BATTING ON A FIERY WICKET

NZ Truth, Issue 1105, 3 February 1927, Page 12

BATTING ON A FIERY WICKET

/ (By L..* T. Cobcrpft.) What could a batsman possibly wish for better than the state of the weather and wickets m Wellington on .Saturday? Therefore it was not surprising: to find some really g-ood scoring m most of the games.

HUTT'S first innings score proved altogether too much of a hurdle for Old Boys, who suffered a oneinnings defeat. , ■ Beard and McGirr marked paid against the Old Boys when the score had only reached 103. Ronaldson was the only batsman to shape with anything like confidence and his score of 44 runs was quite a good knock. The second innings of the town team was a vast improvement, thanks to good displays by James and Dustin; but they were still 10 runs short of saving the innings defeat when the last wicket fell. : As was expected, -Midland experienced no difficulty m passing Petone's score. Midland batsmen were most consistent, Dave Patrick and Tovey being at the helm, the rest with one exception scoring double figures. Finlayson was the most successful on the day with the ball and, bowled m something approaching his last year's form., Patrick and Mark Nicholls, opening up Petone's second innings, smacked the Midland -bowlers to the tune of 140 for 1 wicket, Mark losing his wicketjust before time was called. What appeared to be on the first Saturday's play ■an . easy win for Thorndon, proved most exciting before •Varsity's last wicket, fell as their score was well over 300. 1 ' >.

These two teams.have done extremely well this year. Wellington failed badly against Y.M. and this m. spite of a fine innings' by Airey, who made 87. Institute gained a commanding lead on the.first innings, the suburban side making only 134. './'■ ' On going m again, however, what i a different aspect was put on the game. Every batsman played freely, but particularly Chrlstopherson, Badcock and Greig, who made the good scores' of 153, 101 and 70 respectively. The innings was declared closed f for 406 for the loss of only 5 wickets. A three-point'win to Institute/