CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 21579, 17 December 1931, Page 8

CRICKET

TOWN V. COUNTRY VISITORS WIN JUNIOR MATCH COUNTRY SENIORS DEFEATED The annual Town v. Country cricked games were played at the Showgrounds yesterday afternoon, the Town team wanning the senior game by 85 runs and the country team winning the junior game by 18 runs. Both games were decided on the first innings. Weather and playing conditions were ideal, but in the senior game batsmen failed to take advantage of the conditions and small scoring resulted. There was a good attendance of the public. SENIOR GAME Neither side was represented by its full strength, the Country team probably suffering more than the home side. A young eleven, including two junior players, represented thf Town and several young players Were also included in the visiting team. On the whole the cricket was very disappointing and practically devoid of the sparkle which usually characterizes this fixture. Batsmen played too restrainedly to the average trundling and in several instances were dismissed through overcautiousness. As a trial for representative honours the fixture was not a success, rhere was no outstanding player in the country ranks and some of the colts tried out in the Town team failed to impress. Fleasing features, however,'were the good fielding of both teams, the surprisingly good trundling of W. Southern and the batting of C. Smith, the Old Boys’ colt. Country had first use of the wicket, Rush and Spittle opening to Southern and McMillan. The visitors made a disastrous start, Spittle being run out in the third over with only five runs on the board. O’Shea followed and snicked one up out of reach of the slips. In Southern’s fifth over both Rush and O’Shea were dropped in the slips by McMillan and Maxwell respectively. Rush shaped well, but found difficulty in getting his shots through the field. Meanwhile, O'Shea scored quickly, but was fortunate in dropping some uppish shots clear of the field. At 21 O’Shea drove one hard to Poole at cover and ran. Rush called to him to go back but O'Shea went through and Milne accepted a good return from Poole to run out Rush. The latter really forfeited his wicket for O’Shea’s benefit. King, who is probably the best all-round cricketer in the country districts, did not get a start and was bowled bv Southern for none. 25—3—0.

Southern was bowling very steadily and had all of the batsmen playing him. O'Shea opened out and scored boundaries off both Southern and Macdonald (who had relieved McMillan) and the score was taken to 39 when Faulks was dismissed without scoring. O’Shea went next without any addition to the total and it looked as though the visitors were going to be dismissed for a very small score. Only Campbell of the remaining batsmen looked like getting runs, and the side was dismissed after one and a half hours’ play for 04 runs. McGowan took the last three wickets for 11 runs. Southern bowled consistently. He sent down 17 overs for 22 runs and three wickets and kept a good length throughout. The town ground fielding was good. Town started as poorly as Country, Hamilton playing all over a low one from Cafiell in the second over of the innings. Poole and McGowan took the score to 18 when Poole was caught behind the wickets after making one. He batted for a quarter of an hour and had plenty of bowling, but could not connect with Agnew’s fast ones. McGowan and Milne then became associated and took the score to 48 when McGowan went lbw. The cricket was very slow. The fourth, fifth and sixth wickets fell cheaply, but Smith and Riddell, two colts, altered the general order of things and brightened play with the best partnership of the innings. Both scored freely and 130 was showing on t-he board before Smith was snapped up behind for a neatly-com-piled 33. Riddell also scored 33 before being bowled off his pads. The innings closed at 6 o’clock for 149.

McGowan top-scored with 37, but was not so impressive as either Smith or Riddell, who shaped confidently and scored quickly. McGowan, like Poole, missed many opportunities to score through bad timing. Southern and Tapley threw their wickets away through endeavouring to brighten up the batting. Milne batted solidly for his 13.

The visitors’ bowling was fair. Cappcll, a left-hander, shaped best and kept the runs down, while King, who varied his deliveries, secured the good figures of three for 12. Agnew was erratic. Behind the wickets McAra shaped well and took Agnew’s fast stuff cleanly. The fielding of the visitors was good. Country took advantage of the remaining hour and scored 82 for four. Messrs W. A. H. Oliver and W. Spittle were the umpires. Following are details:—• COUNTRY. First Innings. Rush run out 4 Spittle run out 2 O’Shea b Macdonald 29 King b Southern 0 Faulks c Maxwell b Southern 0 Miller not out 3 McAra b Southern 1 Agnew c Tapley b Macdonald 3 Campbell c Maxwell b McGowan 15 Edie b McGowan 1 Caffell b McGowan 2 Extras 4 64 BOWLING ANALYSIS.

McMillan bowled one no ball. Second Innings. Spittle b McMillan 1 Faulks c Tapley b McMillan 12 Rush b Southern 0 McAra not out ' 27 Caffell c Southern b McGowan 37 Edie not out 4 Byes 1 Total for four wickets 82 BOWLING ANALYSIS:

TOWN. First Innings. Hamilton b Caffell 1 Poole c McAra b Agnew 1 McGowan lbw b King 37 Milne lbw b King 13 Southern c and b Edie 4 Smith c McAra b Spittle ’ 33 Tapley c Faulks b King 4 Riddell b Caffell 33 Macdonald b Spittle 0 McMillan not out 7 Maxwell b Caffell 0 Extras 16 Total 149 BOWLING ANALYSIS.

0. M. R. W. Southern 17 8 22 3 McMillan 8 1 18 0 Macdonald 6 2 8 2 McGowan 2.5 0 11 3

0. M. R. W. Southern 8 1 23 1 McMillan r> 1 9 2 Maxwell 4 0 9 0 Hamilton 3 0 29 0 McGowan 3 0 11 1

0. M. R. W. Agnew 14 7 26 1 Caff ell 10 5 14 3 Campbell 4 0 11 0 Faulks 6 2 6 0 King 9 3 12 3 Edie 4 1 12 1 Miller 4 1 13 0 Rush 2 0 13 0 Spittle 5 0 25 2 thrcti bails.