Cricket 1914

M a r ch , 1914. THE WORLD OF CRICKET. 53 The bowlers have had their turn in some of the Australian capitals, though scoring has been ruling fairly high on the whole. In Western Australia, where there seems to be a decided lowering of the batting standard lately, performances of note have been recorded by W. Jones (9 for 41 in an innings, Y.M .C.A. v. North Fremantle), Lu ly (6 for 17, North Fremantle No. 2 v. South Fremantle), A. Banks (5 for 22, North Fremantle v. Y.M .C.A.), R. Selk (7 for 19, Claremont v. Midland Junction). Heath (7 for 20, East Perth B . v. West Perth B.), W . Hughes (5 for 28, North Perth v. West Perth), Stevenson (6 for 34, West Perth v. North Perth), P. R. Le Couteur (8 to 21, Univer­ sity v. E ast Perth), and E. Jones (7 for 11, Lumpers v. South Fremantle). In the last mentioned English readers will recognise old friends. P. R. Le Couteur is the brilliant all-round Oxonian of a few years ago, now a professor at Perth University. Ernest Jones, though he has put on flesh, and cannot wheel them up as fast as he did in the far-away days of 1896, can still get among the sticks, it seems. W ith this sort of thing going on, it is scarcely surprising that 50’s in Westralian cricket are scarcely more numerous than centuries in the eastern states. E. Ewers is South Australia’s champion baseball pitcher. In spite of all we have heard about the superiority of baseball to cricket, Ewers condescends to play the latter terribly out-of- date game. He is a member of the Freemason Ramblers C.C. at Adelaide, and in January took his thousandth wicket for the Club. These have cost him rather less than 11 runs each, and have been taken in the course of about 13 seasons ; he began to play in 1900-1. Twice he has taken over 100 wickets in a season. Up to the end of January C. J. Tozer, of Sydney University, had scored 598 in 6 completed innings, including 164*, 126, 119, and 98. He was not available for the inter-state games, or would almost certainly have been selected. SOUTH AFR ICA . R. H. M. Hands, who figured in the fifth test, has been going very strongly in Cape Town cricket of late. He followed up his innings of 155* v. Claremont with one of 182 v. Green Point. On the first Saturday he was 47*, and the bulk of his runs were thus made on the second day, when the heat was intense. He hit 4 sixes and 20 fours, but was badly missed at least once. In successive matches his club, Western Province, declared their innings and won easily, making 303 for 5 v. Claremont, whom they beat by 10 wickets, and 368 for 9 v. Green Point, who went under in an innings with runs to spare. F. D. Conrv scored 70 in Green Point's first of 165. In the Claremont match C. Minaar took 5 for 38 in the first innings, C. Jackson 6 for 19 in the second : against Green Point Minaar had 10 for 68 in the match. These performances took him into the Western Province team v. M.C.C., and he did himself credit on his first appearance in big cricket. F. Bond’s 11 for 83 wras largely instrumental in Alm a’s defeat of Green Point on January 24. Cape Town beat Claremont by an innings and 8 on February 7, R. R. Luyt, the Western Province wicket-keeper, making 84, and W. H. Short (8 for 56), and J. Whitehead (8 for 93) bowling well for the winners. Blanckenberg was not given much work at the crease, but took 3 for 8 in Claremont’s first. Similar one-sided games have been seen in Maritzburg, where on January 24 the Standard team beat the Maritzburg side, almost invincible last season, by an innings and 50, L. Randles taking 6 for 13 in the losers’ second. Zingari defeated Royals bv an innings and 15, Worthington talcing 5 for 26 when the Royals batted a second time. It was through getting sunburned feet that S. V. Samuelson, the Maritzburg googly bowler, could not play for Natal. The same thing happened to Buckenham, when the last M.C.C. team was in South Africa, it is said. Boating in Durban Har­ bour, he dangled his feet in the water, and when told that he would get them sunburned, replied that if his face could stand that he supposed his feet could. But he found that sunburned feet were no joke. There was more excuse for him than for Samuelson, who has lived all his life in South Africa, and should have known better, they say. Up to February 7, in the League games, a special practice game, and the two inter-towrn matches, Nourse had an average °f 94 ' 5 ° (though only for 6 innings, 2 not out) in Durban cricket, John Gunn coming second with 56*33 (507 runs), H. W . laylor third with 45*37, and K . O. Siedle fourth with 36-20. C. P. Carter (48 at 13-39 each), K. O. Siedle (45 at 11-57), and J. \\ . Easterbrook (40 at 10-52) had taken most wickets. His club, Escombes, will miss Siedle, who has gone on a tour with a younger brother to India and Ceylon. F. J. Siedle, one of the most brilliant batsmen in the spicy island, is a cousin of the Durban Siedles, the marriage of another of whom, Basil, was announced as shortly to take place. In Maritzburg cricket up to the date mentioned above, D. K. Pearse headed the batting averages with a total of 512 at (>4 per innings, T. H. Worthington (43*75) , E- D* McMillan (43-25). E. Arbuthnot (37*37), and C. O. C. Pearse (30-23) following. A. Hair (30 at 10-92 each) had the biggest bag of wickets. J. Beningfield, regarded as one of the most promising cricketers in Natal, is not likely (unless his plans are changed) to attain international honours, for he is leaving Durban for a farm on the Transvaal border, where he will scarcely get much cricket. Just too late for inclusion in the last issue came a budget of news as to Border cricket. In December the Buffalos of East London at home beat the Pirates (King W7illiamstown) by 100 runs. C. Bryce made a brilliant century for the winners. For the Bohemians (East London) v. the Alberts (King W illiams­ town) R. Cheshire, who figured in one of the Border elevens v. M.C.C., played good all-round cricket, getting a half-century and bowling effectively. This youngster is said to be likely to go far. He is tall— well over 6 ft.— and might some day develop into a second James Sinclair. He used to bowl slows, but has lately increased his pace, and bids fair to make a fast bowler of ability. And he is no end keen. We ought to hear moie of Cheshire, though Border cricket does not get much of the lime­ light. In the Border League’s second round Bohemians (332) de­ feated Buffalos (223). For the winners Phillips, who has played for Hampshire, made 80, and the skipper, Mullen, nearing the veteran stage now, 50. T. Cumming scored 106 for the losers— a good forcing innings. This is another youngster of promise. Dante Parkin made 45 for the Buffalos. There cannot be many older men playing cricket in South Africa than D. C. Parkin. He represented Eastern Province in the days when the Border did not exist as a cricket division of the Cape Colony, and later played for the Transvaal against an English team. He was over here w ith the first South African team in 1894, and had had some years’ experience as a repre­ sentative cricketer even then. But he can still bowl a good length ball and make runs in style. NEW ZEALAND . Victoria College, Wellington, beat Canterbury College, Christ­ church, in January, bv 9 wickets, scoring 306 and 98 for 1 (Griffiths 62 and 43*) to 115 and 287 (Hollis 70). Dempsey took 7 for 43 in the losers’ first innings. Centuries were pretty frequent during January. The list includes :— Jan. 10.—W. Brooke-Smith, 106*, Eden A v. University (Auck­ land.) „ 10.— D. Donoghue, 134, Petone v. Old Boys (Wellington). ,, 10.— E. W. Smyrk, 103, Petone v. Old Boys. ,, 17.— H. A. Bishop, 107, St. Albans v. Linwood (Christchurch). „ 24.— J. G. Kinvig, 102*, Central v. Old Boys (Wellington). „ 24.— W. Higgins, 162*, Opoho v. Albion (Dunedin). ,, 24.— W\ R. L. Gibbes, 100*, East A v. Hutt (Wellington). ,, 24.— C. Moller, 121, Waitemata v. Parnell (Auckland). „ 24.— C. Sneddon, 136, Ponsonby v. Eden A (Auckland). RICHARD DAFT’S NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MARL. — Par­ ticulars, apply Radcliffe-on-Trent, Notts.