CRICKET.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 937, 20 February 1908, Page 12

CRICKET.

THE ENGLISH BOWLERS. Good as the English bowling has been this summer on fast and perfect wickets, few who saw Attewel’., Peel, Barnes, Ulyett and others on the hard wickets of Australia in the 80’s, and one or two of them still later, would place bowling of the present English on a par with that of some of the professional teams of the period referred to (writes “Not Out” in the “Referee.”) Besides having all the dead liness of the most renowned left handers on a bad wicket, Peel was a great bowler on the best of wickets. Briggs, of course, was quite different; he needed a patch of moisture. Rhodes is not a Peel, that is, on Australian wickets. A. Fielder, S. F. Barnes, and J. N. Crawford are great bowlers, even on our wickets, but the others in this team seem to be much less dangerous. George Lohmann was a wonder at mixing the pace. J. N. Crawford, who is also of Surrey, is the mosi proficient in this respect among the bowlers now with us. He whips in the fast ball very cleverly, very fast, and not too frequently. And it is often a yorker. Yet another round (the seventh) of the district championships was commenced on Saturday, but play was not too interesting, most of the batsmen quite failing to take advantage of the good wicket provided. City batted first against Ponsonby, and failed utterly, the whole side going out for 76, Jacobsen and White bowling admirably. Ponsonby did better, as 113 runs were compiled, with four wickets yet to fall. Unless City do something out of the common they must be defeated. * * * « Grafton, batting against North Shore on the Domain, fared rather well, as, thanks to a bright innings by Sloman (80), a total of 215 was reached. The Shore men have started badly, losing three wickets for 36. # * * • Considering the batsman’s wicket, Parnell’s total of 144 against Eden was none too large, and without the wicket is spoilt oy rain. Eden should have no difficulty in passing these figures, especially as they have 70 on the slate for two wickets. * $ * * Parnell A made 243 against North Shore 11., who have lost seven wickets for 84. « * * £ Eden A and Grafton 11. are having an interesting game, which looks like going in favour of the former. Grafton have made 168, while Eden have 138 for six wickets. * * * * Ponsonby 11. look to have a good thing on with Parnell B, as they have scored 160 to their opponents’ 74 for six wickets. * * * * Playing for Grafton 11. on Saturday, the brothers P. and F. Horspool put on 80 runs for the fourth wicket, making 60 and 47 respectively. * * * 9 A. El Sloman played an attractive innings for Grafton on the Domain. He hit freely, and had made 80 before Haddon found his wicket. ■** * « For once in a way Hemus failed to get going on Saturday, being bowled for 2, and none were found to step into the breach, the side collapsing for 76.

At Dunedin, Carisbrook A scored 209 and 65 for four wickets, and declared the innings closed. They defeated Opoho, who scored 118 and 115 for eight wickets. In Opoho’s first innings Watson took three wickets for five runs. Carisbrook B (239 and 150 for five wickets, innings declared closed) beat Grange, 150 (Beale 39, Downes 29). Dunedin beat Albion on the first innings. The former made 149 and 144 for seven wickets (Eckhold 48). Albion compiled 103 (Wil.iams 38 and Corbett 35) and 122 for eight wickets (Drake--40). ♦ * * * Saturday’s matches at Christchurch resulted as follows: —Linwood, ‘ 294 and 115 for two wickets (H. Ellis 41, not out) beat West Christchurch, 238 (G. T. Weston 40, E. Gt Norman 72, not out) on the first innings). Sy denham, 407 for seven wickets, beat East Christchurch, 99 and 62. Riccarton, 426 (E. R. Caygill 54, A. Norman 61, and A. Anthony 172 not out) beat St. Albans (278) on the first innings. * * * * At Wellington, Midlanders, continuing their match against Wellington, got the latter out in their second innings for 141, making the aggregate 295 against Midland’s 352, in the first innings. Mid.ands thus won jy an innings and 58 runs. Mahony and Vare made 30 each, and Naughton 27 Mitchell took five wickets for 63 runs, and Hickson five for 41. Old Boys beat Petone by 215 runs. Petone wanted 350 runs to win, but notched only 135, making their aggregate 273, against Old Boys’ 487. Of the 135 Taylor made 55, and Smyrk 19. Tucker took three wickets for 39 runs; Monaghan three for 42; Lomax two for 24; and McGill one for 13. Midland and Old Boys have to fight out the final of the Wellington Championship. .•* * * • How often the emergency man scores well. In the match between England and Australia the Rev. S. F. Waddy, who passed the century, was picked as twelfth man. *#' ' * * The gate for the fourth Test match realised £1998. * * ♦ * L. A. Minnett, who did well with the ball against the Englishmen, is a fast bowler who takes a very long run. He is a son of an ex-Auck-lander. The Victorian, W. W. Armstrong, made his hundred in first-class cricket in ±a99 against South Australia, and to-day he has twenty hundreds to his credit, seven against English bowling, three against South Australia, five against New South Wales two against Queensland, one against South Africa, and one against New Zealand. * * * * F. A. Tarrant this season has set the seal on his English reputation as a batsman by his ( fine form for Victoria. His scores are 64, 81, and 159 against England, 108 against South Australia, 13, 46, 79, and 206 against New South Wales; 756 runs for eight innings, averaging 94.5. The V.C.A. has presented him with a gold watch in recognition of this phenomenal performance. * * * * The following are the remaining matches in the English team’s programme:— Australia (Fifth Test): Sydney, February 21, 22, 24, and 25. South Australia: Adelaide, February 29 and March 2, 3 and 4. Leave Adelaide March 5; arrive at Fremantle March 9. West Australia: Perth, March 12, 13, 14 and 16.

Leave Fremantle March 16 for England.