Cricket Notes

Southland Times, Issue 19498, 30 December 1904, Page 4

Cricket Notes

(By "Stump.") Southland played her annual contest against Otago last Monday and Tuesday, and, as per usual, came off second There was,, however, very little to choose, between tbe playing strength 61 the t wo teams. In attack, the cracki bowler tvas found on Otago's aide, in Fiaher, and, J, think it will be generally conceded that our Wilson was the most finished bat playing in the match. The fielding was about equal, the critics being very pleased with the marked improvement the local men showed. Huntley vcu* particularly brilliant in this department, Jus> four catches that dismissed Williams in both innings, Siedeborg and Corbett being V gems."McNeece justified -lus 'inclusion.- in the team, for his fielding, but has ye ■ tto learn a great deal about how to guard his stumps: . .' xA '■ ...-- Keane's performance behind the wieUela was about tbe best .emulation, of BlacKhaan, vet shown by a Southland man with the - gloves, four byes ow, ot a score of 210 .being considerably below ._ the average ; and at must not . be forgotten that any of Keane's three catches - were not by ,any moans easy to get a hold. of. There was a good deal of comment on account of Crockett not being tried ear- ] lier in Otago's first* team, but wiseacres are always to be found' to JreoHy criticise any captain's action, after a man has icome out with an average like the •Blufl man, with 5 wickets fo" 25. runs,. There was nothing very, formidable in Otagio's total of 70 runs for: 5 wickets, when Wilson made the sixth change, in Southland's bowling and no one recognised the value of a' trundler of Crockett's ability, better than the ex-St-^ Kilda skipper— in fact, no man coiud have, worked the 'local bowling and , fielding to more advantage. It must bo confessed that our batting in the first Innings was very- disappoint-, . iba, Kane alone playing .up to form. 11 he remembers Wilson's 48 against .Otago a couple of seasons ago, 117 (nut out) last year and 43 on. Monday, added to the fact that' our captain is a field- of the first order, the . Otago selector of the N.Z. team (will find ;it Ja. difficult, matter to discover eleven men having belter claims to be included In , the colony's team than .Wilson. I have rio doubt that when the time comes round for BaKer to select his team, the only doubt he will have in the matter will be the condition of the 'local man's nasal organ/ : I have seen a few men get '* woodened out " in both cricket , and .football but X have never seen, . one who took n severe " bifJ," like that Wilson received, with more equanimity— in " the first place a ■'. {possessor of "nerves" would aot have .' stood so close to a first-class batsiuan • and in the (second you would find very few men who would not have collapsed after receiving such", a cannon-ball hit. At >iatest accounts Wilson was . getting on splendidly, ,' but was enduring no little , pain. , Kane had hard luck in being run oui In the?" second Innings. ••. Along with his captain* he had completely collared the bowling and there Beemed e>ery prospec that Southland wrald wipe off the iirst essay's deficiency without losing a . wicket. Fate,: however, decreed it otherwise. I hear that Kane hw beeo asked ' to keep in form, in view of having a chance in higher cricket* v ' Huntley's' 28 on Tuesday moruihg completely knocked on the > head, the fond hopes of some, of Otago's men, whe thought the match would be over* in time for thera! to patch the . afternoon express. The most noticeable individual score! ta the interstate grans, '.Victoria v. Queensland, won by the former by ar innings arid 181 runs, were those of W •Armstrong (200) and V. Ransford (150): Concerning this pair the Argus nays :— Ransford brought his score to 150, made in four hours seven minutes. He bad only added- two more when he jumped to t "yorker "' from l-ong f - missed it, and was bowled. The success of so young a batsman was gratfying, especially to all who have urged that new blood was needed . in the Victoria eleven. The only chance he gave was at .83, *nd tbe fact of hitting nineteen 4's told that there was strength as. well as style in his play No young batsman who has come out ol late yeaTs has shown anything like, the same qualities. While he snowed a natural ability as. a batsman even atschool, Ransford was quick to take a aint as tc his defecta when the advice/ cn >iie from 'one \ whose experience , ttjaa of va1.16, olid im this way his batting quickly, developed j finish. His ploy all through this season has been most consistent, and in lus, twe interstate games he has proved a success, for in his 0n1y ... innings against South Australia he carried out his bat for So. -He' is strong on the off, drives well; and is better to leg. than the beginning of this innings indicated, though that is still bin weakest stroke. Armstrong's innings wa* a fine one to watch, and included aw hits to the boundary. It was always realised "that he had - only to uso the .reach ond power he possesses to beoorno 'a gnfot fording batsman, and the last couple ol seasons he has realised ?t himself, and played up to his belief. It is about the fifth hundred he has scored thus early in - the'season, though some of theni were in unimportant imid-week matches. >. .. 'mmmmmmm y f A ' TV. the interstate gams against IS, .S.\\ . Clem Hill appears to have had briid luck when shaping well in his flrst innings.. He had made 37 hy. free encket and thon chopped a navd one from Hepkins hard on to tlie ground and bad tht mortification of A seeing .it curl into un wicket with just enough strength tc shake a bail off. Hopkins the N.S.W.' bowler appears to making his place in the Australian team safe. Against South Australia, he captured 4 wickets . for 34 runs, while he scored 32 with the bat and fiel-led unusually well< '■ " • Bill Howell (N.S.W.) scored his first century in first-class cricket against South Australia on 19th inst. His play was as usual strong; and free,, and he made his 138 rims in 100 minutes. His companion in three figures was EV K Waddy, who by his 129 (not out), gained the distinction of making a century in his first game in first-class cricket. This score was made in 2 hours, 43 minutes, .without a mistake. „ Although a very sound batsman V . Ransford (Victoria) ' will likely, lose his chance this year for international henours" by his . weakness in fielding. The Lyttelton Tunes is led, by the recent Canterbury-Wellington, match, to the opinion that the gradual . evolution oi , cricket from a game to a science,: has had the eflect of makiing tbe. play less attractive to lookers-on. But (says the paper) if we cannot have the bright and strenuous cricket which' an indifferent wicket" often produces there should at least be some reasonable i prospect aforded of games" being brought to a definite issue in the specified time. At the end of the second day's match referred to, the position was that Canterbury, could scarcely, lose and Wellington could hardly win, while there was_every prospect of the Canterbury team being robbed of a vjictory' through lack of time to finish the game. As a matter of fact the interest wa4 at that stage/entirely: gone from the i contest. 'Ibe journal suggests tnat, play j might be started earlier and the after- 1 noon tea adjournment abandoned, it be- I ing absurd to suppose that twenty-two stalwart' athletes -cannot; play a few I hours cricket without an adjournment ] for refreshments. Jflven if the game was not drawn" out for, three days, if the public were assured of a little more liveliness in the play, the gate for two days j would probably more than compensate j for the abandonment of the third day. ." If cricket is to be dependent upon tho public it will have to sacrifice some: of its ultrarsciehtlfic severity. - At, the pre;s- 1 ent time it is far more exciting from the casual spectator's point of view to. look on at a school , boys' match than to witness a .meeting of dnter-prpvincial rep- j rosentatives.. ll . j