Senior Championship Competitions.

NZ Truth, Issue 180, 28 November 1908, Page 3

Senior Championship Competitions.

") Saturday's Results.

Some surprises marked the conclusion of the third round of the Senior Championships, Waiwetu beatiae Y.M.O.A-, and Midland outing Petone by a respectable margin. . The winners m each instance notched a' three-point win. Wellington and Old Boys gained a' two-point victory over Gasworks and. Newtown respectively. . Scores for ".he several contests were as follows :-r-Midlarid lj)6 and 5 for 138 (innings declared closed) y. Petone 117 and 8.9 ; Old Boysj 30H v.' New town 77 and 110 for 8 wickets ; Wellington, 2b4 v. Gasworks, 109 and 158 for 6 wickets; Waivcbu. 91 and 108 v. V.M.C.A., l»2 and 85. . The . result . of the Midland-Petone match — «. win outright for tbevformer— was very gratifying., to that club's supporters, inasmuch as Dame Fortune had placed it m ■ a losing position on the first day. The wicket was much slower and easier than', on the previous Saturday, and the Midland batsmen quickly took advantage of, the fact.'.,- Petone, on the other haW, gave, a poor, "display, for which, however, i the brilliancy of the "Mid's" fielding was m a great measure responsible. . .Bruce, who bat.ted' much more confidently than usual, was the -.star artist on the Midland side. It is questionable whether he has ever plajed a sounder innings. His main; scoring strokes were on and off drives, .sandwiched with, an occasional big leg- bit. „ Bruce does not seem to get enough power, into his cutting, but his driving is decidedly forceful though with ILL tie apparent effort. Arnold Williams gave one of his characterietic dfeplnys, driving and leg-hit-ting as " powerfully , as ever. Considering it was praccicaliy impossible to get more 'than "two for an off drive or leg bit on one side owing to the length of the grafts, bin rate of scoring, 48 m 50 minutes was prei*y. rapid. He gave no actual chance, but. m forcing the game, one or tv,o hits fell m close proximity to fieldsmen. • , ' ■ Bruce and ..Williams added 80 runs for the third wicket, eight runs more than that recorded m the Brice— Cates partrtip m Petone's first innings. Cobcrolt , did not mana&e Ms howling ate happily as usual. Brice was kept on too long, whereas .Connolly,, on the otner hand, wight have been bowled morei as be was t=he only bowkr to seriously tr«ubl« the batsmen. Midland's innings was declared closed after if Lours batting, with five down for 138, leaving Petone 128 runs to fret, m one hour 50 minutes. Evidently Coberoft thought ihe task beyond his team's powers, as the Petone batsmen played inauly on tbe defensive, Brice particularly playiJi-- 1 m a style that would have done credit to Cobcroft himself. In this I t in" ' c one s tactics were wrong- a good partnership between two i rigorous hilt rs such as Brice. and Isher- | wood might have enabled' Petone to pull ' eff a tfcres-point win, and, at any rate, I would •-eriaiiily have gone a long way) towards disorganising tbe "Mids'' out i cricket. Further, few hitters haves ability to depart from their ' natural game without disaster. As it was the innings closed at 10 past six for 69, leaving , the Mids. winners " by 58 runs, with twenty mioiites to spare. The batting of the Petone men does not call for much comment. Cobcroft and brice looked well set when their oaceerß were ended by good catches, both taken by Joss ftianson. Joyce got into doubles bat never at any time seemed •emfortabfe. , . Barber snowed a . disposition , ; to hit, but, after two " or'" three good drives, picked the wrong bail and retired pavilionwar^s. Barker should . score more freely than he does, as he has a gopd eye aad is not frightened to 'hit, but he is handicapped by a faulty stand at the wickets. Charlie Mitchell, for the Mids, was the destroying angel; his performance, seven for 10 on an easy batting wicket, takes a lot of beating;. Charlie's bowling did not seem at all difficult from the Press box, but he varied his pace cleverly and every now and then swung m awkwardly Tvith the wind. - Uphain plugged" away at one end, but, Kke Brke, found the gale too strong to do much danger to the opposition. Tbe widket was too slow for Ryan, who, however, was not bowling so well as on tht previous Saturday. The Petone team deserve a line for the sportsHianlifce way it played the game. Hot a minute was wasted throughout the game. Such an action is refreshing after witnessing the scientific waste of time adopted week altoi week by some teams is tb« competition. It was certainly gfently appreciated by their opponents. A feature of the Petone's second inn-" ia>j* was the magnificent fielding of the Mids, which was reminiscent of the club's best days Mot a mistake was hw.de throughout. Manson, Bruce, and Wvn svard. excelled themselves, while Williams, behind the wickets, was up to his his hast standard. Patrick has dropped out of the Midland team, having accepted an appointment m Masterton. Tod Sloan, a lightweight attached to the Old Boys stable, 'filled Jiis place on the field, and proved an abl2 substitute. ' Things promised to be exciting m the second innings of the Waiwetu-Y.M C.A., i an account of the Young Men having a I one run advantage on the first knoo. ' J Waiwetu's second innings was remarkable for the fine stand put up by Staples (28) and Rogers C 29) for the fourth wicket. They batted to such advantage ac to leave their team a good chance for a three-point victory, and on the fall of the eighth wicket at 108, Judd, having cenfidence m nis bowling, and knowing the vagaries of .the wicket, elected to close the innings, giving Y.M. 's a couple •f hours to sequre the runs. Grinapett's tripe , accounted for four Waiwetu scalps for 30. while Owens bagged three for .thirteen. The" wicket rl iyed hetter m the second innings, but "The Christians" failed to hold "their end up, excepting Wilson (22), Roberts (18), and McKay (17), all of whom played a fine innings, failed miserably. ■ ' - ■ . Rogers (five for 39) and Fringle (five tor 26) accounted' for the low tally registered, and had all the batsmen scratching their Vponums." ■The V.M.'s tried three stumpers m the second innings, and the result was 24 byes. Moral : Don't experiment with your stick-keepers.. • Dad Burton was bowled first ball In the second innings, but made up for it by brilliantly ' catching • young Tilyard tfhen tie left-hander was starting to ature we'l, The town team found that "book" strokes did not pay at Waiwetu, and it mifcbt be good advice to other town players not to play at the pitch off the liall, but wait for developments, which are Mire to happen. , Old Boys v. Newtown fixture, as was generally expected, ended m a very easy win for tbe former team by 232 runs on the firat innings. Had it not been fot ttm shocking fielding of the Old Boys, they would bave three points to tbe'r credit instead of two. ! The Jpast said about the batting (Ijs*ky of Newtown the better. ' It was

tame, indeed, with -the exception ol Alpe, Laws, Eady, Carruthers. The rest, with perhaps H. Day, would find it hard work to find a place m one of the junior elevens, that is, of course, judging by Saturday's exhibition, Alpe is m capital form this season, and was batting well until, he . attempted to hit a leg ball of Tucker's over the Band Rotunda. Unfortunately for Alpe, the ball only went about half way, and Wills brought oK a nice catch. Laws, so far, has not. got going. Saturday's strike vCaa patchy, but no doubt Fred will come to l'ght shortly and give the fieldsmen something to do. Eady, who hails from the suburbs of London, made his first appearance to colonial spectators m this match. He plays acleap, straight bat, and, with a little more practice, will be a decided help to Newtown, as he has stacks of patience. The way, however, he treated Tucker's slows was painful, seemingly being quite content to stop them instead of punishing them mercilessly. Ken Tucker has seldom chucked down such rubbish, and the Newtown batsmen should have, pelted it all over the cricket area. Mason and Monaghan trundled well but did not receive the support from the fieldsmen that one expects from Old Boys. . V_ Wellington failed to score a threepoint win against Gas Co. ' 'Twas a good game, but on the quiet side. Gas Co. scored 107 m their first innings, Waugh top scoring with 36 not out. He went right through the innings, and displayed sound defence. Waugh was missed at point by Dakin, and he was also -given not out when palpably stumped off \Nasli.;. -Hodge got 16 m his usual fashion and eventually patted a half-volley back to Miller and retired. Artie Hawthorne was shaping with a lot of his old dash until his -timber yard was knocked down with a good 'un from Nash, which swung m nicely ' from the off. Payne /was tilted oy a long 'hop, "which he tried to place somewhere ,m the vicinity of the artillery barracks. Len McKay placed vigorously for his tally, hitting well to the on side.. He had bad luck m playing a very short one from Stan Hickson -on to bis wicket. The other batsmen never looked like getting rjiras, though the 'call which, got rid of Topp was a fair bosker . In their second .crack, Gasworkers showed to much better advantage, losing six for 160 At one time there were four down for a small contribution. Hull played nicely for his tally, and Home fine carpet drives were executed off his bat. . Wauph attempted to hit 'a full toss to leg, which swung m and hit the back of his bat. and the ball flew into the slips, where Vare made a "stiff" catch. Topp was bowled with another good ball. He had bard "cheese.- m bumping up against two clinking balls m one' day. Hawthorne fend Dredge, by fine cricket, raised the score, and after- Arty's dismissal to a splendid catch by Murphy at deep mid-off, Hodge continued to play but surely. He badly wants the assistance of a bellows, being, winded m running a single. Hodge was missed at fine leg from an easy catch by Finiayson fielding as substitute for Martin Luckie. Had there been an appeal the probability is that the Gasworker would have been given ' out for obstructing Mahony by hitting i tlifc hall away from him, when he (Mahony) ran out to pick it up. The ball was about three yards up ■ the pitch, so Hodge could not be doing the tbing for the purpose of defending his wicket. It was a pomt,and pointers are always dealt with m this paper, no matter who or what they are. Payne slogged up 36 m about 25 minutes. He has one stroke which might go to long-on, 'and it might go to long-leg, * but all the same it gets , runs. Payne- was not out with Hodge at the finish, and was going strong, albeit the bowling was tired. ' Millet bowled finely for Wellington, and finished up with six for 28 yinv m the first innings, and four for 39 m the second. The balls he _bowled Torcp with were real beauties. Miller should get plenty of victims when the wickets get dry, as he comes off the pitch quickly. None, of the other bowlers did much. Stan Hickson sent down some very short stuff and Quinn was erratic. Frank Hickey, who fielded substitute for Luckie, was very safe. - . Don Naughton fielded m first-class sty*e and must have saved his side 40 runs m the first innings of uas Company? The catch which got rid of "Nobby" Miller was a magnificent one. Wellington was betijer all round m tne field than usual. Nothing succeeds like success, so stick to it, Wellington, and keep your mud pies on the catches that come your way. ' Jack Mahony missed two catches 'bemnd the wicket.