CRICKET

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20894, 25 November 1937, Page 8

CRICKET

NEWS AND NOTES EIGHT BALL OVER Saturday saw the completion of the second series of matches in the South Canterbury Cricket Association’s competitions, outright wins being secured by Old Boys A, High School and Timaru. In the first series all the matches were completed, so that the position now is that Old Boys A and Timaru have two wins to their credit, and Star and High School one each. Star had a bye last week, while High School previously went down to Old Boys A. Temuka and Geraldine have yet to taste of success. School on Top High School had such a firm grip of the game against Old Boys B at the conclusion of the first day’s play that only a miracle could have snatched victory from them. When play commenced on Saturday, Old Boys were 110 runs behind, and they had only five wickets in hand with which to stave off an innings defeat. The bright spot of the second innings was the determined stand made by Fear, who took his total from 15 to 61 before being taken by Blue off Whatman. Knox was the only batsman to give Fear any assistance, and the pair put on 62. When the last wicket fell, Old Boys were still 12 runs short of School’s total, and they were thus beaten by an innings. There is some promising material in the B team, and if the players stick together and exhibit the right spirit, then they may cause an upset before the season is very far advanced. Old Boys A Too Good The match between Old Boys A and Temuka, which was commenced at Temuka, was concluded on the Anzac wicket. When Temuka had concluded their second innings, Old Boys had two hours left in which to score 50 runs, but they lost five wickets in securing this number. Reynolds had the batsmen on the defensive, in spite of the fact that he received very little assistance from the wicket. He finished the day with three wickets for 19 runs. Eight-ball Over The eight ball over will be introduced in all matches in South Canterbury as from Saturday. Cricket To Golf The presentation of a set of golf clubs was made to S. G. Smith on behalf of members of the King’s Old Boys’ Cricket Club by the captain of the senior team, H. T. Pearson, at the conclusion of his last match with the club. Appropriately enough, Smith made top score for King’s in this match, contributing 60 out of 249. Returning thanks, Smith said that he found it hard to give up cricket after 40 years at the game, but he would continue to take an interest in the progress of his old team and club. He jocularly remarked that thanks to the umpire in the cricket match, Mr O. R. Montgomery, who is handicapper to the Otahuhu Golf Club: his handicap at golf had been reduced only that morning. The new clubs would give him a better chance of playing to it. F. Kerr In Adelaide A recent acquisition to Adelaide cricket is F. Kerr, of Dunedin, who scored three centuries for Carisbrook last season and who has represented Otago in the Plunket Shield series. Only just 21 years of age, Kerr’s best effort in representative matches was his 48 against E. R. T. Holmes’ English team. The New Zealand cricketers now in Australia paid a special visit to see Kerr batting when they were in Adelaide. He opened for his club, Glenelg, and scored 16 in 16 minutes.

Disputed Decisions It would appeal’ that some trouble is being experienced in Wellington in regard to disputed decisions. At the last meeting of the Wellington Association a letter was received from the Umpires’ Association as follows: “The attitude of certain teams and players towards the decisions of the umpires was freely discussed at a recent meeting of the Umpires’ Association and the general opinion was that there is a tendency in some quarters to revert to the state that existed some years ago when the association had to report teams and persons in particular for openly resenting the decision of an umpire. We are satisfied that our members carry out their duties without fear or favour and there is no justification for such unfair treatment. We would suggest that the Cricket Association give all the clubs under Its jurisdiction a warning in this direction so as to avoid my association the unpleasant duty of having to report any teams or the persons concerned." In remarking that the disputing of an umpire’s decision was the essence of bad sportsmanship, Mr Phillips stated that the association was definitely behind the umpires in this matter. These men, he said, gave their services voluntarily and clubs should give their co-operation and see that any outbursts were suppressed. It was decided to issue a warming to clubs.

Promising Bowler R. Wilson (Timaru Club), gives promise of developing into a useful bowler. He is endeavouring to get more pace than previously, and is meeting with a fair amount of success. Against Geraldine last week he did not do so well early in the innings, but later gave the batsmen a good deal of trouble.