CRICKET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21145, 1 October 1930, Page 11

CRICKET.

OTAGO ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of the Otago Cricket Association was held last night. The president (Mr G. A. Wycherley) occupied the chair. CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW OF SEASON. The chairman, in moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet, stated that undoubtedly the outstanding feature of the season had been the visit of Gilligan’s _ English team, and he was cure that visit had done a lot of good c' game in New Zaeland, in spite of the wretchedly bad weather which had followed the Englishmen throughout. In Duleepsinhji, Woolley, and one < or two others this team had possessed really firstclass cricketers, this fact being, borne out by subsequent. events when the two players named and Nicholls had all found places in one or more of the tests against Australia. _ It had been a pity, from every point of view, that the tests in New Zealand had been spoiled by rain. Of the -four matches begun only one bad been finished, and that had been the first. This had been a quick and lively affair that had ■ been over in two' days. Otago could sympathise with the N.Z.C.C. in their run of bad luck,. and they on their side could now perhaps thoroughly understand how Otago felt when, time after time, it saw golden opportunities spoiled by bad weather. In regard to the English teams match with Otago, this, as was usual in the case of matches with overseas teams, had resulted in a substantial loss, but on this occasion the loss had been borne by guarantors, and so the associa- - turn's already scanty resources had not suffered further depletion. In this connection he would like to pay a warm tribute to those loyal citizens who had come to the association's help and had enabled the Otago fixture with the Englishmen t 9 be accepted, for the committee had practically decided that, if the guaranty 6 had to be entered into in to® ordinary way, it would not have been - justified in taking the responsibility, for, in view of the abnormally high guarantee, a loss hod been inevitable. He might say that at .the ■ conference called by the Cricket Council, and held in Christchurch last November, he-had brought before the delegates the question of the manifest unfairness of expecting Otago, with the smallest population and much the smallest cricket 1 public, to find the same guarantee as Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, which centres generally made substantial profits on such matches. The members of the council had admitted that Otago s argument was sound, and it was v «7, probable that some more equitable allocation would be made in the future. Having, mentioned the test matches! between England and Australia, he thought the association might record its hearty c ? n SJ ,a i' u i .to the Australian Board of Control on its team's wonderful performance in recovering the akhes. Most critics had held out very little hope of' this achievement when the team had.left Australia, but' the young members had risen gloriously to the occasion and bad fully justified their inclusion. It was difficult’ to know what to say about young Bradman, except that he was a thoroughbred cricketer of such class ,that he .made- such erstwhile champions as Woodfull, Ponsford, Kippax, etc., appear to bo no more than ordinary players. The prospects before this young fellow were' dakzhng, always providing, of course, that the Board of Control did not, send him to the gallows or .to penal servitude- for indulging in the popular crime of making money.—(Laughter.) Worthy, to be bracketed, with Bradman, he thought, was the Dunedin-born bowler, _ Clarne Grimmett, who .had so mam fully borne the" brunt of the attack match after match. He might mention that when Grimmett had -taken all TO wickets in an; innings against Yorkshire, he had written, on behalf of the .Otago Cricket Association and' of the cricketers of the •• province, congratulating him on the fine performance. He had replied expressing thanks and saying how pleased he was to know that his doings were, so closely followed by the cricketers of the Dominion. Incidentally, ha had sent the speaker an autographed copy of his recently published book. In Plunket Shield matches last season, the chairman continued, Otago had not, unfortunately, “ broken its duck/' being defeated in turn by Auckland/ ‘Welling-' ton, and Canterbury. Nevertheless some of the younger players had been afforded opportunities ox gaining experience, in first-class company, and such experience should be. useful. Further .opportunity had been given ,in fixtures with North Otago and-an Auckland touring team, so that there had been plenty of representative cricket. It had been suggested in some quarters that home and home matches should be played in connection' with the Plunket Shield. .In. certain directions this was'a sound- idea, especially ' for the bigger centres, where the number of players verging .on' representative standard was Targe, and where finance was not'such a bugbear as it was’ ■with Otago. He was afraid that if Otago had to . send a team through New Zealand every season the Australian Federal Treasurer’s money hox would be a treasure chest compared, with that of the Otago Cricket Association,; Apart from that aspect, it would give increased opportunities to young players which might he > beneficial, « In regard to young players, Otago had reason to he very hopeful of the future, and the basis of that hope was its coach, Mr F. J - T. Badcook, Beginning at the latter end of last season, Mr Badcock had worked right through the winter at the task of getting the province’s "young hopefuls" into the proper way of handling bat and ball, and doing those other things necessary to the art of playing cricket as cricket should be played. The winter coaching had been. carried • out in the big store of Messrs Waters, Ritchie and Co., an ideal place for the purpose, and generously lent by the firm. Representative cricketers, of course, were not made in a month, or a year, or perhaps in three years, unless a Bradman sprang up, but he felt sure that the sound grounding which Mr-Badcock was giving young players'would result in our, producing a crop of players who would worthily carry on the traditions of the older ones who had retired. In addition to at the nets, there was a very desirable method of creating that cricket atmosphere which the. game to a large extent' lacked in Dunedin, and that was by a series of cricket talks. It bad struck him that these talks might be given by the coach, and perhaps by others qualified to speak, not only to the young players, but to the older men and any interested non-players. Because when everybody was interested in the ethics and inner beauties of cricket the interest whs created, which in turn created the desired atmosphere. He would like to express a word of thanks to Mr J. Fraser, who had put in a lot of really good work in connection with the coaching arrangements, and who had acted as intermediary between the coach and. the Association Committee. Some complaint, by the way, had been Voiced regarding the selection of the players to be coached. Otago's experience with past coaches had taught it that much valuable time and effort had been wasted on unpromising material, and this time the committee had decided to leave the weeding-oat to. be done by the person most competent to do it—namely, the coach. It did not concern Mr Badcock which club a player belonged to; the vital question was, Had he in Him the makings of a first-class cricketer? The association looked to the clubs to support the Coach Fund financially, and moat of them had loyally done so; but he would ask them to try and look at this nursery business in a broad way, and help Otago to bring out some champions, irrespective of whether they belonged to this club or that club. Since the last annual meeting the Grange Club had celebrated its jubilee, and the association had already offered its congratulations. Last week, too, the Otago Rugby Football Union had reached its fiftieth year. The Rugby Union had been a good friend to the Otago Cricket Association. • The fact that the balance sheet showed a small credit was largely due to a profit of about £l2O made on a gymkhana and art union held during the. season. Much hard and good work had been put in by members of the committee and by representatives of other bodies who had come to the association’s help. Considering all this, the financial result had been disappointing. It was difficult to know what to do to arouse the enthusiasm of the present-day cricketers, the majority of whom showed not the slightest interest in anything that was being done for the benefit of the game. Apparently it was useless to point out that it was an unmanly attitude to leave the burden to the willing few every time. . Even the effort of taking a book of tickets from the pocket and asking a friend to buy one ■ was evidently too great, judging fay the number of hooks returned with but one or two tickets sold.

With regard to club cricket, the senior competition could not have been more interesting, for it had not been until the last minutes of the last day of the season that Albion had clinched the matter by defeating Dunedin. He congratulated Albion on its success, which was all the more meritorious as the side had been an evenly-balanced one rather than one possessing outstanding players. It was proposed to send another New Zealand team to England next winter, so that the coming local season would be a testing one for aspiring young cricketers. He hoped that Otago would on this occasion- have more than one representative in the team, and that the good impression made by the pioneer band three years ago would-be repeated. It was noted in the report that since the last dnnual meeting death had removed two old and loyal supporters of-'the game in the persons of Mr L. T. Gooch and Mr T. T. Ritchie. Mr Gooch had been a member of the committee when the speaker had been elected to it 22 years ago, and had done much valuable work. Mr Ritchie had also been active at that time and for some time afterwards, and even t when compelled, for business and health reasons, to resign from the committtee, he had continued to the end to i take a keen interest in the game that he had loved. Mr G. A. Martin, who seconded the 1 rnotion, referred to the excellent services of Mr Badcock, and stated that great progress had been made in the matter of grounds. He hoped that a representative match would be played at Logan Park during the season. The motion was carried. SMALLER MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE. Mr J. Fraser moved—“ That the rules •of the_ association be amended to provide that the General Committee appointed at the annual meeting shall appoint' from its members a committee of management which will be responsible for carrying out the work of the association, its' actions to be subject to the right of appeal to the General Committee by any club.” Mr Fraser said that in the past the association had had a committee of up to 21 members. Anyone who knew anything about the conduct of meetings knew that such a large committee was unwieldy. He would suggest a committee of about eight, the president acting as chairman and bringing the number up to nine. The association had a representative of the honorary members (Mr D. A. Solomon) and a representative of the Boys’ Association (Mr E, Ferguson) He thought that . they should be memrFf.j, the Management Committee, it had been suggested that there should be a representative of each club, but if the good of cricket generally was to be considered it did not matter what club the men came from_ so long as they had the time an enthusiasm to do justice to the work. There were men who were popular and who were good cricketers, but Tacked executive ability. The average cricketer had Tittle idea of the trouble which was experienced in obtaining finance, and it was essential that the services of the best workers should be secured. The association might follow the < lead of Wellington and allow the chairmen of the sub-committees to appoint their own committeemen. ' This would allow them to go outside the Gene-* ral Committee and obtain the services of men vitally interested in the department which had to be controlled. Mr J. J. Clark ; who seconded tho motion, said that it did not reflect on the work of past committees. An improvement could be made, however, it the size of the committee could be reduced. It was very difficult to obtain 20 members who couldgive the necessary time -to the work. He urged the delegates to give the scheme 12 months’ trial. The president also, supported the motion, stating that if the chairmen of sub-committees. could appoint--their own members interest in the game could be extended outside the association. The motion was unanimously carried. On the motion' of Mr Clark, it was decided that the committee consist of eight, the president being an ex officio member. ' ELECTION OF OFFICE-BEARERS. The election of office-bearers resulted as follows: —President, Mr G. A. Wycherley; vice-presidents—Messrs G. A. Martin, P. W. Bundle, J. M. Fraser, and A. H. Allen; secretary and treasurer, Mr E. S. Wilson; auditors, Messrs G. Pickard and A. Rayner; honorary members’ representative. Mr D. A. Solomon; representative of Boys’ Association, Mr E. Ferguson; committee—Dr A. Reid, Messrs W. R. Brinsley, sen., W. Brookes, J. Robson, W. A. Rowland, R. Torrance, J. Dunning, 6. G. Austin, . F. Binney, and W. Strang. - ... GENERAL. The Taieri Club was granted affiliation.—Mr A. Murray returned thanks on behalf of the club, stating ; that it had 40 members. It was decided to open the season on. October 25, the hours of play being fixed at 2 pan. to 6.30 pan. On the motion of Mr A. Knight it was decided to play a match on Labour Day between a team of colts led by Mr Badcock and a side picked from the rest of Otago. Mr Badcook, who addressed the meeting at the request of the chairman, said that he was not concerned with clubs. One club might have six colts, while another had. only one, but he could only follow his own judgment. The number of colts to be coached during the season would be limited. If he were given, a free hand he would give results. Mr Fraser paid a tribute to the work of Mr Badcock, and urged players to take a greater interest in the coaching arrangements. ‘ The chairman was asked to interview the tramways manager ' with a view to obtaining a better tram or bus service to Logan Park on Saturdays and in the evenings, . -