CRICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 289, 9 May 1914, Page 17

CRICKET.

THE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP. The cricket season is past and gone, and well-oiled bats will luxuriate in inactivity until next summer, but wintry though the weather be, there is one matter which calls for a last word on Cricket.

The decision of the North Taranaki Cricket Association as to the protest regarding the Tikorangi-Warehouses' '•play-ofF' for the junior championship was an easy way out of the difficulty. There was certainly no chance of having the match re-played, 'but to bracket the teams first is but a yea-nay decision after all, and it is somewhat difficult to see eye to eye with the Association on several points.

The first point raised by the Warehouse captain was that the first Saturday on which the match was set down for decision was wet, the visitors were not expected, and tiierefore a "scratch" team had to be made up to meet them. As a matter of fact, the Saturday on which tlie match was originally set down was brilliantly fine. The fact that the match would be played on that day was published in both the New Plymouth papers on the Wednesday, but at the last moment the Warehousemen said they could not muster a team. Tikorangi were notified at the eleventh hour that the match would not be played, and the Warehousemen were rather lucky not to lose the match on forfeit. The following Saturday, on which the match was commenced, was too wet for the Warehouse team to muster, but not wet enough to prevent the Tikorangi team from travelling, nor, apparently, to inspire the Warehouse captain to notify the country team not to come. Instead, iu his efforts to secure a team, he took three men from other clubs, two of whom made 50 runs in a match which was won by only 22 runs. One of these was selected as an emergency in the representative team. Tikorangi certainly seems to have sonic cause for complaint, and the fact that this complaint was delayed until the second day of the match really does not affect the moral aspect at all. It was a regrettable incident iu a competition which promises well. The Tikorangi cricketers, both senior and junior, have shown themselves good ''sports," and as such would not hanker after a championship won on a protest, but it is hard to sec how "the best interests of the game" are served by pandering to a laxity which is too evident m North Taranaki. The very wording of the decision shows its weakness. Let usi at least have "cricket."