Cricket 1913

728 CRICKET : A W EEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. December 17 , 19 13 . Mr. R. B. W yly is now Secretary to the Sydney C ricket G round T ru stees, succeeding- Mr. S. H. F airlan d , who held the post for 25 years. T h ere were over a hundred appli­ can ts, and Mr. W. W. H ill, Secretary to the N .S.W . R u gb y U nion was third in the votin g. M any people would have rejoiced had he been first, for his ’-■opularity is great. Mr. W. P. M cE lhone, the strong: man (not the only strong: man, of course) of the B oard of C ontrol, and Mr. P. K. Bowden (Secretary to the N .S .W . C rick et A ssociation) have lately returned to S yd n ey after a three m onths’ trip in the E ast. Bowden is a brother of the late M. P. Bowden 01 Surrey, dashing- hitter and fine w icket-keeper, who died in S outh A frica some tw en ty years ago. D r. L . O. S. Poidevin, of London County and Lan cash ire fam e, is practising: his profession at M osm an, a ten m inutes’ trip across the harbour from Sydney. He recen tly enter­ tained the B ritish Isles lawn tennis team at an afternoon. T h e N .S.W . C ricket A ssociation , alw ays a n rogressive body, has taken country cricket in hand this season to a g rea te r extent than ever before. It has not been neglected during- recent years. T h e old plan of b rin g in g the pick of the country p layers in to show their paces in a m atch or two in Sydney was discarded for the far better one of sendin g first grad e Sydney team s to play in the country towns, thus helping: to educate scores in each nlace instead of the few p icked players. N ow the A ssociation has grouped the country districts, and a com prehensive schem e for matches among: the various grou p s is b ein g fixed up. A well- inform ed correspondent says of this that he regard s it as the beginning- of county cricket in A ustralia. O f course, as he says N ew South W ales is a trem endous State, sparsely populated for the m ost part, and it is a fact that many country players travel anything- from 10 to 40 m iles each week-end to play in matches. But he looks forw ard to the tim e when the ponulation w ill be thicker, and the district m atches w ill assum e grea ter importance. C oun try players of the p ast include such as the m ig h ty Bonnor, T u rn er the T error, M cK ibbin, and E vans; and if there are more of this ty p e about they w ill be worth taking- pains to discover and develop when discovered. T H E M .C .C . T O U R IN S O U T H A F R IC A . S pecial I m p re s s io n s of th e O p e n in g G am e— C a n d id a te s for th e S o u th A frican T e a m — T h e V isito rs critically co n ­ s id e re d . B y f £ ( c AP e T o w n ). I f there was one thing- upon which all critics were agreed when the composition of the M .C .C . T eam was announced, it w as that South A frica “ hadn ’t a ho p e,” and a fortiori, that the Western Province, which had been annihilated by the last two E n g lish team s v isitin g South A frica , would do w ell if it avoided an inning's’ defeat. Poor old c r itic s ! . . . . Western P rovince 376; M .C .C . 199, and, follow ­ ing- on, 330! In regard to the second inning's of the M .C .C ., let it be said at once th at th ey would probably have made more runs had it been n ecessary; for B ird and W oolley threw aw ay their w ickets in “ having- a g o ” when a draw had become the only possible result. T h a t this was a very fine effort on the part of the P rovince is certain. A t the same tim e, as an index to the prospects of the tour the gam e must not be taken too seriously. C rick et in the W estern Province, esp ecially the b a ttin g , has been steadily improving: du rin g the la st three y ears, th ou gh many peonle m ay have failed to realise this. B ut there were other factors. T h e lu ck of the gam e, notably the w in n ing of the toss, went to the home team. T h en , too, the M .C .C . team as a whole and individually had not settled down to the new conditions, and, most important of all, B arn es was not p la yin g . A point w orthy of note is the fact that the P ro­ vin ce relied on four bow lers, the fastest of whom cannot be called even fast-m edium . T h is is easily explained. T h e N ew lands w icket, which is m attin g on g ra ss, was still on the slow side, and u n likely to suit a bow ler of pace, while in addition no fast bow ler had been d isp layin g p articularly go od form. T h e p olicy was justified not only b y the suc­ cess of the four bow lers referred to, but further by the failu re of Booth and D o u gla s to take a w icket. Booth hardly worried the batsm en at all. He w ill be better suited by the hard up-country w ickets, where he will m ake the ball bump. W oolley, for some reason or other, ga ve no trouble either. Hearne, on the other hand, puzzled the batsmen a grea t deal. He turned very sharply from le g and “ m ixed them up ” well. A s a batsm an, too, Hearne qu ickly estab­ lished him self as second only to Hobbs. R elf looks like b ein g the “ stock ” bow ler of the side. He m aintained a perfect length , and any attempt to tak e liberties w ith him soon proved fatal. Mead was not a su ccess with the bat; but he w ill no doubt soon adapt him self to the new condi­ tions. W ith T ennyson I confess to b ein g disappointed. He did not shape well, and his style m akes one doubtful of his success on m atting w ickets a gain st bow lin g th at turns. Hobbs emphasized his fondness for the N ew iands ground, and is more firm ly than ever established as the idol of the crowd. D ou glas in the second in n in gs played exactly the right gam e for his side, and helped to put all chance of defeat out of the question. A s to the Province team (which contained only one man, Comm aille, who has played for South A frica) the stand of Lew is (151) and C onry (53), who put on 191 for the fifth w icket, was a most con vin cing effort. Lew'is, who was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (1903-6), played him self righ t into the South A frican side. He is a free bat w ith tre­ mendous d rivin g power, who appears to treat all bow lin g ligh tly; he is also a brillian t “ cover.” Conry, one of the most level-headed of cricketers and an excellent captain, is rather an “ old-stager,” and is not likely to allow him self to be considered for the T ests. P. A. M. Hands and G. Hearne are the other two Province batsm en lik ely to find a place in the South A frican side. H ands is the soundest bat in the Province and is likely to g o far, while H earne is full of dash and good strokes, but needs to sober down a bit. O f the bow lers B lan cken berg, B udgen , and M ars will have to be considered for the T ests, but only the first-nam ed is likely to be chosen. B lacken b erg, quite a youth, is a cricketer of great prom ise. A s a bow ler he is right-hand slow-medium , and he turns them both w ays w ith little apparent change of action. He is an excellent field, and as a batsm an is com in g on rapidly. B udgen is a little faster than B lan cken berg, and relies almost entirely on a qu ick-tu rn ing off-break. He is supoosed not to be so well suited to hard w ickets: his T est match chances are there­ fore somewhat discounted. M ars is a slow left-hander who can kee^ an excellent length , but is not lik ely to g e t m any w ickets in the best company. Most of the W estern Pro­ vince team w ill have played for the C ane Province v. the M .C .C ., before this is in print, and w ill have furthered or lessened their chances of inclusion in the T ests. T h e field ing of the M .C .C . team w as, with one exception, an object-lesson to the hundreds of schoolbovs who watched the gam e. Hobbs secured his usual victim from cover. Strudw ick made a wonderful catch on the le g side off R elf, and kep t the spectators amused b y h is enterprise and alertness. BLANCO For Cleaning and Whitening White Buckskin and Canvas Shoes, Cricket Pads, and all other articles of a similar nature. I t is p r e p a r e d In a v e r y c a r e f u l m a n n e r , a n d e x t r a p r e c a u t i o n s a r e t a k e n t o e n s u r e a n e v e n n e s s o f c o lo u r . 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