DISTRICT CRICKET.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 873, 27 November 1916, Page 2

DISTRICT CRICKET.

PLAY SPOILED BY RAIN. The need of rain somewhat reconciled Christchurch cricketers to the interference of the weather with cricket on Saturday, but they would havo been I more thankful if the clerk of the I weather had turned on the tap a little I later in the day. Apparently more rain fell at Hagley Park than at the other grounds occupied by clubs engaged in the Canterbury Cricket Association's competitions. After a couple of hours' play the rain at Hagley Park became so steady that the wickets were deserted. When about threequarters of an hour had passed without any cessation of the rain it was agreed that the best thing the players could do was to go home. There was only one exception to that agreement, and that was the second grade match between Boys' High School and West Christchurch, which was resumed when the first grade teams at Hagley Park w r ere departing. Boys' High School's Batting. The Boys' High School first grade team was engaged in the compilation of a quite respectable score against West Christchurch when the weather stopped the proceedings. . Winning tho toss, School took first strike on an easy wicket. The West Christchurch attack was not at its best, and the boys soon found that a straight bat was quite sufficient to cope with that. If some of them had not grown too confident, and too eager to make big hits, the total would have been much larger than the 167 for five wickets which was showing in the score books when stumps were drawn. Three of the five batsmen who were dismissed were caught out, ,and another was stumped. D. W. Reese and Q. A. Wright set a ?ood example to the rest of the Boys' High School team by putting on 59 runs. The former sometimes appeared a little uncomfortable when facing the bowling of his uncle,' D. Reese, but he played some very nice shots. Some of his off-drives were very well played. Like his uncle, he i 3 a left-hander, and he has a great partiality for the lefthander's characteristic, stroke, the shot past cover. . The elder Reese was ; swinging the ball a good deal, away ! from the wicket to the left-handers, and when he had scored 15 young Reese just edged one of these swingers, but 11. Watson, at slip, failed to hold the chance. Again, when he was 29, he gave an unaccepted chance off his uncle to wicket-keeper H. Wilson. However, his uncle got him when he had scored 35 Young Reese seemed to have an ambition to hit a six off his uncle's bowling, but he did not get on to the swinger properly, and a catch to Rolland, at third man, was accepted. Wright, also a left-hander, had been the. first to go. He is not a graceful batsman, but he can hit hard, and so long as he can repress his tendency to cock off-balls up by point, or leg-balls up by square-leg, he is likely to make quite a good score. But he, too, was over-ready to hit, and after making 26 he put a ball from D. Reese fairly high into the air, and Sir Cecil Moon, at midoff, simply had to wait for the ball to drop into his hands. A slight drizzle of rain was falling when G. C. Austin joined D. W. Reese, and this handicapped tho bowlers. Austin and Reese took the score to 85, when Reese was dismissed in the manner already described. The Epidemic Prevails. D. T. Maxwell reached 17 in five scoring hits —four fours and a single—■ and then succumbed to the desire to hit sixes. He gave, a very hot chance off Nelson to Hammond, at cover, who did not accept it, but the next ball but one from Nelson was placed by him to the same spot, but with less powder behind it, and Hammond held it. That made three wickets down for 111. Austin, a nice steady bat as a rule, caught the infection after he was joined by W. H. B. Buckhurst, and some of his hits had an uppish tendency. When he had made 25 he was missed by Redpath, off Hammond, but he was bowled in the same over, Hammond, the fifth bowler tried, thus getting one wicket for one run. F. W. Mehrtens had shown good form against Sydenham on the previous Saturday, but this time he was too eager to get to the bowling, and his fondness for getting well "'out of his crease to get to the ball led to his being stumped by Wilson, off Hammond's bowling,-after he had scored six runs. L. S. Woods then joined Buckhurst, with the score at 139 for five wickets, and they remained associated. Both were lucky, however. When he had made four runs, Woods was missed by Dr. P. S. Foster, off Hammond's bowling, and in the same over Buckhurst gave an unaccepted chance —a more difficult one —to the same fieldsman. Buckhurst's score then was 17. When play "ceased, he had made 23, and Woods had got seven. As these notes indicate, the halfinnings which was played was partly a record of dropped chances of catches. There Avcro other hits that more sprightly fieldsmen would have turned into chances. The remark of a member of the team, that West Christchurch accepts one chance in three, as a general rule, just about fills the bill •in this case. But the West Christchurch men—or most of them—do not take their cricket seriously enough to induce them to turn out to practice. If members of other teams who practice at Hagley Park happened to see three members of the West Christchurch team together at tho nets they would be thrillingly surprised. Two members of the team —H. Butters and W. Rolland —are said to appear at tho nets pretty regularly, and J. A. Nelson is also reported to have had some practice. But habitues of Hagley Park cannot remember having seen ' any other members of the West team at tho nets this season. Of course, 11. Watson gets his practice with the Christ's College lads. But what can one. expect of a team that meets only in match cricket? Linwood v. St. Albans. With clouds mounting ominously in the south-west, A. W. Thomas decided, after winning the toss, to send his Liuwood men in to bat against St. Albans, at Lancaster Park, T. W, Reese "and Andrews taking up the bowling for St. Albans. Shortly after play started, a steady drizzle set in, and sawdust had to be brought into requisition for the first time t;:is season. Although the conditions for the first hour after opening were entirely in favour of the bats-

men, scoring was slow, and Liivwood had five wickets down with only 55 on the board. Read was the only" one of the earlier batsmen to make anything of a showing, but, in endeavouring to : hit a loose one from Andrews out of the ground, he got too far under it and was caught. Kirk aud Forsyth, the colts of 'the team, came to light when runs were. badly needed, the score being enhanced by 34 as the result of their combined efforts. The. last man went with the total at 116, compiled in an hour and a-half. Reese captured six wickets for 41, and, though his bowling did not appear to have much devil in it, the Linwood cracks were all at sea when trying to punch it. St. Albans's fielding was good throughout, Simpson's two catches being held in fine style. St. Albans had undoubtedly the worst! of the deal, and it, had bad luck in just I failing to reach Linwood's total. Rain, fell all the time the St. Albans men were at the crease, and, although the ball was difficult for the bowlers to manipulate, the wicket became treacherous, and the foothold slippery. Every run scored was well earned. The opening batsmen were unable to do much with the bowling of Thomas and Read, and, with the score at 22 for two wickets, Reese, Gordon, and McNae went I without further addition to it. With Simpson and Nightingale in association,] 55 more runs were put on by the most attractve exhibition of batting seen I during the afternoon at Lancaster Park, i Both shaped confidently, and raised the hopes of their club's supporters by going for anything off the wicket. With the total at 77, Nightingale skied one from Thomas to Forsyth, and when the century was reached Simpson succumbed to Read. This batsman saw 78 added while he w T as at the wickets. The innings of these two batsmen were, under the circumstances, exceedingly good performances and of considerably more merit than the actual respective scores would indicate. Andrews and Johnson, the last men in, made a great effort to carry their side's total past that of their opponents, but when four were still wanted, Johnson, who was shaping con-' fidently, was smartly stumped by Taylor. The match, therefore, remains at an interesting stage. The bowling figures for each side read: — St. Albans—T. W. Reese, 15 overs, 3 maidens, 41 runs, 6 wickets; R. Andrews, 9, 0, 55, 2; E. G. Johnson, 6, 1, 18, 2. ' |. Linwood—A. Thomas, 17, 3, 53, 5; R. Read, 15, 3, 52, 4; A. Grant, 2, 0, 6, 0. Riccarton Scores Slowly. The game between Riccarton and East Christchurch, at Bfagley Park, was chiefly noticeable for the slowness of the scoring. By the time the rain had set in to such an extent as to cause a stoppage of play only slightly over!a hundred runs had been scored. The bowlers were not the cause of this, for with the exception of the first few overs from Williams; none of the bowling worried the batsmen very much. Williams, who bowled from the northern end, was swinging right across the wickets, and made the ball whip off the pitch very fast. However, as soon as the batsmen had had time to become accustomed to his deliveries he lost his sting and had to give place to someone else. Riccarton now has 116 runs on for the loss of four wickets, the men who are out being H. B. Whitta, E. T. Taylor, R. H. North and A. E. Byrne, which is not as promising a i start, as w r as to be expected. Riccarton sent 11. B. Whitta and E. T. Taylor in to open, the former facing the bowling of Howell. From the first over Whitta scored a four, and then j Taylor had to face Williams. The first ball was driven straight back, and Taylor called for a run, and was w r ell out j of his crease before he saw how hopeless his case was. A. K. Blank fielded the ball, and threw Taylor's wicket down with plenty of time to spare. Byrne took Taylor's place, but had hit only a two before he misjudged one i from Williams and was bowled. North joined Whitta, and the pair settled down to slow seoriug. The score rose steadily to 42, when Flood relieved Williams, who was not proving as troublesome now as he was earlier in j the innings. Runs came very slowly off Flood, live overs yielding six singles and • tw T o twos. A change took place at the other end also, Crichton coming on. His first over gave away three fours, but i in his second over he succeeded in j shifting North by a ball which cannoned off that player's boot on to the wick- j ets. North's score of 39 included six fours. Whitta also fell a victim to Crichton, two overs later, in that ; bowler catching him off one of his own deliveries. Luttrell and Haines made the pace much brisker, and in a short time put on 21 and 15 respectively, i When stumps were drawn for the day these two w r ere still in with the above j mentioned scores against their names. Sydenham v. Christ's College. Sydenham and Christ's College met I on Sydenham Park on a fair wicket.' College won the toss, and sent in A. F. Hindmarsh and 11. W. Macfarlaue, but the partnership did not last long, Mc- ! Ewin clean bowling Macfarlaue in his ! first over with only eight runs on the board. T. C. Lowry filled the breach and showed some nice strokes all round the wicket, and had bad luck in being given out Ibw to a ball which seemed to be well outside the off stump. He was batting for 16 minutes for 27 runs,; and the partnership added 32 runs. The only other batsmen to show any form were A. F. Hindmarsh (1(5), J. 11. Edmond (19), aud W.G.Rich (10 not out.).; The innings closed at 4 o'clock with; 92 on the board. The Sydenham batsmen did not do much better than the opposing side. They just managed to get a lead of 11 runs on the College total. W. H. Winsoi was the best batsman on the side. Ho | hit up 43 runs, including three sixes, j in 27 mi mites, allowing au interval of 30 minutes in which rain stopped play, j On resuming, Patrick joined Winsor, ' but the former was only beginning to get going nicely when he was taken by Rich at square leg —easily the best catch of the day. Of the other batsmen, not one was able to show double figures. Of the Sydenham bowlers, Patrick got the best figures, two for seven. Gray got 3 for 17, McEwin 3 for 34, and Mcßeth 1 for 31. For College, K. D. Matson bowled very well right through the innings, and obtained the good figures of 6 for 37. Of the other bowlers H. S. Hindmarsh got 2 for 7, R7"C. Blunt 2 for 41, and J. H. Edmoud none for 3. THE DAY'S HONOURS. SECOND GRADE BATTING. Jackman (St. Albans B> 5!) Blr.ckmore (West Christchurch) .. 59 i Thompson (St. Albans R) 54 , Clarkson (Sydenham) .. " 53

THIRD GRADE BATTING. Talbot (Christ's College A) .. ..120 \V. Elvy (Sydenham) inst Sinclair (West Christchurch D.H.S.) 104t Cadenhead (W. Christchurch U. 11.5.) 72f Pendlc (Christ's College B) .... 52 f Retired. FIRST GRADE. BOWLING. J. Gray (Sydenham), three for 17. K. D. Matson (Chriit's College), six for .'(7. T. W. Reese (St. Albans), six for 41. A. W. Thomas (Limvood), five for 53. J. McEwin (Sydenham), three for 3L SECOND GRADE BOWLING. S. W. Hickmott (St. Albans A), three for 4. Morland (St. Albans A), six for 23. A. Dey (West Christchurch), five for 40 C. L. Crowley (West Ch'ch), four for 32. A. Bowes (Roys' High School), live for 49 Askew (Roys' High School), three for 34 THIRD GRADE ROWLING. Marshall (Sydenham), seven for 10. Ward (Technical College), live for 20. Sinclair (Roys' High School B), four for 38