CRICKET.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143839, 13 July 1912, Page 8

CRICKET.

(By “Willow.”)

The Englishmen have again beaten the South Africans by a large margin, which puts the latter quite out of the running for the championship, which will have to be fought out between the old rivals again, fcio far -we have nothing to go upon to estimate the chances of either country, for the Australians beat the South Africans in the only match in which the teams have met, and in the test between thertiselves and England, when the match was drawn, neither side had Any material advantage over the other. The strength of the South Africans seems to lie in their bowling rather than in their’ batting, which was anticipated would be their strong point. Regler has proved himself to be a tower or strength to his side, and has put_up some fine bowling performances. . The South Africans nave some splendid batsmen in their ranks, arid it is just possible that with a little luck they may beat either England or Australia in one of the remaining matches, a_nd so decide the winner ot the triangular contests' in a very unsatisfactory manner. After each country had piaycd two test matches the average oi the three contestants formed interesting comparisons; The batting comes* out much in favour of Australia. Space forbids my giving the averages in full, so I will tabulate those of the leading three performers in each team: BATTING.—ENGLAND. In. H.S. Runs. Av. R. H, Spooner ... 2 119 120 ’60.00, J. B. Hobbs .2 107 111 55.00 TV. Rhodes 2 59 95 47.50

AUSTRALIA. C. Kelleway 2 114 175 67.50 W. Bardslcy 2 121 142 71.00 C. G. Macartney... 2 99 120 60.00 .. SOOTH AFRICA.

G. A. Faulkner ... 4 122*. 144 48.00 C, B. Llewellyn ... 2 75 84 '42.00 C. P. Carter ; 2 27* 27 27.00 BOWLING—ENGLAND. Wkts. Runs. Av. F. Re Foster 10 112 11.20 S. F. Barnes 11 184 16.72

W. Rhodes 3 69 19.66 AUSTRALIA. T. J. Matthews '6 80 13.33 .W. J. "'bitty 8 low- iV.37 C. Kellewav 7 126 18.90 SOUTH AFRICA. S. P. Pegler 13 170 13.7 G. C. Waits 1 -a 29.00

A. U. l\ ourse .... 3 108 36.00 Tho cables have this week given us the news o: the death of that;giant hitter George J. Bonnor. Bonuor, who was in Ins prune, in the early eighties was a niuguiiicuut specimen of an athlete, standing 6tl. 6in. in his stockings. Ho was built 'in proportion, aud weighed 16st. 121 b. Bonnor was a hue thruwor, and on his first trip Home made a wager of f 100 that lie would throw the cricket ball 115 varus on the day of bis arrival in England. He won his bet, throwing 119yds. 2ft. He was also a fine runner. His biggest hit was on the Melbourne ground—l 64 yards from bat to pitch. A scheme is on toot in Australia to raise a tund to supplement the A2OO raised in-England and presented to B. K. Gregory on the occasion of his playing in his fiftieth test match last week, when- he was also presented with a silver cup. The suggestion is to play a match next season between tho touring eleven and -the rest of Australia at Sydney, and to use the proceeds to form* the nucleus of the tund. Sid. Gregory’s ■ average in the fifty test matches works,out at 95 innings, 7 times not qut, 201 highest score, 2200 runs, average 25.23. So 1 ar. as tossing for choice of innings goes, Sid, Gregory, is proving a .very:unlucky captain. Up to,the last 'match with Essex he had lost tho toss nine times in succession, and ho haslost it in 13 out of the 17 matches already played. Hobbs, by scoring a century in the first of .-the test matches against" Australia last week, has. put up; the remarkable .performance of scoring four of ■ the last five innings which ho tiaa played in these matches. Playing for Hampshire against Oxford University last week,-C. B. Fry made 203 not out and Barrett 138 not out, and tho county closed their innings for 463 fon two wickets. “

AH cricketers will bo grieved to hear of '•Plum" "Warner’s serious injury. Ho will be unable to play again this season. And he used to -be called “Lucky Warner” 1