CRICKET COMPETITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19177, 17 November 1925, Page 6

CRICKET COMPETITIONS

SECOND SATURDAY'S PLAY. BATSMEN IN GOOD FORM. FOUR CENTURIES SCORED. The outstanding features of the second Saturday of the cricket season were the number of good batting performances. The three Aucklanders who will make the trip to Australia with the New Zealand representative team, H. Gillespie, Da ere and Allcott, were in good form. The fact that no fewer than four centuries were scored during the afternoon indicates that batsmen found the wicket to their liking. It also creates the impression that local cricket will improve pronouncedly as the season advances. Six batsmen —three senior and three junior grade players—have already reached the century mark this season. Thus there is reason for optimism, especially when it is considered that last year the first two centuries were not obtained until the fourth day. Three of the batsmen who gained the distinction on Saturday were Auckland Association players. Horspool made 133 not out, and Mills 131 not out, while the Leys Institute fourth grade player, Whitley, knocked up 100 against King's College and then retired. D. Stotter, who was the fourth cricketer to pass the century, by compiling 110 for R.V. against Harbour Board in the senior grade, is the first Suburban Association player to reach the century this season. Gillespie's 90 for Eden against Parnell, at the King's College ground, was a fine performance. He and Mills opened, as usual, for Eden and defied all kinds of bowling for 95 minutes, during which they put on 145 runs. Then a mis-hit by Gillespie was caught at extra mid-on. Up to this stage Gillespie had given every promise of adding considerably to his total. This is the second time he has narrowly missed the century in the early part of the cricket year, as on the third day of last season he carried his bat for 93. Dacre's Attractive Batting. Once Dacre, the North Shore captain, satisfies himself that the bowling can be hit, he gives an exhilarating display of vigorous batting. Such was the case in the North Shore-Grafton match at Devonport. In aiding his team to earn a twopoint win he put on 68 in a rapid manner, the spectators being particularly pleased when he drove the ball beyond the limits of the domain and then made six off the next delivery. Ailcott took four wickets for Grafton at a cost of 90 runs. The wicket was not in his favour and he was against good batsmen. He also batted well, making 20 and 23, respectively. In this game North Shore had victory always in sight, thanks to the valuable hatting of Frater, top-scorer with 71. Dacre. f!errard and Monteith, who all contributed more than 20 runs each toward the total of 256 in answer to Grafton's 162. Withers was the best Grafton bowler on the day, taking three wickets for

34. More confidence was shown by Grafton in their second venture, but their 213 runs for six wickets came too late to alter the issue. Horspool was outstanding in his solid defence and used a variety of nice strokes to bat all through the innings for 133. Besides Allcott, the only other men who got to double figures were Goodwin and Wilson. Townsend finished with the good total of five wickets for ! 73 s in the two innings. " Fine Display by Eden. Eden's reputation as a batting side was well maintained against Parnell. Most of ihe credit was due to their fine opening pair, Mills and Gillespie, who will be remembered for their record first-wicket score of 441 last season. All Parnell's efforts to penetrate their defence' was futile until McCoy was put on to bowl for the second time. He solved the problem where seven other bowlers had failed, as Gillespie soon raised a ball to Anthony.

Mills "had not been so venturesome as his partner and his tally stood at 48 when Gillespie was dismissed". However, when joined by the following batsmen, the. left-hander began to hit out and showed his aggressiveness by notching a six, 10 boundaries, three threes and 12 twos. He ■was still baiting attractively when the innings closed at- 280 for four wickets, as with Paraell's 234. Eden's feat in passing Parnell's large total with six wickets in hand was very creditable. Mills has demonstrated that he is in splendid form. He is a colt who would justify his inclusion in the New Zealand team." and is the type of player who would learn a great deal in Australia. Bat lor Firs'i Century. A closely-contested game resulted from the meeting of University and Ponsonby. In their first effort to surpass Ponsonby's first innings total of 120 University failed by 11 runs, and after Ponsonby had visited the wicket for the second time University were faced with the task of knocking up the 135 runs required for a .three-point victory in an hour and threequarters. Wells, who batted first instead of last os in the previous innings, was assoevted with Bannister and McDougall in some useful scoring, but not until R. Garrard joined McDougall were University's hopes given firm foundation. Garrard put plenty of strength into his strokes and compiled 65 runs in a little over half-an-hour. This gave University a three-point win. Snedden, the Ponsonby captain, was hatting convincingly in the second innings when he paid the penalty of taking a remote chance of adding an extra run. to. the- 40 which he had already scored. McLeod improved on his first score of 20 by five runs and* Smith repeated his earlier venture by again notching 23.

Of the bowlers Saunders and Garrard "were the most successful for University. Bnedden did not approach his average of the previous Saturday and Newdick was eimilarlv affected.

There was a close contest between Anthony, the Parnell veteran, and Professor Burbidge, of the University second grade team, for the honour of winning the Auckland Association's bat for the first century of the season. Professor Burbidge, who played in the University senior team last season, proved successful through scoring the first 100 of his total of 132 on the opening Saturday against Eden, nearly an hour before JAnthony succeeded in doing so. The improvement work being carried out at Eden Park is taking longer than was expected. It will be some time before the area in front of the pavilion is ready for play but the association expects to stage one of the senior grade matches on .No. 1 wicket next Saturday. THE FRANKLIN COMPETITION. [BV TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] PUKEKOHE, Monday. * The Franklin Cricket Association's competition was continued on Saturday, in rather miserable weather. Waiuku A beat Ma'uku by 68 runs to 50. For Waiuku, Arkle made 14 runs and Harvey 12, while, in bowling, 11. Hay took seven wickets for 17 runs, and Waters three for 11. For Mauku, Mulgan 15 runs, and Mo we 10, were the leading batsmen, and in the bowling, Mulgan took eight wickets for 34 runs. Pukekohe High School, 80 runs for four •wickets, McKinnon 29, G, Lawrie 23, C. Lawrie 15 not out, beat Waiuku B, 76 runs, by seven wickets and four runs. For Waiuku B, Howden made 20 runs, Chatfield 12, Cooper 11. and Wright 10. The Pukekohe A v. Pukekohe B match resulted in a draw. Pukekohe A batted first and compiled 183 .runs. Pukekohe B liad scored 74 for seven wickets when stumps were drawn. Dazeley (Pukekohe L) was the leading batsman, scoring 33 suns not out, •

THE NEW ZEALAND TEAM,

PROPOSED MATCH ABANDONED.. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Monday. It is now practically certain that the departure of the New Zealand cricket team for Australia will be delayed until next week. The team was to leave by the Ulimaroa this week, but as that vessel is still delayed in Sydney, the cricketers will most likely travel by the Makura, leaving Wellington about Tuesday of next week. Hope, of Manawatu, who has been mentioned as a likely candidate for the remaining place in the New Zealand team, has been showing good bowling form. Last Saturday he took five wickets lor three runs and on the previous Saturday six for 39.

The Wellington Cricket Association decided this evening that, on account of the uncertainty of the date of departure of the New Zealand team for Australia, that the proposed Wellington-New Zealand match should be abandoned.