WARTIME CRICKET

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 26, 25 October 1940, Page 6

WARTIME CRICKET

N.Z.E.F. Draws With Aidershot Command (From the Official War Correspondent : ! attached to the New Zealand Forces ; in Great Britain). I , Somewhere in Britain, September 16. Recent unexpected changes in the training ami service programme of the N.Z.E.F. in the United Kingdom have interfered with games fixtures. Nobody • complains of that ; sport is only incidental I to our presence in this country, and all • hands would much rather get on with the ' real .job than be kept hanging about playing cricket or tennis. None the less, it would have been a pleasure to have visited the Australians' camp for the return , cricket match, now postponed and likely , to be.abandoned for this season, because of graver things to concern the two sides. The New Zealand team for this match i would have been slightly stronger, on paper, than that which beat Australia at the first meeting; also, it would have been more experienced. Many of our regular players hardly had a bat in their hands last season, and some of the team had not played regularly for several seasons. None the less, it gave a very heartening display against the Aidershot Command just before we left the base camp. 'The Command XI (in which normally Eric Tindill would have, been keeping wickets) included two English internationals. B. 11. Valentine and A. L. Gover, former captains of Yorkshire and Oxford University, A. B. Sellers and M. M. Walford ; a Cambridge Blue, another Oxford Blue, and three other county players. Against such talent it was a noteworthy performance to play a creditable draw. Command declared at the tea interval with nine down for 248; at stumps New Zealand had lost six for 162. Cover's one wicket cost him 63 runs, and 53 were hit off Watts, of Surrey, for three wickets. On the other hand. S. H. Betts, Taranaki, took six for 59, including two with successive balls at the close of one over, the second being Watts, clean bowled. Scores : — ALDERSHOT COMMAND. E. H. Moss (Oxford), 1.b.w.. b. Betts 32 . M. M. Walford (Oxford), c. Tindill, b. Betts 13 E. A. Watts (Surrey), b. Betts 0 A. B. Sellers (Yorkshire), c. Monk, b. : Betts ..... 51 B. H. Valentine (Kent and England), b. Thompson .91 W. S. Lithgow, not out 35 ' K. G. Harvey (Gloucestershire), 1.b.w.,' b. Bette ; 0 ; D. C. Wilson (Cambridge), c. Stace, b. Thompson 2 R. T. Northcote-Green, b. Thompson . 12 1 A. L. Gover (Surrey and England), b. Betts '. 5 ’ K. B. Stanley, not out 4 • Extras 4 , Total for nine wickets 24S ] Bowling Analysis.— H. Betts, six for , 59; F. S. Thompson, three for 82. J N.Z.E.F. (U.K.). ) C. P. Wareham, c. Harvey, b. Watts . 55 , E. W. Tindill, b. Watts 70 ‘ H. E. Reaney (Hawke’s Bay), 1.b.w., b. < Wilson 14 W. B. Coupland, c. Moss, b. Wilson .. fl ] P. E. Stace, b. Watts 4 A. B. Gillespie, not out 1 ( P. G. Monk, b. Gover 5 ( S. 11. Betts, not out 3 Extras ’. . 4 f Total for six wickets 162 t Bowling Analysis. one for 63: < Watts, three for 53; Wilson, two for 41.