1939-02-08 — Page 22

THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 8, 1939.

CRICKET AT

AT ITS BEST

Those scoffers who are inclined to designate cricket as a game fit for old men and girls should have been present at King's Park on Saturday and watched the match. between Club de Recreio and Indian Recreation, the most important of last week's cricket programme.

I have seldom if ever seen spectators worked up to such a pitch of excitement as in the con- cluding stages of this game when a result one way or the other would not have occasioned any surprise.

Although Recreio went so near to accomplishing the task of beating I.R.C., a feat only rarely performed in the past half-dozen seasons, I really felt that if any decision had been arrived at, I.R.C. should have got it.,

By that I do not mean to depre- cate Recreio's undoubtedly fine dis- play. Nevertheless, it must be re- had first use of a wicket that was always tricky; that IRC. batted in foul light in the closing stages; that they also made a gallant attempt to get the runs despite a perfectly wretched start, and lost most of their latter wickets in the process.

membered that Recreio

Opportunity Missed

When I.R.C. wickets did begin to topple fast in the last 20 min- utes, however, Recreio. missed a glorious opportunity of forcing a result. Minu was hitting hard and Kitchell, having performed all that was required of him in retrieving the bad start, was scoring fairly steadily, when Silva, fielding in the gully, put down one of the most ridiculously simple catches I have ever seen dropped. Everyone gaped

in astonishment!

It is incidents like this that lose games. A few moments later, Eddie Gosano, who had earlier taken a brilliant catch low down near the pavilion screen to

dismiss A. H.

|

Madar, got to a skier hit by Minu but dropped it. Still later, L. G. Gosano again dropped Minu and it seemed at this stage that Recreio would not be able to hold anything, however simple.

!

However, Soares held a couple of catches to put out Kitchell and M. el Arculli and L. G. Gosano re- deemed himself by holding, off Minu, a similar catch to the one he had dropped, and I.R.C., with only one wickets then to go, were com- pelled to shut up shop.

That Last Over

I shall never forget that last over

SEEN AT

KING'S PARK

Gosano hitting one six and Soares Teddy Fincher had been run out- two, one of which all but cleared he wouldn't run when Anderson the pavilion.

called what appeared to be a safe | one—and Anderson had been caught where he usually is caught, Broadbridge and Burnett carried the score along sufficiently to en- able the hitters to have a bang to- wards 4 o'clock..

A. H. Madar, bowled very con- sistently and thoroughly deserved his 6 for 89.

Baker's Influence

I was not at all surprised at

beating Craigen-| Civil Service gower. The return of Baker, as I anticipated, has made a world of difference to a side which on paper, looked capable of better things than they have accomplished,

Nevertheless, set with the sim-

to be rewarded.

as long as I live! The whole Re-ple task of scoring 67 runs for a win, they almost failed and Baker creid field was on its toeg and

and Lawrence made a few runs near crowded in ready to snap up any the end to just enable the very thing. Eddie Gosano was bowling fine job of dismissing C.C.C. for 66 and Minu was hitting! He was caught off the fourth ball but the batsmen had crossed, and joined by the last man, M. P. Madar, who was the best man IRC. could have had at the time to face the crisis, successfully survived two balls al- though there was a terrific appeal for 1.b.w., off the last ball.

The field walked off and specta- tors were still speculating on the result of the appeal whilst they were on their way in. It was then learned that the umpire--what an unenviable position he was in-had of the batsman, ruled in favour

BY "ADREM"

|

Navy's fielding was generally good, Holdsworth being brilliant at cover, and, although quite a lot. of singles were let through by the in-fielders, the field, was extraor- dinarily well-placed and fours were most difficult to obtain.

There is little that can be said about Navy's innings.. Booth, an awkward bat but a most difficult man to dislodge, displayed an im- maculately straight bat to anything straight and waited for the short ones to hook. He was the only man who stayed any length of time and was a trifle unfortunate to be beat- en by a good ball from Lee for 1.b.w. Lee bowled reasonably well, swerving a lot and not bowling very much loose stuff. I still feel, however, that he would meet with far more success if he bowled more on the off, swinging away into slips, instead of attacking the

I am told that despite his re- markable analysis, 10-5-7-4, Baker was not nearly as good as one would have thought. Craigen-stumps all the time. gower batsmen got themselves out and thus placed themselves definite- ly out of the races for honours.

Only Archie Zimmern managed quite rightly to from what I saw to make any runs and he got 23.

The ball would probably | Rapley made 10 and A. K. Ismail and Whitmarsh before they had a have cleared the sticks,

of it.

For Recreio, L. G. Gosano, who, promoted from the junior team this year, is rapidly assuming the res- ponsibility of being the team's most consistent batsman, E. L. Gosano and E. M. L. Soares, scored the bulk of the 111 runs the innings realised. The two latter hit very hard when the opportunities arose,

Williams & Humberts

World Famed

DRY SACK SHERRY

Makes a perfect appetiser

or

a perfect ending to any meal

CALDBECK'S

17. I have never been able to find out why the latter always goes in so late. Possibly it is to stiffen up the tail. In

any event, he has saved the side on innumerable oc- casions and I feel that promotion in the batting-order might mean a crop of runs from this batsman who has a very fine defence and an ade- quacy of scoring strokes.

Consistent Batting

Over at Kowloon, K.C.C. once more demonstrated their potentia- lities. The most pleasing feature of their batting this year has been its consistency. In their three Lea- gue games to date, they have top- ped 160 on each occasion without the whole side being dismissed and the highest individual score so far has been Anderson's 40. against Army. Against Craigengower, Git- tina'. 27. was top-score, while on Saturday, Mackay headed the bats- men with 29.

+

Goodwin Proved Goodwin proved himself as an opening bowler and did a good job of work when he dismissed Fuller

chance of settling down. He was inclined to put up some very loose stuff on the leg later on, however, and might have usefully come off about three overs sooner.

CRICKET ∙AVERAGES TO-MORROW

League cricket averages for both First and Second Divi- sions will be published in all issues of the "China Mail” to- morrow.

Lloyd did well to take 8 for 7 in two overs as first change, and definitely does appear better as a change rather than an opening bowler.

It cannot be said, that Navy's bowling was very formidable, how- Most pleasing feature of this in- ever. Paxton, on a turf wicket, isnings from the K.C.C. point of view, not half the man he is on matting, was the fielding. Four catches were He does not come off 80 fast put up, none of them particularly and back play against him is as safe as houses.

easy, and all were held. Broad- bridge took a nice one in the slips Of the other bowlers, Whitmarsh and so did Teddy Fincher, while was definitely good. This fine cric- spécial mention muct be made of keter évidently makes it a practice George White's usual catch, this of studying the batsmen, finds time a well-judged one at deep their weaknesses and capitalises | mid-on. on them. He noticed, for instance, John Pearce's Day that Mackay was reaching for the

Club secured three points at the ball just short of a length outside.

expense of Army but they cannot the off stump. The result was just be said to have covered themselves such a ball turning away and ain glory in the process: Fortunate catch in the gully in his first overly for them. John Pearce was in ex- He was always difficult to score cellent form both with bat and ball off and had he been used earlier and, thanks mainly to his efforts, on, K.C.C. might well have been they just managed to do the trick pegged down to such an extent that with a bare two wickets to spare. they would later have lost wickets in an effort to get sufficient runs to to Pearce was Major Murray, who - Only Army, batsman to stand up enable them to declare in good time. followed up a useful innings Navy's Fielding Good against Kowloon the previous week Kowloon's batting was very by making 31. strong in the middle and after

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