Senior Championship Competitions.

NZ Truth, Issue 183, 19 December 1908, Page 3

Senior Championship Competitions.

Saturday's Results. Saturday saw th« commencement of the •tth cou&d of the championship eompetitiaiu. When stumps .were drawn lor the day tie' several games were m the follawiag positicn t-^Phbenix 310 y, T.M.O.A. 13 tor two ; Newtown 210 v. Gasworks 82 for three; Wellington 19 6 t. Petone 38 for three ; Midland 188 v. Waiwitu 81 for three. " Newtown came out of its shell lij notchine 2bl against the - Gas Co., Laws (60) leading, the'^ay, with Tyler (34), lAlpe (28), .Day (18)r, and Claridge (17), each did their share to, swell the total. Alpe and Laws once more opened Newtown's innings and held the fort until 70 runs 'appeared on the scoring ooard. Alpe was the'first to go, after having been badly missed by Miller. He was brilliantly 'caught, and bowled by Hawthorne, without any further addition to his score: ' *: : The off drive appears to be be Alpe s strong point, and on Saturday he scored freely from it. .Fred. Laws kept pegging along nicely, driving hard and often, with an occasional. cut through the slips, until he pulled a ball from Hull on to his wickets. Freil ha» his, share of luck, both Waugh and Tbpp refusing to hold a catch off his, "- —kat. ... , ' -- ' ... . Allan I&y aivd'Claridge 'ate oi the. steady order.' of ,ioatsrqen, iieveriiielesstheir contributions "were very; acceptable fto'th^ Newtownites..." i ] ' Tyl«r, m eomjisihg 34, gave the fieldsmen a -lively time, being sevtre. on Hull's" leg bxeaks; In one over 1 lie hitva sis end two'fours, all on the leg side. and all run out. Gaswerkera fielding was rotten. Several of tbis te*D» ajtßcar to have a tired feeling and it is "«p to Capt. Ashbolt to jciroind them Jta^t tiiey are to play cric\*t, aot'ti) watch it. , x Hawthorne' (four for 36) secured tbe fewt bowling figures and kept the batsimd «uwt, as did Hull until Tyler came m ana kaoaked about 18 off him m one •▼«. . ',■■' .-.-' ■■..-'.. ■■ ■" - The cykft-wbeelers have made, a good ■tart ia thisir initial strike—three for 82 wheji stumps.. were drawn,. thanks chiefly lo; Dredge (30 not out) and Hawthorne <04). ;-.V ■.. ■-•■■••> ■•■ ' ■• Dredg^ijarged his little lot In his customary style, wtiich, by the way, is ©mt on its -own, while Hawthorne displayed good' ttorsi, and was g^isg strong vntil he attempted to drive a good 3en£.th ball ' from Alpe, missed it, and faid the penalty. , i. - <v No. 2 on the Basin was a terrible good wicket' to bait bdij aid Phoenix, getting first whack, tested the Young Men's Christian spirit.sorely- Like Goliath of eld they were smitten hip and thigh, 1 tut still Midlane kept tfurning the other «heck (m the shape .of new bowling) every time a trundles got tired. ' 310 for four hours' play is fairly good going, and. the Phoenix batsman surprised everybody, most of all themselves. I was once impressed . with the V.Mi's fielding abilities, but. after last week's display it can only fee characterised as ntrocious. Seven of the "dead.birds" srere caught out and every catch was difficult, m fact those of Midlane, Tilyard and Phillips brought down the house. One must wonder where the young men left their beliefs, for does not the Bible say, "Be 'ye faithful, m all things." Wherefore, why was it that all the easy eat-hes were - missed ? Methinks some fielding: practice would not come amiss, Middy. , .:,-■■• Barring' Midlane and Timperley all the fieldsman missed a catch. Little < although aaiased(behind the wickets by..Atkinson, a fine- innings' and his "off" stroke past "cover" was a beauty. He had fe« bov/liDc at 'his ' mercy and his style Was very free. . Little was unfortunate In (getting caugh-t; brilliantly at deep leg tiy Tilyard. Vixen's erratic casualness ■. must have got on to the Younp Men's nerves and few had a couple of lives, besides which Atkinson failed to stump him at 10. McLenaan's: silly run out was due to Dixon. Frank' Hickey had about six ijv«B and promptly notched 29. His lifttee; of Grinvraett into Kent Terrace was « beautiful stroke. "Ranji", Wilson, alter being • "motored" H the Basin, must have been feeling the •fttr effects of this drive, and his ,ba*--•lng was only characterised by a lofty irivt which Tilyard, got m the way of. Cibb«s did not reach doubles, and was fuite pleased .when Herlihy got one of bis whirli«igii past him. v i Otimmevs bowling lacked devil, and he was unatle to get any. work on. Herjfchy's deliveries, were. badly pitched and had no length, and when the ball did beat %hs batsmton; 1 it invariably bounced over tfa* wicket•. AnyhoWj whil* ;.Herliby was going both tba batsman and wicket-keeper were kept h«sr Aodffing out .'of danzer. Atkinson 1b kworaiDg quite an expert m the duokim a«t. , ■ Midlane's four for. 56 was a good' performance considering that five catches w«re missed off him. Both Tiiyard afnd Timperley should have >been bowled more fb«tn they were. McKay's fielding was awful. He ought to ire dropped with a severe--bump. . •„..•■'■ > • •

Phillips, usually a good field, was clean ofi at point. He should scout m front of the batsman. With 15 minutes to bat the Christians got into trouble, losing Phillips, through a misunderstanding with Wilson about a possible run; and Herlihy caught by Hic*ey. > McLennan's return when Phillips was run out was really gpod, and proved that "Curly" is not so tired as he looks. In the Petone v. Wellington match the town skipper won the toss and decided to bat on a gowd wicket. Wellington's total of 196 may be considered a creditable performance when taken intp consideration the, quality oi the bowling opposed to them. Don Naughton was top scorer with 58, got m really first-class style, his driving and leg' hiWAag having any amount of power behind them. He was dismissed by a splendid catch m. the long field by Dyson, the latter having "to run at top and just reaching the ball low down. Jack Mahony, m maKing 28, was favored by good luck m being missed behind the wickets before he had reached double figures, off Connolly, and t again m the slips off Cobcrolt. Stan Hidkson was going well, and looked like being set when Cobcroft knookgd his off' stump out of plumb, his contribution being 28. Pleased to report Jack Quinn's success, who remained unbeaten with a nicely got 30 to his 1 credit. One on drive, for five ofi Connolly being a beauty. Vare hit hard and often for 16 before' mishitting the left bander, and was nice- , ly taken at third man by Dyson. None of the others gave much trouble, and succumbed m quick order to Cobcroft. '•«■■... Mupphy does not seem able to get a start, for after being caught behind the wickets and given not out, immediately placed a soft one to mid-on and ,retired fpp" the dreaded duck. ' Cobcroft, who bowled 13 overs for 30 runs, 5 wickets, was the- most successful trundler, while Brice (3 for 55) and Connolly (2 for 50) bowled better than their figures would denote, especially Brice, who had plenty of pace and repeatedly beat the wickets. : The fielding of the Petone team was very good, while Cate, tip close to the -wickets, took the fast bowling of Brice very cleanly. ■Petone have not made a promising start, and I'hxee have fallen for 38,. still, given i a good wicket, they should obtain "the number required, to. win on the first innings. . • . . . : . Hales, on a slightly wearing wicket, bowled m something like , his old form, and had captured three wickets for the small cost of 11 rum. Luckie and Miller were also .tried. JThe latter appeared to be somewhat wild m his deliveries. The Midland- Waiwetu match at Lower Hutt was chiefly remarkable for mediocre play < by both sides. Although lJn© of the Midland team got into double figures, none of them, with the possible exception of Williams, looked lik© collaring ihe. bowling. ■'■■■'. , Wynyard, top scorer with 28, was'missed at square leg when, only* /I, but afterwards -played safe cricket.' . Bruce, who was missed before he scored, never seemed to get into his stride, though he ' assisted Wynward to put on 46 for the first wicket. Williams sparkled for about twenty minutes,, and looked like giving the Waiwetu team a-- lot of leather hunting when ho was well caught by Rodgers off , ,& hard return. - ; - / Claude. Hickson .still justifies his title of.Mgood old rteliable." His reliability,: however, does not seem to, have the same staying power as of old! Nevertheless, he shaped soundly till a big off-break from Rodgers found his timber stack. Dry, promoted from the juniors, is a hard-hitting batsman who should do well m seniors. He watches the ball carefully, arid 'has good' scoring strokes, chiefly on the on side. '' '.".,■ Sisson shaped much better than he has done previously this season. Though, confining himself almost solely to defence he seemed to play Rodgers more confidently than most of the preceding batsmen. ' . . Ryan rattled up, 20 m about as many minutes. ,He has one good stroke, a square-leg hit. It/ is an even bet that the ball will go thereabouts, if he hits ,it, no matter where it pitches. A feature of Ryan's play was his brilliancy between tho, ,widktets. * His short runs kept both the 'scorers and 'umpires busy. , Rodgers; v/as the only bowler on the Waiwetu side up to senior form. He kept a good length throughout;, and varied his oG break cleverly. He was, however, badly s supported by the field, otherwise his average would have been much better. , Staples, who wilJ resume to-day with 32 hot out, shaped best) of the. Waiwetu batsmen. He exhibited all his old-time defence, at the same time his vigorous treatment of anything; loose surprised even his club mates, . ■ Wilson's score of 19 was compiled chiefly by vigorous driving. He owed a great de a l to the kindness of the Midland fieldsmen, being missed twice off Stevenson inthe Jong field. ■ > JRvSn was the most successful bowler for Midland, securing two for .16. S,tephenson had .no luck, but, at the same time, he was 'hardly as accurate *as usuaJ. The wicket could hardly be called a good one. Id tbe Midland's innings, the 'balls had a tendency to hang. After the roller was put on the opposite effect • was produced, several of Ryan's deliveries m particular being practically shooters.;