CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18189, 23 June 1927, Page 4

CRICKET.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuisiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiini'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiui! NOTES ON THE GAME. (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1.) The score of 476 which the New Zealanders made against Northumberland is the second highest that they have made in England, and it is the fourth time that they have scored over 400. They opened the tour with 586 for nine wickets against Martineau’s eleven, and they made 460 against the M.C.C. team in the first innings, and 466 against Sussex in the first innings. It was not expected that the tourists would find Northumberland a very difficult proposition, especially after their decisive defeat of Durham. East season Durham won the second class county championship, while Northumberland came nineteenth. _ In 1924 and 1925 Northumberland finished at the head of the table, though on each occasion they were defeated in the challenge match for the championship. Last season, however, they registered a sensational downfall. Both in batting and bowling the team declined and experiments with a number of young players did not prove a success. However, although Northumberland are not a strong team, the displav of the New Zealanders against them is a very creditable one. Blunt was evidently at the top of his form and his sparkling display of batting must have been a treat to watch. Although he gave one or two chances, Blunt was unfortunate in not getting his double century after going so far on the way towards it. Lowry was also unlucky not to notch a century. Since he made his third century of the tour, 106 in the second innings of the Worcestershire game, Lowry had not done much with the bat until yesterday. lie has now scored a total of 894 runs in nineteen innings, and, ■with one not out, his average is 49.66. Between them Blunt and Lowry scored 290 runs, over half of the total. Page, who made 36 yesterday, is now batting more consistently than he did in the earlier matches. The form shown by Oliver continues to be distinctly disappointing. When- he •went in yesterday the bowling had been thoroughly trounced by Blunt, Lowry, Page and Dempster and yet he *as bowled after scoring three. Merritt, it will be noticed, was third

top scorer, with 3S not out. The miniber of times this voc.ng batsman has been not out is really remarkable. His run of not outs at the start of the tour may have been regarded as due to a run of luck, but he has since proved that there is a more solid reason than this, namely good batting. In the nineteen innings he has played in England Merritt has been unbeaten eleven times. He lias scored 368 runs, and his average stands at the excellent figure of 46. A rather remarkable feature of the match is the fact that, in spite of the big score of the New Zealanders, Northumberland employed only four bowlers. Northumberland appear to suffer from a lack of bowlers, for in the eight County matches that they played last year Pairscrvice,' Ilethcrton and Milne did nearly the whole of the bowling. Fairservice, who was the most successful bowler for Northumberland last year, is not playing for them this year, and the bulk of the attack yesterday seems to have fallen to the two professionals. lletherton and Milne. Maconachie, who took a couple of wickets yesterday, did not bowl at all for Northumberland last season. Towler was not a member of the Northumberland eleven last season, but he played for them in the previous year. lie is a professional and is fairly good with both bat and ball. The Northumberland match is limited to two days so that the New Zealanders will have to dispose of their opponents quickly and cheaply in two innings if they want to win. To-morrow the tourists begin a two days match against Scotland at Glasgow.