Six Teams Are In Running For Cricket Honours.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18385, 10 February 1928, Page 6

Six Teams Are In Running For Cricket Honours.

OLD BOYS’ GREATLY IMPROVE POSITION, AND MAY GET 3-POINTER TO-MORROW.

'T'HE senior A competition of the Canterbury Cricket Association will be advanced another stage to-morrow, when the eighth series of matches will be concluded. The struggle for the championship is developing along very interesting lines this season, and, in spite of the fact that the competition is well advanced, six of the teams may be said to be still in the running to become the ultimate winners.

At the end of the seventh series of matches, Riccarton, Sydenham and St Albans were first equal with eleven points each, Old Boys were next with nine, and Lin wood and East Christchurch next with eight points each. Last Saturday against East Christchurch, Old Boys played themselves into what may be described as an almost certain three-point win position. Old Boys made 218 and then got rid of East for the very small total of 74. A three-point win to Old Boys to-mor-row will further improve their chances of winning the championship. A few weeks ago Old Boys seemed to be out of the running, but a three-point win against Old Collegians in the seventh series of matches, and the strong possibility of another three-pointer to-mor-row have altered the outlook as far as Old Boys are concerned. Riccarton should get at least a twopoint win against West Christchurch. Last Saturday the game was left as follows:—West 164, Riccarton 121 for four wickets. So, with six wickets in hand Riccarton require only 44 runs to pass the first innings total of their opponents. Something very unexpected will have to happen if Riccarton fail in this task. As Sydenham and St Albans were equal at the end of the seventh series of matches the match between these two teams in the present series is naturally exciting a good deal of interest. It looks as if Sydenham will win. They held the advantage at the end of the play last Saturday, having scored 56 for no wickets in reply to the first innings total of St Albans of 243. Sydenham will begin their innings again to-morrow with 56 runs to the good. If Riccarton and Sydenham each gain a two-point win and Old Boys a three-pointer, then Riccarton and Sydenham will be left in the lead with 13 points each, and Old Boys will be next with 12 points. Old Collegians did surprisingly well against Lin wood last Saturday. They made 252, the highest innings- total they have registered this season. Curiously enough their second highest total was also made against Linwood, in the opening match of the season. On that occasion Old Collegians scored 241, but it was not much good to them as it was made in their second innings, following on a first innings total of 64. However, they robbed Linwood of a three-point win, Linwood winning by 177 runs on the ‘first innings. On this occasion it looks as if Linwood may have trouble in avoiding defeat. When stumps were drawn last Saturday, Linwood had lost two wickets for 93 runs. If Old Collegians beat Linwood it will be their first win of the season, and, indeed, their first since they entered the senior A competition, as they failed to gain any wins last season. M.C.C. v. South Africa. The victory of South Africa in the final test makes the honours even between the M.C.C. touring team and South Africa. M.C.C. won the first two tests, the third was drawn, and the fourth and fifth were won by South Africa. The matches resulted as follows: First—M.C.C. 313 and 57 for no wickets; South Africa 196 and 170. M.C.C. won by ten wickets. Second—M.C.C. 133 and 428; South Africa 250 and 224. M.C.C. won by 87 runs. Third—M.C.C. 430 and 132 for two wickets; South Africa 246 and 464 for eight wickets (declared). Match drawn. Fourth—South Africa 328 and 156 for six wickets; M.C.C. 265 and 215. South Africa won by four wickets. Fifth—South Africa 332 for seven wickets (declared) and 69 for two wickets; M.C.C. 282 and 118. South Africa won by eight wickets. After losing the first two tests the South Africans have done very well to make the test honours even. South Africa failed badly in the first test, i but it was only a wonderful recovery by M.C.C. in the second innings of the second test that robbed South Africa | of what seemed a fairly certain victory. In the third test honours were about even, though a great deal of credit must be given to South Africa for their fine recovery in the second innings. South Africa won both the fourth and fifth tests comfortably. Of course, it has to be remembered that the M.C.C. team at present touring South Africa is not an All England eleven. Still, it is a strong side, including as it does several of the Old Country’s leading players. It is interesting to note that fortyfour test matches have now been played between England and South Africa, and of these England have won twentysix, South Africa have won ten, and eight have been drawn. The record is as follows:

vides for thirteen matches, and seven are against minor associations: Nelson, North Otago, Southland, Waikato, Taranaki, Wanganui and Poverty Bay. In some quarters the itinerary has been criticised bn the ground that these minor associations have not much of a chance of making even a decent showing against the visitors, and that the matches will be of little value to the visitors themselves or to the teams that oppose them. Along with this criticism, various suggestions have been made. The council has been urged to play four test matches instead of two, to arrange games for the visitors against North and South Island teams, and, instead of matching the visitors against teams representing one minor association, to select teams from groups of minor associations. On the face of it these arguments seem sound. In theory they probably are, but it is doubtful whether they would work out satisfactorily in practice. For instance, if four test matches were played, probably the greatest difficulty would be experienced by the majority of the Dominion’s leading players to get time off to take part in all four. Nearly sll of our best players have to work tor their living, just the same as anyone else, and it is not fair, either to them or to their employers, to ask them to devote an undue amount of time to cricket. A strong argument in favour of four tests is that it would permit of one being played in each of the four main centres, and thus would settle controversies as to the venue of these big matches, but the difficulty ,of players getting time off is a very real one. It would perhaps mean that for two of the tests New Zealand would not be able to field anywhere near her strongest side, and that would not be at all satisfactory. The suggestion to play games against Island teams is a good one, but here the same difficulty arises. It would entail further calls on the time of leading players, time which they might not be able to afford. With regard to the suggestion to pick teams from groups of minor associations, there are difficulties in the way, but it might be possible to overcome them. One, of course, would be the extra expense involved of assembling the combined teams, and, further, minor association players might find it difficult to get the necessary time off. It would also be a problem for the Cricket Council to decide where the matches against the minor association teams were ‘to be played. There would be sure to be claims for the same match from several towns, and, in view of the jealousies that are apt to arise, the task of the council in this connection might not be an enviable one.

It is interesting to recall that, when the last Australian team was here in the 1920-21 season, a match was played at Wellington between the tourists and a team representing all the minor associations of the Dominion. Australia won by an innings and six runs, the scores being: Australia 271, Minor Associations 124 and 141. In connection with the visits of overseas teams another point that has to be remembered is that the Cricket Council has a duty to foster the game in the smaller centres. If the council refused to give matches to those minor associations, that were prepared to put up the necessary guarantee, would it not lay itself open to the accusation of neglecting the game in these smaller centres ?

Results of Sheffield Shield Matches. The match between Queensland and Victoria at Brisbane, which had to' be abandoned, was the final Sheffield Shield match of the present season. It is perhaps not necessary to state that the shield has been won by Victoria. This was a foregone conclusion two or three weeks ago. By winning their first four matches outright, Victoria established a very big lead, and they were left in an unassailable position when South Australia were beaten by New South Wales in the return game at Sydney. South Australia, who won the shield last season, have finished in second position this year. New South Wales are third and Queensland last. New South Wales has won the Sheffield Shield seventeen timevS, Victoria eleven and South Australia four. Queensland were admtited to the shield contest only last season. Following are the results of the shield matches this sea-

°Queensland 419, New South Wales 167 and 22 for two wickets. Queensland won by 252 runs on the first innings. Victoria 646 for eight wickets (declared), South Australia 177 and 159. Victoria won by an innings and 310 runs. Victoria 793, Queensland 189 and 407. Victoria won by an innings and 197 runs. South Australia 481 and 189 for nine wickets, New South Wales 519 and 150. South Australia won by one wicket. South Australia 471 and 101 for two wickets, Queensland 256 and 315. South Australia won by eight wickets. Victoria 355 and 386 for seven wickets (declared). New South Wales 367 and 152. Victoria won by 222 runs. Victoria 637, South Australia 319 and 283. Victoria won by an innings and 35 runs. New South Wales 639 and 100 for eight wickets: Queensland 276 and 590. New South Wales won by 363 runs on the first innings. New South Wales 291 and 365, South Australia 248 and 293. New South Wales won by 118 runs. South Australia 505, Queensland 143 and 351. South Australia won by an innings and 11 runs. New South Wales 533 and 353 for eight wickets (declared), Victoria 422 and 205 for one wicket. New South Wales won by 111 runs on the first innings. Queensland 384 for nine wickets, Victoria 300. Match abandoned owing to rain. Short Runs. The Australian cricket team will leave Sydney this afternoon for Wellington by the Marama. The vessel is due to reach Wellington on Tuesday morning, and the same evening the visitors will leave for Nelson, where they will open their tour next Wednesday. » The unfortunate incident that arose

It will be seen from the above table that South Africa have won the rubber on only two occasions. The first was in 1905-6, when they scored four wins out of five tests against P. F. Warner's team, and the second in 1909-10, when they had three wins against the team which toured South Africa under the captaincy of 11. D. Leveson-Gower.

Itinerary of Australian Team. In drawing up the itinerary for the tour of the Australian cricket team, the New Zealand Council followed the policy of alloting matches to asosciations that were prepared to put up the necessary guarantee, £3OO in the case of the four major associations, and £IOO in the case of the minor associations, with the exception of Wanganui, which was required to guarantee £l2O, The programme pro-

P E. S.A. D. 1888-9 2 2 0 0 1891-2 1 1 0 0 1895-6 3 3 0 0 1898-9 2 2 0 0 1905-6 5 1 4 0 1907 3 1 0 2 1909-10 5 2 3 0 1912 3 3 0 0 1913-14 5 4 0 1 1922-3 5 2 1 2 1924 5 3 0 2 1927-28 5 2 2 1 Totals ..44 26 10 8