CHAPMAN'S ADVENTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 8

CHAPMAN'S ADVENTURE.

"Good wickets and good luck!" was a parting wish flung at Chapman's men as they left London this week. A wiser man would have called "Bad wickets and good luck," for on wickets that help the bowlers the English side is almost certain to be stronger than its opponents. The reference to good wickets calls up visions of matches lasting a week. No one will be surprised if all records of high scoring are broken on this tour. The selectors' preference for Mead over Woolley, that aggressive and beautiful batsman, can mean only that they were determined to strengthen the purely defensive elements of the side. Mead visited Australia sixteen years ago, and his methods were then declared to be painful. "Better twenty runs from Jessop than a century from Quaife" — this adaptation of Tennyson was written many years ago. Yet in this year, his last, at the age of 56, Quaife made a century in his scheduled time of a little less than four hours, and what was more significant, Sutcliffe, one of England's opening batsmen, took just as long to reach the century against Lancashire. Even in England, where the three-day limit is the rule, the slowness of play is the subject of an increasing amount of comment. Here and there—as in a Kent-Notts match this year— the sides fling a bat at fortune, and the spectators drink the real wine of cricket. Chapman comes from Kent, he is naturally a sporting batsman, and on the only occasion on which he captained England in 1926 he set his side an example of merry vigour. He may enter the arena in Sydney and Melbourne when the crowd is half asleep from the monotony of hearing the ball strike unenterprising bats, and hit a six with a noise like the slamming of a door on a still night. On the other hand, the system may be too much for him, and he may potter as Woolley pottered on a critical occasion during the last tour. It will be a dour struggle, with perhaps gigantic scoring that will remind some of prize pumpkins at agricultural shows—interesting to look at, but somewhat monstrous and no better to eat than the ordinary variety. Test cricket, indeed, has become a distinct variety of the game. It is desperately serious, and under Australian conditions a test of endurance as well as skill — not a battle so much as a campaign. The most enjoyable cricket is played on obscure fields, where the game ip crowd-leas And care-free.