N.Z. CRICKET MAY BE AFECTED BY WILLOW DISEASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 100, 20 February 1950, Page 8

N.Z. CRICKET MAY BE AFECTED BY WILLOW DISEASE

A mysterious disease which attacks willow trees and may, if unchecked, have an affect on New Zealand cricket is now causing some worry in England. Although New Zealand will not be affected directly it may, through the supply of good willow cricket bats as the cricket bat industry is now being threatened. The disease has been diagnosed in nine English counties stretching from Essex to Yorkshire. An expert on the disease, Mr James Bryce, of the Writtle Institute of Agricuture, Essex, has drawn up a full report at the request of the Suffolk Agricultural Committee. Suffolk and Essex are the counties that produce the greater part of the willow timber used in the manufacture of cricket bat blades. And English willow bats are in demand in every country where the game of cricket is played. The- trees are being killed by a disease called the Watermark, which causes them to die from the top downwards. Experts know that the infection can be airborne and that one stricken tree can affect others over a radius of a mile. No “cure” has been discovered, and the only preventive action possible is the immediate felling of diseased trees.