WITH BAT AND BALL

Taranaki Daily News, 8 February 1935, Page 10

WITH BAT AND BALL

PATEA HAS FIRST WIN CAUTION AT NEW PLYMOUTH, POINT IN SCHOOL-PARK MATCH.

(By

“King Willow.”)

Patea turned up trumps in no uncertain style against Hawera on Saturday. Congratulations are due to the seaside team on its spectacular win. Although it is the side’s first win, the good performances of several weeks past, culminating in impressive showing, should give the team just that confidence to go “giant killing.” Edwards and Gibbs. S. Edwards and Gibbs showed ability in their innings. Both played the bowling with confidence, and even the wiles of Penny and Sparrow failed to trap them until they had done much damage. The majority of the Patea men started confidently and waited for the loose ball with commendable judgment. Pauling’s Good Bowling. Meuli and Jennings batted well at the start of Hawera’s innings but then S. Pauling, who has been Patea’s most consistent. bowler set to work and, keeping a fine control of length, soon had the Hawera men entangled. Towards the tail of the innings Ellis also showed out, and altogether it was a melancholy 'day for Hawera. Meuli appears to be in better form at present than any other Hawera batsman. Barker Shows Form. After , a quiet spell Herb. Barker came to light on Saturday with a splendidly played innings against Power Board. Inclined sometimes to hit out to the jeopardy of his wicket, Barker scored practically all his runs on Saturday from well placed singles. Without him Old Boys would have a difficult task. ForPower Board Baigent, after .a leaner period than Barker has experienced this season, produced powerful batting of a good standard. He was unfortunate to be run out so close to his 50. Of the bowlers Lendrum kept a fine length, while Sturrock put sting in his deliveries. Young Lester, the promising former High School left-hander, took two wickets and should do well with more experience. ', . <: ■

A Bowler’s Day. The Stratford-Kaponga senior game was a triumph for the Kaponga bowlers, and three men shared the wickets. S. Betts started by dismissing the opening batsmen, Walker and Barlow,, for 3 and 5 respectively, and Beere was the only check in the rout. Harrison did great damage among the. tail, taking the last five wickets very cheaply. Beere- got his eye in When facing Harrison and collected three precious fours, but his innings was shortlived. There were three B grade players in the Stratford team on Saturday, . the . regular team being rather disorganised. > ■ - - > -

Walker’s, Bowling, Feat. Walker’s -duel ‘ with -S. Betts was long and was ended in Stratford's favour only after ths Kaponga batsman had passed his half-century. He gave a number of chances, but in' each case found a gap in the field. He skied one too many, however, and was held by Adlam. Ross Eden and Court also had a bright time before succumbing. Walker Worked for a long time without avail, though he was never hit for very many, but in his last six overs he captured a wicket in each. His performance in taking six wickets for 46 in 12 overs in great heat was no mean one. It. is interesting to note that.' all his wickets, with one- exception, an 1.b.w., were obtained with the co-operation of -the fieldsmen. The Stratford fielding jvas sound and Millar lost only four -runs—one boundary—in two and a-half hours behind the stumps. Cautious Batting; Steady Bowling.. Batsmen with an over-developed streak of caution seemed to-be the cause of the 16w scoring in the Old Boys-New Plymouth match .on Saturday. One does not wish, however, to detract from the steady bowling-of Christensen, Kirwin, • Eggleton, Groom bridge and Nasmith on’what was certainly a bowler’s wicket. Never has the Park wicket, • especially at -the terrace end, crumbled so quickly as it did last Saturday. Kirwin especially developed a nasty bumper. New Plymouth will be faced with a difficult task if the team has to bat o.i the same wicket in the late afternoon of the final day.

Larkin and Bowen Succeed. Davison, after a pair of spectacles against Park in the previous match, play;ed a straight bat and held his end up for Nasmith to -make 20 .of the 39 for -the first wicket partnership. Credit for passing Old Boys’ total must go to L. Larkin and Bowen, however. Larkin-hit hard and freely* stepping out to Christensen and driving crisply. l His l.b.w. mistake found hjm eight feet down the pitch to the . fast bowler. Bowen met the terror of- newcomers, Christensen, and played him like a veteran. Content to stop the .bowling, which was .all re? quired of him, the diminutive Colts bats-, man pleased onlookers immensely. He Should he a distinct asset next season,

Should Have Totalled More. Medley lit the fireworks for Old Boys connecting fiercely with five successive balls from Nasmith and reaching the boundary each time. If it were not for the anomalous boundary ruling, which gives a line of about six or eight feet in

width for the ball to cross, two of the shots which hit the bank .would have been sixe'S. Had the fieldsmen stepped on the bank and taken one catch it would have been hard to say whether the batsman was out or npt. The ball had not passed the boundary. With a boundary line a fieldsman can take the ball over the line as long as he is in the field, even though it is virtually a six. To cross the boundary on Pukekura Park one has to cross the fence some six or eight feet up and in some places 10 or 12 feet. Such is the official rulirig. Birch Reaches 500.

Birch has been batting so consistently this season that a total of 30 or so is considered almost a failure for the forceful Old Boys leading batsman. In addition to reaching top score he kept wickets very soundly on Saturday, accepting a good catch off Nasmith’s glove. Birch’s 30 on Saturday brought him to the 500 mark for the season, compiled in 11 innings at an average of 45 odd runs per innings. A Changed Team.

New. Plymouth had an unavoidable shortage of players on Saturday, only six of the' original team taking the field after some minutes’ delay, at which the spectators expressed some disapproval. Vacancies were filled by Bowen (Colts), Webber and Purcell (senior - B), while L. Thomson (Old Boys 12th. man), and R. Clayton substituted for. Wayne and Parkin, who arrived later in the afternoon. Of the absentees J. Kinsella was competing at the Hawera athletic championships, Wayne and Parkin were unable to leave work, and Loewenthal and C. G. Clarke were absent from town. Thomson and Clayton acquitted themselves well ip the field beneath a glaring sun, their ground work and returning to the wickets being especially sound. Bodylined?

Old Boys’ fast bowlers eschewed the off theory and with A. Petty about six feet out at silly leg kept on the batsmen’s leg stump. The manoeuvre brought no results, . and probably, except for the fact that it kept the batsmen quiet, it was not a success. A shade more pace on the crumbling wicket and a' close imitation .of bodylinc bowling could have been attributed to two Old Boys and one New Plymouth bowler. Some batsmen, exhibited bruises after the game. Need of Sprigs.

After his bright opening more was expected of Medley, but shoes with no grip let him down both literally and figuratively and he was run out. Boots and sprigs are a necessary adjunct to a cricketer both for protection nad surety of grip on the ground. Many a time has “King Willow” witnessed’ a ball trickle to the boundary while a dismayed fieldsman picks’himself from the. turf and inwardly curses a - pair of- non-gripping soles.

Toil Comes to Light. < •The advent of Dr. Priest was auspicious for Western Park. Of a total of 210 he made 78 a? opening batsman. When the sebre was 48 for three wickets he had 34, and- five of the rest were extras. The only other early batsmen to reach double figures were Spedding (28) and A. Ewart (20), but Grant, Bullet and Duff provided bright scoring in the tail. Bullot, who was promoted for his wicket-keeping, has been useful as a batsman, scoring 18 in each of his two innings. Duff in making 21 hit harder than usual, and reached the long boundary with three -powerful cover drives. Interesting Point. -

When Donnelly was forced to retire from the field with an injured hand after bowling only three balls of his first over; an interesting position arose as to the procedure of the umpire regarding the remaining five balls. However, he called, over and the game continued from the other-end. The notes op' law 13 state that if a bowler is injured so that he cannot finish the over he has begun, the over should -be regarded as completed. Urry. Has Success. "

As Donnelly has'been the. most deceptive School bowler tnis season it seemed the attack would be weakened by his retirement. However, it is doubtful if he could have had greater, success than Urry, who bowled accurately and U'sed a tricky patch on an otherwise good wicket to take four wickets for 64. Larkin again bowled accurately, but as usual wasted many good deliveries by bowling off the wicket. School Batting.

Faris was not comfortable in making 12, but he displayed excellent shots. With a little more decisiveness gained from confidence he would be a hard man to move. He needs to make up his mind about slow bowling and to run harder between the wickets. On Saturday he watched the ball being thrown in, glowed down and was run out. Larkin gave a good exhibition of defensive play but was prepared to hit over-tossed bowling. He used his feet to make Spedding's big break almost innocuous. It was surprising' to see Waters hitting hard, but he seemed worried all day by the placing of the field in the way of his scoring shots.