CRICKET

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4300, 8 March 1901, Page 6

CRICKET

Our Carterton correspondent writes —Cricket seems to he dying out in the Wairarapa. The game requires practice during the wdek, besides the play on Saturdays, and for this „the majority of , country youths either Caiinot afford the i time, or have net enough interest. The > sport is, mostly confined to those employed in banks, offices and. schools. Their i cricket has been learned in big centres, but even with them the enthusiasm is languid; * The Carterton ; and G r eyto wn teams have so far met their engagements, but on two occasions Mastertcn has been unable to raise a team, and may ho classed with Kruger. In Featherston, a few votaries,, and a forty-years’ resident— ■ who pays 2s 6d for each of the enemy’s wickets captured in the first over—just manage to keep the game alive. Tlio public interest is somnolent, and although there is.no charge at the gates, the, attendance is generally confined to three men and a dog. Another obstacle is the grounds, which, from their corrugated surfaces, present no incentive to play unless the victim has joined an accident insurance company. A decade will in all probability pass before cricket is recognised as one of the chief outdoor sports in the Wairarapa.