CRICKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11544, 1 December 1900, Page 6

CRICKET.

After a lapse of three weeks the cham- I pionship cricket contests in the various grades | will be resumed this afternoon. A com- j mencement will be made with the second round of the senior grade matches, when United will be opposed to Gordon, Auckland to North Shore, and Parnell to Ponsonby. The matches point to easy wins for United, Auckland, and Parnell, but the results of the j Batches played m the first round can hardly be taken as correct guides to the strength of the various elevens, and I should not be in the least surprised to see a close fight in more than one contest. The Selection Committee are to be congratulated upon the excellent choice rf cricketers for practice at the representative nets. The team is slightly different from that which I considered would be chosen, a-) in my list were included R. Neill (who I believe will yet go South), Kallender (who cannot possibly get away), and Gould, thy Northern Wairoa bowler, who, I understand, will make the trip, though not selected, 'lhe t team, without Neill will be somewhat weak | in the bowling department, but should, neveri theless, give a really olose game to the other I representative teams. Taking advantage of the off day, Gordon journeyed to Devonport on Saturday bust and met a fairly strong team of the Norch Shore Cricket Club. The match, if for no other reason, deserves special mention on account of the phenomenal scoring which took place. In only three and a-half hours' piny no fewer than 401 runs were scored, an un- ! questionable guarantee of the excellence cf • the pitch. Batting first. Gordon ran the ! score up to 237 for eight wickets, before they declared their innings closed, thanks in no I small measure to the excellent form displayed by three of the juniors, Pish (55, not out), : Cullerne (31), and Fair burn 122). Among the others, Kallender (23), Ansenne (37), and K>d (20) showed tie best cricket. North 3hore replied with 164 for eight wickets, Denby (55, not out) and Hicks (45) being the largest contributors. Quentery, who was assisting the marine club, once again showed pretty | cricket for his quota of 17. Owing to yesterday being observed as a public holiday in the banks a«d insuranco j offices, the usual weekly meeting of the Man- I agement Committee of the Cricket Associa- ! j tion was postponed until Monday next. The j attention of the committee will on that evening be devoted to the consideration of a protest lodged by Wanderers against Ponsonby 11. for playing an ineligible man. At the meeting of the committee a week ago, it was decided to continue the match between Y.M.C.A. A and Avondale on the : Avondale racecourse, a request from the Y.M.C.A- team to have the match completed on the Auckland Domain being declined. The secretary of the association is complaining bitterly of the poor response made | by cricketers to the request that they each | pay a registration foe of Is. Mr. Broughton i informs me that up to the present time he j has only received ss. It is to be hoped that j shillings, will quickly roll in and swell the j association funds. ! The umpires for the first-grade contests ! this afternoon are as follows:—Gordon v. j United, Messrs. McVeagh and Hesketh; ; Auckland v. North Shore, Messrs. Ford and King; Parnell v. Ponsonby, Messrs. Wilson ; and Cotton. At a "recent meeting of the Canterbury Cricket Association it was decided to fix December 20, 21, and 22 as the dates for the Otago match, and, if possible, December £5 and 26 for the Wellington match. D. Reese, the ex-Canterbury cricketer, has not yet qualified for club cricket in Melbourne. Playing for Wanderers against tbo Grammar School recently, he made 57 and 90 (not out). < The Bulletin says South Australia will be a weak cricket State for years, as Giffen and Jones are palpably going off. The formei'e bowling was pasted all over the field ..n the recent inter-State match, and Jones has lost 50 per cent, of his pace. The only apparent gleam of hope for the Wheat State is that a junior, Travers, who bowled excellently, piomises to do well. But S.A.C.A., realising the seriousness of the position, will probably import a good professional. C. Boxshall, well known in cricket circles as the wicketkeeper of the last New Zealand team that toured Australia, returned to Christchurch recently. Jt is understood he will settle in the Southern centre.. Clem. Hill's scores for his colony against New South Wales: 206 foot out), 170, 159, 109, 73. 67, 53, 51, 49, 42, 30. 22, 20, 36, 15 (not out), 14, 12, 9, 5, 5, 2, 2, 0. He has i made 1131 in 22 complete inning 3. Mention is briefly made in the Bathurst papers of a remarkable bowling performance a week or two back by a. St. Stanislaus' college boy named Dowd. He was playing for the college against St. Barnabas' C.C. With the last ball of one over (a maiden) he bowled a wicket and in his next over ho took a wicket with each of the six balls, clean bowled, so that ho actually took seven wickets in seven balls. Dowd is a left-hander. While not unparalleled, it is a very rare feat. THE L.B.W. RULE. A telegram from Adelaide tells us (Sydney Referee) that Mr. John Creswoll, the secretary of the South Australian Cricket Association, received by the Ormuz on Monday the following communication from Mr. F. E. Lacey, the secretary of the Marylebone Cricket Club: —"It has been proposed to after the existing law of l.b.w. by substituting for law 24 words to the following effect: ' A batsman who intercepts with any part of his person except the hand which is in front of his wicket, between wickat snd wicket, a ball which would hit his wicket, shall be out l.b.w. As the committee of the M.C.C. are anxious to obtain the views of j cricketers on this subject, would you be kind enough to furnish mo with your own opinion and with that of any members of your eleven on whose judgment you would feel disposed to rely?" No doubt a similar communication will be received in Sydney bv the New South Wales Crictet Association this week. Personally (says Not Out"), I don't believe in the proposed change, which should alter the whole character of hatting. With the views expressed by Mr. A. G. Steel on the subject in Wisden, I am in entire sympathy. Those views are so ably put on paper by the famous cricketer that one cannot do better than quote them. " Numerous proposals have been made by many excellent judges of the game, with a view to diminishing the excessive scores now so prevalent. Some have advocated alteration of the l.b.w. rule, and suggested that this reform is all that is wanted. The proposed alteration is to make it competent for the umpire to give a batsman out, if, in his opinion, the -all would have hit the wicket, no matter where it pitched. Personally, lam against ibis proposal. In the first place, I think it manifestly unjust and unfair to the batsman, and though we all want to see this gentleman's effectiveness somewhat diminished, we do rot wish to see this done at the expense of seriously interfering with what we may call the science of the batsman's art. Now, as long as a batsman possesses two legs, so long will they seriously interfere with a slow leg-break bowler hitting the wicket. If a slow legbreak bowler were to put two or three men out on the leg side, have the samo number of short-legs and a mid-on, and then were to bowl to leg with a good length, I have 1.0 hesitation in saying that in a very short lime the very best batsman would stop with hie legs a ball which would have hit the wicket. To give him out for this seems to me unjust. The difficulty for the umpires would also enormously increase. Again, I think no alteration in the rules of the game should be made which applies to first-class cricket alone. And if the l.b.w. rule were altered as proposed, the soreness and friction, which aio already unfortunately somewhat common in one-day matches over the l.b.w. question, would be enormously increased."