TEST MATCH COMEDY

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 205, 30 September 1929, Page 8

TEST MATCH COMEDY

STUMPS AS SOUVENIRS. NEW ZEALANDER'S TROPHY. SECURES AUTOGRAPHED BAT. LONDON, Aug. 23. At tbe conclusion of tlie last test cricket niatch at tlie Oval, on August 20, the South Africans made a rush to becomo possessed of single stumps as souvenirs. Mr Clyde Foster, who was present, writes in the Eveuing Standard, — This was a thing I had never witnessed before. It took the crowd aback to see sucli levity in the st-ately. national garne. But there was much more to come. "We — want — Deane!" shouted the British public when tlie popular South African captain liad disnppeared with his men inside tlie pavilion. "Oue— two — three! We — want — Deane — Deane!" Tlie captain courageously stepped out on tlie framework of the awning and addressed the crowd, and I heard great point made of tlie kindness tliat had been shown to him and his men during their wonderful tour of the English counties. When ihe "Deane din" had quietened. came "Carr — Carr— Carr! We —want Carr!" The English captain, dressed in lhufti, briefly addressed the crowd, and I heard this: "You liave to-dav seen tlie most brilliant fielding in your lives." That sentiment was declaimed with a tliunderclap of applause. , Theii came what nohodv anticipated. Mr Dean reappeaved with a small wlnte crieket bat in his liand. What it meant lic soon let us know. Before flinging tlie hat upon the uplifted heads below, lie shouted : "Here is a souvenir for you. Wlioever catches the hat can have it." As the symlipl of ericket hurtled through the air there was a. grand struggle to catch it, and holrl it until it seemed as though the handle might be sundered from the blade. "Fairplay !" shouted thosp behind the vortex of arms and hands. "Let the man have it who made the catch." It took some tactful suasion by diplomats in blue to establish tbe real ownership, and. this being done, the proud possessor was surrounded by men and boys reading tlie signatures of both teams written in ink on. the bat. The ultimate owner — for I could hear offers being made — wrote his name and address on a slieet of paper for me. He was: G. V. Edge, of Bluff, New Zealand, "the farthest travelled spectator- on the ground," as he called himself. Tlie last- I saw of Mr Fdge. was "edging" his way out of the ground with a number of boys bauging on to him begging to read tlie names on tbe most rateresting little bat in the world. Some desired Mr Edge to write his own name in "an autograph book, and one enterprising youth would he. he said "awfully much obliged" if he could photograph. this bat and "tlie names written on it.