What Happens on a Cricket Tour

The Christmas holidays again found the Varsity Cricket XI. on lour, and, although no game was won, the team only sustained one defeat, "a sensational victory." as the Wanganui public acclaimed a local win,—" d . . . . able umpiring." as our team legitimately complained. Wanganui papers please copy.

Our second mode of conveyance, an old Auburn Beauty Six, belied her appearance of comfort and failed signally in various parts of her mechanism. "Big end" troubles caused many an anxious moment and as big ends seem scarce in Wanganui, an accident nearby nearly caused a marathon walking exhibition from there to Palmerston.

Combined with the technical defects of the bus. page 3 the erratic driving of the skipper on most occasions when he took the wheel after a hot day made conditions in the Auburn much like a Death Trap. On one occasion after the lights had failed to show up the road, our driver fell into a trance and whilst In that condition deemed it advisable to follow the telegraph poles. Unfortunately his meritorious plan was instantly doomed to failure as the poles near Waitotara forsake the road and go over some hills. The equilibrium of the party was considerably upset as was also the luggage packed in the car. Apart from destroying the native flora decorating the ditch, however, no casualty was reported when the roll was called. Not satisfied, apparently, with the mischief already done the culprit of the ditching episode ignored all advice from the back seat regarding the orthodox negotiation of dangerous corners, and had the occupants of the car in a state of nervous wrecks when Hawera was reached. On disembarking the party responsible for the trouble was found to be very incoherent in his speech and unsteady on his feet, a fact attributed to the hot sun. We batted one short next day.

The team Improved vastly without the services of the skipper and rattled on 326 for seven wickets against South Taranaki. Gin Blandford had not yet recovered from his ride in the back seat the night before and forgot himself so far as to score 184, a fine attacking innings. We obtained a substantial lead, South Taranaki scoring 187, so that our tripe merchants could be experimented with in Taranaki's second innings. Some remarkable deliveries were sent down. The writer predicts that in a decade or so and with very much practice, Jack Ryan will become a regular second grade bowler, and that says a lot.

The journey to New Plymouth was uneventful and the game against North Taranaki started on December 29th. Our opponents scored 284 thanks to execrable fielding, and we replied with 299, Wilson compiling 124 and Paetz 65. After Snowy Williams had rattled 6 batsmen out for 3 runs, North Taranaki declared with 7 wickets down for 117, leaving us 50 minutes to obtain 102 runs. We failed by 3 runs to get the runs in time, although we had four wickets in hand.

The team was well treated in Taranaki. In Hawera we were guests (unofficial and unfinancial) of the Tennis Committee and in New Plymouth on New Year's Eve several enjoyed a merry party somewhere in or around the town.

Sunday was spent in a tiring journey to Palmerston and it was during this trip that our "big end" broke, a most unfortunate happening as explained before, and meaning that five members did not arrive in Palmerston until two the next morning.

We rattled on 325 against Manawatu, Paetz scoring 105 and O'Leary 70, and after dismissing our opponents for 207 and 306 for 6 wickets were set the task of obtaining 188 runs in 50 minutes, a feat well nigh impossible and certainly improbable. Living up to the Varsity tradition we gave the spectators a little excitement by staging a collapse, 7 wickets falling for 49 runs.

Few of us thought that the return trip to Wellington would take us eight and a half hours but everything posible went wrong with the Auburn and retarded her passage so much that it was 6 a.m. on January 3rd. when the Tour was officially concluded.

In conclusion mention must be made of a performance as yet unrivalled on a "Varsity tour, and one worthy of mention in Wisden's. Dennis Carey scored eight runs on the whole tour and when interviewed intimated that it occasioned him no worry in the slightest.