CRICKET.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 2 August 1906, Page 10

CRICKET.

This is a description of cricket as played at Norfolk Island, by one who has seen it: —The wicket is grass, neither rolled nor levelled, and a foot-track runs right through the middle of it. It is very uneven, and as the bowlers are aspiring Cotters, the batsman’s life is rot a particularly happy one. They nearly all play in bare feet, and scorn the use of ieggings or gloves. The bowling is straight on the middle stump, and fast. The batting is very vigorous, and with most of them it is—get runs or get out. One thing I must mention particularly is the fielding. I have seen the Englishmen and Australians playing “tests” both at Home and in Australia, and they could well take a leaf out of a Norfolk Islander’s book as regards catching. A dropped catch, especially “in the country,” is practically unknown. •< * * * It was recent.y cabled that a new record in average for a first-class match in England was made in Worcestershire v. Leicestershire. The total was 1425 runs for 15 wickets, which runs out at 95 per wicket. C. J. B. Wood and H. Whitehead put on 380 for the first Leicestershira wicket. The leading half dozen aggregates on record are :— Sydney, December, 1894. —Australia v. Stoddart’s team : 1514 runs for match. Sydney, February, 1898. —New South Wales v. Stoddart’s: 1739 for match. This is the record in first-class cricket. Sydney, March, 1899. —Australia XL v. Rest of Australia : 1553 for match. Sydney, December, 1903. —Australia v. England : 1541 for 35 wickets. Worcester, July, 1904. —Worcester v. Oxford University : 1492 for 33 wickets. Hastings, July, 1902. —Surrey v. Sussex: 1427 for 21 wickets. Worcester, July, 1906. —Worcestershire v. Leicestershire: 1425 for 15 wickets. . Three hundred and eighty for the first wicket is the third highest opening partnership in • first-class cricket. Brown and Tunnic iffe’s 554 in August, 1898, is the highest, and the next is A. O. Jones and Shrewsbury’s 391 in June, 1899. * * * * A meeting of the Board of Cricket Control has been held in Sydney, when New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland were represented. South Australia applied to come in, and will be given three delegates. An English team is not to be invited this year, the chief stumbing block seems to be the suspension of several of the prominent players. x- x- x- xTwo more comparatively unknown men in A. A. Torrens and R. H. Fox have been invited to join the team to visit this colony next summer. Those already selected will not prove any great attraction from the “gate money” point of view, a very important point with the Cricket Association, which is none too well off. Perhaps one or two stars may yet be added, at least it is to be hoped so. It is beginning to look as though the M.C.C. team will be much below the standard of a New South Wales or Victorian eleven, and if such proves the case it is difficult to know what is the good of them coming over, because a team from our cousins across the Tasman Sea would teach us more about cricket than the Engishmen will be able to do Surrey and Yorkshire are the leading teams in the English County Championships. The cable states that they met during the week, and that Surrey scored an easy win by nine wickets. The match was for the benefit of the Surrey professional Lees, and as 60,000 attended, his cheque must have been a handsome one. No doubt Hayes and Hayward had not a little to do with the victory. * * * * It has already been said that of Hayward it is difficult to write without using words that might seem extravagant and exaggerated (says a Home paper). The Surrey batsman, who had he retired this year, as it was at one time feared he intended to,, would still have ranked among the immortals of the game, has literally surpassed himself. Not even in 1899, when he played his two great innings for England—at Manchester and the Oval —was he in quite such wonderful form. It is not that he has made an exceptional number of runs, but that he has given freer scope to his steadiness and defence, he has adopted more aggressive methr ds, and has not laid himself open Io the charge of being over-cautious on good wickets. Looking at Hayward’s record during the last thirteen years it would be absurd to find fault with him, but there can be no question that his increased freedom of style this year, has made' him a more potent force in Surrey cricket than he has ever been before. As Hayfvard is only a little over thirty-five is nothing surprising on his being at his best just now, but it Is an unusual experience for a batsman to go far beyond his normal

self after thirteen years of first-class cricket in England, to say nothing of three tours in Australia. He played for England against Australia in his fourth seaon, and to-day, if we had to put our best eleven into the field, he would be the first man chosen for batting.