Cricket 1913

J an . 18, 1913. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 15 N EW ZEALAND . Thus far the weather has not favoured cricket in most parts of the Dominion. There have been blank days through rain, and sodden wickets in many places. Two veteran cricketers showed on November 2 what they could do on such pitches. For Carisbrook A v. Dunedin, S. T. Callaway (who played for N .S.W . as far back as 1888-9, and for Australia in 1891-2) took J 7 wickets for 9 ; but Alexander Downes, who has represented Otago for twenty-five years or so, beat even this, with 8 for 7 (Albion v. Grange). In Wellington matches J. P. Blacklock (64), C. G. Wilson, of Victoria, Southland, and Otago, now sole selector of Wellington teams, and likely to be forced to select himself (56), Bray, lately from Sydney (69), the veteran W. T. W ynyard (48), another veteran in ; K . H. Tucker (28 and 48, top score in each innings, for East Wellington A v. Petone), and Hutchings, still another provincial representative (45 and 42* for East j B v. South), have put up the best performances with the ) bat. Finlayson’s bowling for Petone v. East A (7 for 46 and 5 for 54) must not be overlooked. This, b y the way, was a rare well-fought match. East totalled 106 ; j Petone replied with 99. East made 139, and Petone needed 147 to win with less than two hours of the second Saturday’s play to go. Only 50 came in three-quarters of an hour. Then W. S. Brice and Finlayson got together, and the latter hit 4, 6, 6, 4 off successive balls. Good— too good to last, as it proved. He was out for 27. B u t Brice held the fort. The last man came in with 10 still needed. Brice jockeyed the overs ; scored 5 ; tried to get the rest off one big hit (time pressing), and was caught right on the boundary, a fine running catch, b y Johnson. His score was 48. Such cricket is worth going a long w ay to see, and both sides deseive eveiy credit. Wright, of the Parnell Club (Auckland), carried his bat right through the innings v. Grafton for 128. E. V. Sale, one of the province’s cracks, made 51 for North Shore v. University on November 2. A week later A. Somervell ran up 138 for Parnell v. Grafton; and G. Cummings 114 for Eden v. Ponsonby. A t Christchurch the famous bowler, J. H. (Joe) Bennett, scored the first senior century of the season — 103* for Sydenham v. Riccarton on October 19. He hit three 6’s and eleven 4’s, and gave on ly one chance. Centuries have not been much in Bennett’s line ; but he can la y on the wood to some effect when he gets going. The collegian, Loudon, carried his 277* for Christ’s College v. East Christchurch A to 298, and then got out under the impression that he had beaten (instead of just equalling) the N.Z. record score. A feature of the East v. West Christchurch match was the catch by which Tom Carlton dismissed Dan Reese. A half- v o lk y driven with tremendous force came back to the bowler about a foot off the ground, and he held it. H. W. Monaghan (a Wellington and N.Z. representative) is now playing for East, b y the way. October 26 was blank— w e t ; and November 2 was New Zealand Cup Day, and all first-grade matches were off. The Canterbury X I. played X V . Colts, for whom Goss made 59*, Bruges scoring 58, and R. G. Hickmott, the brilliant schoolboy of last season, taking 8 for 62 for the X I. Southall, a little fellow of 6ft. 5m., or thereabouts, who took i r for 127 for X V . of Traniki against the Australian team of three years ago, is now in Wellington, and is expected to do big things. Hugh B. Lusk, at his best perhaps the finest bat New 1 Zealand ever had, is still able to score runs. He made 42* at Napier on November 9. H. L. Blamires (74) and P. R. Fulton (52) were among the Hawke’s B ay representatives who did well in club games on that date. Handford, the old Notts player, is coaching at Christ’s College, Christchurch,'and says he is going to I buck up cricket there no end. He had better not improve young Loudon much, or opponents may bar him. Auckland has no English pro. this season, and Christchurch have let William Carlton return to Mel­ bourne, though his nephew, Tom, remains, playing as an amateur, however, I believe. Wellington have J. V. Saunders (Australian X I. of 1902) and Napier John Board. Gloomy reports of cricket in Westland have been made. “ Cricket on the West Coast is dead,” says one pessimist. Bu t this must be wrong. Cricket cannot die anywhere. It may be moribund for a while ; but always it rises again. CANADA . The McGill C.C. headed the Montreal and District [ Cricket League last season, winning 7 matches and I drawing one of 8 played. Their most conspicuous players were J. Horsfall (179 runs— average 29-83), R. H. Malone (172— 28-66), F. I. C. Goodman (167— 23-85), W. C. Baber (12 wickets—-average 4-50), T. Wilson | (28— 5'2i), W. L. Siddle (29— 6-13), and A. J. Burgess j (21— 6-14). Evidently McGill had a dangerous quartet ! of bowlers, and a very useful array of batsmen. Baber and Goodman are both West Indians, and the former is an old subscriber to C r ic k e t . Toronto played as many as 41 matches, winning 26, losing 11, drawing 4. They won three cups— the City League, the Albany Club, and the John Ross Robertson trophy. J. M. Laing, the crack Canadian bowler of other days, headed their batting averages (394 runs at 24-62 per innings). R. C. Reade took 48 wickets at 6-92 each, N. Seagram 61 at 6-94. Seagram was a mem­ ber of the Toronto Zingari team which visited England in 1910. A t Halifax (Nova Scotia) th a t old and powerful club, the Wanderers, had a capital season, only losing once and drawing once in 19 matches. Bu t the Wanderers must suffer from lack of strong opponents; cricket in Canada’s maritime provinces does not appear to go ahead greatly. The club coach, H. H. Leighton, had splendid batting figures— 976 runs with an average of 65-06. H. D avey made 448, and averaged just 64. Leighton also took 72 wickets at 4 runs each. I am told that in Devonshire cricket in 1911 he totalled over 2,000 runs. Against the Fenwick C.C. he and D avey put on 244 runs in partnership ; and v. H.M.S .N iobe he hit up n o in 46 minutes. The Wanderers of Winnipeg gained pride of place in that city ’s Association Championship. The Winnipeg C.C. took second position. Among the most successful players of the season were Marshall (Wanderers), w ith 270 runs in 1 1 innings (6 not out), average 54; P. Broadfoot (Wanderers), 416 runs at 46-22 per innings, highest score 99 ; W. L. Price (Wanderers), 56 wickets