Wyndham JUNIOR CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 23152, 19 March 1937, Page 15

Wyndham JUNIOR CRICKET

REPRESENTATIVE MATCH REVIEWED Conditions were ideal for the junior representative cricket match played between Eastern and Town at Wyndham last Saturday, and wpn by Town by 109 runs to 74. The wicket was in excellent condition, although the outfield was still showing the effects of the recent heavy rains and flooding, and was somewhat damp and consequently slow, making it hard to score boundaries along the turf. Taken as a whole, a poor game resulted, the only bright spots being provided by the excellent fielding of the Town team. This was most marked in the infield. The Town captain, £?• Ramsay, seemed to be very conversant with his bowlers potentialities, and placed his field with exceptional skill, making it very hard to score short runs. Smart returns to the wicket gave the colt wicketkeeper, L. Ramsay, opportunity to show up to advantage behind the stumps. The batting of both sides was mainly of what one might term a “painful” nature. There seemed to be a general lack of confidence among the batsmen in their ability to keep the ball down or even hit it at all, and a stonewalling orgy resulted. Eastern’s running between the wickets was positively hopeless in cases, and three batsmen ended their innings through this. This fault has been obvious in competition matches throughout the season, and was also noticeable in the trial match. However, the match was in every way a fair test between two teams of young players, and the Town team put up the better all-round showing. The match was not up to the trial match standard. Still, it is to be hoped that the fixture will be an annual one. Scratchy Batting J. Thompson (Wyndham) and J. Currie (Gore) who opened pasterns batting account against the bowling of R. Smith and A Edwards, were by no means sure of themselves and played very scratchily. Edwards was noticeably troubling Thompson with wellpitched leg bowling, and eventually he sent one down which, breaking sharply from the leg, took the batsman by surprise and lifted his middle stump, when he had made only six. G. Davidson (Gore) who followed, played a very slow, but careful bat—straight and precise. He concentrated on singles and could not be jempted to overhit. He was run out, as was J. Currie, but managed to make 13. R. McCartney (Celtic) did not seem to get on to the bowling too well. When he did start to hit out, he was beautifully taken at cover point by K. Slurley off the bowling of L. Smith. The Mataura hard-hitter, S. English, was not playing in his usual form. The town attack was mainly mediumpaced, good lengthed and accurate, and English was frequently mistiming or slicing. He was well caught by W. Brown at deep mid-on off the bowling of S. Ramsay for eight. The most attractive batsmen in the Eastern team were B. Kelly and S. Reynolds. Both went out to meet tiie bowling and forced the runs, playing mostly well-placed off drives. Kelly’s wicket was thrown away,' he being run out for seven. Reynolds, who was topscorer with 17, was cleaned bowled on the middle stump in mistiming a good length medium-paced ball from R. Smith. M. Hobbs (Celtic) did not last long, being well bowled by S. Ramsay. M. Adair (Gore), the Eastern captain, lasted only about two bowls, before going out lbw to L. Smith. He could not get going in his usual style. His captaincy, however, was excellent, while his work in the field was up to its usual high standard. C. Armitage (Mataura) followed and after one or two hard hits was well taken behind the stumps by L. Ramsay who, although quite young and fairly short in stature, was making a very fine showing as wicketkeeper. H. Hobbs (Mataura) was the not out batsman. He made two, and might have done better higher up. The Town Bowling

Of the Town bowlers, the most consistent were W. Morrison, who bowled a medium-paced off-break and took two for 4, and S. Ramsay, who also concentrated on off breaks, but varied his pace. He took two for 6. Town’s opening batsmen were R. Davis and G. Agnew. The latter soon opened his shoulders and gave a good though short exhibition of off driving, till he was well bowled by J. Currie. Davis, who was, cutting through the slips most of the time, was painfully slow in getting his runs. He was batting almost the whole of Town’s innings and made only 18. R. Smith, who followed Agnew, scored freely round the wicket, and played some neat short runs which Eastern was giving away by poor infielding. He was eventually caught in the long field on the leg side by S. English off H. Hobbs. English fielded well throughout. S. Ramsay did not last long. He gave an easy chance to J. Thompson in slips and it was well taken. W. Morrison proved a hard-hitter, who pulled many to leg. He mistimed one from S. English and was clean bowled

K. Shirley, top scorer with 26 not out, gave the best batting exhibition of the day. Eastern’s bowling was now tired and although several bowlers were tried, he scored as he liked. L. Ramsay played a straight bat but stonewalled He is young and should develop into a good all rounder. He eventually mistimed a slow off-break by S. Reynolds and was taken in the off-field by S. English. Town was now in the lead and the batsmen were now told to hit out, but they scored only one or two each.