SEASON NEAR END

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1935, Page 2

SEASON NEAR END

NORTH TARANAKI CRICKET. PERFORMANCES OF THE CLUBS. New Plymouth’s major cricket season is over. It was at once one of the best and one of the worst seasons New Plymouth has had—best because of the general outstanding improvement in individual batting and bowling performances, especially with reference to the youth of the performers, and the worst because of the utterly incomprehensible collapses of team after team when in positions opportune for them to obtain a lead in the championships and because of the loss of the Hawke Cup, the trophy for the minor association premiership of New Zealand so gallantly captured the previous season, although the defeat by Manawatu was assauged by the fighting finish that TarSnaki made in its effort to avoid defeat. Western Park, School and New Plymouth all were within reach of victory at some Stage of the competition, only to dash all hopes with a generally unaccountable collapse, while to finish this amazing sequence of failures Old Boys, the ultimate champions which always maintained a small lead, faded away before Western Park’s attack to be defeated outright, and was then soundly thrashed in the semi-final. But when one considers the vast improvement in the previous two seasons’ averages and aggregates one can only acclaim with commendation the good signs. When glancing at the youth of the performers who advanced the record of individual achievements one can reasonably hope that New Plymouth cricket is approaching the pinnacle of performance. Undoubtedly the outstanding event of the year as far as individual cricketers were concerned was the advent of E. Christensen into big cricket. Chosen to represent Country against Town in a much belated match, the Old Boys’ fast bowler fulfilled all the expectations of his New Plymouth well wishers and fully impressed. According to sporting writers he was the find of the season and should be a participant in Plunket Shield cricket with an English tour prospect ahead. In club cricket, although he is still in his teens, the left-hander carried the champion team through the competition. Deprived of the fast bowler the team failed despite its leading batsmen. He easily outpaced all bowlers on the averages, sending down eight short of 200 overs to capture 25 more wickets and at a cost of 8.85 runs, two better than any other bowler. The nearest to Christensen was C. Loewenthal, also a fast bowler, who took 43 fewer wickets and sent down 126 fewer overs. Christensen’s was truly a great performance and one can but hope' that his achievement this season will spur him on to greater fame. All pupils of the New Plymouth Boys - High School, T. C. Larkin, M. P. Donnelly, N. Waters, J. Broughton, and H. Johns were first, second, sixth, 14th and 16th respectively on a much improved batting list. The first two and R. Urry also shone among the bowlers, being 11th, sth and 13th respectively. School has proved itself in sport in the past, and as far as cricket is concerned it is still upholding that record to-day. While school trains and produces such youthful talent as these six performers the standard of cricket will never fall very low.

Among those remaining on the batting list whose youth earns them extra praise may be singled out a. Ewart of Western Park. A School product with an average of three or four .the previous season but with the asset of reliable fielding, Ewart early in the season surprised the New Plymouth cricket world with scores of up to 80, including four undefeated innings. He finished fifth on the list, the two more experienced players, Birch and Nasmith, leading him by small margins, a season-ending stale.ness spoiling Ewart’s performance. J. Spedding, Duff and Thomson, all old boys of the School, and the last two newcomers on the list, also represent the youth of the province. Among the young bowlers J. Spedding, Western Park, stepped from the shelf of a fair stock bowler to the height of one of the best slow spin bowlers of the province, and although he trundled a fair amount of “tripe” he produced the results to figure as the third best bowler in the north. The other positions on both batting and bowling ladders were filled by the more widely know cricketers, Birch, Nasmith, Davison, Lash, Kinsella, G. Ewart and others filling consistent plSCes in the batting averages. Among the bowlers, with the exception of the new speed bowler C. Loewenthal, who improved as the season advanced to second place on the list, J. Kirwin, W. Groombridge, D Crapper, V. Parkinson and R. Harris registered their usual club tallies.