CRICKET.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1259, 14 October 1911, Page 12

CRICKET.

.WHAT DOES TUB SEASON HOLD ? [Bt Tub Breakiij.] The opening of the cricket season draws nearer: it is at hand. What tho futuro holds the futuro alono will show, but wo aro all looking forward to an interesting season. It may be on uphill year, but uphill and downhill aro both in tho game,' and wo must tako them as they come. There is nothing to fear if the cricketers themselves resolve to pidl the iron out of tho fire... With the men in this j mood and a leader to rally round—the fight is over. But we must havo both; neither will .stand alone. We wont enthusiasm, from tbo body of cricketers, and we want a lead. To test the enthusiasm let us have a lead! Will our governors please step forward? "Our Miss Gibbs" to Play. During the week a good deal of timo has been spent getting grounds in order and preparing wickets. Players have bean at tho nets and havo gained a little in form. No great changes soem likely in the Wellington cricket world, but it is a littlo unsafe to make definite statements just yet. ..It is probable that among tho matches on tho Basin Reserve on Saturday will be a gamo botween "Our Miss Gibbs" and a Hospital Cricket Club team. The ■encounter is to bo in aid of tho Hospital . Saturday movement. Matters in tho South, • "Long Slip," in tho "Otago Daily Times,' says, that several of tho Duncdin clubs held practico games on Saturday last in ideal cricket weather, and tho ' enjoyment of tho summer pastimo was tu 1 tho full. The season proper, so far as grade matches are concerned does not open until Saturday, October 28. From , a'playing point of vioiv tho season of 1911-12 promises well, though week-end trips and surf bathing may bo exiiectc<l to prove a strong lure. Tho majority , of last season's players will again take tho field, though one nust regret the dropping < ut of such a good all-round man as Rutherford, of Oarisbrook, now in Gore, and the return to Australia of Godfrey, .who left the other day for Sydney. Arthur Fisher retired last vcar, and Alex. Dowues announce 1, after tlieUtagoCantorbury mafch, that he had retired from participating further in big cricket. Hopkins, one of tho boat batsmen we havo had in Duncdin, and ono who could ill bo. spared, has returned for another 12 months .after a threatened final departure. 'Siedeborg, Austin, Wilson, Drumm, Watson,. Eamsdcn (of Carisbrook), Torrance, Eckhold, Mackcrs?y (of Duncdii- , Callaway, Eckhoii',. Kilgour, Casey, and , tho rest of last year s champions, and Shepherd, M'Farlano, and Corbett (cf Albion), and Downes, aiud Chaclwick (<»f Grange) are available this sa-ison . Although Condliftc, tho Otago wicketWper, has tendered his resignation to the Dun- " edin Club, ho does'not propose to give up tho game, for which there .is much rejoicing. Tho ex-Duneiin player has not yet decided which club he will join, but tho possibilities aro that Carisbrcok' will got his services. Speculating on the Cracks, The M.C.C. team which is now on its way to Australia, is tho subject of a good ;deal of interesting speculation. It is agreed on all sides in England that the team is exceptionally solid in batting, and in that sort of batting which English critics, as a rule, consider essential on Australian wickets—that is, the sound, plodding variety. With this view of tho 1 requirements for Australia, a Sydneysider say 3: "I do not''agree. The great batsman, whether ho bo a hitler like Lyons, Massie, M'Donnoll, Bonnor, Darling (in , his great' moods), or Jessop, an exponent of the brilliant, liko Trumper, llanjit- ' Binhji, Macl,aren, Duff, or Hobbs, or one : less brilliant, like .Faulkner, Bardsley, - Hill, Ransford, Noble, Shrewsbury, Darl- ! ing, Graham, lredale, Gregory, and so on down tho list to the stone-wallers, are ■ all likely to accomplish great things on Australian wickots. It' is a matter of class, of observation, and the power to 1 suit oneself to new conditions, which aro ' not less favourable to run-getting than ' those of any class of wickets in the f world. You will say that Jessop failed in ) Australia. Quite true; but JessopVfail- ' uro was not because ho was a hitter; t it was at tho time, and still is, my be- £ lief, that Jessop failed because he did j not give sufficient study to the pace of ' tho wickets. It did not matter whether ' ho was a hitter or a plodder. Big hit- > ters thrive on Australian wickets, but I they never do much who play across tho ' flight or pitch' of tho ball. On slow 3 wickets or on the concrete, that kind of hitting may be blended with tho straight 5 bat methods with more or less success; but not often on the fast turf of Austrn- c lia. It has always been my opinion that v had Jessop come to Australia a second E timo he would have made a vastly dif- t foient impression as batsman." 1 t P. F. Warner's Opinions. In the "Westminster Gazette" of Au- I gust 30; P. F. Warner, the captain of J the M.C.C. team, has an article in which s ho discusses phases of tho Australian P tmr. He says: ? i Mr. G. L. Jessop's inability. to ac- jj cept the M.C.C.'s invitation to go to ji Australia gav« Vine his chance. Mi s Jessop has been batting very finely ; lately—in quite, his. .best form, indeed —and his fielding is as good as ever. t Mr. Fry toils me "ho saved fifteen t certain no other man w.fald t ] . havo fingered even" in the match be- r tween Hampshire and Gloucestershire. T ''I should havo made 318 instead of r 258 but for Jessopus. His fielding' was r a revelation." This is high praise in- 0 deed, and well deserved, I am sure; r, but Mr. Jessop cannot seo his way to J help us, and his .place has been given T to Vine. Until this season Vino used to bowl his leg-breaks round tho j wicket with all but two of his fields- r men on the leg sido. ' Candidly, T D used to liko his bowling! Ono could frequently run out and hit it on the I off-side, and on ono occasion I got 20 I runs off him -in an over, and I am 1 no Bonnor. He bowled so much to leg that even a highly skilful wicket- t keeper liko Butt found it necessary to c have a long-stop, and a man was e thereby wasted in tho field. Nowa- r days, however, Vino bowls over the v wicket, and at the wicket, with a n slip, sometimes two slips, cover-point 1 square, a mid-off, and occasionally an extra cover, In fact, ho tries to bowl j the batsmen out. As a result he is, a to my mind, an altogether better bowler. He cap spin tho ball tre- a mendonsly, and his pace through tho s air is not slow. Ho .must', however, a learn to vary his pace without show- 1: irig it. I believe ho will be a vory v useful member of tho team, for, apart t from his bowling, he can bat extreme- v ly well, and he is a keen and most h untiring fielder in "the country." I , t am glad Iliich has been chosen. Ho s has great pace, and ho is improving s in his length every day. If used for six or .'oven overs at a time he will 0 be bowling his fastest through an in- t nings. On the very fast Anstralian t wickets ho will bo even faster than he is here. He is a suporb field, and f ' his energy is infectious. s "But the Encny are Strong." d There is no doubt that M.C.C. ha\e V given us a strong team, and it will H; , N stronger as tho tour proceeds. Wo havo ): ton bovlers in all, counting Hobbs and v Mead, and tho former is a good lxiwlcr ; with a new ball. Of courto ten bowiors • will not play in one and tho same match, but it will euablo ono to so manage the bowling that 110 individual should bo overworked. Mr. Douglas and Hitch fast, 1 Birnes and IreravuKc medium-paced, ( Woolley, Rhodes and Meal left-hand slow, Vine lcg-bienks,. Mr. Foster fast medium \ left, and Hobbs fast, medium right. What a plethora of bowling! As for the batting, horo again thero is a groat deal, ( but wo lack a Fry. a batsman of tho highest skill, and Mr. Fry has never been : m good as ho is now. lie has corrected 1 his strokes down to tho wax-polish point! Tho fielding has been considerably ;

strengthened lately. As for our manager, wo aro very lucky in having Mr. Tom Pawley. But tlio enemy arc strong;, they havo great resources, and their grit and oourago aro well'known. Remarkable Wicket-kcepi.l3. ■ Although Kent were beaten at tiie Oval (says an English paper), no man will have greater reason th.vi Huish to look back upon tho gamo with personal satisfaction. For him tho gamo was a veritablo triumph, seeing that in tho two innings ho oiugbt one and stumped nine. When Surrey wero batting tbo secrad timo ho showed form such as oven ho has never excelled and seldom, if evor, equalled. Nothing could have been finer, and, well though Douglas, Garr and Woolley bowled, tho chief honours of the game, so far as Kent aro concerned, clearly belonged to Huish. It is not a little singular that Huish should perform tho greatest feat of his career after bemg before the public for sixteen seasons, au<l when ho is, in,a cricket sense, something of a veteran. Ho was born at Clapham, in Surrey, on November 15, 1870, and played his first match for Kent in 1895. On four occasions besides tho one wo are discussing has ho taken as many as eight wickets in a match. World's Greatest Batsman—C. B. Fry? Wo have no lack of appreciation for the unorthodox brilliance of Victor Trnmpo'r, for tho hard hitting of Clem Hill, for the elegant mastery of Reginald Spooncr, and the classic correctness of Tom Hay ward; but wo ■ still regard C. B. Fry as the greatest batsman in tho world, says tho "Athletic News," and we believe that this is tho opinion of most cricketers in England. Pelham Warner in his last and best work, "Tho Book of Cricket"—a most interesting volume — remarks:—"He has reduced theory to a fine art. His powers of observation aro ' immonso, and just as Sandow develops every muscle in the body by a carefully-thought-out plan of action, so has Mr. Fry developed every stroke in the batsman's art, and brought run-gotting almost to a certainty." Wo hold that Fry is moro certnin to make runs—if there can bo any certainty in cricket—than any -other man. He ranks as tho greatest, in our opinion, because he is tho most certain, that is to say, tho least liable to error—either in judging a ball or in his treatment after his mental resolve. It cannot be said that lie is tho most attractive or the most stylish, but his batting has been reduced to a science. Dr. W. G. Grace once compared "Bob" Carpenter with Fry, and he wrote:—"Ho watched tho ball like C. B. Fry does now, and never played by guess, or by. anticipating where the ball might _ be, leaving nothing 'to chance." This brings us back to the point of certainty. We judge the man to be tho greatest batsman who makes the fewest mistakes. We do not agree with our correspondent that Fry was a tost match failure. He began with a 50 against Australia, and ended with 02 and 35 not out, and we have same recollection of 144 against Australia at the Oval in 1905—an innings that "Wisden" declared "dwarfed everything else in the day's cricket," and proved that those who imagined ■ that the cut was outside his range v found .themselves quite in tho wrong. We know of no finer batsman now playing tho game. Moreover, his caroor should be judged as a whole, and we should liko our critic to point to a man with such a record as 10 "centuries" in fivo matches, and as six hundreds in succession. There is reason for tho faith that is in us.