CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11254, 7 December 1914, Page 7

CRICKET.

A BATTING DAY. SYDENHAM B'S BAD LUCK. FOURTH ROUND NOTES.

POSITION OF TEAMS. Three- Twopoint poiai Team. wins wins. lies. Total.

The wickets were greatly improved for run-getting on Saturday, when the fourth round of district competitions was concluded. Tht big surprise of tho day was the beating that Linwood gave Sydenham B, and for that they have to thank their bowling, which is steadily improving. If Sydenham A had collapsed in batting liko tho B team they might have tasted defeat, too, but tho right batsmen came to light, and turned possible defeat into a seven-wicket victory. Ea3t Cbristcharch registered a three-point wiu against Riccarton, who have fallen off their pedestal, but West Christohurch had to be content with a twopointer against Kaiapoi, who batted well with two wickets down for 22. Miles stopped first into tho breach, rand made an invaluable 35. Bishop was sixth man (with six wickets to fall), and when lie joined Miles there was something doing. Ho avoided risks and kept the ball down. Some of his cutting wa,s superb, and ho was forceful throughout. When he lostMiles ho was joined by Hiekmott, who looked like coming back into form. "Hicky" ran to 30 with some lovely strokes, bub weakly lifted a ball back to Nicolson. The partnership took the score from 11 to 148. Bishop had to make nearly all the rest himself, oecanso time was flying, and tho te■mahiing batsmen wero out to make runs. Sandman, having hit Martin for six, was quite content to get caught on the boundary off Bennett. Ho refuses to settle down-to steady cricket, although he has tho ability to make runs. Lamb and Brunton wore a frost, but Haigh kept the wicket np better, and was unlucky to be run out. Bishop carried-his bat for 88, and had a good reception on returning to the pavilion. Here arc his figures:— i? 3, ITS, IS, 88 not out. *«* SYDENHAM'S LUCK. Sydenham had to make 167 iu two hours. Woods and Watson in. first. Watson out lor a duck wii,h tho score a,fc 10. Woods Ibw to Sandman at 28. of which ho had niado '2l by hard hitting. It took the umpire a, long time 10 cough up his decision, 'then Taylor and Booth were left together, and they broke tho back of the bowling. Lamb in particular was expensive. His five overs cost 13, 5, 11, 10 and 12, without a wicket in Them. Taylor went beautifully, and Booth was very pretty. Taylor gave a'very hot chance to leg, but Tom Recso just failed to get it. It war* a hard ball, spinning downwards. That chance accepted, might have changed the fortunes of the day, although this was doubtful, considering the state of the wicket. The pair carried tho score to 143 when Taylor was caught and bowled for TO. This batsman is a. sticker, who has never failed altogether this season, and in six innings hi.s average is 32. Booth, an ox-High School boy, has only played in two matches. He has come, on well. Ho was not a star while at school, although he was one. of a vory useful team that wrestled for the lleathcote Williams Shield in its early day.-;. His 49 not out was worth far more than tho mere runs, coming at such a time. *•* BOWLING NOT BRILLIANT.

The bowling suffered Ivy comparison with previous piny. Xicolson was given a. trial for Sydenham A, and his two' wickets foil the cheapest —for 17 apiece, but Joe Bennett was a Mi of? colour. Still, bis last two overs wore maidens, with a wicket. Martin is wot fulfilling earlier promise, although he has a good stylo and delivery, 'i he Si Albans" bowling was disappointing, and Sandman did not sec-.m to bo , s resourceful as usual against Taylor and Booth. t CAK-LTON MAKES A CENTURY. Kiwnrtou should give Kaiapoi a good «o. 'J'hev were eerioinly not in Mio IT-tino rlii.s.s as East (liristcliurch an Saturday. Th<\ir bowling was most

cavalierly treated, and T. Carlton fairly set it at nought.. Ho was tho hero of the match with 116 not out (made while Pcrrin was scoring the same at Sydenham). Heal fell thort of the century, but was the more stylish batsman, and was unlucky to get l.b.w at 89. But it was a;s a howling side that East sparkled- and here again Carlton was fcho destroyed with live wickets for 26. It was a, hopeless procession, with five ducks. Thrco men earned a, pair of spectacles in tliis match, ana in the second innings Taylor and Fuller were tho only men to got into double figures. had tho pleasure of capturing two of his old club mates' wickets for 10 runs. M'Lachlan was not so successful. LIN WOOD'S GREAT GAME. Chi the, bowlers' wicket a. week before, Linwood were all out for 63, and they got Sydeuham B out for JO2. They were 39 behind and had lost two wickets for 35; but hopo did not desert them Perriu set out to force the pace on Saturday, and with Grant he collared the bowling and made r look cheap. When Grant was gone, Ernio Taylor took his place, with «• wonderfully chancy innings, but it brought the runs, and when the score was 230 for live wickets it was closed, leaving Sydcnhajn a couple of hours m which to make 192 to win. Perriii's lib' not out was a very creditable performance, that biTugbt him endless congratulations, and Taylor's 46 not out was timely. Sydenham looked like winners when Patrick started to force the pace. He went beautifully at r'-io Ktart, and Skelton looked like scoring too, but Road got them both clean bowled, and Thomas did the rest, Cj was a most exciting finish, and tho last batsmen could do nothing -ith the bowling The sido was all tut for 119, which, with their 102 on the fu;<-t day, was a striking tribute to the Linwood bovvers. Thomas got ::ix for 41), aud Read and Grant each jot two for 36. If anything, Read pleased the critics most. He bowled seven maidens in nineteen overs, and got the two most dangerous wickets. V» KAIAPOI HAVE A CRACK. It was a very friendly go at lvaiopoi. "West declared with their ■•'bS for nine wicketr and .set out on the task of getting Kaiapoi out twice i;i tho after noon. But this was not so easy on the matting wicket. There was nothing very startling in the team ex'ep» Smith, who has been a consistent scorer tl-is season. He was the only free scorer, and ran to 88, when he was stumped in reaching at one of Tommy Malone's slows. He is a steady bat, and justifies his inclusion among those who are practising for representative honours. He spun the first innings out long enough to make West doubtful of'a three-point win, and 'ie and Green set a good enough pace in the follow on to remove any chance ot a close finish. Smith's best strokes are 'on the. off. He is a specialist in square cutting, but he is weak on the leg side, and "must pay more attention to footwork. Be was*scratching badly to the leg theory, and gave a couple of chances. Dan Reese took a lovely catch, to leg finally off Donnelly, and Smith started to walk back to the pavilion, but Reese owned up that the ball hit the ground an lie caught t, and Smith went back with another life. Ho was caught all the same. Maegregor's 03 were not so very commendable, because lie. was very uppish, and on a city ground with a wider boundary he would have been caught, once or twice. When it see»ied inevitable that Kaiapoi would pliy out time tho game became very informal, ; and everybody was given a bow)

Tito "West Christ-church _ bowiim;, token all round, was very disappoint>ing. Tommy Malone made his debut, but his six for 67 was not brilliait against Kaiapoi. Ho startled a couple of them with a pronounced off-break, but he had not nearly come bacu. However, his advent on the turf should attract a. good many onlookers. V ! THE WORKING OF AVERAGES. Apologies a.re offered for explaining such an elementary thing as the working out of averages, ; but there aro a good many scorers who aro a bit in the dark about what to do with the runs over after the division is made. You total the runs made, and divide them by the number of times out (not outs don't count). If, for instance, you are dividing by five, and there are three over when the div'sion is made, the added fraction will be three-fifths. If yoti wish' to givo the answer in decimals, simply add a nought to the number over, artd divide again with the first divisor. Three-fifths would then givo .6. If the first decimal does not come out oven, add a nought to whatever is over, and divide again. The taking of averages for bowling is simpler. Total the runs hit off the bowler, and divide by the number of wickets. Here are a few simple averages of the most consistent batsmen in the leading team, Sydenham A, and some early bowling figures which can stand n good deal of improvement: F. Woods, 7G, -J.".' S. 51, 24 . II 2-5 J. Mitotic, 28, 52", 26, 9, 5* . . . 40 B. H. Booth, 3. 16, 48* . - . ;U J. Tovlor, 3J, 20. 13, 39. 16, 70 . . L. Watson, 0, 51, 82, 11, 0 . . . 28 4-3 J.. Gray, 20, 15, 21*, 19 . . . . £7 ''Signifies not out. J. Bennett, 28 for 373 .... J 3.32 W. Rayos. 8 for 100 .... 13.35 J. Martin, 10 for 281 .... 26.1 J. Orav, 8 for 318 ..... 14.75 %* SCHOOL IIECORD3. To I). Nixon and L. S. Woods, of ■ Boys' High School, goes the honour of making a- remarkable school record, scoring 371 runs in an unbroken part- j nership after two wickets had fa lion. It took them two afternoons to make | this score, and it was against a fairly j weak bowling side—Linwood B. Second j Grade. Nio-xn made i?s'7 not out, eclipsing the school record of 223 made ; by E. jE. Orawhow against a St Albans second grade team in 1907. Nixon J hardly gave a chance, although he was hot slow to lift the hall when there I was no danger in doing so. 'Wood? ! made 121 not out, but gave a lot of j chances. The score when Nixon declared j was 490 'for two wickets. The H : p;h j School team will be broken up badly after the Christmas holidays. C. EGuiney and Nixon will both Kivo, and it is understood that they will play for lliccartcn. where they will be needed. But school always seem to supply adequate reinforcements.

Keverting to Orawshaw's previous school record, it Mas made on a wet day, and occupied only one afternoon, towards the end of a season. The undignified part of the innings wa< the v. av tho batsman got out. for be was clean howh'd bv an eccentric bowler nans'-d Pritojiard. who used to stand on &" crease and simply swing his arm without taking a run.

Sydenham A 1 3 __ 9 Sydenham B . 2 1 — 8 Linwood . 2 '— • X 7 East 1 .1 i 6 St Albans . 1 X — & West . — a — 4 Ivaiapoi . — — — — Kiccariotv . — — *— ~