CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7647, 5 March 1903, Page 4

CRICKET.

NOTES. (By SCORINU-BOARD.) At the time of writing, the ±ir-st game between the Englishmen and the Xew Zealand Eleven is in an unfinished state. >So far the. 'Englishmen have a comfortable lead, and cannot be in an} 7 fear of defeat. Warnei 1 lost the toss, but Fate was kind (o him in this respect, that the -batting side had a. soft wicket to but on. It was not adifficult one, as the ball cams off too slowly to make the work bowlers got on deadly. Still, it was not the fast easy wicket that the Englishmen had to bat on on the second day. Moreover, the ontiit-ld was correspondingly slow, and, taking all things into consideration, our men's first total of 164 was not so bad. The chief trouble was the abrupt dismissal of three or four men. With two men bowled first ball, and another in his first over, there was more work required from the rest. Tucker's innings stood out above tl« others. While he and Richardson were in the wicket had dried surhciently to become what might be termed difficult, and it. was fortunate for their side the pair. survived thehalf hour their paitnership lasted. Tucker has never before shown his true form at Lancaster Park, and certainly never played such good all-round cricket here as he did on Friday. He belongs to the busy order of batsmen, and, unlike our visitors, he believes in trying to get all the runs he can during his stay at the crease. On this occasion, his cutting and driving, 'both on and off, was clean and hard-, and he scored off aIL the bowlers indifferently. After Tucker's innings, Reese's comes next in point of size. He w T as even more, vigorous than the former, and his thirty-two included five boundaries. He hardly kept the ball down as well as usual, two or three of his strokes fortunately dropping clear of any fieldsmen. Mahony played a neat innings, and made a timely .stand when a rot looked imminent. His unfortunate habit of Retting in front of a well-pitched ball and trying to get it to leg brought about his downfall. The same stroke caused his dismissal in both his innings against Canterbury. The annoying feature about it is that it is entirely unnecessary, as he could reach the ball every time by playing forward. The value of Richardson's innings was not fully shown in the score-sheet. He played a. vast amount of bowling, and was in over an hour and a half for his runs. Hicksbn played a similar innings, and made 4 while his partner ran up 32. Mention must be made of Boxshall's innings. After his opening over he made three fine hits, one over the boundary, and was then bowled by the worst ball he received. Thompson and Dowson did the bulk of the bowling for the Englishmen. The former bowled very steadily. Hargreave found the wicket too slow- for him. Dnwson's figures were spoilt by the treatment meted out to him by Boxs'liall in one of his overs. He varied his pace a good deal, and none of the other batsmen could do much with him. The Englishmen's batting again exhibited the same sound and careful qualities that characterised their previous display here. Warner looked unhappy, and gave little trouble, and Bufnup and Fane made the first stand. The former was never in trouble. He waited for the loose ones and always got them away. Fane this time gave the public a taiste of his quality. Hemade some beautiful off drives, and was also the«only man to continually make cuts after the manner of the Australian cracks. Callaway was the one bowler to trouble him, and he snicked two or three quite close enough f oi" a smart slip to have got to the ball. Dowries, too, made a poor attempt at a chance within : reach at point. Taylor, when in with Fane, put on over 100 runs. He again .played well, and exhibited more strokes than any of the other members of his side. On the on he was particularly sotmd, and had to 'be especially blocked in that direction. After a partial collapse Stanning played a neat and u.seftA j innings. ChieLamong his strokes were if couple of lofty well placed drives. In Richardson's innings, -when he was 14 he trod on his wicket, but was given in, as the umpire failed td~see the occurrence. More costly was the case of Fane when caught behind the wicket off Callaway. He added, just on another £0 runs to his Vcore. Some argue that a batsman should i-etire when he knows he is out. Still, wrong decisions are all in the game, and must be reckoned ais squaring each other in the long run. Personally, while I have met players who say a batsman, knowing he is out, should go out, I have never seen it actually dene. The fielding in, the ;Xew Zealand game was not up to that shown in the Canterbury match. Catches were not taken that the' fieldsmen got to in the former match, nor was the p round fielding and returning so sound. ] Exception must be ta,ken to the wicket-keeping, which was distinctly good on .'both sides. Mahony "was conspicuous among the local fieldsmen, 'both in looking for work and in his style of doing it. One unnecessarily bad feature was constantly prominent, namely, the slovenly . way the ball was thrown, along- the ground to the bowler. When will fieldsmen learn to savo the bowler as much. as they can? Callaway; did excellent work with the ball in the visitors' first innings. He kept a good length sftnd varied his pace well. Fane was never too safe when playing him., and was fortunate in not' being caught off him more than once. S. Hargreave, one of the professionals i

I of tho English team, now in tho colony, ! was recently offered £209 by the Wairarapa Cricket Association to act. as coach for six months, but he has decided not to accept. H. Trott stilL continues to display his best form in Bendigo. In a recent match against Castlemain« he made 127. It is stated that the South Australian.' fast bowler, E. Jones, is about to leave Adelaide for West Australia, where he intends to settle down. Trumprt's recent successes with the bat have had a wonderful effect on the Sydney public. An attendance of thousands can now be looked for as a matter of course at whichever club match the champion happens to be engaged. Messrs M. A. Noble, F. A. Iredal^and P. C. Charlton have been appointed by the New South Wales Cricket Association, to consider the proposal of the M.C.C, to widen the wickets. _ A. C. Maclaren's reason for postponing his next visit to Australia was owing to his inability to secure the services of S. Barnes or W. 11. Loekwood, whom he regards as the two most suitable fast bowlers in England. During the match in Brisbane, between Victoria and Queensland, Graham drove a ball at a tremendous pace into the grandstand, where some ladies were seated. The bcill was travelling straight for> one of them,, when S. M'Miebac-1, tho manager of the Victorian team, saw the danger, and, springing in front, caught the ball within a. few inches of the lady's face. In matches between South Australia and Xew South Wales, Hill has scored over 1700 runs, his average being 57 per innings. Giffon and Roedman 1229 are the only other Smith Australian!? who have made over 1000. For Xew South Wales, in these games, Iredale 1 i a.s scored 1368, Gregory 1248, Noble 1144, and Donovan 1128. In the matter cf averages, Noble is first, with 54.47 runs per innings. An agitation is- being made in Melbourne for the inauguration of the district scheme in connection with cricket, a system "vvliic-ii has been highly successful in Sydney and Adelaide. A committee has beosi .«et up (o report on the proposal, but it is not thought that any practical result will be attained. Tho fact that nearly all the Melbourne grounds are in close proximity to one another, and that about sixty senior players reside in one district, will not be lost sight of in discussing the question. A remarkable day's cricket, on a perfect wicket, was witnessed in Sydney on Feb. 14. Paddington, Central Cumberland and North Sydney had won their previous matches very meritoriously, but, "on the date mentioned, they were dismissed in quick order. The first-named two teams were in a hopsless position at the end of the day, but North Sydney still had a fair chance of being successful. Paddington made a vory bad showing against Sydney. M'Beth and Marsh capturpd the first nine wickets for 44 runs, but Kelly and Marshall raised tbp total to 97 before they were separated. None of the other members of the team, which includes Noble a.nd the first wicket record holders, Tnnnppv and Gee, made double iigiires. M'Beth took fire wickets for 32 runs, and Marsh four for 52. _ At tho close of the day, Sydney had made 150 for four wickets. Central Cumberland collapsed unaccountably before University, being all out for 105, against which University made 144 for three wickets. Beside the record of these two games, the performance of North Sydney, the leading team for the championship, was quite respectable, though the total of 193 is very modest when contrasted with the big scores of the previous two matches, in each of which Iredale made a century. At call of time, their t.ppor.onts. Glebe, had lost two wickets for 54. " At the present time, by general consent, Victor Trurhper is the best batsman in the world," is an extract from the reference to the Australian Eleven in " Wisden's Almanac." " One is struck first by the preeminence of Victor Tnimper as a batsman, and next by the extremely fine form shown by nearly all the members of the team who i were new to England. Trumpet' stood alene ! among the batsmen of the season, not only far surpassing his own colleagues, but also putting into tin- shade everyone who played for England. Having regard to the character of the season, with its many wet days | and soft wickets, it is safe to say that no one — nof, even Ranjitsinlrji — has been at onca so brilliant and so consistent since W. G. Grace, was at his best. Tvumper spetne-d independent of varying conditions, being able to play just as dazzling a game after a. night's rain ast when the wickets were hard and true. All bowling enmr alike to him, and on many occasions, notably in the Test Matches at Sheffield and Manchester, arod the first of the two games with the M.C.C. at Lord's, he reduced^ our bestbowlei's for the time being to the level of the village green. They were simply incapable of checking his extraordinary hitting. Only a combination of wonderful eye and supreme confidence would have rendered such pulling as his at all possible. The way in which he took good-length balls off the. middle stump and sent them round to the boundary had to be seen to be believed. He was not in the smallest degree spoilt by his triumphs, bearing himself just as modestly and playing the game as sternly at the end of a long tour as at its beginning." Judged merely from the "gate" stan-dard,-there is no question (says ''The Tatlei 1 ") that football is an infinitely more popular game than cricket, and the reasons for this are fairly obvious. Cricket is less attractive to our old friend, the man in the street, partly because it is more scientific and partly because it involves a greater expenditure of time. The busiest man can afford an hour a.nd a half on Saturday afternoons without feeling that he is allowing sport to encroach on business, but to follow the fortunes of a three days' cricket match is a luxury intended for the very young or .the very old. But whatever spectators may think, there can be no doubt that with the players themselves cricket has a greater hold on their affections. I put the question the other day 'to a dozen or so of players who are equally prominent in the football and the cricket field as to which of the two games they prefer, and without an excepti6n all tho replies were in favour of cricket.