' for 42; Dickson, one for 63. East A: Hickey. two for: 33.; Gibbes, two. for, 32;' E. 0.. Hales, one for 12: . McGill. one for 14: N. Hales, one; for 15.. North: TJpha.m, five for 52. and two for 24; Finlayson. ttbree foir 27, and-four for 15;: Phillips, one for 26. and one for 14: Charlesworth, three for 32, «■ «.■■■'. • The following table shows the position of the various teams in the senior championship: — ' * " ' . . CO - o.S' ..." "HO B"P-i >»• = "S §ft ... Ph £ p CSS. Central.. ... .. 6 5 1 14 East A ;.. .... 6 5 1 12 South .. ... ... 6 4 2 12 North ... .. ..6 4 2 10 Victoria College ■ "... 6 2 4 6 Petone ... .. ..... 6 2 4 5 Eastß ..... ..6 1 5 3 Hutt ... .. .... 6 1 5 3 The four winning teams last Saturday—North, East A, Central, and. South—each scored a three-point win. From what I' can gather,, it is the intention of the Cricket Association to match the four leading teams against one another at the conclusion of the matches to' be commenced next Saturday, playing semi-finals and a final match,, as was done two years ago. If this idea can be successfully carried out. it will add a lot of interest to the senior competition, and incidentally will assist the finances of the Association. *• . * ..'.*.-■'. To Fred Midlane, the East A.> batsman, belongs the honour of making the highest score of the season in any grade of cricket. A well-known mercery firm has announced its intention of presenting a bat to the . player _ who F.hands in Midlane's present position at the end of the season. That any batsman is likely to put together a. bigger score* than 140 (not. out) in the balance of tihe present season is highly improbable, and therefore the Eastern man may leave his nam© and address with the firm referred to ; . The .big score made by Midlane does not impress me, however, so much as the way in which he made, the runs. In his early days in Wellington cricket Fred was one of our finest batsmen, and a perusal of the few figures I published fast week in connection;-with the stands of over 100 runs a wicket _ in which he has participated is sufficient to prove this. ~ In the heyday of his career as a cricketer business called Midlane to Sydney, the city which has produced many of the finest players Australia has placed in the field. Many of us hoped that Midlane would rise to the highest, heights, in New South Wales cricket, but the business before referred to took up so •much of his time that he could not practice the game regularly, and only played it spasmodically. As he mentioned to me in a letter at the time, he was' oni the threshold of life, and the calls of business were more to .him at that sta,ge than cricket, much as he loved the game. , In the course of time he came back to' Wellington, and threw in his lot with, the Y.M.C.A. team, who had entered for the senior championship. The old-time power had temporarily left the ex-Phoenix player—rfor good many followers of the' game_ thought—but this s.easpn he has given us many samples of how he used to score runs in his ante-Sydney days, and his latest expositions, more especially against Canterbury and his club mates of the B team, have been nearly as good as any he has given us. Midlane is young yet, and his return to his best form is something pleasant to' write about for one like myself, wto has the interests of Wellington cricket keenly at heart.

Pearson Blacklbek is not .having the best of luck this season, and in- saying so I will' amplify my. assertion.' with the statement that he is., as good a batsman as in timies .that ax© past., although his scores to date would not seem to back lip my statement. . But he_ has only "got fairly into, his stride twice this year, and on both occasions he was. unfortunately, .given' out Ibw to. a ball that struck his bat before hitting his pad. The Victoria Oqllegians were, pleased to see the last of '■ himi on Saturday-, for he opened his shoulders ■do good purpose all the time he was at the batting crease. I don't know for oertaia at the time of writing,, but I am not far from the mark in making the. assertion that Stanley Hickson is leading in the batting averages of. the Noirtih senior team.. And. well he deserves that honour, too, for his batting this season- has been, consistency itself. Right through the matches, by fine cricket all the time, he ha®, helped the North tally along, and his latest innings was full of dash and clinking shots all the way.. Claude Charlesworth, promoted from the juniors to the seniors for this match, proved by his performances with both bat and ball, that a permanvent place in the North team, is not fax. beyond his reach. The juniors, however, ca.nnot part with "Chairley" yet, and he will be pleased to return to them for the balance of the year, if he is not wanted in the higher grade. .Sheridan is in the same box as Obarlesworth, fully justifying his inclusion in the team to play against Victoria College by the exceßenoe of his batting. "Sherry" is still far enough on the young side to. have ma,ny years of cricket in front of him, lnuch of "which, I venture to assert, will be spent amongst the seniors. Another North player who is fulfilling expectations is ' 'Ranji" Finlayson. the ex-Karori player. Both with bat and ball this youngster is doing well, and, as he is as keen as moist ard, he will he heard from again, in the future. Ernest Upham- is a remarkable cricketer—in mia-ny ways. For instance, he was said to be done as a bowler, and yet his crop of wickets thii3 season is a big one. As a batsmian, he always makes runs when 'his side badly wants them, but. if there.is no real necessity, for him to put his back to the wall he goes very cheaply. # May his presence be felt in Wellington cricket for many years to- come is a sincere wish of one of his greatest admirers. Dr. Foster was practically the only Victoria College batsman who rose to.the occasion last week, proof of which "beinio; that directly he . -was dismissed the defeat of the side came into* sight.. True, de la Mare,. Dempsey, and Moinaighan each stayed in for---, some time, but the fact remains that Foster was the only man who seemed _at all likely to make many runis. : This criticism may be rather on the rough side, but it seemed to me that many- of the Collegians were practically' out before they took centre, -amd a straight ball found them wanting.. : Amongst, the East B batsmen.', Bowles was in a merry mood last Saturday, hitting the bowling opposed to .him about right merrily. Many of his strokes were agricultural ones, but. his driving was clean and pretty all the time. -. .

"Peggy" Claridge also surprised the fencers, formany of the .strokes he made were ■as good as the ' best, and considerably above anything he has previously._ shown in senior cricket. Two of the Central bowlers had a good time last Saturday at the expense of the lads from the village. lit ■the first innings. Kinvig got five wickets for two runs, and dn the second Fred Laws, with leg-breaks, came out with the fine figures of eight wickets for 30 runs, at one time during the innings having captured five for seven. Playing against Petone for Newtown last season, Laws. .accounted for eight •of his opponents for 22 runs in the second innings, so it would seem that our saddler cricketer must carry too many guns altogether for the team led by Stanley Brice. » » » In. their match with Templars last Saturday, PolhiltL had five short in the T ; **st innings, and three in ~ the second, Templars also bein'g short. There must be something wrong when things like this happen, and the executive of \ these clubs should call their absentee members to book, or else replace them with others who are keener on the game. The " scores were: Polhill 11 and 45 • /T t. Maplesori 15, Driver 14, extras 10) : : Templars, 36 (Patterson 8). and 23 fo>four .wickets" (CressweH 12 not out), and Templars thus won by six wickets. With the leather; for the winners the best averages were: Greig three wickets for 6 runs ; Blenkimisop, two for 5 . first innings; Patterson four for 3, and Wright, one for 5 in the second essay. Driver and Mapleson bowled unchanged for Polhill. * * * The Petone players were very late in arriving in town last Saturday, and in consequence were not ready to start play before twenty minutes to three. The wickets at the Basin Reserve are beginning to show signs of the dry weather experieneced of late. .A shower or two of rain on other days but Saturdays would be very welcome to the cricketers. Mr. H. Greig x an ierstwhile member of the Templars who has recently met with much cricket success at Wanganui. has returned to this city, and is again assisting his old club. Four wickets for 16 rune was his tally for last Saturday's game. Mr. E. A. Goodjger, one of the founders of the Templars Club, has recently gone to Waipukurau, to enter into business. His many services to that club in particular and __ the game in general are much appreciated, and he will be missed in those" circles. . A cricket writer says a certain; team won its match 'by "ah innings, five wickets, and 98 runs." Though technically correct, such a statement is wrong according to the law® of cricket, for an innings declared closed .finished, no matter how many wickets have still to fall. The correct declaration of the result of the game referred - to is "an innings and 98 runs." There was a persistent rumour in cricket circles last week _ that # Joe Vance intended resigning his positionas secretary of the Wellington Cricket <•- '. Association. It, however, lacks confirmation, and I only ' mention it so that I can 'make the statement that it would be a misfortune'for local cricket should the rumour proye to be correct, for Mr. Vance cannot be spared at the present juncture. His # work is sound _ and thorough, and hois courtesy in giving whatever information he can on cricket matters and local competitions cannot be equalled. **' ' * An Australian cricket team are to visit New, Zealand during the next few weeks if no obstacles at this end prevent them doing so. Everybody .in cricket circles knows that there is a conflict of opinion as to. whether the tour should be conducted, on"; the basis . of a. pooling scheme or by. guarantees. The Wellington Cricket Association have declared in favour of the latter, and declined the pooling business', as their experience of it in the past hais 'been so disastrous to its finances. Before these notes are printed, however, the matter may be determined one way or the other, so.that it may be only waste of time for me to discuss it. The action of the Wellington Cricket Association, however, has my heartiest commendation. • ■ ■ « « « The East and North ladies play a match against one another at Keltburne Park to-morrow (Saturday). I hear that an effort is being: made to form a ladies' team under the auspices of the Central Club. An effort is being made to arrange a match between the ladies of Welling- \ ton and Canterbury. The proposal ■ was made by Dr. Orchard when here with the Canterbury representative team j early in the month, but at is I hanging fire at this end. More may 1 be heard of it directly. ,i