CRICKET.

Southland Times, Issue 19658, 7 October 1922, Page 12 (Supplement)

CRICKET.

(By “TwGLh Man.”) The cricket season in Southland will officially open on Saturday next and the prospects for 1922-23, while not as bright as they might be, are much more cheerful than has been the case for several seasons past. Unlike previous years, indications are that the different club competitions will be well advanced by the time the Christmas holidays come round, but it is perhaps a little unfortunate that a start was not made at an even earlier date than has been decided upon. Several weeks of beautiful cricketing weather have been lost and other sports are claiming the attention of prospective players who have grown impatient at the too lengthy interval between winter and summer sports. What I refer to is not new. At the present time the question as to whether first grade matches will be played on turf or concrete has yet to be decided, the Association at present being in negotiation with the A. and P. Association regarding the use of the showgrounds. However, even if these negotiations reach a satisfactory conclusion, as seems likely, it would not do tn be too optimistic as far as the present season is concerned, at any rate. The showgrounds have only recently been ploughed up and sown down and whether the new turf would stand a heavy season’s play is another question (bat is difficult to answer satisfactorily. Fortunately, the Association possesses a valuable stand-by in its concrete wickets and while good turf is always preferable to concrete, the latter in a town like Invercargill cannot be anything but a profitable venture for practice and junior matches in the years to come. The senior competition this year will include the same teams as last season. It was rather a surprise to notice that Old Boys’ had abandoned their oft-repeated intention of seeking admission to the first grade competition. On their record last season and the material at hand this year, they had strong claims to enter a higher grade and give some of their promising coils a chance, but evidently they thought better of the idea. The junior grades are likely to give the Association sente trouble. The governing body has frequently indicated that it is not desirous of having in its competitions junior clubs which have little hope of advancing to senior rank, and in that decision it is wise. It is, however, noticeable that more than one entry for the same grade is being permitted and this is a policy that cannot be too strongly condemned. It weakens the lower grades, and the composition of the A and B teams in one grade is usually a troublesome proposition for everybody. I also notice that a grading committee has been appointed and that junior cricket will be held up for some weeks to permit it to do its work. 'Phis is another scheme that has few advantages and many disadvantages. The grading of teams from each club should be automatically dependent on its entries for the com- | petition—one for each grade. The question has been raised of a team that may have i players too good for the grade it is in, but if the grading committee is going to hold a pistol to the heads of the best players in that team and say “if you don’t join another club you will have to get out of cricket,” then the Association will be faced with the verj- jxMntion it desires tn avoid. In other words, it will have another junior club with little prospect of entering senior grade cricket. The following article I have had by me .or sonic considerable time, seriously debating as to whether it should be reproduced in toto. The writer prefaces it with the statement that “the ways of a cricket ball after it leaves the bowler’s hand are more varied and strange than the ways of a maid with a man,” and idler reading his story most people will agree that the “maid and the man” are numbered with the also start ed. Many of the incidents given below are quite authentic and it may not be generally known that the incident dealing with the bail lodging in W. G. Grace’s shirt was responsible for the framing of a new rule, namely, that in such a case the ball was to be declared dead. Otherwise the batsmen could have gone on scoring runs for ever as the oct of removing the ball would be obstructing the batsmen. One or two of the stories told here, are. however, more of a tribute to the enthusiasm of the writer than to his desire for authenticity, particularly towards the end. In a regimental match at Bangalore, Mr Ridpath, of the Carabiniers. hit a ball high and hard into a tree, where it remained. I On the fieldsmen going to the base of the I tree they found a dead crow, while the ball

itself was discovered resting peacefully in the nest from which it hail ejected its occupant. “In another match at Packham, the batsman “holed out” in a robin’s nest, which proved so difficult to approach that no fewer than 94 runs were scored i>efore the ball conld be recovered. Even this astonishing feat was eclipsed by an Australian batsman, who drove a ball into the fork of a jarrah tree, where it remained until it was shut down with a gun, by which time 286 him had been added to the score. “Mr W. Read tclh us of one ball which, after a long search, was found fixed firmly in a pickle-bottle attached to an ivy-covered wall; and of another, hit by himself at Hastings, ‘which struck the roof of a house and rolled down a water-pipe.’ “Almost more iropisii wi’S a ball which, when it was being thrown in, bounced into W. G. Grace's shirt and stayed there while he added several runs to the score before allowing it to be retrieved. Another ball, hit in a match on the Woodville ground, Boston, landed in the truck of a passing goods train. “Of the terrific speed at which the ball can l>e made to travel there are many sensational stories. One bail delivered by Rotherham in a match at Derby sent the Lails flying 62 yards behind the wicket; while another, with which Mold once dismissed Lohmann, eclipsed this record by hurling the bails a distance of 63 yards 6 inches. “On one occasion when G. Brown, a ‘domon’ bowler of a past generat .on, was bowling, an attempt was made to stop his delivery with a coat . The ball, however, waa travelling at such a terrific rate that it passed through the garment, and, striking a dog behind it, killed the unfortunate animal on the spot. "In a match between North and South Melbourne the bull struck and killed a swallow as it darted between the wickets, and was so little affected by the encounter that it sent the middle stump flying twenty yards behind the wicket-keeper. “In other matches one bail struck a watch out of the hand of a spectator; another knocked the stem of a pipe down the throat of an onlooker in a London Park; and the third landed in the middle of a basket of eggs on the lap of a woman who was driving home from market. “Often when the ball leaves the bat of a mighty hitter it has strange experiences before it is recovered. Thus W. G. Grace writes of one of C. I. Thornton’s hurricane drives: The ball soared sky high and went straight out of the ground, over a higt block of houses, and dropped into a busj street.’ ” Collins the English and Wairarapa bauman is going to Wellington every w r eeh u> play for the Old Boys. A very fine cricketer, Collins should be heard of in tha capital this year. Present indications are that Invercargill club teams will be much the same ua last year and I have hoard of no outstanding gains by any club. There is a likelihood of E. A. Macdonald, the ex-Australian fast bow'ler now in League Cricket in England, having to return to Australia. The news came to hand that his health has ufit been good and that his doctor advises a return to his own sunny country. There is a prospect of about six repre Fentative matches being played at Inver cargill this year. The visit by the English team wiil be the "star” event, while the annual report of the Auckland .'\ssociatiou states that circumstances permitting a match wiil be played against Southland. The Plunket Shield matches will be played in Dunedin thiAyear and the local Association has been®endeavouring to persuade the “big four” io come on to Invercargill from Dunedin. Wellington is already ill negotiation and favour;tl>l<*_re|4ics may be expected from Otago, Canterbury anti Ashbus ton. With a view to trying out some of the younger players for representative matches, 1 would suggest to the. Association that a colts’ team be picked early and couched, then being played in a match or so against the Rest, before the representative season opens. “Not out” in Sydney Referee has this tv: say alxrot A. C. Maclaren, the captain ol the M.C.C. team for New Zealand:--“Mac-laren first came to this country as a colt with A. E. Stoddart’s first team in 1894, when he showed splendid form in Melbourne. Coming again three years later he blossomed into a star of exceptional brilliance, eclipsing even .the freakish Ranjitsinhji. These two men were undoubtedly the finest pair of batsmen ever seen in one team in Australia. Maclaren played innings after innings for three figures on the Sydney ground. His batsmanship attained a degree of excellence never equalled, perhaps, up to that time by any other man on lh» Sydney ground. He allied with a grand style, majestic in its way, a degree of brilliancy and power that amazed everyone who noted the uncommon immunity from faulty strokes and timing in each innings. A dash of Maclaren in English first-class cricket to-day would revolutionise off-side play. He was a brilliant driver on the ground, and just as brilliant in the lifting drives, which he used to place with extraordinary skill over mid-off or over cover, or even extra-cover.” ENGLISH VISITORS. The team selected to tour Australia and New Zealand under the captaincy of the famous international of pre-war days, A. C. Maclaren, was due to have left England last Saturday by the Orvieto. As this team will in all probability play a two-day match in Invercargill a description of the players and a general opinion on the team may be of interest to local followers of the game. The team is not intended to be considered as representative of English cricket, the tour having been undertaken more with the intention of bringing forward a number of young and promising cricketers. Owing to the heavy toll taken of the younger players by the late war, England has been forced to rely in test matches of the past year or two on old plajers, many of whom are well past their best. The present policy of the M.C.C. is, therefore, a wise one. The team will probably give ihe State eleven® of Australia a fairly good fight and will almost certainly present a stiff proposition for New Zealand elevens. As far a.- is known, the team is without a fast bowler, but otherwise appears to be rather well served in this department. It is interesting to note that Maclaren in an interview last week stated that he considered his uncertainties batting and fielding. A- far as the latter department is concern' d not a great deal of information is available as to the strength of the side, but in bat ing, no doubt, Maclaren is thinking of a lack of consistency that ha.s manifested itself in the efforts of several of his batsmen. Though there are few really first-class batsmen in the team, there are goal possibilities about the side as a batting unit, but whether all will j strike form on the wickets down tinder” is a question that remains to be answered. Certainly, from the number of players new to an Australian tour, they will take some little time to settle down to Australian conditions. The following particulars of each member of the.party 1 hav< compiled from different sources of information: A. C. Maclaren will celebrate his 51st birthday on the tour. One of the most brilliant batsmen England ha produced; he was in the Harrow School eleven when only 14 and before he was 2(1 was playing in first-class cricket, scoring 118 in his first county match. Paid three visits to Australia, on the last occasion in 1901-2, captaining the side. Captained England v. Australia in England on many occasions. At present holds the world's record for the highest score in first-class cricket, scoring 424 against Somerset in 1895. Last year was appointed instructor to h: old duh, Lancashire C.C. A batsman of the highest accomplishments, strung at all points, and executing every stroke correctly. In the field, nowadays prefe - . short ••lip, but ong- | inally a magnificent long field. He selected and captained the rinatcur side that Iwat the Australians in such a remarkable fashion last summer. Is a \‘ery hue leader of a side and an acknowledged authority on play. Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Hartley, D. 5.0., another veteran, wiil act as % ice-captain. s\eut from the Tonbridge School eleven u»

Oxford where he won hit ‘'Blue," later joining up with Sussex, He was a member of Warners M.C.C. side which went out to South Africa in 1906 and played in some of the test matches there. He is in his 48th year and is a godd all-rounder, a steady bar. good slow bowler and a safe field. The Hon. F. S. G. Calthorpe is at present captain of Warwickshire and is 30 years of age. Has played for Repton School, Cambridge and Sussex, and at the present time is one of the best all-rounders in England. A free and dashing, if not altogether sound bat, with plenty of strokes. Bowls Biedium pace and keeps a good length, making pace off the pitch. A good slip fieldsman. His best performance was probably his 1920 record in first-class cricket, when in his first season of county cricket as captain of Warwickshire he made 1000 runs and took 100 wickets. Has played for the Gentlemen and in New Zealand should be one of the mainstays of the side. It is understood that he will not play in Australia, and comes to New Zealand to spend his honeymoon. Geoffrey Wilson, captain of Yorkshire, 27 years of age. Has played for Harrow and Cambridge and was the hero of the 1913 Harrow v. Eton match, his great ione-handed innings of 170 enabling Harrow to win. A sound bat with a good defence and an excellent field, particularly at cover-point. Had a good batting record this season. Lieutenant A. C. Wilkinson is 29 years ef age, and before embarking on an army career played for Eton and Oxford. His army duties prevent him from playing much first-class cricket, but he is regarded as the finest bat in the Army, which at the present time includes a number of highclass performers with the willow. Despite an injury to his hand in the late war, his batting still preserves its old stylishness and variety of strokes. He is an excellent field near the wickets. A. P. F. Chapman, aged 22, is one of the most promising cricketers in England at the present time. From Uppingham School eleven he went to Cambridge and has also played for Berkshire. He is looked upon as the finest left-hand hitter in England, possessing a wide variety of scoring strokes. Is a brilliant field and can bowl as a change. This season he accomplished the unparalleled feat of scoring centuries alike in the University and Gentlemen v. Players matches, while last season he was a member of the side captained by Maclaren that defeated the Australians. T. C. Lowry is a New Zealander, being the son of the well-known sportsman who owned Desert Gold and other good horses. Like Chapman he belongs to the Jessop type and has done well at Cambridge during the past two seasons, while he has been a big help to Somerset this year. He learnt his cricket at Christ’s College, Christchurch. He is a lively forcing batsman, a good outfield and an excellent wicket-keeper. He was a member of the Incognito Cricket Team that went across to America in 1920. J. F. McLean is one of the discoveries of this season. He plays for Worcestershire and is a fine wicket-keeper besides being a useful bat with a nice style. C. H. Titchmarch, aged 41. plays for Herefordshire, a second-class county. As a result he is not so well known as some of his comrades, but he will probably prove to be one of the best batsmen on the side. A consistently good scorer, his 3ne innings for the Gentlemen of England at the Oval last year created a great impression. Can keep wickets. W. W. Hill-Wood (Eton. Cambridge, ami Derbyshire) is a young batsman whose style has Iteen the despair of the stylists. Still, he gets there, as the saying is. An opening batsman, he is hard to ger rid of, though his batting lacks power. He is a change slow bowler. The Hon. D. F. Brand is the youngest member of the team, being 20 years of age. He was captain of last year's Eton eleven and is now at Cambridge. He is a useful bat and bowler. A. P. Freeman (Kent) is one of the professional players. Is considered to be by far the best googlie bowler in England, having a remarkable command over his pitch . He can keep a splendid length while importing spin to the ball. A- hard hitter, he is a fine field, particularly at cover-point. H. .D. Swan, chairman of the Essex County Committee, is the first member of the committee of the M.C.C. to act in a touring managerial capacity. He took a team to Portugal in 1910 and only recently returned from a visit to New Zealand. Mr t'wan, who is 43 years of age, can, if necessary, play as a reserve, as he is a useful allrounder. He is described as “a man of colossal size, great enthusiasm, possessing fine knowledge of the game as well as a ready wit and imperturable good temper. He should prove an outstanding successful feature of the tour.”