CRICKET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22212, 15 March 1934, Page 4

CRICKET

By Slip.

ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT

Inquirer.—The score of 517 for: three ■wickets made by Carisbrook against Albion in 1923 is the record for club cricket in Dunedin.

The club games will finish for the season on Saturday. On the following Saturday the leading team in the senior competition (High School Old'Boys) will play a match with a team, selected from the, remaining clubs.. Ah Otago team will travel to Invercarf ill to play a Southland team! on Good 'riday and Easter Saturday. The Otago Cricket Association will pay the train fares of the. players, and on present: indications a fairly strong team will represent Otago. 1 /Moloney achieved- the distinction on . Saturday of, scoring 200 runs and register, ihg the highest score in senior club cricket this season;-•, He. gave a chance of a catch at fine leg'j\vhen he : had- scored 42, and another choice of a catch in the outfield when he wjis over the century. He scored his runs all round the, wicket, and executed some beautiful shots" It was indeed a splendid display of batting. Moloney has now three centuries to his credit. He scored 100 not out for Carisbrook last year, and the previous year he made 116 for his club. Moloney's score of 200 was made up as follows:—:111141431111311113611111161144 121444411413111214111446141134311124131 44261341461111112111211144. . The partnership between Moloney and Dunning lasted about 2hr lOmin, and during that time the pair put on 316 runs. Dunning'a 148 beat his previous highest ■core in Dunedin by one run. Against Southland, at Carisbrook, a few years ago, Dunning made 147, and playing for Carisbrook against Albion in 1923 he made 117. In this match between Carisbrook and Albion the former made 517 for three wickets. On-< that occasion Worker, Duncan, and Dunning all secured centuries, and A. W. Alloo and Cecil Alloo were not out. Dunning has two centuries to his credit in Auckland club cricket, and two at Oxford in intercollege matches. Saturday's century was therefore his seventh. Dunning did not exploit his shot between point and third man so often on Saturday, as he was not getting many balls on the off. He scored freely on the leg side, turning the ball nicely, and was also strong ' with strokes in front of the wicket. _He I; gave a' chance of a catch to Clark behind the wickets and an easy one to Groves. Carisbrook ,made 453 runs for seven ■wickets, and apart k from Moloney and Dunning, Don Cameron (43) and Nimmo (14) were the only batsmen to get into double figures'. jGroves , was ; the most successful bowler ; with four wickets for

.■ 102. ■ '■ ':,:'■ :-*;.:.' "'■': A good batting -wicket had; been pro-, ■i Tided at the north end for the game between Grange and Dunedin.- Grange had first use of the wifcket, and under the circumstance* the collapse of i;he early batsmen is hard to explain.... Grange had four wickets down for 17 runs, . Knight, Chettleburghj Elmeav - and . Knowles being the -victim* Chettleburgh :'■'■ was bowled ,by Douglas "first ball,' and was apparently caught unawares. .. .At "'"'- any rate he made no attempt to play the ball; Dey . (35) and Boyd (35) then made a good stand, and Galland (26), Chadwick (29 not out), and Lemin (22) carried on the scoring, Grange amassing the good, total a« it turned out of 1/4. The Grange batting, nevertheless, -was-not impressive, the timing of some of .their batsmen being weak. . The total runs, registered during the afternoon only came •..- ;to 197. -'■ - , 'The Dunedin fielding was not always satisfactory. Dey, Boyd, and v Chadwick (three times) were missed off fairly, easy -chances. The throwing in to the wicket, /however, showed an. improvement. It .--was noticeable that some of the Dunedin fieldsmen were slow in anticipating the direction of the ball f rom';aT stroke by .!.* .■ ,' batsman. .--,;.'-, . "..?. V*«:V .''■■' '''-''<■ The'Dunedin bowling showed » Wn- ; siderable improvement, as compared with their -bowling in" recent club matches. Noble was again Dunedin's .best bowler. He generally "kept a good length, and swung back from. leg now.;,;and again. Noble relies mostly on-a good length, < and his methods are bringing him reV suits'. Douglas gets a considerable lift v- off the pitch when the wicket is at all j fast. He has proved a useful bowler iyP.t this year for Dunedin. ''Dunedin have not made a very good -' start. Ditchfield and Noble are out with the score at 22, and the side may experience a difficulty in . reaching Grange's -.. total. ■ -' .. -.ln knocking up their biggest score of •■'•*' the season against Christian Brothers on :; Saturday, the Albion side showed that a '■' good, proportion of the members of the ; side incapable of making runs. Miller's 80 was the result of sound batting, and further reflected the improvement that he / hits made 1 this season, while Shepherd's score came from cricket of the most at- ■ tractive kind. When Shepherd is in form he can always be relied on to force the .: pace, and', he has been for some years '".-'■ without doubt one of the most, stylish batsmen in Dunedin. The execution of all .his shote on Saturday was clean and powerful, the stroke from which he was caught being one of the very few poor ones :he" played; One of the features of the innings was the return to form of Smith, who.batted very attractively for his 46. He picked the right ball to hit, and .hit :it hard," scoring frequently with stinging square cut that left the fieldsmen standing. There was little sting left in the bowling when Barron I and Martin 'came in, and they also attacked it merrily. who is a promoted Second Grade player,' showed himself to be a: Vigorous hitter, and •'; knocked up biff 50 : in quick time. Christian Brothers'bowling was, on the whole, very poor; it lacked variety? and, towards the end of the day was practically collared. Except for one or two lapses, the fielding,, how-; ever, was good. .The game between University and Kaikoirai is at an'interesting stage. University have made ' 181,' and Kaikorai ! have lost one wicket for 52. ; Uttley ' was ; 'again the mainstay in the University batting, and' he secured his 59 runs, by . rConfident and. at 'times forceful batting. Sinclair, who'can always be relied on to put up a sturdy, defence when'things'are jnot going well;with his side,, was the .next hiaheet* scorer with 45, and Jolly made 27. v"Mr" Extras"' was the third highest scorer for University with 28;; Cook secured, .fiye wickets for 50, and jl'Gregor'three ; for .21. i r : Carisbrook A gave Grange some leather hunting •at ihe North Ground: on Satur- • day. Carisbrook' lost three wickets for ; 20 runs, biitrE.W. Procter '(72), M'Kay (S 9), Howofthv (58). and .Newman',(23). laid on the "nfodd, and the innings closed for 262. -Grange have scored -21 - without the;loss of a wicket. ■*' In 'accordance with the general rule, the Albion Cricket Club will have its : annual wind-up social evening for members;'friends, and fellow-cricketers on •Thursday'week, v March; 22. Next year ! the' club -will'- hold its seventieth jubilee, 'which, it! is understood, is a cricket record in 'the southern' hemisphere. The club still has ;-6he of its original members in attendance'.at; its senior matches—Mr Murray Thompson. p:'> RECORD CLUB SCORE ;'• The following are the details of the , tecbrd Dunedin club score, made by Carisbrook against Albion:— • ■ ' Worket, hit.wk't; b H." Vorrath. ..'■- 194 Duncan, b Blamires •• 104 Dunning, run out .. .. ••> '• :l il H. C. Alloo, hot out M A. : .W.Alloo,.npt.out 51 ' ~. '..-... •• •> -♦• 18 '-':■'. Total for three wickets, declared 517 . Albion could only respond with 135 and r ,' 165 for three wickets. ; ; : ; BODYLINE BOWLING '. The editor of Wjsden's Cricketers' "'■' Almanack..S. JV.Southerton, reviewing the bodyline' bowling controversy, says:— 1 hope'and.believe that the Australians .of their grievances and the placatory.."replies' of, the Marylebone Cricket' Club will have done much toward imparting a better spirit to the tests, which in recent years have become battles instead •of pleasureable struggles. With the diqtum of the M.C.C. that any form ■ of bowling constituting a direct attack on the b'ateman ig contrary to the spirit ot the game everyene*must agree.

"While some" Australians may have exaggerated the supposed danger of the fast'leg-theory, they cannot all be wrong. There ; is nothing new in ''leg-theory, "but it is very different from the kind delivered at top speed, with the ball flying past- the shoulders. '■"At the Manchester test last year I saw-a somewhat pale, but not less disturbing, imitation, of Larwood in Australia by Martindale, - Constantine, and Clark, sufficient to convince, everyone with an open mind that it. was "a; noxious form of attack not to be encouraged. " Earlier-day batsmen ■'. were often hit by good-length balls, doubtless largely due to the ball flying off the rough pitches, whereas fast bowlers nowadays find jt necessary to make the ball bounce three or four times in each over. The Australians in the last tests had no doubt that they were being bowled at." The methods of G. O. Allen and H. Larwood are contrasted by Southerton. He says that Larwood, with extra j>ace, ■could have got wickets by Ordinary methods, and'so. have prevented the bitter feeling which led many people here to believe that the "ashes" had been won at too great a cost to Anglo-Australian relations. ' . " - '',*••■ i Southerton concludes: "I do not wish to see fast leg-theory as used on the last tour of Australia exploited in England, because, first, it is definitely dangerous;, secondly, it creates bad feeling; thirdly, It invites reprisals; fourthly, it is a. bad influence in cricket; and fifthly, it eliminates practically all the best strokes. I pray for its abolition, not by legislation, but by the influence which: captains can bring to bear to wipe. out the blot.

"A MATTER FOR LAUGHTER" The frequency with which several of the more prominent Indian cricketers played for differently-named elevens against the M.C.C. team captained by D. R. Jardine has puzzled many readers of the cabled messages giving of the M.t.Lr. team's tour. So it is interesting to notice that the selection of Indian elevens, to meet Jardine's team has been the subject of strong criticism in Calcutta, because of the fact that the teams have been practi-. cally the same for every town. The Statesman, for example, remarked, at the end of January, that the M.C.C. players surely would like to look on a new face or two in the opposing teams, for a change, and that the situation was more than'a little ridiculous. " Some of India's cricketers, it continued, " have already played 2X> innings against) Jardine's side. How does this stimulate Indian cricket, as distinct from cricket? Few Indians get a look in. C. K. Nayudu is not chiefly to blame, nor the rest of the faithful, but those who press them into service, because they are merely the fashion. But the sight of the same Indians, travelling round India with the a, matter for laughter. LEG-SIDE FIELDSMEN \- , Speaking at the annual: meeting of .the "Yorkshire. County Cricked Club, a ' few weeks ago, Sir\ Stanley, Jackson, the -famous old test-player; and former captain of, England, who ,wa»,-Governor of Bengal from 1927-32, said ■that, when he returned to England from .India be was interested to see .how close tfieldsmen went-in on the leg-side. "Had I been the batsman," he said," I would not have stood for it. * A .batsman has the right to be free from interference, and u his attention'is'diverted by a fieldsman he has a right'to complain and ask for the fieldsman.;.to, be ..sent farther away. In our day ,a..fieldsman was often sent to stand: farther away:" REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE Father and son, bowling unchanged, dismissed the opposing team, twice in an afternoon in first-grade - cricket m wis-, bane recently. Leo O'Connor, one-time, captain of Queensland, and his son Brian were the heroes of this remarkable performancej which must. be without ; a. parallel, in good-class, picket. . Brian O'Connor took six wickets hrst innings, and" six in the isecondrhis; father took four in each innings. The wicket wa 9 wet. The - O'Connors' team, Valley, won by an innings and 21; runs, after declaring its own. innings closed t :at> IM for seyeh. The opposin'gtfeam, Brisbane, scored only 32 and 40. -.- ' THE CANCELLED 1 TOUR ; According to an Auckland report, "_Mr A* T. Donnelly, .president of* the; New Zealand Cricket Council, said thei prospects- of-a successful-tour had been seriously affected by the absence' of wellknown players, and by complaints,and discussions ' with the Australian -press regarding allowances."., J_t is a surprise to hear of Mr Donnelly, giving seriouff attention to the discussion .regarding allowances (writes C. J. Davis, editor of the Sydney Referee)- It waff neither ofhcial, nor emanating from the players, lb was an irresponsible discussion, and. mainly by people who either do hot know much about the history of Australian-New_ Zealand cricket, or are palpably anti-Board of Control. ' - ■ .