CRICKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15513, 21 January 1914, Page 5

CRICKET.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Six rounds of the Auckland Association's senior competition have now been completed, and Grafton are still leading Eden A by a point. On Saturday two-point wins were gained by Grafton, Eden A, Waitemata, and North Shore. Wickets were again fast and true, and batsmen generally had the best of matters.

North Shore had all the best of it against Ponsonby at Dcvonport, although the suburbanites only made 133 in their first innings. Shore showed excellent form in the second innings, Howden, Prime, and Howie batting in fine style.' Worker, a promoted junior, was the best bat on the Ponsonby side, his strokes all round the wicket being well made.

At Victoria Park Waitemata notched two points very easily, although the Eden B team put up a fair performance in scoring 166.

The match between. Eden A and University was closely contested, although the aims of the two teams were different. One team was fighting for a win, whereas the other was trying to prevent this by making the game a draw. Runs came very slowly in the first half of University's innings, and when six wickets were down for 192, it was evident that only by a great effort would Eden's total of 342 be passed, and thus to equalise the game by playing out timo was as much as they' could hope for. They were unfortunate in just failing' to do this, as. the tenth wicket fell only a few minutes before the bell sounded. Eden A thus won by 66 runs on the first innings. Jacobsen &id Caradus opened for University, and by dint of rather laboured batting, put on 51 for the first wicket. One of the team's most reliable mainstays, Airey, failed to get going, and was dismissed by Cummings for three. With the advent of Player, the scoring became freer, and when he was partnered with Taylor, who played a very useful innings for 19, the field was kept busy. Sixty was added to the score before Taylor fell a victim to one of Brooke-Smith's tempting balls. Simitar balls, however, were treated with scant respect oy Player, who lifted two in succession right on to the bank for six. Player deserves credit for his fine performance on Saturday. As from the beginning of the season he has shown much keanness and has made some useful stands, though at times he has appeared to lack confidence. He is a lefthand batsmen, and has a variety of good strokes, but he could put more power into some of them.

Sutherland commenced carefully, but he proved to be a stayer, and on the whole he gave a uice exhibition of free cricket, although he gave a chance early in his innings- The old Oxford bine, Rev. Colvile, made things merry while he lasted, and in one of Brooke-Smith's overs he hit 14. He has a peculiar style, as when the ball is about to leave the bowler's hand he stands upright, lifting the bat to his shc-nlder ready for the tremendous hit with which he greets nearly every ball. The first time he did this trick the bowler thought he was not ready and stopped while his hand was in the air.

Goulding only added two., but the last man in, Fenv.ick, was holding his wicket up well, while Sutherland was quickly putting on. the runs. Much excitement prevailed at this stage, as both men were batting weD, and Eden had ten minutes in which to break the partnership, and so win the game. The honour fell to Cummings, who had been bowling very well all the afternoon, for a good ball shattered Sutherland's wickets and the student's hopes.

Grafton scored an easy two-point win over Parnell at Eden Park. With four wickets down for 149, Graiton continued their innings, E. MacCormick (30) and Patterson (5) being the not out men. Both players met the bowling with confidence, and put on 95 runs. Patterson played stylishly for his 46, his driving being very good. MacCormick, who scored slowly, could find no other batsman to stay with him for any length of time. Parnell had 133 to get in two hours to save a three-point defeat. Crawford and Moore opened, but only 9 had been scored when the veteran Stemson beat Moore nicely with one of his breaks. Breese had a short life, and then came Anthony, who commenced very well. Hill was then given a turn with the ball, and the last ball of his opening over was skied almost straight above his head, while the bat was flung many yards out into the field. Burns, who made top score in the first innings, then joined Crawford, who was still batting solidly. Burns opened freely, hitting two fours to the leg boundary off Stemson. A little later Crawford hit a ball from Haresnape hard to the outfield, where Hill brought off a brilliant running catch Doble joined Burns, but after scoring 6 was bnlhantly caught by Stemson, who was fielding close in at coverpoint. Parnell had now passed Grafton's total, and Burns and Slater together played out time

WEDNESDAY FIXTURES. Following are the Wednesday Associations fixtures for this afternoon*:—

Permanent Force v. Bakers, at Devonport ground. Waterside default to Karangahape. Post and Telegraph v. Tramways at Victoria Park. ' Teams: —

,t- \ k r e Tf (players catch 1.40 p.m. boat) : n-„ H 1>„ • Farrant . B. Arneil (2) A Ball, A. Home, B. Waddell W Willie Somerville, H. Horspool Hewitt, Love' Preston. Post and Telegraph : Osborne, Warner, Coates, Moffatt, Schofield, Little Mackio O'Brien (2) Keeley, Hariey, Vlnnimore! Davis, MulvihiH Lonergan Tramways: W Spiers, W. Calder, J. Bennett, J. Moody J. Copley, I, Martin, O. Astle. W. Bright. P. Carr, J. Hudson G. Muter; reserves J , Ryan, J. Nixon M. Wallace, H. Edwards, !>,. Fisher.

NEW ZEALAND TOURING TEAM.

NOTES BY ONE OF THE PLAYERS.

Melbourne, January 12. Our match with Victoria has ended in disaster to our side. Why wo could do no better is quite a. mystery to me, because at practice we have been showing very good form. However, we could not reproduce it in the match, and the fast bowler McDonald, had all our batsmen in trouble. The ball would appear to be coming along nicely for a square cut, and when we made our stroke we found that all we could manage to do would be to snick the ball into slip's or the wicketkeeper's hands. These fast wickets play the very deuce with us, and we are only now realising that in. order to make a square cut it is necessary for us to shape as if we intended despatching the ball m the direction of mid-off. R eeS e and Hickmott, who were the only doublefigure scorers in the first innings, were badly dropped by Armstrong in the slips before they had reached doubles. Hickmott, however, shaped exceedingly well. Snedden tried to place a fast full toss and missed it, and down went his leg stump Hemus tried to force a wide ball on the' leg side and it glided off the back of the bat into the slips. Taylor was batting well when he ran for a. second run and was smartly run out. Carlton told him there were two runs in the hit and Leslie took it for granted without taking the precaution of judging for himself.

Victoria's score was quickly amassed, and there was some bright batting by Heather, Matthews, Willis and Kiernan. Oar fielding was bad, owing to the speed at which the ball came off the ground. Snedden bowled well, -but started off inauspiciously, 15 being hit from his first two overs. Taylor was not tried. Bobinson is our star bowler on these fast wickets, and he makes the ball bump more than anyone we have yet seen. He is not as fast as Scott or McDonald, but rises more. Sandman was quite good with the ball, and disposed of Armstrong with a beautiful one-handed catch. Matthews is a peculiar batsman. He is slightly bigger than C. 01 iff, and he hits like fun on the off, and he plays a stroke on the legside sometimes by putting the bat behind his legs—it is a genuine cut to leg. Snedden and Taylor fielded as well as anyone on our side.

Our second innings was bright but short. Snedden batted beautifully, and brought his masterly off drive into full play. He received qujte an ovation on reaching the half century. Tuck-well gave a finished and Taylor was stylish. Hemus was going well until a ball rolled back from his foot on to the wicket. The public are very keen followers of every little point in the game, and poor Boxshall was singled uut fur special attention. He was unfortunate enough to miss a few balls early, and thenceforth had a bad time from the crowd. However, his display was bv no means bad !

All the fellows are well, and no one has suffered any accident yet on the fieldWe have added another scalp to our collection, this time that of Albury, which match we won by an innings. Our batting was better than in previous matches, but it was rather flattered by the mediocre bowling. Snedden batted really well for top score, 89, and his off drives were very nicely timed and placed. He gave no chances. Hemus (69) made his runs quickly, and with Snedden added over 100 for the second wicket— only partnership of 100 on the tour as yet. Taylor scored his 31 in flawless style, running out to the slows with the confidence of a testplayer. Bennett made 56 by labour strokes, off drives and straight drives finding the square-leg fence. Carhop (44) batted steadily and well. He uses a bat weighing nearly 31b, but he never cuts. Our bowling was not very deadly on the matting wicket. Snedden, however, did well in the first innings, he bowled 10 overs for 9 runs and three wickets. .T. Carlton two for 6 and Hemus two for 8 were successful. The wicket played very well, but the outfield was rather rough. The weather was very hot and the bar on the ground was patronised very extensively by our team. . We were all greatly impressed with Albury. It is a pretty town and nicely laid'out. The inhabitants looked after us well, and on the Sunday we were the guests of Mr. Reg. Power at his station. Wo played tennis and had a swim in the river 'Murray. Snedden and Taylor showed great promise with the racquet.

M.C.C. IN SOUTH AFRICA.

GOOD BOWLING BY BARNES. By Telegraph— Association— Capetown January 19. In the match between Griquaiand West and the M.C.C. the latter' first innings totalled 346 (Hobbs 141, Hearae 81). Griqualand West's first innings realised 75 Barnes took five wickets for 22, and Relx live for 2A. In the second innings the home team made 170 {Ling 63). Barnes again took five for 22. The visitors won accordingly by an innings and 101 runs.

TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND.

AUSTRALIAN BOARD'S ATTITUDE. V By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright. Sydney, January 20. . - The Daily Telegraph understands that | the Board of Control will place no restraint on players wishing to accompany 'line team for New Zealand, organised by Mr. A. Sims, but will subsequently deal with the Cricket Council for overlooking the board's authority. The newspaper says the players were determined to go whatever the board decided. NEW PLAYERS SELECTED. [BY. Tl-XEGRAFII. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Chbistchtjech, Tuesday. Sir. Arthur Sims states that Collins and Mailey, of Sydney, have accepted an invitation to join the Australian team for New Zealand. The former is one of the most promising batsmen in Australia, and this season has been a very consistent rungetter. He scored a century against the New Zealand team in their match with New South Wales, and in inter-State matches has a good average. Mailey is a bowler of the " googlie" type, who is eventually expected to replace Dr. Hordern. Mr. Sims also states that another player or two may be added to the list, as he has found it will be almost impossible for himself to "play through the tour I owing to pressure of business.