CRICKET

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17181, 26 October 1923, Page 3

CRICKET

| THE GAME AND THE PLAYERS-

(By “ COVER POINT.”)

Second Round Matches. West Christchurch v. Riccarton, at Hadley Park. Linwood v. Albans, at Lancaster Park- v Sydenham v. East Christchurch, at Sydenham Park. New Zealand Cup day comes in the middle of the second round, commencing to-morrow, and consequently the games will not he concluded till to morrow fortnight. Linwood, last year's champions, weri the only team to secure a 'three-point win in the first round matches. Riccarton scored a two-point victory, whil< ■the third game—that between West Christchurch and Sydenham—was drawn. Playing for Petone against Y.M.C.A in the first match of the season in Wellington, A- Finlay son, bowling for Petone. captured nine wickets for 2" runs, while he dismissed the tenth man by a. catch off Price. Y.M.C.A- made 47 in reply to Petone’s 71. X. Jones, who some time ago suh fered a serioijx breakdown in health, has had a return of the old ailment, and acting under medical advice he will probably ihoL be playing till after Christmas His loss will be severely felt by Linwood, who aro not overstrong in batting. The' credit of making the only ceut ury in the opening matches of the season in Wellington fell to H. M’Girr, who made 101 for Hutfc against .Institute. H. C- Watson, the ex-Otago and West Christchurch batsman, made 55 in the same innings. The only other Vataman to make a big score on the first day was J. ft. Huddleston, who compiled 74 for Wellington against Thorndon. ftydenham and East Christchurch will play at Sydenham Park to-morrow, and the game aonears to be a foregone conclusion for .Sydenham. East could make only 78 and 88 in their two innings against Linwood. They seem to be a very poor batting side and are not iikelv to withstand for very long the attack of M’Beth, Cunningham and Co. This should be a three-pointer for Sydenham. The Right Hon Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of England (states an exchange! is a keeu supporter of cricket. J!' has seldom missed an Eton and Hi.now or University match at Lord’s during the past thirty years. His wile, who is a sister of Sir E- A. Ridsdale and A. E. Ridsdale,. both of whom played for the Sussex second eleven with considerable success during the nineties, is also a keen cricketer, and it* former days was the captain of the White Heather Ladies’ Club in SusLinwood, who have obtained a small bad for the championship thus early in the season, will meet St Albans at Lancaster Park to-morrow afternoon, and last year's premiers should have little difficulty in winning again. Lin\ytJod are not a particularly strong batting combination and will probably not make many very large, scores during the season, but they have a good va-riet-v of bowling, and if Riccarton could dismiss St Albans almost twice in one afternoon, surely Linwood must have a fair chance of doing so! A es, it looks like Lin wood's game. Victoria this year is in the happy ! position of having a number of youth- j ful players who have already displayed j champion form with the bat. Last season in the Sheffield Shield games Wood full had an average of 85.08, while Ponsford’s average was 62.50, j while in addition both men scored pro- . lifirallv in other matches, Ponsford achieving the great honour of breaking the world’s record by scoring 429 against Tasmania. As far as bowlers are concerned the State is not in quite 80 fortunate a position, but the right man may Ik- discovered during the coming season. M’Donald’s absence is a matter for keen regret, especially r.s New South Wales will again have the services of the phenomenal J. M. Gregory. The most interesting game in the second round of matches promises to he that between West Christchurch anti Riccarton. There is such an element of luck in cricket that it is somewhat difficult to prophesy results in many games, bnt with luck evenly divided I should say that West will win the match commencing to-morrow. My reasons for favouring West are because of their fine performance against Sydenham—the strongest bowling team in the competition—in the first round. With such good batsmen as Blunt, Talbot, Foster and possibly Hayes on one side, and the Powell brothers, Guiney and Haines on the other, there is likely to be some good scoring in this match". As West appear to 1*» the. stronger side in howling the odds seem to be in their favourYet another veteran has to be congratulated on a personal success, and this time one, it is safe to sav, whose name will always be remembered as long as cricket is played (says “The Cricketer ”). We refer to Wilfrid Rhodes, who for the fourteenth time in his career has made over a thousand runs and obtained more than a hundred wickets in the course of a season. lie has thus equalled the record previously monopolised by his groat fellow-player, Geoge Hirst. The latter performed the feat- eleven rears running—1903 to 1913 inclusive { and in 1906 credited himself with 2385 runs and 208 wickets. The seasons in ' Mhich Rhodes accomplished “the doublet event'’ were 1903 to 1900, 1911, 1914, 1 and 1919 lo 1923. Frank Tarrant did ] R eight season* in succession—l9o7 to , 191 4. As the season advances it is to be I hoped that a low of our senior players * iviil drop the annoying habit of contional appealing. In the first match j ono heard appeals for leg before from 1 a wicket-keeper, a man in the slips. 1 and even cover-point. What on j earth does a man in the latter j position know about a leg before? j Tt js not playing the game for a man ‘ 1,1 be appealing this fashion and ! the sooner it is rut out the better for] the game. There is only one man who should appeal for a leg before decision { c d that is the bowler. A wicket- j '-.eooer cannot see where a ball is actually pitched and he should keen quiet, but he doesn’t. As for a pl»ver in any other position. Well » This annoying habit of appealing is traceable to some of our leading players who should know better. Is it done to bustle the batsman or the umpire, or is it erer-koennens In any case it can he well done without

The captains of the senior teams this year are:—We6t Christchurch, Hr P. S. Foster; Sydenham, E. A. Gasson; Riccarton, ID. R. Cay gill; Linwood, P. Smith: St Albans, A. W. Thomas; East Christchurch. P. Egan.

Twelve scores of over 200 runs have been made for Victoria in first-class cricket, and of this number Warwick Armstrong claims five—all on the Melbourne ground. Ponsford heads tbo list with his record total of 429, and then Armstrong follows with 250, 245, in 1907, 1911, and 1920 respectively, and 231, all against South AustraliaHis remaining two were against Queensland. Through the Petone Oval having been seriously damaged in. the process of top-dressing, no senior cricket matches will he played there during tho coming season. Owing to the topdressing not having been screened pro perlv, large pebbles have been scattered over the “big” wicket. There is a possibility that junior matches may bo played on some of the other wickets, which are not so badly affected. The late Dr E. M. Grace, hrothei of the immortal W.G., once demonstrated that there was an advantage in being captain of the side. Ho skied the ball mountains high between the wickets, and then, fully convinced by the confident attitude of the fieldsman beneath the descending ball that tho moment of his dismissal was im, minent, he declared the innings closed, thus retired with the glory of a not out innings upon htm. Illustrated journals from Home show that cricket is now a popular game among girls. In some of the northern centres of New Zealand girls’ teams have been formed, and, according to the “ Otago Daily Times,” there is a probability of Dunedin girls taking an active interest in the game in the near future. Mr .1. IT. M’Phee ha» been requested by the George Street School girls to assist them in making » start, and he is arranging for them to play with light material. For two batsmen to reach the second century in the same innings is a Teat of the rarest occurrence, and in firstclass cricket there are only nine instances. To this number Australians have contributed two. At- Sydney, 1903, for New South Wales v. South Australia, R. A. Duff scored 271, and AT. A. Noble 230. P'ive years later Noble and A. J. Hopkins hit up 213 and 218 against the same State. A third instance occurred in Australia, when, in 1921, Rhodes made 210 and Russell 201 for England against South Australia. In view of the expected arrival of an English eleven in Australia next year, the Sheffield Shield matches are certain to command more than the normal amount of interest. Lose season the shield wan won by New South Wales, and already the champions in that State have jumped quickly into form. At the opening of tho season in Sydney, Macartney, Kell a way, Mailey and Moyes (the ex-Vic torian player) displayed excellent form. The record for the different- competing States in the Sheffield Shield com pet j t ion is as follows New South Wale* 16 seasons; Victoria-, 8 seasons; and South Australia, 3. Tho approach of tiie first matches of the season is being watched with in teresfc. says tho “ Otago Daily Times. '* Favoured by satisfactory weather conditions, practices are being held regularly, and the attendances at these generally are very encouraging. It seems that all that is required for a particularly successful opening day is fine weather. Grange had a fine muster at practice on Labour Day, and as many as forty Carisbrook members turned out. In the latter case, however, there was a noticeable absence of senior players. The enthusiasm with which Albion started the season i* !>eing sustained, and the Dunedin Club is beginning to show more promise.

PROMINENT CRICKETERS

SYDENHAM’S SKIPPER. E. A. Gasson, captain of the Sydenham senior team, learnt his cricket at the Sydenham School, where at the age of ten years lie played in the school eleven, which also boasted W. R. Patrick as one of its members at that time. With the exception of three years Gasson has played for the ftydenham Club since 1899. During these three years he played in City and Suburban cricket, being captain

of Green’s Club which won the charu pionsbip in 1918. In that season Gasson had a batting average of 87. He returned to district cricket in 1919 and has played for Sydenham over since, having been captain of tho senior team for three seasons now. He is one of the. best all-rounders playing here at tho present time. Last season lie had a batting average of 30 and abowling average of 10. He finished up the season with a score of 103 not out, and commenced the present season with 111 against West •Christchurch.

MISSED CATCHES.

A. C. MACLAREN’S VIEWS. “I will be blamed for saying the catching in tho slips to-day is worse than I have ever seen it, in the thirtyodd years that I have played or seen cricket,” writes A. O. Macl.aren, in his review of the past English season “ We have batsmen who can get runs amongst; the higher numbers of the order of going in, much more so than whs the case in tho early ’nineties, when bowlers, all lor the better of the game, in my opinion, were incapable of run-getting to the extent of the scoring of to-day, but batsmen did not have so many lives as they are now given. With the larger scores made there lias been no increase in the number of days allotted to the county games. Therefore, the dropping of a catch is doubly telling against the chances of winning the game, but un fortunately for our cricket, it is proved beyond doubt that there are rather more catches dropped in the big games than formerly, and that being so, why should there be any honest confidence in our winning a game against an ordinary side from abroad until we fill the live positions in the

field with men who can take three out of four normal catches w ith* cither hand ?” MacLaron deplores the disappointing catching in the throe biggest games of the year, namely. the North v. South, Gentlemen v. Players, and lastly England v. Tho Rsst, in all of which there have happened to be at least half a dozen ordinary catches dropped. “No three games that I can over remember in the past,” he says, “ produced such a crop of missed catches, and these catches are dropped off bowling that is not. so fast as in the past nor is there so much fast bowling seeing that there was a fast bowler ir. every county XI. practically in the ’nineties. Therefore there can be no doubt about the catches not being more difficult.” Tho “ man’s dread, according to MacLaron. “The batsman of international standard has,” he says, the making of every stroke on the board, and the very last thing that he fails to do is to drive tho over-tossed ball. To-day it is nothing to wonder over when a batsman lets off three, over-tossed ones in one over. In the past the batsman used to attack as ranch as the bowler; now we all know that the attack means the bowling. Think it over. boys. M e have seen batsmen in plenty knock a fine bowler off his length, knowing that if be was allowed to keep it he- would be through the majority of the side in no time.”