AUCKLAND SUPERIOR IN SHIELD CRICKET

Southland Times, Issue 24056, 21 February 1940, Page 10

AUCKLAND SUPERIOR IN SHIELD CRICKET

By

NOT OUT

At the completion of the Plunket Shield series of games the competing teams held the following positions:

Auckland retained its hold on the Plunket Shield and in so doing it played excellent cricket, clearly superior in all departments to that of its rivals. The team scored two outright wins, v. Otago by an innings and 169 runs; v. Canterbury by an innings and 140 runs, and lost to Wellington on the first innings. Auckland was very unlucky not to have three outright wins to its credit for, after being behind on the first innings v. Wellington, it recovered magnificently and gained a position which, when the rain fell and prevented play, reasonably justified its expectation of winning outright. WELL-BALANCED TEAM Auckland was a well-equipped team at every point. The batting of the side was, with the exception of its first innings against Wellington, always solid and at times brilliant, Sale, Weir, Pearson, Wallace, Carson and Scott being outstanding. Wallace scored an exceptionally brilliant double century against Canterbury and Spoft played two century innings, 100 v. Otago, and 198 v. Canterbury, when he was decidedyl unlucky to miss his double century. Whitelaw was a disappointment. He could not get going, although his 72 v. Otago was a well-played knock. The bowling proved adequate without reaching brilliancy. Cowie bowled well and steadily but was not as effective as formerly, while Cleverly, Burke, Carson and Weir all performed creditably.

The fielding of the side was quite up to Plunket Shield standard with one or two men outstanding; Carson, Wallace and Sale were particularly good, while Blandford was outstanding as wicketkeeper. All his work behind the wickets reached a high standard and he also collected some useful scores.

The team was fortunate in its captain. Wallace, a comparative youth, despite his wide experience in the game, led

his side well. His placing of the field was good and he changed his bowling with discrimination.

In scoring 693 runs for nine wickets (declared), Auckland established a fresh Plunket Shield record, surpassing the previous best, also by Auckland, of 643 against Canterbury in 1920. Altogether, Auckland proved conclusively its right to the premier cricket honours of the country. Canterbury, at one stage, was leading and looked to have a fair chance of winning the series, but it failed badly against Auckland in the final match and had to be content with second place.. Canterbury started well with a first innings win over Otago and followed up with an excellent victory by an innings and five runs against Wellington. The batting was fairly even, but the side had something of a tail. Donnelly was the outstanding batsman. He scored one century and had two excellent scores of 97 and 78 against Wellington and Auckland (in the second innings) respectively. O’Brien was consistent and Cromb, Hadlee, Roberts and Anderson all had some useful scores;

The bowling was patchy; it was seldom collared but it did not look to be really good at any. time. Donnelly was consistently steady and Cromb had one good average of five for 66 against Wellington. Roberts, Davis and Mcßae did nothing outstanding. The Canterbury fielding was generally only fair but Donnelly, O’Brien and Anderson got through a lot of good work.

J. L. Kerr captained the side fairly well without ever doing anything out

of the ordinary. He failed badly with the bat all through the, series and was fortunate to retain his place. OTAGO’S FORM Otago were not at any time a strong side either in batting or bowling. The team suffered a bad defeat at the hands of Auckland and was well down on the first innings against Canterbury, when the rain saved the side, but redeemed itself with an excellent win over Wellington at the end of the series. At no time was the batting of the team consistently good; it usually was left to one or two men to make the bulk of the runs. Only once did the team score more than two hundred runs in an innings and that was its 351 in its second innings against Wellington. Robertson started well but his batting fell away towards the end of the season. Fraser made a number of useful scores and finished in a blaze of glory with an excellent innings of 118 against Wellington.

Mills, Toomey and Moloney had odd scores but none of them did really well. The Otago bowling possessed little variety but nevertheless it did as well as could be expected. Lemin, who was a last minute selection, bowled well and came out with some good averages. Moloney had to do the bulk of the slow bowling with the result that he was not quite as effective as formerly. Of the others Elmes and Leader were the best.

The Otago fielding was rather weak. The team did not possess any outstanding fieldsmen and its work was never better than just workmanlike. Moloney had a difficult job in captaining the side but >he performed the task with credit. He made the best possible use of the bowling at his command and placed his field with care and thoughtfulness. Wellington finished at the bottom of the ladder and thus become holders of the “Wooden Spoon.” The team was a disappointment. On paper it was a strong side in all departments but it did not at any time pro-

duce the cricket of which it undoubtedly is capable. It suffered outright defeats at the hands of Canterbury and Otago and was more than fortunate that rain came to its aid to give it first innings points against Auckland. The batsmen of the team failed badly and did not produce the scores which were expected of them. Hepburn, Tindill, Rainbird and Wilson were the best of what turned out to be a poor lot. Ongley and Du Chateau both had excellent seasons in club cricket but failed to reproduce that form in the representative matches. CONSISTENT BOWLER Pritchard was the outstanding bowler. He had to do a tremendous amount of work but came through with an enhanced reputation. Ashenden, Wilson and McLeod were no more than steady. A point of interest arising from the series is the comparison of the only two fast bowlers of any merit in New Zealand today, Cowie (Auckland) has until now been a little better than his younger rival Pritchard (Wellington) who had to do the bulk of the Wellington bowling and whose figures represent really good trundling. Pritchard is tall and slightly built with a high, free action which gives a lot of lift from the wicket—an invaluable asset in a fast bowler. Cowie is much more solidly built and his compact action enables him to bowl with sustained accuracy for long periods. This may still make him the more valuable of the two in a long, hard fought game but there is no doubt that Pritchard is well on the way to becoming an outstanding fast bowler. CLUB ANNIVERSARY This year the Invercargill Cricket Club is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. The Invercargill Club is easily the oldest cricket club in the city, and, as far as can be traced by the records, it is the oldest cricket club in New Zealand with a continuous playing life. One or two other clubs may have commenced a year or two earlier but, as far as can be ascertained, they have all had breaks in their existence. But granting seniority to those clubs, the Invercargill club is still the third oldest cricket club in New Zealand.

The club can definitely trace, by its records, a continuous life as far back as 1864, but it was stated in The South-

land Daily News of March 24, 1931, on the occasion of the celebration of the club’s sixty-eighth anniversary that “h was away back in 1860 when the club was founded under the presidency of the Hon. J. A. R. Menzies M.L.C. (Superintendent).”. However no record can be traced in support of this statement, and it is probable, from the information gleaned from widespread inquiries, that it was not until 1864 that there was any team cricket played. In 1860 there could not have been any ground in the township and it is likely that most of the cricket played between 1860 and ’64 was the “single wicket” type. A general meeting of members of the club was held on Monday evening to consider how best to celebrate the seventhy-fifth jubilee and it was decided to hold the celebrations on Saturday, April 6. The arrangements will include one or more “Past v. Present Players” matches during the day, followed by a dinner at night.

The committee is anxious to obtain any available information about the club; its doings; its old members; their present addresses and so on. The secretary, Mr T. H. McKenzie, C/o A. C. Millars, Ltd., will be pleased to receive any communications of interest in this respect.

’O’eL S’ -c.S « £ * E o irst Innings win utright loss First Innings loss « ."s o Ph Fa o Auckland 3 2 - — 1 18 Canterbury 3 1 1 1 - 12 Otago 3 1 1 1 10 Wellington 3 - 1 2 - 4