General Gossip.

NZ Truth, Issue 139, 15 February 1908, Page 3

General Gossip.

, The Englishmen's present tour m Australia has brought to light „one or two English batsmen who would not have otherwise been so considered for matches on English soil. These are the Notts pair, G. Gunn and J. Harflstaff. In olden days they had the noble savage but to-day the cricket cranks speak only of the Noble batsifian— particularly when he is scoring well. On the authority of Connolly himSelf, there is absolutely no foundation for the statement which has found- wide currency that m the event of the finals of the senior chamship being fought v oiit by M/idland and Old Boys, he . would be found playing m the ranks of the former. Connolly has the reputation of being a real good sport, and he wishes it to be known that Petone oniy ■w'euM have the call on his services. Clem Hill has been elected a member of the Stock Exchange at Adelaide. M. A. Noble -has figured m morevery big partnerships m intercolonial or inter-State cricket than any other man. He has made more hundreds m these, matches than anyone else , and he has a bigger average per innings than anyone else. The fickleness of a sporting crowd is proverbial, amd expressions of sentiment are accepted* for what they are worth by the .idql'of the hour— that is, if he be not too susceptible to flattery, and his caput is not too enlarged. But there was a gemime ring about the resonant "Good Old Mary Ann" which floated across- the sward from the Man on the Hill, when M.A. Noble ran into his tenth cenfury against the Victorians. Tho demonstration amounted' to an ovation, and bordered on the thrilling. It befitted the occasion, and was a thoroughly, well-merited tribute to the greatest Australian cricketer of this or any other age. Figures, like money! talk. Scarcely less enthusiastic was the greeting of Syd. Gregory by the PaviJionites at the close of the day's play. "Little Tich r? is a popular Dlayer, and everybody— barring his detractors, of course — was delighted to see him doing ;so well. Lor 1 luv me, if he is a has-been, please give me eleven of 'em. The more one sees of the umpiring m lorol senior ..cr-iclcet the less is he imnrcsoil with it, more especially when a reputed strone team is opposed to an outside or younger team- . ,

A most notable incident on Saturday was the compilation, of a cen-' tury and over by three ex-Victorians viz., Patrick 107; not out for Midland, Hodge 104 not out, and Spottiswoode 100 for G-as Company. Seeing that there are only five or six ex-Victorians . playing senior cricket m Wellington it makes the performance all the more unique. Brace, fielding at cover-point on Saturday, took a ball driven low down by Beechey and appeared thunderstruck (and so were afewothersV when the umpire ruled "not out." At one of the early matches contested by the representatives of N.S.W. and Viotoria, the applause given for the downfall of a Victorian wicket was so tumultuous as to frighten a cab-horse, which bolted amongst the spectators, so severely injuring six of them as to necessitate their removal on stretchers to the Hospital. By notching 315 for the fourth Cornstalk wicket "m the recent New South Wales v. Victoria Inter-State match, Noble and Gregory established a record for any wicket m Australian first-class cricket, beating by one run Hayward and Maclaren's 314 for the first wicket against N.S.W. m 1903. The world's record for the fourth wicket is 448, by T. Hayward and R. Abel, for Surrey against Yorkshire m 1889. At the Sydney Cricket Ground what time the Victorian willow-wielders were m the Metropolis, the rain which came down m bucketfuls was responsible for a frog chorus of "Frah, Frah, Frail," m baritone and basso notes, the frogs ' themselves being somewhere inside the cricket enclosure. J. Humphries/the English stumper, may undergo an operation after the test matches are finished. His skipper is already booked for the same ordeal. , Says the "Sportsman's" cricket scribe of Tarrant's , second strike m the Victorcia-iN.S.W. Inter-State tussle : "Tarrant had been batting shrs Bmin. for 129. MDu-ly s^ear words are adequate to describe the most painful, lifotess, and uninteresting exhibition ,of batting that I have ever seen m a first-class wicket against mediocre bowling. The display was not illuminated by a single flash of brilliancy, and such batting would soon kill the l ''jga.^e" as dead as Julius Caesar. No wonder such a few people were present. Away to perdition with, such batting, say t. Fancy 5 hours, for 129. Sickening ! ain't it ? A friend of Alec Bannerman remarked to him, ' l Why, Alec, he- is slower even than you were." Alec, with that, fellow-feeling that makes us wondrous kind, replied, "Never mind son, he is a fine bat."" D' n such fine bats ; two days watciiing him is enougb, to drive a man barmy. There is an anti-Australian section m Australian cricket, who would not now have P. A. McAlister m a Test match at any price. When analysed, Mac's performances are much better than cold figures Buggest. The sub-committee appointed by the Canterbury Crjcket Association to make arrangements regarding the professional coach is making its preparations. So far about £160 a year for three years has been promised towards the "Coach Fund," but greater efforts will be made to raise the balance. When this is m sight, communications with Lord Hawke will be entered into. When New South Wales and Victoria lined up for their first cricket contest m 1856, a disagreement arose as to choice of innings,, the Cornstalks claiming first say as they were the visiting team. This was eventual- v ly conceded to them, and they sent Viotoria m to bat ; a practice followed by nearly all the clubs of the day. In the late seventies many clubs did the same, the argument being that it was the best plan to see what the opposing team could do, and shape your play by the score to be made. From an art union it is expected tbat the' Canterbury Cricket Association will net about £200, which will *be devoted to recouping the guaran tors their loss m the two matches, Canterbury versus Marylebone Cricket Club. ■ : • Cricket crowtis on the other side often have a quaint way of pronouncing surnames. They called Frank Layer, Larver ; Bosanq-uet, Bosankey ; J. R. Mackay, Mackie ; and so on. In England P. J. de Paravicini's name tied up the London, as well as the provincial, crowds. That player tells the story :— When I first played at Sheffield, the crowd near me m the" long field began to amuse themselves by pronouncing* the name m various ways, and suggesting improvements on iti At last a man called out to me, "I say, where doesv this Paraphernalia, or Parafinc, or whatever you call him, come from ? What is his nationality ?" I said, "I don't know, but I: should think he was very likely Scotch." During the course of the presenta- ' tion of bats to the best performers of the Otago team on its recent northern tour, Mr C. R. Smith, who \ recently returned from a trip to Sydney, stated that . there was every prospect of a New South Wales team" visiting New Zealand next year. Tarrant, the Anglo-Australian, does not like the granite-like pitches. His trundling has accumulated pace. On English wickets he is a slow bowler. The Imperial Triangular Contests suggested by Abe Bailey are threesided, with England holding two sides, South Africa one, and Australia out m the cold. Writing of the Inter-State matches between New South Wales and Vie toria, it is interesting to recall that the third Ma State combination dined with the Governor at Toorak, and not being used to such company one of the players, observing some blancmange on the table, said, "Pass some of that shivery-shaky stuff along here." His plate was filed, and, taking a huge mouthful, he was so astounded at its coolness that he ejected it right into the Governor's lap, amidst the roars of laughter from all present. Beats Tom Cross and the kerosene stove incident at N.%. Government House on the eve of the British-New Zealand match all to pot. Heavy betting took place before the start of the first match between New South Wales and Victoria.played m Melbourne m 1856. odds were 2 t o 1 against N.S.W., but when the Victorians were outed for 63, the wagering veered round ' to 3to 2 on N.S.W., who led by 13 on the first hand. N.S.W. required 16 runs to , win, but lost no less than 7 wickets m getting that number. In the next match played on the Sj'dney Domain the Victorians were favorites m the | betting, &IGQQ to £1000 being bet ©n i

them.. The homers, however, won by 65 runs.

The sixth 'match, was characterised by a dispute between the Victorian professionals and the amateurs, m consequence of which the eleven was composed of professionals only. The match nearly had a tragic ending. A decision against one of the Sydney players gave great dissatisfaction, and the crowd gathered round the Victorian^ tent. One of the mounted police, with more zeal than discretion rode into the crowd, bruising several. They became indignant at this treatment, and a riot appeared imminerft ; but the absence of any missiles to throw at the police prevented any aggressive action. One of the Rangitikei nomads who for the most part hail from Marton and have been playing a series of matches m Canterbury, is Butterworth, a member of the famous Harlequin Club, and who, when at Oxford, just missed his 1 blue. He is a line, free 'bat, wifti characteristic English style, plays well forward, with a beautiful off-drive past coverpoint. M. A. Noble has made 32 hundreds m first-class cricket, and is likely to make many more before he lays finally down the willow. In the 28th ■ Inter-State match the Victorians took umbrage at some remarks made by Murdoch m reference to the umpiring, and refused to attend the banquet given m ' their honor. While at the wickets N.S.W. put up 775, Murdoch making 321 cf these. His, innings had oMv one fiuw m it, and, he was then 120. Sammy •Jones, who is now coaching the young cricketers of Auckland m the way they should play, was credited with 109 and Garrett 163. M.A.N. is the fourth Australian to compile two hundreds m an InterState, and the fifth to compile two m a first-class match. It was done by V.' Trumper m England, and J. R. M. Mackay, C. J. Eady, and D. R. A. Gehrs m Inter-State matches. It is strange that the two biggest innings Syd. .Gregory has played m first-class cricket should each be 201, and each played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. ; For Thornb.ury v. Bath four years ago, E. M. Gtace's bowling received sensational treatment. The match proper was over early, and "E.M." purposely kept himself on, thinking that, as.Thornbury would, m any case, be m" the field until time was up, it would be pleasant to have "fireworks" instead of "keeps." The result was that Bath hit up 46G for the loss of six wickets m 100 minutes, W. Hyman making 359 not out. At one period he scored 62 from two consecutnve overs— 32 oft one and 30 off the other. Altogether, Hyman punished the "little Doctor" for thir-ty-two 6's ! Every man to his own style. In the late inter-State game Tarrant made 20fi m 7£ hours, S. Gregory 201 m 4| hours against better length bowling- , . Apropos of Ta)bDy Wynyard's hit which produced 10 on Saturday, Billy Quee, playing for Oriental against Tradesmen some seasons ago, scored 11 by one strok/e, the victim being Teddy Kirkland. Of this number 8 were, run out and an overthrow produced\the rest. Brice, the Petone skipper, did a sportsmanlike, action on Saturday. Lomax, the Old Boys' batsman, got him away to leg m the Ellice-strcet corner. The ball, however, was stopped by a small 'boy, who returned it to a T\?tone fieldsman unknown to Lomax. He would have been runout but for the fact that Brice drew his attention to the matter. Little things like this bring out the sporting qualities of a man. - During tho progress of the Wellington v. Midland game, the older club's representatives were guilty of some awful mulling of catches. A Mi^ttnipr eventually hit the ball over the fence, and it was nicely taker, by a spectator who happened to be viewing events from outside the enclosure. The crowd applauded the feat, and by its demonstration pointed out to 'the fieldsmen how catches should be effected. Harti^an, the cricketer, does not actually belong td Queensland, having gone there but recently from New South Wales. Usually Queensland makes a point of rejecting New South Wales and all ,its works, but it quickly hugged Hartigan to its bosom, and if he had not revealed hamself as a New South Welshman at the Town Hall the other day, Queensland would have been as secret as the grave concerning his nonnativeship of that great and glorious State, etc.