CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3663, 26 October 1912, Page 3

CRICKET.

THE MATCH WITH WAINGAKE

The first important match of the season wi'l bo played at Victoria Domain to-day, when the annual fixture between the AVaingake Club and a team representing the Poverty Bay Cricket Association will commence at 10,30. a. m. Mr 0. R. Olsen, the sole selector, has got a fairly good side together to do battle for the Town. The batting could be strengthened, as with the exception of AV. Gibsonfi O. R. Olsen, D. Miller, W. Winks, and W. J. JScliollum, the remainder of the side have vet to c:in their spurs. However, H. E. Maude, J. H. Jones, AV. Atkinson, J. P. McLisky, A. AVood and P. Turei may be after runs this season, and may prove that they can score just as well as the older hands. The bowling will he in the hands of Scholium, Jones, Atkinson and Olsen, with a second string in AVood, Maude and AViitks to call up if the hill men start knocking the cover off the ball. Time was when AVaingake could place a formidable eleven in the field, but they have suffered many serious defections during the last couple of seasons. Alymer Rattray, that fine al'-rounder, is now in Canterbury. Ted Colthart has departed for Hawke’s Bay. and AV. J. Jackson has gone on the land somewhere in “The Roadless North.” That' mighty smiter, Bernard Stewart, has returnedi to Old England; so it will he seen that the fates have dealt none too kindly with the AVaingake Club. The men of Te Arai YaPey have big hearts, however, and still play the good old summer game as it ought to be played up among the eternal hills. It is stated that they have some “dark horses” this year, and may spring a surprise on the City dwellers to-day. AVhichever way the game goes, it is hound to prove a pleasant one. May good weather prevail, and every man break his “duck/’

TEST MATCH CRICKET. SOME CONTRASTS AND COMP ARISONS. (By J. B. Hobbs, in the “Strand Magazine.”) Part 11. Some Creat Batsmen.

Turning to hatting, we find that the perfect Australian wickets have produced a school of correct and polished batsmen, players who take no liberties with the bowling, hut are always willing to wait for the right hall to hit. The same prevalence of ideal batting conditions has given us/Victor Trumper, the “champagne of cricket.” He is the most perfect batsman in his scoring methods I have ever seen. He makes every orthodox stroke quite after the best models, and in addition ho has several strokes of his own which it is quite hopeless for. other batsmen to attempt. The way in which he hits a good-length ball round to the leg boundary where there are no fieldsmen, is enough to break the heart of any bowler, and’this is only one of his characteristic shots. He is a past-master of every method of scoring four off a ball most batsmen would be content to play with care, and lias more strokes of this type at ids command than any other cricketer.

Memorable Test Match

Syd. Gregory, captain of tlic last team, is not sucli a batsmen of moods as Victor Truniper. Ho is a dogged hat, who has topped the averages in Test cricket for Australia. For a man of his inches he hits tremendously hard, and his cut just behind point J should select as the best of his many excellent strokes. Warren Bardsley is the team’s representative of that school of the great left-handed batsmen Australia seems to specialise in producing. Exceptionally strong on the leg side, he takes to ! l in that direction of every hall which offers a scoring chance, and when in the right vein has a happy knack of running up big scores in quick succession—as those who saw him make 1110 and BIG during that memorable Test Match at the Oval in* 1909 will bear witness. He seems to have a liking for certain grounds—Leyton and the Oval in particular. Roy Miiinott, who played against us in each of the live Tests “down under,” is a bat of the punishing type, and a bowler of no mean calibre into the bargain. He hits with tremendous force, and is decidedly the kind of batsman who scatters the spectators near the boundary when ho makes up his mind to hit a ball. Others in the team who might be mentioned have plenty of runs in them, and if only some of the new men let themselves go I shall not be hi the least surprised to see more than one hatting reputation made during the tour. But, in my opinion, it will he largely a question of enterprise, of striking the happy mean between rash hitting and over-caution. The latter tendency is most likolv to predominate in men new to lest cricket, in spite *of the fact that ultra-steady batting is absolutely fatal if it interferes with the natural stylo of a man, and always seems to me a leaning in the wrong direction in every case, except- that of the born stone-waller. Plodders.

The fortune of the game is always likely to upset the most careful batsman before he has made up his mind that the time has arrived to take the least risk. The bat who likes to spend a couple of hours or so in playing himself in before setting about the bowling in earnest is not flying in the face of fortune, but, in modern high-class cricket, is also a constant source of encouragement to a howler. The trundler thinks he has his man afraid of him, and keeps on giving of In's very best. Bowlers of to-day refuse to have the edge worn off their attack by the steady plodder, hut they are always to bo knocked off by a hitter. . "“When the hitter comes off,’’ I hear the critics exclaim, and I admit that in the best of cricket the man who tries to knock the cover off the ball is usually hack in the pavilion far too soon to suit the crowd. Pottering About.

“Flaying for keeps” is all very well in its place, and is sometimes the only possible game. But there is no denying the obvious fact that all the while a man is at the wicket lie lias two main chances —one to get runs, the other to get out-. If he treats run-getting as something that can wait for lialf-vol-levs and full tosses, ho is not only unattractive to watch, but is also unsound in the highest cricket sense of flic word. Time is against him all the while lie is pottering about strictly on the defensive, and there is quite enuogh luck in cricket, quite enough “gloriou- unooitainty” to make it unwise to neglect every possible chan re of scoring.

'But there is a mean in all things, and the man who scores at a fairly good pace is the best to my way of thinking, and, within reasonable limits, the faster he scores the better he plays. Beyond a certain - limit, however, fast scoring brings ns to the uuortlmdoxy of genius, to such batsmen asKenneth Hutchings and G. L. J-essop. Having dared to bracket these two, I suppose I had better deline what I mean by an “unorthodox” hat. Weil, imagine two balls howled by the same man at exactly the same pace and alighting on exactly the same spot, and imagine a batsman hitting each for four in totally different directions, and you have my notion of an unorthodox' hat. Hither G .L. Jessop or Kenneth Hutchings would do this, and therefore I call them both “unorthodox,” with.'the added comment v at the Gloucester skipper would bo mote likely to hit balls for six. Try.

C. B. Fry hits a ball with very great force, but always all along the ground in the most approved style. It is astonishing the power he gets uito these strokes. In fact, he hits so hard before the wicket that when I have been in with him I have always kept aw ary eye on Ids bat when backing up—it would 1)0 a very* serious matter to stoo a straight drive from the bat of C. B. Fr,y with any portion of your anatonmy, and I am not at all anxious to make the experiment, t think of all the great batsmen of today, C. 13. Fry must take first pales. He has reduced hatting to an exact science, and seems to have worked out with a mathematical formula-the right stroke to bring to bear on every possible'ball which can be bowled against him. Ho is a made cricketer, if ever there was one, and has schooled himself to become a far finer bat than many who posses more natural aptitude* for the game. Ever watchful and alert, he makes fewer really had strokes than any batsman I have ever set eyes on, and he is the most distinguished member of that extremely select circle of great batsmen who are quite at home with those first few overs which spoil the averages of so many. There is a masterful domination about his hatting -which appears to take the howling in charge, so to speak, and, taking him all round, I do not know where to look for a living batsman, quite the equal of C. B. Fry. The Good Wicket-keeper.

A good wicket-keeper must have the eye of a hawk, be as agile as a cat-, ansi as hard as nails, or else “Mr Extras” may easily be top scorer. Your first-class wicket-keeper must be bom to his job. Ho must have the faculty of intuition very largely developed—intuition which will tell him not only what the bowler and batsman are going to do in given circumstances, but what the ball will do, and frequently lias had to make up his mind on the last point whilst the leather is hidden from him by the batsman. Imagine a fieldsman being expected to make a catch with another man bang in the line of sight until the last moment, and you will understand what I mean. As this is the case, it is fortunate that England is extremely well off for keepers just- now. Strudwick and Smith are as good as any one need be to keep wicket for England, which is saying a great deal. Neither of them is as good a bat as Gregor McGregor and Hick Lilley were, but they are each more than average “ tail-enders.' Smith is eminently safe and beautifully consistent-, whilst Strudwick is given to bringing off marvellous aerobatic catches which paralyse the batsmen and delight the crowd. Carkeek, the keeper of the present Australian team, is good—a Blaekham only appears once in a century. It is a thousand pities that Percy Sh enroll. who skippered the Siiihii .Africans last trip, could tmr make the journey here. ( am told i.y those who mould know that his work in Australia, occasionally verged on the miraculous. lie is a fine bat. a splendid captain, and 1 should say the best wicket-keeper in tin world'whon it conies to taking the elusive googlic-.

Priding

1 regret that my article concludes with notes on fielding, for this department of cricket should never be placed last In Australia tbe fieldsman’s art is cultivated to a greater pitch of perfection than it is in the Old Country. 1 am spaking now of the general level, not of exceptional fieldsmen, who are more born than made. Such a coverpoint as Svd. Gregory or G. L. Jessop, for instance, is more gifted 'than trained, and I should say the same of Gordon White, the ,South African. David Denton in the long fie’d or at deep third man is another great fieldsman. and the daring work of Hitch On the leg-side is something to marvel at, Vernon Ransford is the world’s champion out-field, in my opinion. 110 see him pick up and return a ball in one action when running at top .speed is a treat to behold. He does it so accurately, too, always returning tho .ball cither with a catch straight into the hands of the wicket-keeper or howler, or close a skimming long hop which comes in like a flash of lightning. Pretty work, and as effective as it is spectacular., Mid-on Hardest Placs.

My readers may he surprised to learn that I consider mid-on to be the hardest place in the field to fill. Many captains think the post the one and onlv spot- for the fielding “rabbit” of their team. This is not my opinion, not by a long way, for at mid-on you can never tell how the ball will come at you, or how hard it- will come. Many grand bats -depend more on 1 smashing than placeing when hitting to the on, and the fieldsman who has to operate against- this sort of thing should ho as quick as they make them and as daring as he is nimble. Ho must be able to catch anything, from the lofty skier which does not reach his hanils, until the batsmen have nearly completed their second run, to the terrific drive which would knock a hole in him if lie failed to get hold of the ball. Altogether no place for a duffer, but just- the spot where a fieldsman of the highest class is wanted, especially one who can return a ball like lightning when the batsmen are trying to steal a short run. Th 3 Swing of th 3 Pendulum,

Before' laying down my pen I should like to say a little concerning a subject which was much discussed not so very long ago.,. At the time m question we heard a great deal about the alleged decadence of England as a cricketing power. In this connection so many people seem to lor get that in cricket, as m all other things, there is an chb and flow of talent. Sometimes the gods are more kind to our Colonial kinsmen than to ourselves, but in due course the swing or the pendulum comes our way. and we are on top again for the time being, mis to any mind, is the best- way to regard the .see-saw of form, in Imperial cricket-, and is at any rate far bettei than Mamin" selection committees, writing doleful diatribes about ;‘decadence, and hinting darkly that it- is affecting other cherished national institutions besides our cricket.