CRICKET

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 454, 6 April 1899, Page 7

CRICKET

LBy

Stonewaller.)

There has not been much local cricket during the holidays. The Wbangarei team could not get down to play Auckland on Good Friday, so the match was postponed. On Saturday a match between the United and Northern Wairoa teams was commenced. United batted first and put together 146. Of this total Lusk (44) and Stemson (35) were the principal scorers. Northern Wairoa on going to the wickets showed good form and scored 52 for three wickets by the time play ceased. Of these rnns T. Elliott made 31 not out, and in making them displayed very good form. , A Y.M.O.A. team travelled to Huntly at Easter and tried conclusions with the local teams. In the first innings of the match with Huntly Y.M.O.A. made 33. Huntly responded with 115 ; and in their second innings Y.M.O.A. made 26 for the loss of four wickets. Victory thus remained with Huntly by 82 runs on the first innings. Against the Taupiri team the Y.M.O.A. fared little better. The local men won the toss and compiled 123 before the last wicket fell. The Y.M.O.A. went to the wickets but could only make 95> and were beaten by 28 run. In their second innings Taupiri made 76 for the loss of 5 wickets. The Gleeson’s showed good form with both bat and ball, and were well backed up by the other players. The combination of the country players was very good, and in both matches they exhibited superior form to that shown by the Aucklanders. The trip was a most enjoyable throughout. In some interesting - cricket gossip “Short Slip ” in the Sydney Mail says, “ I was at the other end on two occasions when H. H. Massie hit six successive balls he received for 4. The first time it was Albert y. Warwick, and F. Downes was the first bowler, and it was the one over. The second was-against Weame, bowling for Carlton v. Albert, but this was not the one over. Massie hit the three last of the one over for 4, I played a maiden, and then he hit the first three of Wearne’s next over. I was also in with Massie when he hit Sam Jones’ first four balls of the match to leg for 4 each. It very seldom occurs that the opening ball of. a match is hit for 5, indeed I believe that recoid stands to me and to me alone. Playing for Warwick against Carlton in a senior cup match, on the Sydney Cricket Ground, I hit Downes on to the old booth that stood at the southern end of the grandstand. Alec Mackenzie, who was a spectator, returned the ball to the bowler. I mention this incident only in the way of a record. I certainly never heard of its being done by anyone else. 1 am also loth to mention that in the Redfern Club’s trial match, in 1894, I hit Hume in four successive balls for three sixes aud a four.”

Thus “ Short Slip ” in the Sydney Mail, “ The question as to a how long is a ball to remain in the wicketkeeper’s hands before it can be cot■idered dead, as provided for by the rule 35, is a vexed one, and , though I put the question to numberless umpires and other experts I have never yet been able to discover at what time the ball shall be dead when in the wicketkeeper’s hands, except, of course “ over ” has been called. I think myself that the only occasions on which the ball is dead is between overs, while passing from wicketkeeper to bowler, at the fall of a wicket, and when a boundary stroke has been made. For the moment I cannot think of more cases. I was playing on one occasion for Second Albert against eecond University, on the’Varsity Oval, and hid madi a stroke for 3. The ball was returned direct to the bowler. The running had left me breathless, and while I was walking in

the vicinity of the wicket at the bowler’s end, regaining my wind, I unconsciously wandered off my crease. The bowler, Rygate, who had been toying with the. ball after it had been returned to him, approached to the wicket, and removed the bails, and I wag given “ out.” Passing the ’Varsity skipper (Barff, the Registrar of the Sydney University), he inquired what was wrong, and I referred him to the umpire. Just as I was entering the pavilion Batff called to me to return. I did return, but all the same I believe I was out, simply because it is so difficult to fix a time when the ball has actually settled in the wicketkeeper’s or bowler’s hands. So far as leaving the crease without the intention of making a run is concerned, there is the case of Sam Jones, when playing for Australia v. England in 1882. Murdock had hit Steel to leg for a single. Lyttelt6n returned the ball to the wicketkeeper, who failed to take, and Grace, at point, fielded it. ' Jones then left his crease for the purpose of patting the wicket, and the English captain, taking advantage of the youihful batsman’s thoughtlessness, ran Jones out. Thoms, the umpire, immediately gave him out, as he was bound to do. On that occasion Grace was justified in what he did. The game of cricket should be played strictly according to its rules, and when it is so played there will be consider ably less annoyance at what is regarded as unsportsmanlike conduct. Everyone will know that the game must be carried on in the keenest way.

The admirers of the well-known JolimonUr, Frank Laver, are very numerous (writes “ Felix” in the Australasian ”), and their j >y «as complete as soon as they ascertained that he had been chosen as the thirteenth man. He has certainly won his spurs by my moit determined fighting. In 1896 he was fit for a place in the Australian team of that year, yet he was actually omitted from the twenty two players engaged in the contest between the Australian team of 1896 and the Rest of Australia. His scores of 137 not out against South Australia, 135 against the Australian Eleven, allied to his consistent and solid doubles, brought him prominently before

the Srlection Committee of the Australian team, and, t iking also into consideration his merit as a bowler and his high-class qualifications as a point, they finally selected him. Harry Trott, whom the swaggah M’Laren condescended to acknowledge as the best cricket captain in the world, unhappily shows practically no sign of improvement (says the Bulletin). He is living at South Melbourne, with a trained nurse in attendance. He is as rotund as ever, but cricket or anything else for that matter, possesses very little interest for poor Trotty. A few dajs ago George Giffen was taken to see him; but his old captain could not recognise Giffen, nor could the chaos of hie brain be stirred to recollection. Giffen has been credited with being of stern, unemotional composition, but the exterior of the man is only the husk that covers the kernel of fine heart. The sight of poor Trott’s misery was too much for him , he broke down and sobbed like a child.

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