Cricket 1913

1 1 0 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r i l 19, 1913. piling up. B u t men who deal unmercifully with medi­ ocre bowling sometimes crumple up when they meet the real stuff. The Durban grounds are the most difficult in S.A. to score upon ; and I suspect that Cox, Carter, Nourse, Tuckett, Logan, Easterbrook, and a few others represent a higher class of bowling than is to be found under the shadow of Table Mountain. 1 shall be one of the most surprised men in S.A. if the Province beat Natal ! During the last few weeks only four matches have been completed in Cape Town. On February 22 and March 1 Cape Town beat S.A. College by 9 wickets. O f the 182 made b y S.A.C. in their first innings the last four wickets accounted for 143 (Steyn 73). Cape Town replied with 284 (M. Commaille 74, A. Blanckenberg 58, G. Hearne 55). The College’ s second innings only reached 152. In their first Blanckenberg had 5 for 32. On the other ground at Newlands Western Province (204 and 198 for 5) beat Claremont (123 and 131) b y 148 runs. For the winners A. V. C. Bisset scored 53 and 96, and P. T. Lewis 60. De Sm idt had 7 for 53 in Clare­ mont’ s first. For the losers R. Smith bowled well— 6 for 62 and 5 for 62. an object lesson for the selectors. Thompson bowled himself to a standstill with little success; Le Roux, after performing sensationally, took himself off directly the batsmen began to get the middle of their weapons to him. Both sides had plenty of bowlers, which renders Thompson’ s tactics all the less excusable. Town, batting first, made 257. Rolland Beaumont started patchily, but improved later, and made 1 1 1 * w ith only one chance. M. J. Susskind scored 39. Reef opened disastrously. Le Roux had 5 of their first 6 w ickets at a cost of only 10 runs, the total at the fall of the sixth wicket being only 16. He finished up with 5 for 22, and the innings closed for 75. The ball w ith which he j bowled A. V. Thompson sent the off stump flying to the feet of Moses, standing deep at first slip. It cart­ wheeled twice before coming to rest. I have never seen a stumj) travel so far, and it is a pity the distance was not paced out. It must have been well over 10 yards. By the way, Moses is earning quite a name as a slip fieldsman. He is neatness personified, and undoubtedly the best in the Transvaal. C y p h e r . Cricket in Natal. On March 8 three matches were commenced ; but owing to the Province players having to leave for Natal only two were completed on the following Saturday. The unfinished game was that between Western Province (241— R. A.. M. Hands 58) and Alma (85 for 4). For Alma F. Bond took 6 for 94. Cape Town (227— M. Commaille 61, G. Hearne 80 unfinished— and 41 for o) beat Green Point (173 and 93) b y 10 wickets. J. Middleton, the old S.A. left-hand bowler, took 5 for 55 in Green Point’ s second. S.A.C. made a fine recovery in their match against Claremont, winning b y a wicket after their opponents had declared their first innings. The scores w e re : Claremont, 285 for 5 (R. Purcell 115, A. E . R. Wood 105*) and 82 ; S.A.C., 174 and 194 for 9 (De Villiers 8o)-. The victory was somewhat dis­ counted by the absence of Carstens and Smith, on their way to Durban ; bu t it must have been welcome, for it was the College’ s first for two seasons in the League. Durban, March 16, 1913. Weather ! Since the last day of February we have had only two fine days. Practically a fortnight’s incessant rain, with ruin of crops, railway washaways, accidents through floods, and loss of life and property. In such circumstances cricket is a minor matter ; but one must chronicle the fact that the game in Durban has been off entirely for the last fortnight. Maritzburg has been more fortunate, the rains being heaviest on the coast; and the Senior League contests in the capital were concluded on March 8, when the Maritzburg C.C. defeated Standard by 54 runs on the first innings, and won the championship, as they did in 1911-2. On the preceding Saturday Standard and Zingari tied on the first innings. This was reckoned as a draw, and ignored for point-scoring purposes. My view is that the clubs should have shared points. Luckily, the matter did not affect the order of precedence. The final table is Let us go back to Transvaal cricket. Pretoria, as generally expected, won easily against East Rand Union yesterday. They were expected to win, I say— bu t scarcely in such hollow fashion. Batting first, they scored 266 (R. K . Anderson 61, A. E . Cooke 51). Then 19 overs sufficed to put out E .R .U . for 36. The losers were w ithout R. A. Thompson and A. G. Penny, who were assisting the Reef team against the Town. Pretoria and E .R .P.M ., having tied for first place, will have to play a deciding match for the Cup. Maritzburg 6 Standard ... 5 Zingari ... 5 VV. on L. on W. 1st Inn. 1st Inn. L. D. Points. Percent- Poss. Obtd. age. 25 13 52-00 20 7 35*00 15 5 33-33 Five points for a w in ; three for winners and one for losers in matches decided on the first innings ; drawn games ignored. The Standard v. Zingari match set for decision on December 21 and January 4 was not played. Atfield, the old W ilts cricketer, who has been doing fine coaching work here for some seasons past, had no luck at all in his benefit match, Town v. Reef. Rain prevented any play on Saturday ; and on Sunday gate- money cannot be charged, so that he had to rely en­ tirely upon subscriptions and collections. There was a full and fairly interesting d ay’ s play on Sunday. We saw in opposition a man who has captained the Trans­ vaal this year, R . A. Thompson, and the man who ought to have captained the team, F. Le Roux. It was E. A. Arbuthnot made 102 in the Standard v. Zingari match, and for Zingari V. J. Forder scored 87. There were three 50’s in the Maritzburg v. Standard match, one in each innings, H. F. Dowling 50 in Standard’s first, D. K. Pearse 54 in the second, and G. D. Shaw go for the winners. C. O. C. Pearse heads the leading club’s batting averages, with 49-75 (199 in 6 innings, 2 not out) ; G. H. Cook (25’57) and V. G. Pearse (24-66) are the only others over 20. V. G. Pearse (16 wickets at 13-25 each), G. C. Anderson (17 at 15-64), and A. Hair (15 at 20-00) _did most of the bowling. The leading Standard batsmen were E. A. Arbuthnot (234 in 6 innings, 2 not out, average 58-50), D. K. Pearse (34-60), E. D. McMillan (25 00), and H. F. Dowling (22-66). S. F. Harrison (16 at 11-56 each) alone took more than 10 wickets. V. J. Forder (201 in 5 innings.