CRICKET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16837, 28 December 1928, Page 12

CRICKET

NEW YEAR MATCH THE WELLINGTON XI For the New Year match against) Poverty Bay at Gisborne, the Wellington -Cricket Association will send a team of considerable strength, though the players will not represent the highest flight of Wellington's cricket, the. Plunket Shield having claimed the first XI for the same dates. A resume of tho various players' qualifications has been received by a Poverty Bay representative from a Wellington acquaintance, who writes of the W.C.A. team meiuoers as under : A. E. Doiioghue, captain: A forceful right-hand batsman, and a brilliant cover-point fieldsman; lias played tor Wellington on many occasions. M. F. Airey : A very aggressive lefthander, who has reached the top of Ins form, and made a century in very fasttime last Saturday; he is a good field, and has played for Wellington for several seasons.

M. Aitken, wicket-keeper: A keeper who has been unfortunate in haying to compete for the district position against K. James, New Zealand's keeper. He is a left-hand batsman, and has played in trial games for representative honors.

S. Lawton : One of the most promising colts in Wellington province at present. Ho played for the town team this season, and is a good fieldsman. C. O'Connor: A first-rate right-hand bowler and a punishing batsman; lias some great performances to his credit for the current season, and a sound record. He will be the stock bowler of the side. F. Bryant: A left-hand bowler of no mean ability, and a good solid batsman. F. Whitwell : Good as a right-hand batsman, and a change bowler of merit. E. Aitken : A brother of M. Aitken, and a good batsman and very keen in the field. C. Hayman : A Sydneysider who has performed remarkably well for the Kilbirnie club since coming to Wellington this season. He is really brilliant as a close-in fieldsman.

Rix-Trott: Plays for the 'Varsity, and shows great promise. He is one of the keenest of the side. K. Robertson: A left-handed bowler and a sound batsman. He was selected to train for the Plunket Shield team this year, and has a good record in club play. Tho eleventh man, Robertson, was not certain of getting leave for the trip when the Wellington letter was written, but it was hoped that he would be available to strengthen the side. Unfortunately R. A. White, who played for the Town team in the annual match with the Country XI, and gave a brilliant performance, was tumble to obtain leave sufficient to enable him to visit G-isborne.

Tho Wellington side is expected to arrive in Gisborne to-morrow evening, and the match will commence on Monday morning, being continued on Tuesday.

Arrangements were made some time ago for a Hawke's Bay junior representative cricket team to visit Gisborne in the New Year to play Poverty Bay, and a series of games between Napier, Hastings and Esk was arranged to assist in the selection of the Bay team. The rain on Wednesday, however, caused the abandonment of the Napier v. Hastings game, and owing to the wickets being saturated the Napier v. Esk game could not be played. Difficulties have also arisen in connection with sending the Bay team to Gisborne, and it has now been decided to cancel that trip. A suggestion has been made that the NapierHsistings game that was partially completed should be finished at New Year in Ha stings.