CRICKET

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

CRICKET

fBY THE “HITTITE.") At tiie resumption of cricket last Saturuay there was a large attendance of the public aud a small total in the collection boxes. There must have been a muster cf 500 onlookers, and seeing that the collection totalled £6 6s 6d the average contribution was just 3d a head. Having regard to the number of large coins in the boxes, it is fair to say that one person in every three who attended was too mean to contribute at all. The Association only “passes round the hat’’ two or three times in a season, and it is lamentable that the public which attends the games should not be possessed of sufficient generosity to respond to the few appeals when they are made.

The matches played were fairly good to watch, but the lamentable “pat, pat” which lias lately been creeping into senior cricket in Wellington was again 'in evidence. Several batsmen slaughtered time for quite a period and then retired caught in the slips lor half-a-dozen runs each, or less. A notable esce;3tion to this rule was Clarke, who laid on tho willow bard and scientifically. Present writer was glad indeed to see Clarke break the spell cf ill-luck which has pursued him this season in Wellington. His style at the wickets and his doings at the nets convinced all who watched him that he had the ability; but until the rep. match against Auckland he was always “under a cloud.”

Ashholt did some fine trundling in the match against Midland on Saturday, and showed that he Ims at last struck true form. Apropos of bowling, it may be mentioned that the Old Boys disinterred, from their ranks a good man in Douglas, who scored a fine average of five wickets for 31 runs, two of the batsmen put- out by him being such sterling man as Midlane and Waters. The promoted juniors of the Phoenix team—Hickey and Miller—have also earned their places. It is pleasing to see among the selection committees of the senior eluhs a disposition to give young players a chance to improve their mettle in big matches.

The matter oi fielding continues to he a weak point in V. oUisigton cricket. The Midlandcrs are gutd as a team in the field, hiit there no older club of which, as a whoie, the same can be said, although tficro are. brilliant individual fieldsmen in the ranks of each—uutaoly Wilson and Gore, oi Wellington, and Leslie, of the Old Bo\s. .1 .a i:io mere insistence by captains of teams on practice in inks respect, would doubtless have the desired effect.

_ .In elongated cricketer asked a diminutives ditto on S'.tnrdiy 1,"..- 1 why tho telegraph ooaid was not being looked alter. The short ,-!m told the lung one that it was the you:i*,.-i» .'s’ duty to look alter the boaul. It was not the words of the reply tle.it r,icd the questioner—• it was “the natty way V said it.’’ Thu long one expressed ms intention of kicking a portion of the short -lip'o anatomy, and was requ'-iled to give elf act to Ids thre.it. He did so, and thereupon a

fistic encounter took place which was only stopped after tue players had acted as peacemakc-s mid picked the six-foot cricketer up from his- recumbent position on the gravel. In the interprovincitl match between Victoria and New Souvn Wales umpire Crockett "called” Aiaisii no less than seventeen times. It appears mat it is tho fast howler’s slow- ball thst is suspicious. and not the fast one. as you would suspect. The public, as usual, .sirosijrly resented tho umpire’s aeiioii. and a sort of mikl domouslration set in against Inid. CroclTctk also “called 1 ’ Howard,. The crusade against bowler;- with ‘•peculiar ’ deliveries, w hich sot in strongly last y ear in England, Las evidently commenced m Australia. The statistics of. Ranjitsinjlii’s career are interesting. He has played in olevcnaside matches 297 innings, 37 tint os _nofc out, highest score 275, aggregate 1-1,702, average 50. CL Altogether the yellow book lor 1901 is just the thing for a lever of cricket. The stati.-tics,' as I. have sand, are sound and full, and the articles, too, arc very readable. It is curious what ideas do arise about catches. In a tost match at Home, Trmuhlo caught a man out in Hie slips, and was not aware of it until Trott at point appealed, and the mm was given out. “Not Out” in the Sydney ' R tferee,’ says that if eleven players were now selected to represent Australia against England, four or five who wore not members of tho last Australian Eleven, would probably got a place. Tka struggle between Dutchman and Briton is likely to be transferred front the battlefield to tho greensward. Both South African and Dutch teams are to tour in England next season. On a recent Saturadydn Christchurch wicket-keeper Bexhall caught five men behind the wickets. Tho well-known English cricketer D. L. A. Jephson, writing in Wisden’s Annual” on tho subject of English fielding, is severe. He says :—“Taken ns a whole, tho fielding in 1000 has boon bad, thoroughly bad. Aleu stand in tho field today like so many ‘little mounds of earth’ or waxen figures in a third-rate tailor’s shop. The energy, the life, the overwatchfulness of ton years ago is gone, and in their place aro lethargy, laziness, and a wonderful yearning for rest. Today a ball is driven through two so-called fieldsmen, and instead of a simultaneous rush to gather it, to hurl it to one end or the other, the two Tittle mounds of earth’ stand facing ouch other with a lingering hops in their eyes that they will not bo compelled tc fetch it. There are, unfortunately,, but a few countries regarded as sides to which the above censure does not apply.” He pays a high compliment to Hirst and Denton, of Yorkshire,’A. C. MacLarcn and Tyldesley, of Lancashire, G. L. Jessop, A. O. Jones, and Albert Trott.' Air Jephscn regards Albert as “one of the finest fields at slip or in near proximity to the wicket that t have ever seen. There is no funk there; tho big, strong bauds Hash cut, they' give with the hall, it is hold, and many a fine batsman has walked disconsolately away who would have, stayed to all eternity had ho but selected a fieldsman of discretionary valour.” In one week forty-nine fair chances wore missed, and tho 'batsmen thus favoured scored against them, ail or they had been let olf, 1,439 runs.

The greatest changes that have obovirred in the game of cricket have boon in connection with the character of the howling and of the wickets. The regular introduction of round-arm howling in the third decade brought, about, first of all, a remodelling of the shape of the hat, previously a curved, flat-faced club, into very much the form it now boars,_ details of subsequent evolution being ingenious devices of the makers and an alteration of balance to suit the development _ or play behind the wicket on the ell-side. The improvement of the wickets readied the existing acute stage within the last decade, and it has unquestionably had a marked effect upon the play. The taint of betting dees not affect cricket, and there are no appearances of its ever doing so. Like racing, however, cricket has necessarily„becomo a gate-money affair — necessarily, because of the heavy expenses entailed by the upkeep of grounds in populous neighbourhoods and by the travelling cf .teams. With spectators lining the ground several rows deep the area of play became circumscribed, and the making of long running bits-became impossible. Hence the “boundary hit, for which the batsman receives an allowance in runs without running for them.