CRICKET

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 7

CRICKET

By

SLIP.

THE OTAGO TEAM. Little fault can be found with the selection of the players chosen to practice for the Plunket Shield matches. It is unfortunate that Shepherd and Dickinson cannot travel, for the team, by their absence will lost considerably in strength. Shepherd is undoubtedly one of the Dominion’s finest batsmen, and though he will always be remembered as a stylist and a run-getter, had it not been for business ties his name would have figured more prominently in New Zealand cricket. It is noticeable that no recognised wicketkeeper has been selected for practice. One can only assume that Gall and is to act behind the “sticks.” If it is the intention of the selectors to make Galland wicketkeeper a fine fielder is being lost, although the move might mean increased batting strength. In "Slip’s'’ opinion, the best team for the northern tour would be as follows: Blamires, 11. Duncan, S. Duncan, Galland, Knight, M'Mullan, Torrance. Cherry, Casey, Fraser, and Douglas. The team would be far from weak as regards batting, and Casey (a fast bowler), Blamires and Torrance (medium pace), and Douglas (break) would form a strong attack. For matches in Dunedin Dickinson could replace Casey and Shepherd could be substituted for Cherry.

NOTES. Points for the Otago Cricket Association’s fielding trophy are in future to be published ajrthe conclusion of each match. The Field states: In the match between H.M.S. Bryony and H.M.S. Malaya, played at Malta on August 5, the former made 187 and the latter 156. For H.M.S. Bryony Lieutenant Dixon soored 173 out of the 186 made from the bat. His score included a six and 31 fours. The other 10 mtn scored only eight runs between them. Dixon must have “farmed” practically all the bowling. J. B. Hobbs Is the eighth batsman to score 3000 ru is in a season in England. Iv. S. Ilanjitsinliji was first to do so 23 f'ears ago. He repeated it in 1900, when he averaged 87.57 pey innings. The brilliant Indian was a phenomenal batsman, whose place In English crieket is similar to that of Victor Trumper ia Australian. Will the New Zealand team fare better against the Sheffield Shield States than West Australia has done? asks "Burwood” in the Dominion. The fact that Wellington defeated the Victorian team last season, and that Otago, Canterbury, and Auckland did so well against them, raised hopes that New Zealand had at last risen to first-grade standard on the cricket field. The performance of the New Zealand eleven In the Test matches scarcely bore out this optimistic hope, but viewed generally tho performances of New Zealand sides against tho Victorian team last seasoi were better than had been previously put up against overseas teams from the leading cricketing countries. 11. L. Collins writes in the Sydney Referee: “Now South Wales should have a great chance of capturing the Sheffield hield this season. It is to bo hoped that the best players will be available for the matches in Adelaide and Melbourne. We have been rather unfortunate in this rospoct in the last few years. C. G. Macartney back to his best form, nnd J. M. Gregory and >T. M. Taylor available, besides the other regulars. New South Wales really ahould have no fear as to the result, under

equal conditions. The ideal man to complete the team would be a right-handed finger-spin bowler of good length to relieve the three recognised bowlers. Unfortunately for the State and Australia, this type is 1 *rd to find. No side should be better in the field. Altogether lam very hopeful of the results, from the point of view of New South Wales.” A contributor to the London Observer considers that A. W. Carr is a captain ready made, worth his place as a batsman and fielder alone. Other batting stalwarts are J. B. Hobbs. A. Sutcliffe. E. Hendren, P. Holmes, A. Hallows, F. E. Woolley, and A. Sandham—and their fielding is up to standard, though Woolley’s tendency to drop catches in the clips seems to be occasioning some alarm. The role of storm troops will be sustained bv M. W. Tate and G. G. Macaulay, but it is felt that they will need reinforcements—possibly G. O. Allen, H. Larwood, or F. Roots. It is doubted whether Englar. 1 can beat Australia on a plumb wicket; wherefore England will pray for rain. Trial matches are advocated in order to give the younger men a chance of proving their mettle; and “there’s hope, there’s nope for England,” as Henry Lawson used to say, among the promising company which includes A. Hammond, K. S. Duleepsinhji. D. R. Jardine, D. J. Knight, and C. S. Marriott. When questioned concerning his greatest cricket performance, T. J. E. Andrews was reticent (says the Sydney Referee). He confided that he considered his two scores of 90 in the third and fifth test matches during the English tour, as his best in test cricket. Then, of course, he readily recalled to mind his wonderful Sheffield Shield innings against Victoria in 1919-20 This, he thinks, is easily his best inter-State performance. He scored 247 not out on this occasion, and has a mounted and engraved cricket ball ae a memento of the occasion. After going this far, Andrews did not wish, as he said, “to talk about myself further.” Everyone knows his best grade performance, which wap recorded against University in the 1923-24 season, when he scored 27i not out. England’s famous cricketer, J. B. Hobbs, is to be seen on the screen. The Paramount Company will shortly release “The Life of Jack Hobbs,” a British production. Arthur Richardson, the hard-driving South j Australian batsman, is impressing his claims for selection in the Australian team. He punished the West Australian bowling in the recent match to the tune of 227. He has three times made 200 runs or more in an innings on the Adelaide Oval, In first-class cricket. In successive matches against English bowling lie scored 150, 280, and 200 not out. Deploring the lot of cricket in South Africa at present, the South African correspondent of a leading English sporting paper says that cricket in tho Western province is as dead as a door-nail. The public will not take any interest in the competition games as played from Saturday to Saturday, and the correspondent urges that two-day cricket should be scrapped and the single innings game of Lancashire and Yorkshire league cricket substituted. John Berry Hobbs holds pearly every record that comes within the grasp of tho cricketer. Now it would seem that he has political leanings. At all events, it is said that the O. al idol has been asked to contest one of the Wandsworth divisions at the next election, whenever that may come (says Sporting Life). We have, of course, hail cricketer M.P.’s—or should it be M.P.cricketers? —among them F. S. Jackson and M. Falcon, while C. B. Fry has made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get to Westminster. Whether Hobbs does stand or not remains to be seen, but if he does he will doubtless live up to his reputation by making a good score even if he fails to get ip tho winning hit!

Warren Bnrdsley's outstanding performance, he himself considers, was nis two separate centuries in a Test match the Oval in 1909, when lie scored 136 and 130. He considers it his greatest. Ho considers that his 124 runs made against Victoria, in Melbourne, on a bad wicket, in 1910, was his best effort in Sheffield Shield matches. In 1918, in the final between Glebe and Paddington, Bardsley scored 106 for Glebe, at Wentworth Oval, on an atrocious wicket. This, ho considers, was easily his best performance in grade cricket. Several cricketers, when spoken to, described this innings as perhaps the greatest of his career. One international saiclj “There is, and has been, only one Warren’Bardsley, and only Bardsley could have played such an innings.” Bardsley thinks that one of his best innings was in the last test in 1912, when h© scored 30 against the great S. F. Barnes on a sticky wicket in England. Piquant confessions concerning his cricket superstitions are made by Ilobbs in a gramophone record which he made, telling now he scored his 126th century. Iljobbs says: “Now, I am no more superstitious than the average man, but I now confess that tho number of my room in the hotel at Taunton was 37, and I havo from my early years regarded 37 as my lucky number. Also, throughout the whole of the match

against Somerset I carried in mv pocket a four-leaf clover that had been sent to me bv a lady member of the Surrey Cricket Club.” Those who wish to see English cricket again supreme may ask themselves whether the game as now played and controlled is likely to conduce to such a thing (says ‘The Gentleman in Black” in the Athletic News). Opinions will differ on the point, hut certain it is that not only the “old fogies” believe that many changes could be made with pronounced advantage. Perhaps the most important question to be considered in this respect would be: “Are there too many first-class matches played?” My own opinion is that there are, the result being that for some time before the season is finished many of the chief players are utterly weary. A remedy'—a somewhat drastic one. it is true—for this state of thing, would be to cut down the number of counties ranking as first-class. Those which survived in the list could then play out-and-home matches with each other. Competition programmes would then be of equal length, and the championship could be decided without the employment of percentages. The abolition of first-innings points would be a very good thing, and it is to be hoped that the Advisory County Committee will devise some means whereby they may be done away with. At times they have undoubtedly produced slow cricket, and, what is more unfortunate, have caused sides to be more concerned on not losing than on winning a game. A spirit altogether alien to the best interests of cricket has thus sprung up. ’Then there is, of course, the old, old question concerning the perfection to which the preparation of modern wickets has been brought. TEAM’S OUTFIT STOLEN. BRISBANE, December 1. the week-end the visiting New South Wales cricket team left its field outfit in a shed at the Exhibition Grounds. Robbers forced an entrance and made a clean sweep, securing clothing values! at over £4O. The visitors had to take the field yesterday in clothing supplied by the Queenslanders. NEW SOUTH WALES v. QUEENSLAND. BRISBANE, December 2. Queensland in its first innings made 506 for nine wickets (declared). Oxenham made 94, Thompson 132, and Beeston 52 (not out). Everett took four wickets for 142. New South Wales (who, in its first innings made 286) in its second innings lost four wickets for 77. Noyes took three wickets for 27. The match was drawn.