CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 19720, 28 November 1925, Page 18

CRICKET

(By “Onlooker.”) ’ [Ye onlooker sees most of ye game.] | TO-DAY’S SENIOR MATCHES. I.C.C. v. Appleby. Marist v. Union. j REPRESENTATIVE FIXTURE. Southland v. South Otago, December 19. Matches again postponed last Staurday owing to the stormy weather conditions prevailing. At the time of writing, it seems as though there is every likelihood that games will not reach the commencement stage today. Real Rugby weather reigns. Interest centred on the representative fixture between Otago and Southland in the mid-week, and consequently all matches arranged for Wednesday were put off. It is with pleasure “Onlooker” records a substantial victory for Southland. This to a certain degree was anticipated by followers of the game in Invercargill, as when the Otago team was published it could be seen at a glance that the side was far removed from being a strong one. Advance reports led us to believe we were going to see some of the guns,—at first McMullan and then Alloo—but as matters turned out neither of these dashing batsmen were able to obtain tfye necessary leave, and the team arrived with but one real Otago regular in Douglas, the left handed Mailey merchant. The rest of the team was certainly comprised of senior players from Dunedin, but their qualifications and abilities did not carry them past that standard with the result that Southland experienced little difficulty in registering a win. There is one thing certain, however, and that is, that what the Otago team lacked in the question of standard, they more than made up for in sportsmanship and goodfellow. Unaminous were the opinions of those who mingled with the visitors that the 1925 team consisted of a fine type of young man, and hopes were expressed that the majority of the side would be able to pay a return visit to Invercargill. The game was contested in a thoroughly pleasant manner throughout the two days. The weather conditions for the fixture were miserable in the extreme, and apart from the discomfiture of the players, had a devastating effect on the poor old wicket. Mr. A. E. Wish (chairman of the grounds committee) and his band of stalwarts must have been made sick at heart when the beautiful summer weather suddenly said adieu and supplanted itself with a touch of bleak winter. After all their good work rolling, cutting (and the new mower has arrived!!!) and watering, it was truly a heartbreak to receive the set back that came. Nevertheless, what was left of the wicket was played on and perhaps this fact expedited the completion of four innings, and a definite result was attained. My sympathies go out to those who received knocks on the body, head, hands or arms, or were dismissed from the batting crease per medium of a rising ball. Lumps of turf came away with the pitch of the ball causing the wicket to resemble at the close of the game a bitumen road in the embryo stage of excavation. Batsmen who succeeded in getting runs should have been credited with three times the totals in some cases and at least double in practically all. Bowlers had a real paradise. Any old ball could get a wicket, but the performances of the match must be credited to Douglas (Otago) and Poole (Southland). Length played its part with these two bowlers opposing batsmen being wont to display impatience and rush out without studying either delivery or flight. Although Douglas spun them “heaps”— and then some—he did not receive the assistance from the wicket a hard and dry wicket would have given him. Those batsmen who use their heads and watch what the bowler is doing, found no difficulty in negotiating the left-hander, as the pace from the wicket was absent, but wnat a sorry showing some of those made who cannot restrain themselves and must chase the flight just to make some crude crossswipe and be skittled or stumped. Of this type of batsman, Southland, it is regrettable to say, provided quite a number, and the sooner the better they adopt quieter methods for their run-getting, or they will continue to suffer the same fates. Little enough can be said about the general standard of cricket throughout the whole game. The conditions, atrocious as they were, did not lend themselves at all to good batting, but one or two instances of fair batting were noticed and are worthy of mention. On the Otago side, Vorrath’s Douglas’s, Brown’s and Cantrell’s innings were outstanding inasmuch as that they got the bulk of the runs between them and got them well. Vorrath and Douglas, lefthanders, were aggressive and generally connected cleanly. Brown displayed a good knowledge of the straight bat. He scored most of his runs from forward drives and pushes past cover. Cantrell’s first inning’s knock was more than useful, but he was in luck’s way, thanks to Tom Groves who dropped a “sitter” off Poole’s bowling when Cantrell was in the twenties Cantrell swung the long handle to some purpose and appeared to appreciate this let-off. Cook’s all round performance stood out on the Southland side. He contributed 25 not out at a critical stage in the first innings, bowled well in either innings and almost achieved perfection in the fielding department. His ground fielding, returning and catching were the best exhibitions given on the showgrounds for many years. Dixon’s batting performance in the second innings literally pulled the game out of the fire for the local team. He material- ’ ly assisted in stopping the rot that had sec in and proceeded merrily to knock the bowling off its length. Several good swings connected cleanly and went spinning boli.ndarywards, but this shot though his strong point eventually proved to be his weakest, a,nd McCurdell rattled his timbers when the batsman hit all over a well pitched delivery. Dixon’s knock was the highest score in the match. The Otago men’s second strike was a good procession. Good fielding on the part of the locals kept the runs down and in good time Southland disposed of the visitors for the small total of 58, 111 runs short of the required number. Poole again kept a splendid length and had most of the batsmen scratching. Wish created a sensation by coming on at the death knock and collecting four scalps in four overs for 8 runs. This trundler evidently found the key of some historic box and unlocked it on this occasion much to the chagrin and despair of the Otago batsmen. Wish,, however, kept them on the spot and maintained a length marked “not negotiable,” the result as already recorded.

A word for the wicket-keepers. Symonds (Otago) and Sparkes both acquitted themselves creditably, Symonds assisting the disposal of no fewer than six wickets—3 stumped and 3 caught. Sparkes did not have these opportunities but did all that was required of him and did it well. Southland will now feel confident of taking on Nelson at New Year and if as strong a team as that which played Otago can get away, the Hawke Cup should have a reasonable chance of resting in Invercargill. Good luck to them. J. B. Hobbs is the eighth batsman to score 3,000 runs in a season in England. K. S. Ranjisinhji was first to do so twentysix years ago. He repeated it in 1900, when he averaged 87.57 per innings. The brilliant Indian was a phenomenal batsman, whose place in English cricket is similar to that of Victor Trumper in Australian.

Arthur Richardson, the hard-driving South Australian batsman, is impressing his claims for selection in the Australian team. He slammed the West Australian bowling, in a 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 he scored 150, 280, and 200 not out.

London Punch on “Sammy” Woods and his cricket “Reminiscences”: “He writes just as he used to play: he gets down to work at once and without any frills gives us of his best. One thinks of Woods as an unusually brilliant player: he was more than that. He was a very great sportsman to whom an umpire was always a man to uphold and not to cavil at. By his example in the field he did more for the games he loved than he in his modesty will ever allow.”

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 firstgrade standard on the cricket field. The performance of the New Zealand eleven in the Test matches scrcely bore out this optimistic hope, but viewed generally the performances of New Zealand sides against the Victorian team last season were better than had been previously put up against overseas teams from the leading cricketing countries.

A Sydney writer says:—“Arthur Mailey one of the most enthusiastic men at the practice nets, is spinning them from the leg with a bit pf snap. Very few in Sydney hold the view that the two slow bowlers should be. included in the Australian Eleven. If the selectors hold that sound view, the rivalry between A.M., of Sydeny, and C. V. Grimmett, of Adelaide, for that place will shed an interest all its own on the selection of the Australian Eleven. Though slow leg-break bowlers, they differ. Mailey’s bowling is the more flighty, and Grimmett’s the more accurate. In the field, when at their best, Mailey is a slip specialist, while Grimmett is very smart anywhere.” H. L. Collins writes in the Sydney Referee: “New South Wales should have a great chance of capturing the Sheffield Shield this season. It is to be hoped that the best players will be available for the matches in Adelaide and Melbourne. We have been rather unfortunate in this respect in the last few years. C. G. Macartney back to his best form, and J. M. Gregory and J. M. Taylor available, besides the other regulars, New South Wales really should have no fear as to the result, under equal conditions. The ideal man to complete the team would be a right-handed fingerspin bowler of good length to relieve the three recognised bowlers. Unfortunately for the State and Australia, this type is hard to find. No side should be better in the field. Altogether, I am very hopeful of the results, from the point of view of New South Wales.”

Charlie Bannerman, one of the few surviving members of the ’7B Australia Eleven, established a unique list of world’s records (remarks Smith’s Weekly). By rattling up 133 at Leicester in 1878, he was the first Australian cricketer to score a century in England against an English team. His 165 (retired hurt) at Melbourne, in 1877, also constituted the first three-figure score made by an Australian against England in Australia, in addition to enabling him to figure as the first “test” match centurion. He was the first Australian to score a century in America, registering 125 at Montreal, Canada, and his 125 not out at Invercargill was the first century put together by an Australian in New Zealand. W. M. Woodfull, of Victoria, who broke the hearts of New Zealand bowlers last season, is still continuing his imperturable progress. He is now skipper of the Carlton XI in Melbourne, and the other Saturday against Richmond he made 83 without a chance on a very treacherous wicket. An Australian critic says that there is no more consistent batsman in Australia and it is hard to see how he can be left out of the Australian team for England. New Zealanders know a little about his consistency too. Since the start of the Plunket Shield matches in the season 1907-08, forty-four centuries have been made by players in these matches. The most scored in one seascon was eight in the 1923-24 season. Curiously enough, there were seven scored in one match this season, that between Otago and Wellington. It was a recordbreaking match as far as scoring went. W. A. Baker, B. J. Kortlang, H. M. McGirr, J. S. Hiddleston and .D. C. Collins scored centuries for Wellington, and R. D. Worker and A. McMullan centuries for Otago. The other ceutury that season was made by R. C. Blunt, for Canterbury against Wellington. T. C. Lowery, now in the New Zealand team, learned his cricket at Christ’s College, captaining his team, being the best batsman and also keeping wickets. At Cambridge University he captained the Cantabs in 1924. For half a season he headed the batting averages in county cricket in England. Lowry visited the Dominion with MacLaren’s M.C.C. side. In the first test with New Zealand he made 54 runs; in the second, 61 and 13; and in the third, 130. Warpen Bardsley’s outstanding performance, he himself considers, was his two separate centuries in a Test match at the Oval in 1909, when he scored 136 and 130. He considers it his greatest. He 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, he considers was easily his best performance in grade cricket. Several cricketers, when spoken to, describe this innings as perhaps the greatest of his career. One international said: “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 test innings was in the last test in 1912, when he scored 30 against the great S. F. Barnes on a sticky wicket in England.