NOTES BY SHIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 46

NOTES BY SHIP.

It is amusing to 'realise (a 'Wellington paper

remarks) that the bat for the 1 largest aggregate score- on the Wellington side fell to Hickson, ■who mada 22 in the two innings, int which he

gave" at least three chances. Doig, the ex-niemb'er of the Qpoho Club, seems to have won for the Tvueka Club its match with the Oainaiai Club last week. .Neither club had previously suffered defeat this year. The Tureka eleven batted first, but were all disposed of for 39 runs, Hewat capturing fivewickets for 11 runs. Owing to Doig's splendid bowling Oarnaru could only put together 25 runs, JJoig taking seven wickets for 10 runs. On Tureka going to the wickets again they had lost one wicket for 45, JDoig making 3t> (not out). Victorian papers report that W. Carlton, the best bat in the Nortlr Melbourne Club, has left for New Zealand in search of employment. liet him come to Otago, and m the present con w ges'ted starte of the- labour market he will probabiy be provided 1 for. '"He will," says "Felix" in the Australasian, " materially improve the cricket strength of any chili fortunate enough to -secure his services. He 13 undoubtedly a fine alb-round player, able in batting, fair slow Tsowler, and a fi-rst-cla3s field, clean, accurate, and 1 returning wich< remarkable celerity and precision:, even from the deepest parts, of the field." "'Felix'" chronicles the departure of another Victorian, for .New Zealand. He says : — " Mr Sam G-iblett leaves Warrnanibool for Dunedin, New Zealand,, this v. r eek. His services as hon. secretary to the Warrnambool Cricket Club lia-^e- been much valued, and both on the field and oli it his genial! disposition endeared him to all. As; a slight mark of esteem and goodwill the cricketers of Warrnambool presented him with a pair of sleeve-links, and they wished him. all sorts of good luck in New Zealand." " Cover-point ' writes from Wellington : — " A paragraph whicln ajjpeared in your last week's notes may, owing to it 3 incorrectness, j cause "many followers of the game to be misled as to the right of' A. ±3. "Williams to be included in the New Zealand team, and the ability of Mr Baker to select that team. The statement that Williams could not gat into the Wellington team is incorrect. He was not selected beckuse he notified the selectors that he would be unable to obtain, the necessary leave to enable Slim to play; He could not, of course, assume that he would be in the New Zealand team and. notify Mr Baker that he could not play, but as soon' as he was selected he informed the council to that effect. To say that he is

not lit- for the team is as absunrd as it is amusing. All cricketers who have seen him play arc agreed that he is easily the best wicket-keeper, in the colony, and ex-Otago players affirm that he h».s never at- any time been in, such great lonai '«£ at present. It is quite true that he was not at his best in the Canterbury match, Tout one swallow does not make a summer. This

season- in six matches he has- caught and stumped 18 batsmen. It, is also true that he is - Tselow his form with the bat, but even then , he. can, make .morje runs than any other wicketkeeper in the latter' s be3t form." It was a fortvinatc circumstance that fine weather prevailed on the second as well as on the first day of the match between the Grange and Cari.;broolc A teams. At last we have had

a taste of summer: weather. The contest be-

"twjeen the two pld rivals proved up to a certain ■point as exciting as any of its predecessors. s.'h,e first day's play had leio the Carisbrook team, with three* wickets in hand, f outruns behind the Grange- first innings total. The eighth and ninth wickets fell, however, when the total wos jstilL.one run behind the Grange score, and it all depeud-'4 upon Monk-,, the last man, and J3zo"ad\ -whether fehfl Carisbiook would lewd, on

the innings. Monk did riot leave the spectators in doubt on that pomt, tor the first ball he received was lifted by him far and high to the long-field for three. After this Broad and he settled down to play nice steady cricket, and before the end came the Carisbrook had a serviceable lead of 40 iuiis on the hand. With the desperate hope of quickly hitting up a sufficiency oi runs and tiien getting tiie Carisbiook eleven out again m the afternoon the instructions to the fcJ-range batsmen for the becond innings were to force the scoring. Those tactics have more than once brought victory to the Grange over the Carisbrook Jiees when the latter have had the lead on the first innings, but the Bees are a vastly different side fft>m the A team. At the very outset, moreover, misfortune befell the Grange, Baker being caught at pomt from the first ball he received from Fisher. '±he Duke of Wellington once acknowledgeu that? the presence of Napoleon m the field was worth -10,000 men to the l"rench J Certainly the presence of Baker at the wickets is worth half a dozen men to the Grange. Chedwick, who succeeded Balser, scored freely enough, while he was at the wickets, but the majority of the subsequent batsmen lent A. Downes little or no assistance. The latter had to take risks in forcing the pace but its was singularly lucky. Early- in his innings Liggins caught him low down at tha'd man oil' JMoiik, but, by a mistake on the part ot the umpires, the batsman was given in. Hope missed a sharp chance from Downes in. the slips off I'isher next over, while a little later SieUeberg chopped a comparatively easy one at coverpoint. Profit.ng by this indulgent treatment Downes hii out treely, his principal strokes being the drive and the cut, and his innings of 35 was, with all its faults, certainly the beat as veil as the highest feature of the Grange's second venture. Haydoa lashed out fearlessly, and besides got runs oft some flukey strokes, and Johnston scored witn, for him, unusual quickness, and was out to a good catch, in the alips made at the thiid attempt hy Jdope. When his own wicket fell Johnston closed the Grange innings, 0 . fcownes being the only batsman who was not called upon. The time that remained after the application of the closure and the usual interval between innings was only an hour and' five minrites — sufficient to enable the Carisbrook to obtain the runs to win on the second innings, but scarcely sufficient, except somech.ng unusual turned up, for the Grange to put them out. When Liggins was out first ball of the innings there seemed for the moment to be just a possibility that something'exceptional might occur, but G. Austin and Broad speedily dissipated any hopes the Grange may have had of such an eventuality. Both played the bowling of A. Downes with confidence, while T. Downes's deliveries, some of which were of more than usually doubtful character, were negotiated carefully. Broad had some luck, for a hard drive off A. Downes gave Johnston a possible chance ofe effecting a catch in front, of the pavilion steps, the fieldsman making a. capital effort to secure the ball, which he got into his hands sideways- on, buir_ failed to hold, and later on Baker got his hand on to a higk snick, also off A. Uownes, but merely succeeded in- stopping the ball. Beyond these hits, which were technically chances, Broad played very well, frequently executing his favourite stroke to the on. Austin showed very nice cricket, some of his cutting being exceedingly sweet, although, owing to the excellent fielding of the Grange, adding" less to the score than it wa3 worth. This pair looked to be hitting off the runs' without disaster, and. it was certainly hard lines that theie should be. only' one ran wanted when Broad was given out leg before wicket.'

Mr if.--S.-Ashl.ey-Coop.6iY to whom I am indebted foB many -favours, has forwarded me Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual for 1900. The "Red Lilly white, ' aa it is called 1 , is unsurpassed' as a record of the year's cricket in England,, and it. has r besides,, numerous other features ot interest. The list of scorers" or 100 runs and upwards outside England is, however, far from complete— the only New Zealarad scores of last season, included are Marshall's and Wilson's big scores at Napier in the match between the United A and! United B teams — andi this ia a feature of the work which might be improved if it is worth continuing at all.

-A Few Loose Strings, which ara collected by Mr Ashley-Cooper, forms a most interesting and readable chaptei. It is a simply excellent collection of records— no one can go wrong who has this at his hand — but it is more than that, the " curiosities " to which a place is given, and which run into over seven pages of the Annual being most diverting. I notice that Dunedin cricket of last year supplies four of these curiosities, and I would not mmd laying a small wager that the extraordinary incident of the Cup match between the Carisbrook si and Albion teams in December last finds a conspicuous place in next year's curiosity list. _, Although it is difficult to arouse any interest in anything just now outside the war, the match whieli commences on the Carisbrook ground to-morrow (Friday) between the Melbourne Cricket Club's team and Otago should attract a good attendance of the public. It ia sufficiently, evident from the performances of the. visitors up north that they are not playing mere holiday cricket, but that they are playing the game right up to the handle. There is no spinning- out of matches for the sake of ,the gate, but the Victorians are scoring. Till 'they can, and disposing of their opponents as cheaply as they can. There is that quality of earnestness about their cricket that one likes to sco 'in a team which one acknowledges to be siiperior to any locally obtainable, and for that reason I anticipate that the match in Dunedin will be well supported by the public. In proof that what I say is warranted I need only refer to the scorng in the four matches already played in the colony by the Melbourne eleven. This may be tabvilated as follows : — Match. Melbourne. Opponents, inn-- Inns. luos Tun-. Auckland 554 — 85 81 West Coast 182 95*= 148 128 Wellington 430 — 65 66 Canterbury 336 - - 93 135 "For eight wickets. From this it will be seen that die Melbourne eleven have scored, in their New Zealand engagements to date, 1597 runs for 48 wickets, or an average of a fraction over 33 runs per wicket, but their opponents have scored only 804 runs for 80 wickets, or at the rate of 10 runs per wicket. The composition of the Otago eleven to play the Melbourne Club team will give general satisfaction except in perhaps a solitary respect. If it bo compared with the eleven that played against Canterbury, which was the strongest of the teams previously placed in the-field by Otago this 'year, it will be seen that the places then filled by Broad, Liggins, and Eckhoff are now taken by T. Downes, R. Wilkie, and Webb. The inclusion of Webb in the team was, after his performances with the ball in the North Island, only to be expected, and Wilkie has, I think, fairly earned his place. No exception can bo taken to the substitution of these two players for Liggins and Eckhoff. But it is surprising to find Broad omitted from the team, and still moTe surprising to find T. Downes included in it.. The selection of the last-named player will be defended on the ground that it was necessary to have a fast bowler in the team, but that argument is met by the contention that it is urged in all quarters excepting that represented by members and followers of the Grange Club that T. Downes at his greatest pace does nob bowl at all. It is a great, and indeed unjustifiable, risk to include in the team a bowler, the fairness of whose delivery is disputed by half the cricketers in the place. Nor is his bowling, even in club matches, escecialli

effective on turf wickets. Even if it were unquestionably fair I have so little , expectation that the visitors will find any difficulty in playing it and scoring off it,, that I think it is much to be regretted that the batting of the team should be weakened as it is by the absence of Broad in order to give him a place.