A11-round Sport

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IV, Issue 168, 12 October 1893, Page 8

A11-round Sport

Cricket.

By

“ BLOCKER.”

A glorious afternoon last Saturday saw a very large muster of local Knights of the Willow, and with the exception of the Gordon and the Wanderers all the clubs indulged in net practice. The pitches, for the attention they have had bestowed on them, played fairly well, and as we may expect fine dry weather during the early part of the season it will require all Williams can do to give the teams wickets that will play true enough to prevent grumbling. i While on the subject of wickets, it has often struck me that there is a great deal of time lost every Saturday by teams having to roll their respective pitches preparatory to commencing the match. In every other cricket centre the wickets are cut and rolled ready for play to begin when the bell rings;'but here, by the time captains have tossed for choice of innings and the batting side has devoted, say, at least a quarter of an hour to rolling the pitch, it is close on three o’clock. The rule says that “ play ” shall commence at sharp ; therefore my readers can imagine that with only one roller the team not lucky enough to get the roller first often does not get a start till after three o’clock, thereby losing half an hour of the best light, irrespective of shortening the time of play, and probably extinguishing their opponents chance of pulling the match out of the fire on the second day. I trust that the committee of the Cricket Association will give this matter their attention before the matches start on Saturday week. Another matter I think might be considered by the committee is whether certain parts of the ground could not be roped off on the outside, or if not roped, flags put in to allow of boundary hits. I really think that the committee ought to see if they could not go a bit with the times, and J. am quite certain that this would be greatly appreciated by the players of senior cricket, and would tend towards bigger totals.

I have heard that there are several of last year’s players who intend changing their clubs this year, but who have not paid up their last year’s subscriptions. As the rule of the Association is very plain on the matter, it behoves secretaries of clubs to make sure that by playing these new men they are not likely to be disqualified on protest. Seeing that cricket is at least “ pretty expensive,” members should pay up prompt, to allow their officers to pay the club’s ground fees and material accounts at once, otherwise the club gets hopelessly in arrears and ultimately has to disband, with the onus generally thrown on the one man — that being the secretary. The next point I would like to touch upon is that of umpires. We here in Auckland have several good men if they could be induced to act during the season—Messrs C. Hesketh for Auckland, Neild for United, and Moore for Parnell, are three very fair men, and if three or four like them could be drawn out from among the trees the first junior matches might be umpired by them, and they would, I am sure, be heartily welcomed by the juniors themselves. It will be very interesting to watch the progress of our budding seniors this season, as it becomes monotonous to see the same old names appearing in the important interprovincial matches time after time, and with two or three important fixtures on the boards this season I fancy we will require some new blood as some of the Auckland team against Otago last season were very far from “ rep.” form.

The Wellington and Christchurch teams this year are, according to all I hear, likely to be a very warm combination, therefore our local wielders of the willow will require all the practice they can get if they want any chance when meeting both these centres during the ensuing season.

I notice that the Mayor (Mr Crowther) has kept his promise re “ those” trees in the Chinamen’s gardens, and the extra light that will be let on to the senior wickets will be very considerable, besides removing one of the greatest causes of complaint against our ground by nearly all visiting teams, (The ground, I am afraid, will be very backward during the early part of the seasdn, but I understand the new parts of the f putting machine have not yet come to handfi . < . . (

Ths cricket shown at the nets last

Saturday was no criterion of what we may expect later on, when the stiffness wears off. Several shaped very nicely, notably Norman Williams, with 58 not out against the next club team, and Ike Mills, of Parnell, who made 25 very nicely playing for the Mills family against Wanderers. Our old friend George Mills played for the family, and got 14, besides bowling quite up to his reputation, his analysis reading —ll overs, 8 maidens, 3 runs, 2 wickets. There is every prospect, therefore, of our Hawera friends soon learning a wrinkle or two from the erstwhile Essondonite, as Mills is now on his way to Hawera to take charge of their cricket ground, and should when he gets in form prove their mainstay in both batting and bowling. H. Trott, of South Melbourne, won the Williamson, Garner and Musgrove trophy with the splendid average of 84.85 ; whilst H. Kissling, late of Gordon, came out with best batting average for the Melbourne Second Eleven.

The Australians reversed the tables in their second match against the Philadelphian team by winning easily. The members of the Excelsior Cricket Club held their first annual meeting at St. George’s Hall on Friday evening last. After revising several of the rules the election of officers for the present season took place, and resulted as follows: — President, Mr J. W. Castle ; vice-presi-dents, Messrs Alfred Gilbert, McCulloch, E. Swinherd, Peace, C. H. Sexton, Butler and Munro; captain, J. W. Laing; vice-captain, S. Mills; secretary and treasurer, D. E. Macdonald ; committee, A. H. Rhodes, H. Newbegin, the captain, vice-captain and secretary. The hon. secretary of the Canterbury Cricket Association has received a letter from Mr Coleman Davis, of Sydney, inquiring whether a Sydney team would have any chances of a decent tour through New Zealand. The last tour resulted in a loss of £2OO to Mr Davis, but, nothing daunted, he says he is prepared to stand another loss if luck is against him. He states that he can get a good team, and would like to meet a combined New Zealand team in Wellington and Christchurch. The various associations are to be approached on the subject.

A largely attended meeting was held at Otahuhu on Monday evening to consider the question of forming a yacht club. After some discussion, a motion that a club be formed and known as the Otahuhu Yacht and Boating Club was carried, and the following officers were elected for the ensuing year :—President, Captain Dahm; vice-presidents, Messrs ISturges and Bickford; commodore, Mr Andrews; secretary and treasurer, Mr Shroff. It was arranged to open the season on the 21st inst., when an Open Boat Sailing Race will be held.