CRICKET.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14133, 12 February 1910, Page 8

CRICKET.

(By “Argus.”)

In* view of the unsatisfactory condition of the Sports Ground wicket it would be advisable for the North Taranaki Cricket .Association to consider the question of fencing it off, so that it may become properly fit for tlio. match with the Australian eleven, and playing the championship matches elsewhere. Some speculation is going on as to the number of players that Taranaki will bat against the Australians. It is probable that fifteen men will bat and eleven field. In my opinion that is the most advisable course to adopt. The present positions of the teams in the senior competition are as follow : ' '

Inglewood" and Waitara have an unfinished game to play. The Inglewood- Ca rr i n gton Dead nintcli on Thursday ended very tamely. On an improved wioket the Inglewood team utterly failed to retrieve its pjosition, and was beaten by an innings and 44 runs.

Southall bowled with great success, getting a lot of work on the hall and obtaining seven wickets for 25 runs. Pnllan made 35, hitting hard and scoring very fast. He hit Southall clean out of the ground* on one occasion and shortly afterwards was within an ace of repeating the performance. None of the other batsmen made any headway, O’Dvrne was second scorer with 7. The match was over by 4.15 p.m., after just one hour’s play. Wanderers had a close c n ll in getting a three-point win from Waitara. The game was won just on the of time, through Purdie, the last Waitara batsman to have been sent in, being absent. Jack, the Wanderer's skipper, certainly loft declaring his team’s second innings closed until a hit late, hut he was wise in making sure of a win on the first innings. The Waitara team was left to make 138 to win in an hour and a quarter, and, although there appeared small change of their making it. in that time on the Western Park wicket, it. was a far from impossible task.’ The Waitara team was out, to win if possible. When Eggleston (who made 24) and P Skelton (18 not out) been me associated within twenty minutes of time, hone's of tho Waitara team being dismissed before the call of time began to vanish. The two. batsmen quickly became set. and hatted well. It seemed certain that they would nlny out time, hilt at last Greatbatch, who. behind the wickets, had long been waiting for the '•bailee.’ smartly caught Eggleston off Hill’s bowling.' Hiß’s next ball got. the last man’s wicket, and so the grnpo was won. At the conclusion of the Carrington Boad-Tnglewood cup match on Thnrsdnv the. two teams filled in time with a “friendly” match. Carrington Road batted first and mad" only 48. Tim Inglewood men had all sorts of “pie” sent down for them to piny. at. and they made 113 for six wickets. Smithall was not put on to bowl at all. and Rcnbow was only given ono over. Gwilliam and Bolmrtson were beginning to take wickols. but they were then taken off iv-iv-™ bn”dad - rminle "* bad 34 knocked off them, 93 bo ; *icr off one ove-. Maftlmw- seemed to ’i’-n this over, for ho hit 4, 6. 4, _4, 4 off it. Another series of matches in the Saturday coinnot'tion was brought to a conclusion on February 5. The frames in all three matches provided close finishes. , ; ■ ■ . ■ Warehouses continued thoar second innings against Inglewood on Western Park. White being absent. Greene accompanied 'Williams to the wickets. Greene is contracting a fatal habit of defending his wickets with his legs, and

for tho second time in the week had to retire l.b.w. Johns helped Williams to put on 15 for tho next wicket. Greene did not bother tho. scorers, but Bigelow carried out his bat for 6. Williams, who was forcing the pace, w»s bowled for a useful 28.

This loft Inglewood 105 to get to win. M'Larbn and Greene opened the bowling. Greene, who had obtained 7 for 7 on the first day, could not strike a length, and proved very expensive. Sutherland and J. Wellington added 24 to the score, and after Wellington left Thomson and Sutherland put on 36. With four down for 60, Inglewood’s chances looked bright. M'Lnren now gave the ball to Williams, the latter in his second over bowling Thomson, In hie following over Sutherland was dean bowled for a useful 23. The end soon came, Williams bowling ■W. and F. Brown with successive balls. _ The last two men, bein grim out, Warehouses won by 26 runs, obtaining a three-point win. At Egmont Village Service B made a good fight against the big score putup by the locals. Prcshnw (72) made a big bid for victory, but tho side failed to hack him up, and tho homo team won by 21 runs on the first innings, a two-point win. Inman, in tho second innings of the Village, again played good cricket, scoring 53 not out, and bringing up bis total for the match to 122 for once out.

United Service A made a good recovery against High School. Going in a second time IS runs to. the bad, they sot the school 73 to get, but this the latter failed to accomplish. Hill and Grey made 42 between them, but tho six remaining batsmen only ihadc 5 runs between them, and what looked like an easy win for the boys resulted in a threo-point win for Service A. Wood (26) and Lash (23) batted well for Service.

The position of the clubs in this competition to date is as follows;

Fire Brigade moot Inglewood in the Inst series of the first round, and judging by form should finish up one point below "Warehouses in the first round. Service A and Egmont Village meet, and the winner of this game will ho close up in the third place. Thus the competition will be in a very interesting state when the second round starts. It has been decided to play one-day matches in the second round. Points will bo scored as in the first round, so some sporting chances will probably he taken to get in three-point wins. Dr. Nowman, Mayor of "Wellington, in his address of welcome to the Australian team, expressed himself as confident that the Visitors would-win all their matches in New Zealand, remarking that we c&uld not play cricket for nuts. Possibly it was his own city that ho was referring to, and had in mind the conduct' of the Wellington Association’s attitude over the expenses of the tour. Thcv made it quite, clear that it was more than “nuts” they were after. Mr. W. W. Armstrong made some very sensible remarks in reply to Dr. Newman. Ho said that the Mayor was very rough on New Zealand cricket. Ho had boon hero on two previous occasions, and thought not a little of our cricket, and was by no means so confident’ that they would win all their matches. Ho asked players not to think they were out before they went in. as was very often the case. Ho said that their bowlers were probably no bettor than some of the bowlers New Zealanders played against every week, and in nine times out of ton in outside places he had visited he had seen really good players who had not done themselves justice. Ho asked all who play against them to “buck up,” show nq anxiety, play their own game, and gam all confidence while they can. I hope our Taranaki representatives will lay this advice to heart. If they do, and gef over the enervating “funk” which puts a batsman so much, at tho mercy of the bowler; they will at least put up as good a fight with their formidable opponents as some of the larger associations. The averages of the members of the visiting Australian eleven in first-class cricket this season are:—-

Team R, W. I.. Pts. Wanderers 5 0 lo Carrington Road 0 4 1 12 Rovers 5 2 3 5 Waitara ..... 4 1 3 3 IrujUnvood 4 0 4 —

P. W. L. Pts Warehouses 6 5 1 15 Fire Brigade .. 5 4 1 -11 United Service A ... .. 5 3 2 9 I'jgmont Village .... 3 2 8 High School h 1 4 3 United Service B ... 1 4 2 Inglewood 1 4 2

BATTING. 0 8r .5 '5 0 S <y % « 5 m .. 4 1 67' 140 40.6 Bardsley ... ; 10 0 149* 460 46! 00. Armstrong . . 8 0 124 339 42.37 Kelloway ... . 6 0 108 237 39.50 Warno , 4 1 57 118 39.33 Simpson .... . 4 0 102 121 30.25 Mavne . 8 • 0 63 215 .20.87 Smith , 10 0 140 254 25.40 Hopkins .i.. . 2 0 13 21 10.50 Emery . 8 0 30 61 7.62 Gorr'y ...— . 0 4 10 38 7.60 Whitty . 5 0 23 36 7.20 BOWLING. s i §0 U 2 P u O « £ Hopkins .... .. 15 1 47 3 15.60 Emcrv .. 121 12 430 25 17.20 Armstrong . .. 184 59 467 22 21.23 Whitty ..... .. 150 20 484 18' 20.88 Kelloway ... .. 81 11 262 9 29.11 .. 83 14 254 7 36.28 Simpson ... .. 11 3 44 1 44.00 Warno .. 13 2 58 1 58.00