Cricket.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 21

Cricket.

' Owing to the rain on Saturday afternoon the play in the Canterbury-Wel- " lington representative match was limited to two days—Monday and Tuesday—but, starting at 11 o'clock . day, the game was played to a conclusion in good time. On the first day the bowlers dominated the situation, Canterbury being dismissed for .159 runs (R. Read 41 not out, W. Allardyee 33, H. North 18, E. Perrin . 10), Wellington's reply being 153 (J. - S. Hiddleston 51, C. G. Wilson 23, W. S. Brice 23, A. Dind 14, B. Marris 11). - In the second innings Canterbury got - .228 (J. Gray 87, A. Thomas 27, W. Howell 20 not out, J. J. Hay 18, R. Read 12, E. Perrin 12). In the final innings Wellington had ±o make 235 runs to win, and they got "them with the loss of three wickets, C. G. Wilson (47) and J. S. Hiddleston {87) putting up a century partnership of 103 runs for the first wicket, and H. ; .E. Burton (46 ; : not out) and W. A. Baker (28 not out) being unbeaten for . the fourth wicket with a partnership •of 69 runs. " : Prior to this game Wellington and •Canterbury had not met in a representative game on the Basin Reserve since •January, 1915. Of the Canterbury men -on that occasion A. Thomas is the only ; player to take part in the latest game. Of the others Hickmott has been • ; in action,. Sandermann is at the front, Boxshall has given up active ' plaving, Carlton is in Melbourne, : Whitta was selected, but could not ' make the trip to< Wellington, and ' Patrick has been playing in Dunedin this season and represented Otago ! against Canterbury at Christmas ,-time. Baker, Hiddleston, Burton, Wil- ■ son, and Brice represented the local -side in both games, Southall and Bray " are at the front, Robinson is in camp, , Midlane is in Auckland, and Burns and : . XJibbes have not played this season. The match this week was a good one -and ftill of, interest. The outstanding feature was the stand made by Wilson '■■ and Hiddleston in Wellington's second innings, • the pair of North batsmen : '■ -putting the runs together in quick time and by fine cricket strokes. It ' -paved the way to the final victory. C. G. Wilson is the "Father" of Wellington cficket—and the veteran of them all—but he can show many of the younger fellows how to make runs, and ..how to get them when he has made

them. Hiddleston lias shown his true farm in these representative games, playing some of the champagne of cricket with a good, square face on his bat. H. E. Burton and W. A. Baker carried on the good work after the fine start in the second innings, Burton driving and cutting well, and Baker driving to good purpose. A. Dind and W. S. Brice shaped fairly well, but, generally, the Wellington batting was disappointing in the first innings. On the Canterbury side, J. Gray, who got a big score of over 300 the other day, -was the outstanding batsman in the second innings, and R. Read in the first innings. The latter also did some, brilliant work in the otitfield, the catch that disposed of Dind in the second innings being a superlative one. Gray's was a fine, forcing effort, the Sydenham man jumping out of his crease and punching the ball very hard. Read was the only one to take charge of the Wellington bowling in the first innings, opening his shoulders to the drive in fine style. Allardyc© got a fail* tally, but was not convincing, but North and Perrin both shaped like getting a lot of runs. As usual, the_ Canterbury men were cleaner and quicker in the field than the local eleven, Read being the outstanding performer. His bowling, however, was not up to the standard expected, although he did not have the best of luck/ many good balls beating the batsmen and missing the wickets by the narrowest of margins. Dan Reese.,, who first played in a Canterbury-Wellington match 22 years ago, handled his bowling, in good style and bowled well himself, but he> was a long way from his old-time form with the bat. W. Garrod —Wellington's fast bowler —gave a good account of himself, keeping the batsmen quiet all the time he was at the bowling crease. W. S. Brice, B. Marris, and J. S. Hiddleston helped him in the first innings, and H. Lambert did some effective bowling as a change in the second innings. Dear- Fj&ee Lance, —Now that the City Fathers are churning up the milk question and turning everybody sour, may I venture to call attention to the following sage comment by "Punch?"—"To facilitate the delivery of milk, a certain Dairymen's Association has suggested to the Food Controller that they should have recourse to a pool. In most districts, however, recourse will be had as usual to the pump." I would suggest that we go one better and adopt the use of a sieve for Wellington? , —Yours, etc., Squirt.