CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2588, 24 August 1909, Page 6

CRICKET.

COUNTY CRICKET. A SINGULAR MATCH. Unithd I’ltisss Association— Copyiuaia LONDON, Aug. 22. Surrey, in their first innings, scored 273, and in their second 62, defeating Yorkshire, who scored 223 and 26. \ VISITING TEAMS. (Byjt-H. D. G. Leveson-Gower, of I ' Surrey.) Both the Australians and the South Africans have taught us something. Placed under separate heads, I may enumerate the various teachings of the it wo cricket powers as follows. The Australians, of course, come first, just as they came first to our shores, but I am not sure that the South Africans have not taught us the best thing of all. That by the way. Here are these things foreign tours have taught : —(1) The Australians showed us the value of fast break-bowling; (2) of how to place the field; (3) of doing away with long-stop, thereby having another fieldsman to place elsewhere; (4) the South Africans showed us the real efficacy of good “googlie” bowling, which before wc had., only half suspected, and had regarded only, as freak bowling, a passing fancy which would retire from the game with its inventor. Dealing with these seriatim—there is no possible doubt that until the appearance of Spofforth we, in this country, had not realised how much deadlier good fast break-bowling is than slow break-bowling. The late Alfred Shaw, the emperor of the slow medium righthand bowlers, as an admirer not inaptly had termed him, was good enough in all conscience, but for sheer deadliness bis slow break-bowl was not to be compared with that of the faster Spofforth, of C. T. B. Turner, and later W. Lockwood and T. Richardson. Naturally the physical wear and tear being ever so much less, the slower bowlers bad longer careers than the fast, but given both at their very best for a given week there is no question but that the fast bowler, who was practically unknown to us until Snofforth’s arrival (though lie was never a fast bowler like N. A. Knox, W. Brearley, Lockwood, or Richardson'), would always beat the slow against good batsmen. SCATTERING THE FIELD.

Secondly, we had a fair idea qf how to place, our field before the Australians began to won test matches, but they undoubtedly showed us many wrinkles in the art of placing men where they were most likely to be useful. It is said that in the back-blocks of Australia the usual'.word of command of the fielding captain on arriving at the pitch is: ‘-'Now then, boys, scatter.” But, believe me, that is not the way W. L. Murdoch or J. J. Darling used to place their field, nor do I expect any. of our umpires will overhear • M. A. Noble start operations in a test match this .year in this delightful inconsequent. fashion. Australian captains study, the ; batsmen very closely—oven down to noticing? that the non-stmeer is either a very bad or an over-eager backer-up—-."a single thing escapes them. They are. one must say, most admirably seconded in their efforts by their bowlers, who not only bowl to orders, but may be trusted "far more to bowl to orders than is the case with many of o\qbowlers in county cricket. In this ■ connection I can recall one of the best bits of captaincy seen on an English ground for many a year, That of Darling at Lord’s in 1905. The unobserv- ' ant critics were caught napping very badly that clay. As a natural result C. B. Fry and Hayward came in for severe criticism for slow play, which was quiet undeserved. On a slow easy wicket Darling had Armstrong bowling wide to' leg at one end, and M ; Leod bowling round the wicket going away very wide to off at the other. Both, Armstrong especially, kept a suberb length, while Armstrong’s “width, which barely received notice by the critics, was. such that scoring was in any case difficult. But with the close in-field Darling had posted, it became, to all intents and purposes impracticable. . "Whether this was a good match-win-ning tactic is not the point here. It was unquestionably good captaincy if the object of it was, as there is suineient presumptive evidence to assume it was, to tire out the batsmen and so secure a good start, that most invaluable asset in all big cricket. But opposed to these tactics we had two of the most impcrturable batsmen of the time —Hayward, far too stolid and steady to' be drawn, and Fry, ever so much too far-seeing and calculating to be. guilty of throwing his' wicket away merely bfjfeause -his principal scoring strokes were blocked. .It asytn all such examples as these that the Australians have taught the hit of placing the field "to any who will learn. „ Thirdly. J- M'Carthv Blackham came and shocked the cricket proprieties bv standing right up to the stumps and “taking” all bowling alike. Since then we have had a long line of stumpers, iff fact and not name only—men. like Lilley, Martyn, Strndwick, Humphries, Board, and Butt among whom the profession als do not stand close up to the extra fast bowling, not because they cannot, but 'because in nearly every case their captain orders them not to. j “GOOGLIE BOWLING.” Fourthly : and finally, the South Africans. R. O. Schwarz, G. A. Faulkner, A. E. Vogler, and G. C. White, created a marked sensation during 1907 by . the pitch of perfection to which they had brought the delivery of the off-breaking ball delivered from a leg-break action, which was first, howled bv B. J. T. Bosanquet. Right through their tour, only one man coiild we find who can be said to have really rvlaved their bowling, and that was C. B Frv at the Oval in the third test. Third staff plaved a good innings against ifc .at Nottingham, but for some reason or other Braund had very little of it to play during the first test match at Lord’s. Though Vogler was unmistakably the best bowler on the side, d w A.' Faulkner was the best purely “goodie” howler of the four, as he could break both ways at a good pace. The effect of that tour on cricket .generally was to awake us to the fact that we have not yet bv any means plumbed the depths of the bowling art or sapped its treasures. There are now many votaries of the aTt of “Googlie boiling all over England. Schoolboys practise'the thing almost daily, and to nay wav or thinking the test match side of the future is incomplete without a

“googlie” bowler. It is futile to argue that this particular delivery will be mastered in time by batsmen. May I ask: Has the good off-break, or legbreak delivered in copybook way ever been truly mastered? There are people to be found who still argue that “googlie” is a distinct addition to the bowler’s battery, and is, in fact, his most deadly weapon, no defence being invincible against it'.