Cricket 1914

146 THE WORLD OF CRICKET. M a y 16, 1914. Overseas C r ic k e t C h a t . AU STRAL IA . Three left-handers were conspicuous in Adelaide club cricket on March 28— W. J. W hitty with 5 for 30 (E. Torrens v. Glenelg), S. H. Clutterbuck with 7 for 35 (N. Adelaide v. Port Adelaide), and J. F. Travers w ith 4 for 16 (Adelaide v. Sturt). The three might almost be said to represent past, present, and future, for Travers was one of the state’s mainstays in the latter days of George Giffen, John Lyons, and A. H. Jarvis ; W hitty may well stand for the present; and Clutterbuck, though he did nothing in his one trial this season, is thought to be a coming man. There was some gay batting in Western Australia on April 4. South Fremantle went under for 18 (no double figure score) before East Fremantle, and Fremantle (four men absent, no double figure) succumbed to Lumpers for 28. On the same day A. Halliday hit up 107 in 75 minutes for North Perth v. Claremont. A t Adelaide H. B. Willsmore scored 119 for University v. West Torrens, and G. S. Down 115* for Adelaide v. Sturt. A t Melbourne F. Baring made 146 for East Melbourne v. South Melbourne. In the Melbourne pennant matches the four teams left to fight out the semi-finals were East Melbourne, South Melbourne, North Melbourne, and St. Kilda. The matches began on March 28, when wickets were sodden. East Melbourne were all out for 92 (J. A. Seitz, the Oxford Rhodes Scholar of a few years ago, 39*) v. South. South replied with 68 (L. M. R. Deas 24). For South the veteran J. F. Giller took 6 for 49 ; for East L. Braid (4 f° r 3 2) and T. J. Matthews (4 for 6) shared the bowling honours. The result is not yet to hand, though Baring's century for East was spotted in a Westralian paper, which always reaches us long before the Melbourne or Sydney sheets. North Melbourne made 136 v. St. Kilda. J. H. Stuckey, like Giller, one of the Old Brigade, scored 46 of these St. Kilda lost 3 for 19 by call of time. A t the end of Northcote’s last match Robert Mitchell, their skipper, announced his retirement. He has played first-grade cricket for over 30 years, and it is more than a quarter of a century ago (1887-8) since he first represented Victoria. Formerly he played for Fitzroy, and some 14 years ago he and Frank Tarrant for that club put out Carlton (who once ran up a score of 920) for 13. Mitchell took 6 for 2, Tarrant 4 for 5. Western Australia has now been granted representation on the Australian Board of Cricket Control. N EW ZEALAND . Sydenham, by defeating Riccarton in the last round on March 28, won the Christchurch senior championship. A t Dunedin Grange finished at the head of affairs, beating Opoho in the last match. W. A. Baker and W . R. L. Gibbes three times during the season sent up 100 before the first wicket of Wellington East A fell, the last occasion being on March 28, when they scored 112 together v. Old Boys. Baker made 78, Gibbes 41. Hiddleston’s 91 for North Wellington v. Petone was the biggest score of the day. The Australian Team presented Mr. F. C. Raphael, secretary to the New Zealand Cricket Council, with a magnificent silver rose- bowl as a token of their appreciation of the many kindnesses the team had received a t his hands. No one has worked harder in the cause of New Zealand cricket than " Tim ” Raphael. He has his enemies ; but even they admit his enthusiasm and capacity for hard graft— Australian “ graft,” not American. Curious th at the word should have such very different meanings in Australia and America— a honourable one in the Southern Continent, quite otherwise in the Northern one. The Auckland C.A. have acquired Eden Park. This will give the association a chance to improve pitches. As long as big matches are played on a public ground— as is still the case at Wellington— anything like perfection in this respect cannot be hoped for. Wellington possesses a young player who should be worth keeping an eye— or two or more— on. For the Star C.C., a junior team, this youngster, E. Christopherson, took all 10 wickets, and all clean bowled, v. Wanderers on February 21, and on March 21 and 28 he made 183 against St. Annes. He is right-handed both in batting and bowling, and sends down a medium-pace ball with some off break. Hiddleston took 5 for 17 for North Wellington v. East Welling­ ton B on March 14. On the Hagley Park ground at Christchurch on March 7,. a rabbit (four-legged variety) made for the western side, having entered by the eastern gate, was chased by a few dozen players, and ultimately caught by one, who took it to the fence and dropped it gently over. The chasing seems to have been much ado about nothing, to go by its result. " Long Slip ” of the Otago Witness says that he left one man happy during the match at Dunedin between the Australians and New Zealand. That man had been allowed to shake hands with Victor Trumper ! The same writer follows up remarks upon the said match with this par. : “ As regards personal appearance they have not the physique of the English eleven who were in New Zealand last year, but they are a wiry l o t ; they are very agreeable and gentlemanly in manners, a point all the more noticeable in that the Englishmen were just the reverse.” This gave one quite a shock. Hurriedly read, the “ last year ’’ (it is seven years since an English team visited New Zealand)* passed unnoticed ; and one wondered what Simpson-Hayward, Douglas, Branston, Page, and the rest of them could possibly have done to leave behind the impression of bad manners, and how, as compared with them, Armstrong, Laver, Noble, & Co. could be said to be lacking in physique, but wiry ! But it turned out that the paragraph, quoted without intro­ duction, was comparing David Gregory’s Australian Team (1878) with Lillywhite’s professional English Team (1877). One ought to have tumbled sooner, perhaps ; " agreeable and gentle­ manly ’’ has a distinctly Victorian flavour. From the Dominion (Wellington)— “ Growing tiresome- The Australians are reported to have said that Lancaster Park was the best ground they had struck ; then it was Temuka \ then Dunedin; later still, Invercargill. So far, however, the visitors have remained silent regarding Puysegur Point, Dog Island, the Snares, and Paekakariki.” (Also concerning Basin Reserve, Wellington— at any ra te , in this connection !— J.N.P.) CEYLON . V. F. S. Crawford’s opportunities for playing cricket are likely to be limited in future. He is taking charge of a rubber plantation at Kegalle—• “ a most impossible district,” as a correspondent describes it— and if he plays at all it must be at Kandy, not Colombo, while he will scarcely be able to get practice. E. J. Melder scored 156 for Colombo Y.M .C.A. v. Matale Y.M .C.A. in April. This young batsman made a heap of runs last year, but this is his biggest innings so far. For Dimbula (99 and 191) v. Sinhalese Sports Club on April 16, W. S. Halliley scored 57 and 45, and he and G. D. Brown (2 and 53) did far more than their share of their side’s work. The Sinhalese side won by 7 wickets, thanks mainly to the brothers De Saram. E. R. De Saram made 81, F. De Saram 87, and they added T62 while together. E. R. also took 7 wickets for 85 in the match. Barbados cricketers will be interested to learn th at T. W. Roberts, an old island player, still keeps up the game in the spicy isle. He scored 68* for Colombo Sports Club v. Bloomfield on April 17.