CRICKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 24 October 1903, Page 7

CRICKET.

OPENING OF THE DISTRICT SCHEME COMPETITIONS. The cricket season of 1903-4 commences this afternoon, and not for many years have the prospects of a marked improvement in the summer 'game seemed so bright as they do now. The hard work necessarily performed in putting the various district clubs on a proper footing has aroused players from the dull lethargio state into which they had fallen, and everyone is keen upon securing premier place for his own district club. What the district scheme did for football is well known, but what a similar scheme may do for cricket is hidden. Suffice it to say that the interest of the general public already seems much greater, and I fully expect to see a larger crowd of " barrackcrs" on the Domain this afternoon than ever turned out to witness an ordinary cup fixture. A few words upon the chances of the various clubs may be of interest. Popular opinion favours the chances of Parnell annexing senior honours, and I will give them priority of place. With 18 exseniors in the district the club should be a very hard nut to crack. Their batting is strong, their bowling varied, and their fielding should be good. In Mason, Gleeson, N. B. Lusk, Ohlson, and Oltff, the club has an excellent batting quintette, while the bowling will be in the good hands of such men as Barclay, Oliff, Lusk, and Mason. The other members of the senior team are all run-get-ting batsmen, and it will surpriso me if the team is often out for less than 200 runs. The one weak spot is the want of a good wicketkeeper, and it is a vital weakness. Ihe club should have a good first junior eleven, but in the lower grades they appear somewhat weak. Grafton is represented by a well-balanced lot. with two bright batting stars m D. Hay and Tctmun, both of whom may be depended upon to make many runs. The team's batting should be equally as strong as Parnell, but their bowling is not nearly so varied, in the attack the club will mainly depend upon Stemson, Slowman, Clayton, Kallender, and D Hav. The club has obtained the services of one" good player new to Auckland, in kyles, and the ex-Port Melbournito should prove an acquisition. The want of a wicket- ; keeper, as in the case of Parnell, is the weak spot. The club's membership is small, but they should have a good first junior eleven. City District is weak. The club has two pood'wicket-keeper3, but in the other departments of the game they appear very moderate. Veteran Bob Neill has, however, often succeeded in getting good work out of recruits, and it is quite on the cards that the team will do fairly well. The only members of last year's senior elevens are Cossey, King, AlaeCormick. Neill, and Schmoll, but there are quite a number of players who performed well in junior matches last year. In junior matches the club will meet with a fair measure of success. . * . Ponsonbv is strong numerically, but its chances of annexing the senior championship are somewhat remote. The batting strength is fair, for Woods, Wallace, Gavin, Richards, and Harris are all capable of scoring heavily, while Robinson and others have shown more than occasional flashes of brilliancy. J.be bowling seems very weak, but good fielding should aid them, and I expect them to show eood work in this department. In Robinson The team has the best of wicket-keepers, and the total of " Mr. Extras" will never be great Eden is the club of. many members, and many of these very useful. The club s senior team strikes one as very well balanced, and it would not be surprising if they run Grafton pretty closely this afternoon. With a good wicket-keeper in Elliot, and new bowlers in Baxter and Douglas (two Australians], and other good bowlers in Williams, Lusk, and W Mills the scores registered against them should be small, while in batting Elliot, Lus.c, I Mills, W. Mills, and others should keep the scorers busy. The club is exceptionally strong in juniors. North Shore is much the same as over, for the district scheme has made little difference to the cricketers of the marine suburb. \V atts, Barry, and Macrae should strengthen them, however, and materially assist Warren, Wyayard. and other members of last year s eleven to win more matches than they lose The club has a good first junior eleven, but-below this seems somewhat weak.

HERE AND THERE. An inter-Island match will be played in Wellington early in January. The Wellington representatives will play Auckland at Auckland on December 25, &, \,' K. Hocken, hon. secretary of the Northern Wairoa Cricked Association, drops me a postcard stating that the association will be glad to hear from any town club desirous of visiting the Wairoa during the present season. . _ „ «_. , Although the Parnell District Football Club has figured at the bottom of the list in the winter game for some seasons, the cricket representatives of the eastern district promise to occupy a higher position in the summer game. On. the whole they are rather better favourites than Grafton for the cup. . Rumour has it that the Eden District Club has unearthed a very useful bowler m the person of Douglas, a recent addition, whose trundling abilities are highly spoken of by some of the old cricketers of the district in question. ~ . ~ The best senior match this afternoon should be that between Eden and Grafton. The teams appear to be well matched, ana although Grafton is most fancied, the wearers of the maroon and silver will take a, lot of beating. . , In junior circles most interest is centred in the meeting of Parnell 11. and Eden 11. A It is a pity thev meet when the days are so short, as the match will probably end in a draw. * Three ex-Australians, Ayles, Baxter and Douglas, make their first appearance in local cup cricket. Their movements will be closely watched. " '"*?••

An Eden junior eleven go to Holensvilla on November 9, their country friends returning the compliment at Kiugaland on Anniversary Day. The formal opening of the Kingsland cricket ground will probably take place on the King's: Birthday. The representative match, Wellington v. Canterbury, has been fixed for January 1, 2 and 4-. Some of the loading players of both provinces have made an excellent start with bat and ball, and a well-contested game may be looked forward -to.

Fish, who last season played for Gordon, will this year find a place in one of the Wellington first grade teams. Players desirous of competing in the Wednesday afternoon matches, to be carried on under the auspices of the Auckland Cricket Association, should send their names in at once to the secretaries of the district clubs. ho teams selected by the City and Ponsonby District Clubs for to-day's cup matches reached me too late for publication in Friday's Hekald and unfortunately cannot be published in the present issue, owing to the pressure on out- space on Saturdays. Secretaries desirous of having teams published on Friday mornings must;see that they reach the office not later than live p.m. on Thursdays. The North Shore and City contest should be an even fight, with odds perhaps slightly in the Shore's' favour. As the City team has seven new men in it, its strength is unknown. In Magee, Hay, Kavanagh, and Coates the team has four promising junior bowlers. Magee's bowling will be watched with interest. To take 80 wickets for 160 runs is no mean performance, even among juniors. Anderson is from England, and strikes mo as a good bat, slightly out of form. The City team is a first-rate fielding team, a3 the majority of its members are young, vigorous , fielders. Magee, Kavariagh, King, arid' Mac are all brilliant fields. ;"•'' All matches against Eden ID. B and IV. B will be played on the club's ground at Kingsland, and all matches against North' Shore District at the Devonport Cricket Ground, excepting those against the third B (Northcote), which will be played on the Domain. / Other matches will be played on the Do~'v main. All matches will begin at a-quarter past two p.m. Any side not ready by twentyfive minutes past two p.m. may lose by deiftitit.

At a meeting of the Management Committee of the Auckland Cricket Association, held on Thursday night, a letter re an inter-island match was discussed. It was decided to support the proposal, and to suggest Wellington as the most suitable place. The committee did not feci itself to be in a position to suggest a date, but decided to leave it to tho New Zealand Cricket Council.

IT. Shacklock, who some- 10 years ago , was one of tho most useful all-round men in the Nottinghamshire eleven, has taken up his residence in Dunedin. Shacklock was 42 years of age last month. v A Dunedin paper says it is almost certain that the Otago High School boys will have the benefit this season of, a good coach. It has been decided to engage Harry Graham, of Victoria, provided he will accept the terms offered, a point on which there appears to be little or no doubt, as Graham has given Major Wardill to understand that the terms are acceptable. Mr. John W. Johnson, of Denby Dale, Huddersfield (England), has been writing to a Wellington paper intimating his wdhngnoss to bring out to New Zealand a cricket team of English professionals if proper arrangements could be made with the leading dubs. Mr. Johnson thinks that he could make the tour a success if the New Zealand people would take the proposal up. The Management Committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association has been discussing tho advisability of inaugurating a district scheme. An ox-Aucklander, Mr. J. Fowke, advised the committee to go slow and see how the district scheme fared in Auckland before moving further in the matter, and it was ultimately decided to ascertain the feelings of local clubs with regard to the scheme, or any other means of improving Canterbury cricket. At a recent meeting of the Management Committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association a proposal that a representative team should tour the North was agreed to, but it was not, apparently, suggested that the trip should extend to Auckland. If I am not mistaken our Southern friends owe us a visit, and as their association is in a sound financial position they should certainly have considered tho claims of Auckland. . . A Dunedin confrere expresses the opinion that something should be done this season to sustain public interest in the game. Although wo have no Lord Hawkc's team to look forward to the writer suggests that the New Zealand council should make an effort to secure the visit of a team from Australia, not an Australian eleven, but a New South Wales, Victorian, or South Australian team. Discussing'the prospects of the New South Wales eleven against the next thirteen, to be played on Saturday next (October 31), the "Referee writer "Not Out" says there is every reason to think that New South Wales will not have a very formidable bowling combination unless some new bowler be unearthed and brought into the eleven. This does not augur well for the approaching matches between the State team and the English eleven. L. 0. S. Poidevin, who is expected to return to Sydney from . the Old Country shortly, recently added another to his list of centuries playing for London County against Bromley Town. Of a total of 195 for six wickets the young antipodean carried out his bat for 114. The form of Harry Trott, who recently opened the season with a century (102 for : United Service v. Bendigo United) is very highly commended by some Victorian writ- : ers. There arc others, however, who believe that G.H.S.T. would hardly be able to stand the severe physical strain of big cricket in the warm summer on the other side. Hugh Trumble has evidently determined to permanently retire from big cricket, as ill writing to the Referee the Victorian correspondent of that paper (''Onlooker") says: — -It had been hoped that Hugh Trumble would be induced to re-enter big cricket this season, but I am afraid we will not have tho assistance of tho famous trundler in either the inter-State or English matches." The following birthday list of the English cricketers who are now on their way to Australia will probably be found interesting. Strudwick and Fielder, being new men in first-class cricket, have not yet been included in Wisden's "Births of Cricketers,' but it may be mentioned that the latter was born at the village of Plaxtol, near Sevenoaks, on July 19, 1878:—P. F. Warner, October 2. 1073; B. J. T. Bosanquet, October 13, 1877; 11. E. Foster, April 16, 1878; T. Hayward, March 29, 1871; W. Rhodes, October 29, 1877: G. H. Hirst, September 7, 1871; A. A. Lilley, November 18. 1867; J. T. Tyldcsley, November 22, 1873; A. E. Keif, July 26, 1874: A. E. Knight, October 8, 1875; E. Arnold, November 7, 1877 - % L. C. Braund, 1376 (month not given). Warner, Bosanquct, Rhodes, and Knight will celebrate their respective natal anniversaries during the voyage" from England, Arnold, Lilley and Tyl'desley during their sojourn in Australia, . and Hayward and Foster during the return trip to England. The first public appearance of the team in Australia will bo made *at Adelaide, on the anniversary of Arnold's birthday.