CRICKET

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 455, 13 April 1899, Page 7

CRICKET

[By

Stonewaller.)

THE CUP MATCHES.

The association games were resumed on Saturday after a break caused by the Easter holidays. Auckland XI. triumphed over the Fifteen, Parnell easily vanquished Gordon, and United scored against North Shore by the narrow margin of nine runs.

In the match at Devonport the United men started very well, and the score reached 77 ere the second wicket fell, thanks to the excellent play of Watts and Marshall, who made 25 and 47 respectively. After this wicket? fell, very rapidly, and with the total at 98 seven wickets were down. Then Walton and P. Hay came to the rescue, and offering a stubborn resistance to the bowling, stayed together,until the North Shore score was equalled. The other wickets were able to put on the necessary runs Going in in a bad light, the North Shore men put on 50 runs for the loss of four wickets in,their second innings. The fAuckland XI., with two ■ wickets for 21, continued batting against the Fifteen. The bowlers held the upper hand until R. Neill and Nicholson were associated. The former played very finely for 69. Nicholson made 44, and Thomas 21. The issue was in doubt for some considerable time, but eventually the Eleven triumphed by 16 runs. Bowling for the Fifteen, A. M. Beale took four wickets for 34, Allan three for 51, and E. C. Beale two for 22. Against Gordon Parnell had an easy win. The score reached 213 for eight wickets by the time play ceased. Ike Mills increased his score to 27 before Edwards bowled him. Ohlson (58) batted in his usual steady manner, while Young (36) and Lusk (21) also played well. The number of extras was very large, no less than 34being added to the total.

The following interesting cricket chat is taken from the Yorkshire Post interview with the big hitter, Mr 0. J Thornton : —“ I believe it is a fact that one hit of mine is the longest authenticated hit in the world. It was made during practice in front of the pavilion at Brighton, the ball pitching rolled down to the Western Boad. The distance, measured by the Bev. W. Pycroft, was found to be 168yds. In a match the farthest hit I made was for the Orleans Club against the Australians, and that was found to measure 152yds.” The most sensational display of hitting ever seen in Engsund was from Mr Thornton’s bat at the Scarborough Festival in 1886. - “ It was in the match Gentlemen of England v. I Zingari, and among I Zingari bowlers was Mr A. G. Steel. I went in for the Gents .in the second innings when the score was 133 for four wickets. In 70 minutes the score was exactly doubled, and I had made 107 out of 133, all the other wickets having fallen, and I being not out. There were eight sixes—one from an overthrow—and twelve fours in my score, and one of the sixes went through an open window in one of the houses on the square side of the ground. Probably Mr Steele had never such rough punishment. The figures were 6, 1. 6,4, 6,2, 1,1, 4,6, 4,6, 1, 4,4, 4,1, 6,4, 4,4, 6,1, 6,4, 4,1, 4,2. There was some more curious cricket the following day. We played a scratch game between the Gentlemen of Middlesex and Gentlemen of England. In my sedre of 54 there were five sixes, two of them from successive strokes. In one over of five balls it was found necessary to use four different balls. Three of them had been knocked into the field outside the ground. In a match at Malton in 1871, Scarborough Visitors v. Malton, odds of 2 to 1 were laid that I could not and would not hit a ball out of the ground. As luck would have it, the very first ball I received was hit clean out of the enclosure, and before the innings was closed I had bit the ball out five times. In the

same season at Scarborough one hit off Tom Emmett pitched 130yds away from the wicket. I ought to add that in every instance where distance of hit is quoted the measurement was fairly and squarely taken by chain. Bonnor was once said to have hit a ball over a fence, a garden, a river, and a field beyond, but the hit was never measured. It has also been said that Mr Fellowes once hit a ball 175yds, but that, too, was not authenticated. At Lord’s in 1870, in the match Cambridge v. M.C.C., I scored 37 in ten hits. At Brighton, in 1871, for Gentlemen v. Players, this was beaten by a record of 34 in nine balls. One of the balls I did not hit; the others yielded seven fours and a six. Once, at Rickling Green, the Orleans Club had to score 250 runs in two hours to win the match. The runs were got in 100 minutes, my share of them being 170 not out. The feat cost me £5, for I had bet 10 to I in half sovereigns that we did not get the runs. On another occasion, with the Orleans Club, on their ground at Twickenham, I helped myself to such scores as 91 out of 100 in one innings, and 49 out of 50 in the next. On May 16, 1888, for Orleans Club against Merchant Tailors’ School, I got 193 out of 300 scored in two hours. A year afterwards 138 was my score in 58 minutes for Lyric Club against Green Jackets; and another score is 104 in 38 minutes, also for the Lyrics. Spofforth and Murdoch played in this match. Playing once with the Messrs Walker’s team at Southgate against the Free Foresters, Mr David Buchanan, whose interesting interview you gave the other day, was treated by' me rather roughly. I felt .in very good form, and showed it by knocking up 185 runs. When I was at last dismissed, Mr Buchanan, with a sigh of relief, remarked— ‘ Now we shall have some cricket.’ The famous old Cantab —in his day the best amateur slow bowler in the country —did not like having liberties taken with his bowling. Who is the bowler that would ? “ The late Hon. Robert Grinston once felt hurt at the way m which I treated the bowling ot a Harrow boy named Dawes. My cousin, Mr Percy Thornton, M.P., popularly known as ‘ Friday ” Thornton—l suppose I was considered Robinson Crusoe and he the ‘ man Friday ’ —-had asked me to go down to Harrow to play in a match against the school. The result was that I got about 120 in an hour. Mr Grimston was furious, and vented his feelings with the remark, ‘ It’s all thro’ that silly man Friday bringing him down.’ Evidently the incident was cherished at Harrow, for I was not invited again to play there until five years ago. “ The late H. H. Stephenson, when a coach at Uppingham, also did not like to see the averages of any of his best bowlers spoiled, by liberty-taking batsmen. I once played against the school team with an eleven taken down, by the late Mr I. D. Walker. Mr Walker and I were in together, and I scored 60 while he made a few less. The following day Stevenson presented Mr Walker with a bat. ‘ What have I done, Stephenson,’ said I, when I found he had not got a bat for me also, ‘ Haven’t you got one for me too ? ’ ‘No,’ was his severe reply ; ‘Mr Walker plays cricket ; you don’t ’ In one match I hit Vernon Boyle out of the ground on three successive deliveries, at the fourth ball he bowled a grub, remarking ‘ No one shall ever say he hit Vernon Royle four times out of the ground in one over.’

“ One night at the Ranelagh Club, Bonnor was dining with me after a match, in which I got 120 runs and hit a ball into the river, which was 135yds (measured) away. “Old. Bonnor said, ‘ You think you can hit hard, but 1 have a sister in Australia who can hit as hard as you.’ I replied, ‘ Why not bring her over here and marry her to Louis Hall, and combine the two styles ? ’ When in Australia in 1891 I was a*ked by a man at lunch on the Melbourne Ground if this story was true. It shows how tales travel about.”

Briar Sweet, a daughter of the New Zealandbred Sir Modred, is said to be not only the best three-year-old filly of her year, but the best of that age and sex seen in America for many years. Last season she displayed great form, winning 13 out of 15 races in which she took part, and running second on the two occasions she was beaten. Included in her winning performances are five furlongs in Imin with 7.4; a mile in Imin 43 with 7.9 ; and a mile and quarter in “imin with 7.4.