CRICKET.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 26

CRICKET.

Our London correspondent writes: — The cricketing authority of tho Mornimj Leader (Mr “ Rover ”) occupied three columns the other day for what he av.-is pleased to call a “critical examination” of the Australian team as selected by Garrett, Giii’eu and Co. Like a Aviso man, lie commits himself very little, quoting freely from the Manchester Sjiorliii'i Chronicle, which in turn has made use of that excellent critic, “ Felix,” of the A urtrnlarion. Indeed, it is hard to say how much of the three columns is “Felix” and how little

“Rover.” I shall quote the hits which seem to ho the latter’s very own. First of all, “ Rover ” remarks that there is a feeling abroad that the men selected to represent Australia are not so strong as they might lie, and that they Avill not he powerful enough to hold their own against the full strength of England. He shares this feeling, and says that from a spectacular point of view it is a mistake not to include Albert Troll and Jack Lyons. “The former hurst upon an astonished Avorld during Mr Stoddarl’s lour, and in the foAV matches he played proved himself not only a safe and brilliant hat, hut a most destructive howler. Indeed, so far as mere figures go he had tho best all-round record of anyone that took part in the representative matches. Since then, however, he has failed to fulfil expectations. lam not surprised. No doubt these expectations were pitched very high, and it would have been nothing short of a miracle had the younger Trott played up to the phenomenal form he showed in the test matches. No doubt the Australians knew their own business best. At least, they ought to. But I seo no reason at all Avliy they should restrict their numbers to 13 or even 14 men. Tho hard wear and tear of an English tour is certain to knock up lavo or three of tho team, not to mention the fact that one or ail are hound to temporarily lose their form. Certain it is that on the score of expense 15 men would pay as avoll as 13, owing to the fact that the two extra men Avould probably ho Albert Trot and J. J. Lyons. The public Avould llock to see the former, avlio caused such a sensation when playing against Air Stoddart’.s team, and as for Jack Lyons, the English public cannot get enough of him and his heroic smiting. Even in big matches, avlioii everyone is anxious to see England Avin, tlie dismissal of Lyons for a small score is always regarded with a sigh of regret. Aly contention, then, is that, even supposing the Selection Committee were right in choosing 13 other men in preference to Lyons and Trott the younger, the presence of these lavo could in no way weaken the team, while it would add tenfold to the attractiveness of tho tour.” After naming the Selection Committee, “ Rover ” proceeds to a heavy-handed castigation of George Gillen, who, by the way, seems to have made many enemies among the pressmen during his last visit. See this : One would naturally have confidence in the discrimination of lluee such representative cricketers A-.ere if not knoAvn that George Gillen is a still’-neck'd, sellwiih.d, opinion,-il'-d fellow avlio will have his own way, or fading that will upset everything. Vi hen he last visited England he made it a condition ol taking purlin the tour himself that his brother ho included in the team, and one nerd not dwell upon the absolute failure oi *<i 11»•:r the younger. The team, too, was under the captaincy of George the Great, and from beginning to end there avrs a scries of squabbles, disruptions, ami displays of had temper that ended in a regular scandal. C. T. li. Turner, avlio avus one of the last party, declared that he would never visit England again under such auspices, and this no doubt accounts for the fact that the great bowler is not one of tho coming ti-.-un. lam glad to hear that Harry 1 roll is to he appointed captain of the coming combination, and I only hope that he will have sufficient strength of character to insist upon having his own way, and that he will not lie subjected to any sinister influence of rival factions. It is well known that the representatives of the three e-real colonies New South A Vales, : South Australia and Victoria —do not j always meet each other Avith the best of feelings, and it will require a mail of great determination to keep the others in their

places. . . • My great fear is that they will not have howlingahility enough. Only two of the regular howlers of the coming team have been in this country before. These are Goorgo Gillen and Trumble.

Now Gillen is a useful boAvler, but by no stretch of the imagination is he to bo compared with tho great ones which Australia lias already produced. . .

I would go further, and say that there arc at least a dozen, and probably 2D, bettor bowlers in England—at least on English Avickets. During his last visit to England Gillen was more than usually successful iu capturing 14S Avickets at an average of about IS per Avieket. During tho same season no feAver than 18 English bowlers came out Avith bettor averages then Mr Gillen. . . . My in-

tention is to sliow that if Giffen is the bust, or even anywhere, noar the best of tho coming bowlers, they will probably be in a bad way. Of course it may be, and I hope it will bo, that tho trundlers new to England will show better fo.'in over here than they have done ill their own country. This has been tho case with many of tho Australian bowlers, notably Spofforth, who in Australia never approached within measurable distance of his exploits in this country. It is rather ominous, however, that MeKibbin, on whom the Australians seem most to depend as a bowler, should have fared so badly when he played against Sir Stoddart's eleven in representative matches. Of tho other bowlers little is known beyond hearsay. As far as I can make out, the bowlers on whom Australia will rely are Giffen, Trumblo, If. Trott, Harry, McKibbin and Eadio. It is said that the eldest Trott has improved greatly in his bowling, and there was certainly plenty of room for it, seeing that during tho last visit he failed to get a wicket in the representative matches, find that during tho whole tour ho only secured GO at a cost of over 19 per wicket. Excepting tho unexpected happens, our visitors will be in a bad way for bowlers. So far as batting is concerned, I do not think that. Australia has much to fear. One of the virtues of the team will be that every man can get runs, and that the lirst eight or nine are capable of scoring centuries." THE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP. The Junior Cup matches Wellington second v. Midland second and Kilbirnie v. Rival second were won by default by the former team in each case, their opponents failing to muster an eleven. The Junior Cup, presented a year ago by Mr Duthio, M.H.U., is thus held for the next 12 months by the Wellington Club's second eleven, who are to be congratulated on their well-deserved success. This team, which won seven matches out of eight, have rattling good batsmen in Pope, Cuff, Woybourne, Wiiitehorn, .Sanderson, Hickson, Wilson and Crombie, while Luckio and Hales, two left-handers, did excellent service with the ball. The Excelsiors and Kilbirnies tie fur second place, each with six wins and two defeats. The former, who won the championship a year a<jo, for a long time had an unbeaten record, and gave promise of repeating their success, but they " burst " at the linish, losing to the Wellington second aud Wellington College at t.ht.( end of the season. A. Staples, the skipper, scored LS2 not out against tho Wesleys, which is the local " high-water mark " for all matches. 11. Staples, Hanks, Wyatt, Cole, Roymond and liannister were useful members to this Club. The Kilbirnies, whose crack bowler, Restieaux, loft for Auckland in September last, owo their improved position mainly to the good play of Topp, Uell, Baron (captain), Drummond, Mowbray, McMenainin and Hoar. They were the only team to defeat Wellington College, aud are the first aud only local team to register 200 for one wicket, which they put up against tho Midland second. Topp's 118 in this match is the only century made for Kilbirnie so far. Tho Wellington College eleven, with tivo victories and one loss, has a better percentage of wins, but played fewer matches owing to their absence during tho Christmas holiday.-;, and I.lieu taking up football a month ago in preference to playing off a final with the Wellington second. They were tho only team to defeat the champions. Mr Firth, the principal, rendered invaluable service in both branches of tho game, his splendid break bowling, backed up by a well-placed set of trim little fieldsmen, proving too good for the opposing batsmen. Jie was well seconded by Messrs Ward, Hut?, McKeuzio (captain), Haywood, Gilmer, Ivirkcaldio and Cocks. The J'etone Club, who won their first four matches and lost the next four, may be congratulated on taking fourth place at their first attempt. The following is a full t.-ible of the results:

The following are the averages of tlie Wellington Club’s second eleven, winnors of Hie Junior Championship: lI.VTTI.VO.

Tho following played in one match only:—Levers, cSI; Westou, b and 0; Hanify, 4 ; Organ, 0 (not out). Tho team played nino matches (eight being championships), and won eig.it of them. Its highest scoro was 250 against tho Thccnix roeond, and the lowest G2 against Wellington College. The highest scoro made against it was 170, by Lancaster Park second, and the lowest 27, by the Wesley team. The team scored 1771 runs for 122 wickets, an average of 14'o runs per wicket, and had 105-1 runs scored against it at a cost of 158 wickets, an average of 10'1

Tlio following also obtained wickets : Whitehorn, 1 for 11, and Wilson, 1 for 11. Pope, Hanify, Crombio and "Weybourno also bowled, but without success.

Tho final for the Third-class Championship was commenced on No. 3 wicket on alurday. Tho weather was beautifully fine, but tho wicket being dead from the recent rains, high scoring was quite out of tho question. Karon won the toss, and decided to go in first. They hatted a man short, and were dismissed in 13 overs for 18 runs (llill, 8 ; Lowe and I’inn, 3 each). Chapman bowled seven overs for 7 runs and seven wickets, Greenfield taking two for 11 on behalf of tho Kiibirnio second, who replied with 25. Emeny (captain) made G, Greenfield 4 (not out), Hutchings, Dean and Taylor 3 each. Spiers bowled 14 overs for 7 runs and six wickets, and Lowe took four wickets for 15. W lien stump: were drawn at 5.15 p.m., Kavori bad lost five wickets for 8 runs in tboir second innings. Tho match will bo resumed next Saturday.

i),-! ■;•. Club. Won. Lost. 1 Wellington second 7 1 ., ( Kxcelsior G 2 I iOiliiruiu ... ... <i 2 I! Wellington College .'» 1 !■ PeUme Unite I ... 4 'I ■ > I'li.o.iix second ... :; 5 a \iu-.a so.joixi ... a <; Milini.l second ... 1 'I :•; VVesk-y 1 5 0 fc't. Patrick's College — U

7. it. A in rx '2 o '2 a l O tlj 2 Nit in o. a 3 O -j *-» o £ 2 £ H H 11. .1. Popo 11 0 no 187 28 3 10. V. Sanderson ... li 0 82 272 19-4 \V. 11. S. Hickson... li 2 70 202 108 1L. S. Wliitaliom ... r, 1 37* 00 10-5 A. E. Wilson id o 41 101 14-9 W. J. Salmon 4 0 25 50 14-0 M. Crombie ii 1 27 97 121 T. S. Ronaldson ... 7 1 20 05 10‘S 11. Weybourne 12 1 81 114 10-3 C. Cull' 10 2 24* 78 9-7 E. 0. Halos 0 0 28 SI 93 M. F. Luckio 11 0 21 92 83 W. A Id red 0 3 7 s 18 GO W. E. Pearson 9 0 15 51 5'0 not out.

BOWLING, Nrtnio. Balls. Mdns. . Ens. Wkt. . Avt M. P. Luckie ... 1257 Gl 400 02 7'5 T. S. Eonakl&on 414 10 21! 1 27 8-0 E. 0. Hales ... 719 :-u 201 27 9'0 W.K.S.Hickson 531 1!) L'UO 18 12 7 E. V. Sanlerson 141 2 79 5 158 W. E. Pearson... 222 7 108 « IS'O C. Cuff 132 0 89 •; •J l'5