PAVILION GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 65

PAVILION GOSSIP.

W, \V. Armstrong weighs 171 stone, and looks immense on the cricket field. In all first class cricket C. Hill has mad© j 40 centuries, eight of these against Vic- ■ toria. j The Bull! soil has not been a success on ■ the Melbourne Ground, .and steps were taken at the beginning of the season to eradicate The only century made in the match between Victoria and New South Wales was by W. Bardsley, who scored 149. In Adelaide Bardsley only made 32 in two innings. 1 George Giffen is the'-only South Australian , to take six or more wickets in each innings I against N-ew South Wales. In 1892 h© g’ot 1 six for 133 and six for 5-8; in 1894 eight I for 77 and eight for 109. i Warren Bardsley has played in only three matches against Victoria, two at Melbourne and one at Sydney.- In these he has made 8, 31, 192, 24, 78, and 149, or 482 runs, at an average of 80.33 per innings. J. N. Crawford’s 75 in his first match for South Australia against Victoria was slowly, but solidly, compiled. C. Hill, who partnered him during the innings, scored aoout. three times as fast as the ex-Surrey mam Board, the coach procured by the Hawke s Bay Cricket Association, has thrown in his lot with the Ahnriri Club at Napier. In -a recent match against the Scinde Club Board was top scorer with 52 runs out of .a total ct 160. E Strange, the ex-Christchurch player, ! scored 50 not out for Central Cumberland in their last' first grade match in Sydney. This is the first big innings he has played this season, but his bowling- Iras been fairly success fuh , . The committee of the Lancashire Crickei Chib draw attention to the fact in their annual report that the indebtedness of the club has been reduced from £20,000 to £13,000. Evidently it requires some capital to run a county cricket club in England. “The happiest recollection I shall take with me,” paid J. N. Crawford before leaving for Australia, “will be the memory of the first • Surrey and Australian match at the Oval this year (1909), when I captained the Surrey team, and we beat the visitors by 5 runs. During the past season in England Dr. , E. M. Grace scored 51 runs with an average l of 3.92 and took 119 wickets at a cost of ■ 19.32 runs each. In all matches (says Cricket) during his remarkable career he has mad© 76,751 runs and taken 12,078 wickets. Sir ’ George Reid,, who was recently appointed the first High Commissioner fori ■ Australia in London, and who leaves shortly for the ■ Old Country, was president of the New South Wales Cricket Association for 12; years, and in 1863 occupied the position ■ of. treasurer for that body. , . . Lord Hawke, who states the Yorkshire: •county authorities,' know nothing of any ; accession of strength next season in the shape of good amateur players, says, he hopes “tq take part in . one or two matches .at 59..’ - Early in the Ntew .Year he is going off to South America .tor some big game shooting- . , j W. Carlton heads the batting .average tor, Canterbury in the. three representative! matches played this „ season. His figures read:—Number of innings, 6; total runs, 217; not out, twice; highest score, 88; average, 55.25. D. Reese practically heads 'the bowling averages with 127 runs, 9 wickets, 14.1 rung.. * ’- At an enthusiastic gathering of cricketers : assembled to “welcome home” Messrs M. A. Noble and Victor Trumpet, Mr Noble thanked his clubm.ates lor their welcome He was very glad that the tour had been so ’ successful. He could not but admire the men who had gone to England with him. Everyone of them was a splendid fighter and a true sportsman. Among the successful candidates at the Sydney University final examination in medicine (of tho M.B. and Ch.M.) are W. F. Matthews- and G. D. Macintosh. The former, tho -well-known Rugby Union half back, is not .playing with the first eleven this season, and ‘the’ latter has only recently been pro- , moted, though he is one of the ablest bats- ; men at the ’Varsity.

The la.st English team in South Africa was defeated at Johannesburg in the first of the five Test matches by one wicket, the last man, P. Sherwell, making 22 not out, and A. D. Nourse 93 not out. In that match J. N. Crawford, with 44 and 43, was England’s most successful batsman. In this month’s first Test match against Leveson-Gower’s English team the South Africans again prevailed.

Now and again news comes from the country of some startling feat with bat or ball. The Latest is from Mo long (N.S.W.). In a match played between Molong and Larras Lake and Bramble, J. Ca.rm.ody, of Molong, put up a phenomenal performance. He secured nine wickets for 10 runs in the first innings, and six wickets for 7 in the second. A total of 15 wickets for 17 will take some beating.. The Leicestershire County Cricket Club lost £C9O on last season’s working. New sources of revenue are to be tapped. 5s being charged for the lady’s ticket previously issued free to members. Ladies’ membership tickets are also to be issued separately at 10s Gdeach. The ground staff is being reduced, the town office given up, and the fixture , list curtailed. The club has an accumulated , deficit of ,£llOO.

In taking six for 50 in the New South Wales second innings recently, in the matchNew South Wales v. South Australia, J. N. Crawford becomes one of a select few who have taken six wickets or more in an innings for South Australia in the past 20 years. .Only four have done so against the Mother State, though J. N. Crawford’s instance is the twentieth. George Gillen got ■six or more wickets nine times, Ernest Jones six times. J. F. Travers and A. Wright twice each. “In conversation with Mr Victor Trimmer to-day.” says the Ceylon Sportsman of October 2, “we learnt that A. A. Lilley, the AllEngland wicket-keeper, and Lewis and Robson, botli of Somerset, were coming out to India during the cold season to coach Indian players. They are, being get out by the Maharajahs of Cpoch Debar and Patiala—two very keen sportsmen. This is a step, we believe, which was foreshadowed some weeks ago, when the Indian team’s trip to England was suggested. ' A Melbourne writer on cricket who never tires of having a jibe at the Board of Control, states that “it is assuredly something more than accident or coincidence that sent the N»\v South Wales team into the field against Victoria in 1 — ~dj .Boxing Day

match minus seven of the champions who recently beat England.” Yet New South. Wales without these seven champions (Noble, Trumper, Cotter, Carter, Macartney, Gregory, and Hopkins) beat Victoria’s very strongest eleven by 272 runs! J. N. Crawford, the Surrey crack, looks like becoming a very valuable addition to both the batting and bowling strength ot South Australia. He is not yet 24 years of age, and is the youngest cricketer who has scored 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets in a season in first-class cricket. His break with Surrey caused quite la stir in cricketing circles at Home. It will be remembered that he declined to captain against the Australians a team he regarded as unrepresentative. The Surrey executive decided they would not play him again. C. Hill is ia man of many centuries in his first-class cricket career, and in the last three Inter-State matches he has reached three figures on each occasion. He began the season with 176 against Victoria in Adelaide, and a few weeks later he eclipsed that fine score with 205 against the improved bowling of New South Wales, while in the return match in Melbourne against Victoria he tallied 185, so that in his three attempts the left-hander has compiled 566 runs, averaging nearly 189 runs per innings. Hill may well be termed the greatest left-handed batsman in the world, notwithstanding that Bardsley, on his English tour, threatened to bo a keen rival. The match in . Melbourne between New South Wales and Victoria adds proof to the fact that here in South Australia we have a strong eleven (says Adelaide Chronicle). This State’s side easily accounted for a poor Victorian team in November, and after being strengthened by the inclusion of Whiffy, Crawford and O’Connor, they defeated the New South Wales combination later- on. The Victorian eleven in the meanwhile has been improved by playing M‘Alia ter, Hansford, Armstrong. Laver, and Carkeek, who were absent on the English tour last month, but the New South Wales men, who were beaten in Adelaide, gained a victory over them by 272. The death of Luke Greenwood recalls an amusing story the old man was- fond, of narrating concerning “W.G.” In “Old Ebor’s” interesting “Talks pvith Old Yorkshire Cricketers” the incident Ms recorded in the following, words: —“In one match ‘W.G.’ thwacked mo out of the field for -six on the square-leg side. There used to be a practice in thoto days of giving a shilling to those who returned the lost balls. An old 1-adv found this one, and toddled up with it to the wicket, as was tfc© custom. She brought it to mo, and 1 said, ‘Nah, yon's him that' hit it; you’ mun go to him for t’ brass!’ She crossed the wicket to ‘W.G.,’ and gave him the ball, and he, much amused, paid the shilling forfeit. ’ As a result of the New South Wales v. Queensland, engagement two of the local players. Goddard and Minnett HI, look, like developing into full-fledged representative players. Goddard is, a- really brilliant field, bowls with his head, and has in him the makings of a very sound batsman of the Gregory tvp-e. Minnett is a bright and attractive batsman,, hits mil round the wicket, .and scores rapidly. In. the first innings against the northerners he compiled -a- very useful 39, a nasty cut in the mouth probably restricting his output. Going in to wipe off a big deficit in the second innings, he put together—-with a little good fortune — 169, and played excellent aggressive'cricket all the time. Goddard carried off both batting, bowling, and fielding honours in the first innings. It seems nretty certain now that the Glebe left-hand champion has usurped the proud position held so long by Victor Trumper. By securing the batting average in his first English tour and hv achieving the unpre- . ceden-ted feat of double centuries in a test match, Warren Bardsley impressed even the hostile English critics as being a batsman of. remarkable calibre. Now that he is back on the billiard-table wickets of Australia be is easily justifying bis claim to pre-eminence. By ton-scoring in each innings against Victoria. the Glebe crack celebrated bis return to form—if. indeed, be lost it on the voyage and proved -himself a more finished bat than when he left our shores. His 149 in the second innings was a masterpiece, and he was a veritable thorn in the side of the Victorians. The ease with which he forced everything short round, to the on boundary was disconcerting even to such experienced trrmdlers as Laver, Saunders, and Arm-strong. His le" strokes have always been Bardsley’s host, though his cutting and driving were also sure and sound.