CRICKET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19842, 17 May 1927, Page 4

CRICKET

PLETHORA OF RUNS DAILY MAIL’S COMMENT (Sun) LONDON,, May 15. The Daily Mail, in a leader, says: “Remembering that the smaller ball was intended to assist the bowler, it is ironical that 39 centuries have been compiled in six days. The recent bil-liard-table wickets are partly responsible. Older critics express the opinion that the' real reason is the dearth of bowlers.” MANY CENTURIES NEW ZEALAND’S BIG SCORES. CRICKETERS GO THE PACE. New Zealand, always looked on as a football power in the world of international sport, is rapidly rising to no mean place in the cricket perspective of things, and recent performances by the team at present in England confirm the promise of great things given by the successful tour of Australia last year. Records have been “going west” fast as a result of the recent play. The performances of R. C. Blunt, J. E. Mills and Cecil Dacre, in scoring a century each against Mr H. Martineau ’s eleven, sets a new; level, for never before have three individual centuries been scored in one innings by New Zealand batsmen. The list of batsmen who have scored centuries for New Zealand is growing apace and received a further fillip as the result of the cabled intimation that T. C. Lowry and C. C. Dacre ran up hundreds against M.C.C. Before The War. The first century ever made by a New Zealand batsman was .114, not out, registered by C. A. Richardson against the Mel bourne Cricket Club in 1900. Three years later D. Reese made 148 against an English team, and during the 1913-14 tour of Australia the same player rattled up 130, not out, against South Australia. In March 1914, E. V. Sale made 109, not out, against an Australian team at Auckland. These were the only centuries scored for New Zealand before the war, and the first recorded after the war was in January, 1923, at Christchurch, when D. C. Collins made 102 against MacLaren’s team. In the following season, also at Christchurch, C. C. Dacre notched 127 against New South Wales. List of Centuries. The century list was augmented considerably during the tour of the New Zealand team in Australia in 1925-26. During that tour ten centuries were made by members of the New Zealand team, four in test matches and six in minor matches.

Following is the list of centuries made on that tour: —Dacre, 218 against Maitland; Blunt, 216 against Goulburn; W. R. Patrick, 143 against New South Wales; T. C. Lowry, 140 against Ballarat and 123 against South Australia; C. Oliver, 132 not out against Wagga and 104 against Ballarat; C. G. Crawford, 121 against Maitland; C. Alcott, 116 against New South Wales and 107 against Victoria. Blunt broke records this year when he scored three centuries for New Zealand in consecutive innings against the Melbourne Cricket Club’s team. In the second innings of the first test he made .187 and in the second test he made .104 and 103. In the first innings of the second test C. Dempster carried his bat for 128 not out, and in the second innings of this match Dacre had an unbeaten 125 to his credit. Rattled Them Up. On the Home tour already there has been a wealth of run-getting, and T. C. Lowrv 106, C C. Dacre 107 and 101, J. E. Mills 188 and R. C. Blunt 119, have rattled up centuries, and 26 three-figure scores have now been made for New Zealand. R. C. Blunt and C. C. Dacre have made five each, T. C. Lowry three, D. Reese, C. Oliver and C. Alcott two each, C. A. Richardson, A. V. Sale, D. C. Collins, W. R. Patrick, I. G. Crawford, Stewart Dempster, and J. E. Mills one each. Tom Lowry is the only player who has imade a century both for and against I Now Zealand, for he made 130 for England against New Zealand at Wellington in .1923. Roger Blunt takes a place among the world’s best as the result of his recent feats. C. B. Fry, with six centuries in successive innings in 1901, holds the world’s record, but R. C. Blunt has now joined the select band who followed the superlative feat of the famous Hampshire amateur in notching four on end. The Otago crack made 187 in the second innings of the first test against the Aussies last year, and in the second test he made 104 and 103. He compiled his fourth successive hundred on Monday with 119 against Mr Martineau’s team and joined that [great band who have done the same before:—Tom Hayward (Surrey), 1906; ! C. B. Fry, again in 1911; H. T. W. Hardinge (Kent), 1913; J. B. Hobbs (Surrey), 1920 and 1925; C. G. Macartney. (Australia), 1921; E. Tyldesley (Lancashire), 1926.

Tn 1897-8 Archie MacLaren’s four consecutive centuries in Australia included 181 v. the Thirteen of Queensland and New South AVales at Brisbane.