CRICKET.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 759, 22 September 1904, Page 12

CRICKET.

Cricket season 1904-5 will be opened in the course of a few weeks, and everything points to a busy time ahead for those who indulge in the summer game. The various senior club teams do not appear to have undergone any radical changes since the flannels were hung up at the close of last season, and the Cup contests should again be very keen. * * * * All the principal centres approached have expressed a willingness to find the necessary guarantee to ensure a visit to this colony of the next Australian Eleven prior to leaving for England, and we may now take it for granted that ■it is almost certain that we will be afforded an opportunity of seeing ’lrumper, Noble, and Co. perform before they set out for the Mother Country in the hope of regaining the ashes wrested from them, last year by “ Plum ” Warner and his merry men. ~»' * * * It is gratifying to note that one or two of our local clubs are this season gding to make a strong bid to raise the necessary funds to engage professional coaches. If the standard of the game is to be improved in this colony coaches must be obtained, and I congratulate the North Shore and Grafton District Clubs on the efforts they are making to that end. It is to be hoped that other clubs will follow suit.

Writing to the London “ Daily Mail the old Australian cricketer, F. A. Iredale, says The trouble in Australia is in the want of bowlers. Probably England has found herself in a similar plight, but though she might not be able to find the genius, she is never quite in the same condition as Australia has found herself. We have so few first-class matches that we are not able to maintain, an army of professionals, among whom, with constant practice for the purpose of development, may be found a bowler who, without being & great genius, is nevertheless a bowier of more than average merit. Our bowlers have to develop under extraordinary conditions. They must be physically and mentally well endowed,

otherwise the little cricket they will not supply the deficiency. So far the outlook at present seems gloomy enough, relieved only by the consolation that we have in Cotter and Claxton two bowlers who have done all that has been asked them in their first season. Even their success, viewed in the most favourable light, will hardly compensate for the loss of Trumble, Jones, Howell, and Saunders.”

Curiously enough the weakness mentioned by Jredale in the foregoing paragraph is also being lamented by Home writers in referring to English cricket. On the subject of bowling the “ Daily Telegraph ” has the following “Though such remarkable cricket is being shown in match after match, it is, perhaps, well for us that the Australians are not here this season. If an England Eleven had to be picked for a test game next week, the all important matter of bowling would assuredly make the task of selection a very difficult one, our resources just now being in this respect far inferior to what they have been in some recent years. Lockwood, invaluable in 1902 in the test matches at Manchester and the Oval, has, for one moment at any rate, dropped out of first-class cricket ; Rhodes, except for one brilliant fortnight, has this summer been nothing like himself with the ball, and Hirst is so apprehensive about the weakness of his leg that he cannot bowl with half his old fire. These three, judged on their best form, are the finest bowlers we have had since Richardson lost pace and spin, and it would be idle to pretend that we have any men really adequate to replace them in an England team.” ♦ < * The death is announced of Mr Herbert Jenner-Fust, who was regarded as the oldest cricketer of any note. He was born on February 23, 1806, and was, therefore, in his 99th year. In 1822 he was in the Eton team against Harrow, and in 1827 he played for Cambridge against Oxford. From 1827 to 1836 he appeared for Gentlemen v. Players. In 1833 he was chosen as president of M.C.C. * * * * A cablegram from England to the “ Referee ” states that the South African team, during their English tour, won 13 matches and lost three, and that the tour resulted in a loss of £2OOO. From

the cricket point of view the South Africans met with undoubted success. The team which visited England m 1903 won 13 and lost 9 matches, so that the latest tourists have improved on that creditable record. The expenses of the tour were borne by a wealthy South African sportsman, who will, according to the cable message, be a substantial loser

The South Africans were saved from a heavy defeat by Yorkshire through wet weather, the third day being a blank. Yorkshire made 370, and South Africa 148 and 158 for eight wickets. Two new ha.tsm.en met with success for the county, H. Wilkinson making 60 and Rudston 41. For South Africa, F. Mitchell, the Yorkshireman, topscored with 42.

Lancashire won the County Championship, Yorkshire being second, and Kent third. Then came Middlesex, Notts, Sussex, Leicester, Warwickshire, Gloucester, Derbyshire, Surrey, Somerset, Worcester, Essex, and Hampshire, in that order.

The famous left-hander, J. Darling (writes the “Referee’s Adelaide correspondent), had a hit last Saturday week for the Sturt Electorate Club against a good junior team. He scored 63, not out, and they tell me he shaped splendidly, hitting very hard and clean.

Early in August, L. 0. S. Poidevin scored 233 against the London County, at the Crystal Palace, in a two-day match. A few' days later, for Lancashire against Sussex, at Brighton, he compiled 153, to which the “ Sporting Life ” refers thus : “He lost his wicket (run out) through trying a second run for a hit off Sharp, which Newham misfielded at 369. In making 153 he had been at the wickets four hours and a-half, and gave one chance at the wickets. He scored most of his big hits behind the wicket, being strongest perhaps on the leg side, and among his figures were fifteen 4’s, eleven 3’s, and eleven 2’s.” The New South Welshman, in a letter to the “ Referee,” states that he is thinking of returning to Australia. There was then a possibility of his leaving England last week.

B. J. T. Bosanquet performed brilliantly all-round for Middlesex against Yorkshire at Sheffield. He hit up 141 and secured five for 112 and five for 136 in the respective innings. He was highly successful with the ball in the early part of each innings, cheaply dismissing the crack batsmen, but his bowling was subsequently punished severely.