IMPRESSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1669, 8 February 1913, Page 6

IMPRESSIONS.

BOWLERS OP NEW ZEALAND,

FAST AND SLOW;

IS BOWLING A IiYING ART?

["By G. IL S. Tnorr.}

i [Specially Written for The Dominion.]

s New Zealand bowling, to my mind, is ; > hardly so good now ./as it was, sixteen | years ago. You have certainly a greater • number of bowlers now, but hardly tho ;. quality of tho few who wero top-notchers' t then. I fancy bowling has deteriorated <\ all over . the world. •We in Australia i ,- have no Spoffortlis, Palmers, Turners, I"; Ferrises, Trumbles. or a Jones. Even [. England cannot boast of an. Attwell, a s Peel, a Lohman, a Pente, a Briggs, a I' ; Richardson, or an, A.' G.,. Steele. Yet t ; they have ft Barnes, who'is, perhaps, in I tho same class as those I mention, and |' even a Foster, but ho is not so deadly ii% ■ Bugland as ho was in. Australia. Yet i Barnes is only one,, and, .where they have ■ ono now, they had half a dozen - fifteen I . years ago.. j. , Perhaps the wickets all over the world j :. havo improved to such an extent as to I make bowling much harder. Yet I ilo };.. not think that batting has increased to j. tho same extent as bowling has deteriori ated. - " . ,-New Ze'aland;wickots, I fancy, have imj* proved -somewhat, but not to the samo ; extent as in other parts of the world. | Therefore, I think, if more attention had !. been ,given to. bowling by the younger j' . generation of New Zealanders. you Would ■ . bo very ,hard to beat now on your own ' grounds. i _ I consider that tho reason why bowling >• is not practised so much as'it .used .to be ' v is on account of. tho ambitious boy want-' i : , -- ing to become a. champion.batsman.. If |. ho, would only giyo the same amount of, ;. study to bowling as. ho 'does'to batting I ■ 1 feel sure /that- the. gameJ'woilhL,become ' f a lot more-interesting to him. .' The young ft.* fellow starts bowling, bowls 'in a careless f •/' manner at tho nets, . thinks that ho will. p.. never become a- and drops out'of. : I. ■ tho. game. Wtdrdhs! '.'if. he; would, only !'; • take the matter; seriously, , and make'up t : his mind that 110 Vvas a better bowler ! - ' than "the other''chap" was a: batsman, '■ pyt feel 6ure; he would , succeed.'. !. itfhy Put "Spin", on'Every'Ball?;. |v There are four essential facts to be borne in mind when',one is bowling, viz., j | 'length, pace, break,'and flight of the ball. 1 j; The last includes swerve.' " Few'bowlers' j j possess all,-these. Barnes, . the English - i bonier does; and ; thttt is'o'xaijtly the' iefii ;■ - son why he is 1 a champion. When a ] h ,:'. bowler possesses a, good' off .or leg-break' 1 [, .it is not necessaiy for him .to pnt a spin j fV . on'every ball, for a batsman. soon be- i f. comes . accustomed to tho same kind of j t, ball. He wants to mix: them, and, if he' , ■ can, without altering his action. Then , f )ho; requires -to. study the, various'bats- . ; men's weaknesses. Some players are , "..'stronger on tho off than the in. , It' , | ~is;the,bowler's business to .find this- out,; j j . and, attack- his weakest -point," and place | i- : his' field accordingly. :-Too many: bowl- -t e; : ,ers, especially in New-Zealand, bowl'at , 1 . the wicket, in the endeavour , to- bowl tho ; ! batsman out, quite forgetting; that':'the , bowler las ten men'beside himself wait- , r- ing to: help him'by securing-a catch. -' [ Moro particularly is this the case witV < t ■ your 'Josie" bowlers, who send down" 1 what they call the "wrong nn" at times. t [ They are merely trying all the time to hit 1 fc>- tho wickets, thus enabling the batsman 1 U .to know that the ball-pitched on the leg |} '■ Ksido'.is gc-ing to break' from' that direc-' { • tion, and tho ball pitched on the off will 1 ;do the same from tout side. Hardly ever 5 k' do.they.'.bowl.,a : .medium-paced, straight | t ball. ' ■ • ■ - | I tYour Dearth of Fast Bowlers.- I

I ~One thing that I have particularly no- , «ccd in New Zealand is the lack of fast {r. bowlers—that 'is,' .the "express" : bowler.' J liobmson, of Wellington, I fancy, 13 the fastest bomer we have', met yet! We' .vould, on enr . side,'.'consider mm onlyi • B»8ntly over medium pice.' Kyle, who is I tolling .with our team, is.only considered a little over medium-pace— yet ho is quite v as .fast— if not faster—:than 'any 'of your ■iNew Zealand bowlers. : Every team requires a fast bowler. lour wickcts are slow, and .that is all •.tho mora reason why an "express" is reI 1!"™' /°, r h».-not.only gets wickets him.self, but he helps, tho slow bowler at the / Other end. . Every batsman, after play- ;• - iin £ : of fast stuff, might easily ■ mtss-tirao. th-e slow oues whicu~lio gets .'ii'Ora the other end. «' v - • T !j T on ' Q s >it seemgi to me, most wickets t iN ew. Zealand ! commence - to" wear "on j, ; thoJnst .(!ay of a three days' match, and j, it is then that you feel the benefit of i: -.having a. fast bowler ou your side, as tho , .-.wicket kicks a bit, and you also cet an occasional shooter. . ;

1 Best Place 1o Find Fast Bowlers-th« [■ Country. think that tho best plate to discover !,: fa?t bowlers is in tho country' districts, and therefore I am a great believer in en- ; courting country cricket. Cricket centres (, nhould invito country teams to .visit them, '< and they should return the visit's on cverv ( opportunity. You will probably discover E• many young cricketers who, if they onlv j; 'got moro opportunities, would develop , into, cricketers of some class, and bo able | - to eventually take their places ■in your ; . city elevens.. . , J I hairo always found the keenest cricketh' ?F s . ln; Coll ntry teams, and feel sure, with ,their great keenness for the game, thev iv would develop into reallv good players.i'f ; coach IVC taken 111 hand by a competent ; : Left-hand Bowlers: Blenheim, Has One. y I-cft-hand bowlers aro now rather rare, : yet, sixteen years ago, you had some, real good ones, Wo met at Blenheim one a whose name is Dinnie, who would turn' - out a very formidable bowler if a good I man took him in hand. He was swerv- •' -Y?"'' an( ' had a little nip iback, but he did not know where to pitch 1 tnom; neither did lie know how 1 to alter his pace. This is only ono instance-wh'ero |i my argument for encouraging country I cricket comes in. ■ Bennett, of Canterbury. ■ Bennett, of Canterbury, is o'no of your ■' best bowlers.. Ho has a decided nip from s the off-side, keeps an excellent length, and i is as game as tliey pre made. Every run ; wo scored off him in our second innings i of our first match at Christchurch was hardly earned. Ho bowled 195 balls (10 maidens) for 42 runs, and kept us scratch- } ing all tho time. K Grimmett, of WelHr.gton, and his : t* 1 "Googlies." Si '.Another .bowler, Grimmett; of .WetlingL ton, took my fancy. He is of the "google ly" order, and bowls the "wrong un" well : On n faster wicket, I feel sure that he would do better, as he keeps sucTi a I remarkably ftito length, or, at least, ho i did so against ns. Ho seems to me to be a promising all-round crioketer. He fields, j - bovfls, and bats well, although his style is rather crndo with the willow. Experir'ence in good cricket may soon romedj i. that. ! Rev. E. 0. Blamlres. r Another really good bowler Is the Her. ° Ft. 0. Blamirpo, also of Wellington. 'He ; keeps a rare good 'length, having a nice : turn from either ddc of tho wicket, and !. bowls the fastish ball well. He is a j prnit worker, and scams to b» at all : times trying to worry tho batsman. • •

A Gentle Roply to Otngo Critic,,

At Dunedin we were told that they had a very weak bowling 6ide, yet they: got' our side out for. 227 on ft perfoct;wickefc nnd a critic of tho "Oto^o lished a rather rough cnticisnCiipon.iho team 1 that I had the honour-to- captain." Nnv, I want to tell that critic, and . that critic's readers, one little thing! We are not a first-class team, nnd v.t rover advertised ourselves nj one. Wo. are a merely a Molbo'iirns chib team—a team that,' perhaps, will tnako your players

play their best, and a team of triers overy time. We aro not a Stato team, neither are wo an Australian team. Yet we have irmdo vottr best provincial teams extend themselves. And .I. can assure your readers that no body but ourselves havo felt the inward glow of satisfaction when we havo caught your crickcters extending every fibro of their constitution in trying to avert defeat. They havo tried, and on occasions failed, yet wo boys have admired their determination, and know full well when-they aro put to tho tost, in, perhaps, sterner games than cricket, thoy aro made of the right fort of'stuff—the stuff that made Old England's glory. Give Me tho Brainy Bowler. Perhaps the foregoing is a thing apart from this article, and I may be digressing, but-1 must plead privilege. What I want to do in this article is to improve Now Zealand bowling, and, perhaps, give the young players tho benefit of my experience in thirty years of first-class cricket. They say that bowlers are born, not made. Well, in 6ome eases, they aro born—he is tho natural bowler. Yet ho cannot rise to any height unless ho getß first-class experience. C. T. B. Turner was,-perhaps, the greatest natural bowler that has ever lived. He came into first-class cricket at almost one bound; ho had a beautiful style of delivery, hod an abnormal natural offbreak, but ha<l not tho samo heady work as Spoffor'th, Giffon, or a Trumble. Yet, with his 1 natural bowling, he (on his first visit. to England with an Australian eleven), eclipsed all bowling records by securing 315 wickets during tho tour of 1888. The most marvellous part of this performance was that ho hit the wicket no fewer than 211 times—that is, ho clean bowled ■ 211 men out of the 315 wickets which he secured. . But, for heady work, I could bracket many names as being superior to Turner, namely, Spofforth, Palmer, Garnelt, Evans, Gif Fen, and "Hughie" Trumble, and the men of this class scoured wickets just.as much with'their brains as with their muscles. Give me. the brainy bowl®r tho one,that is not necessarily "born," but made.: Any young bowler who can manipulate his fingers and. cares to study tho different' methods of each batsman, can get a lot of fun out of the glorious game of cricket. Two Capital Otago Trundlers. Wo met a bowler on. a matting wicket at Tajjanui who; I feel sure, would develop into a "class" bowler with opportunities.. His name is Scott, and, for about'-half, an'hour during our'first inning 3, he bowled remarkably well, coming back from tho off-side at a rare pace, and making tho batsmen opposed to-him look very sick, and I must plead guilty that 'I was one of his victims. •

At Dunedin wo alsj met a player .who knew how to bowl. His name was Huntly. He was one of tho very few bowlers in New Zealand who bowls with his head as weir _as his - muscles, mixing his pace, judiciously an(l bowling with a dei finite object—that is, of getting .the batsj man caught in' the slips. Placing tho Field and Knowing the Batsman. There aro a great number of bowlers who have no idea of placing their field for the weaknesses of the different batsmen. This is a. phase connected with bowling that should bo studied. The young bowler, when, ho sees a batsman getting runs off a particular stroke, will persist in feeding the batsman up with tho samo land of ball, in the hope of his making a mishit., This; is entirely wrong. What ho wantg to do i 9 to keep th© tall away from his strong point, and .'attack his weakest point. Possibly, the batsman may not havo many, weak strokes, b'st'he is almost suro to have one—or more. I have not yet come across the batsman who has nob- Victor Truinger, W. G. Grace, or perhaps Eanjitsinhji'a weak strokes would be hard to find, but they all hail tfam For, if they had been perfect, cricket would have lost half its charm, for the uncertainty of the game is its chief recommendation- from a 6pcctacular point of view..

Sandman, Robinson, and Southall

In our last match against Canterbury, Sandman howled very well. Ho is a bowler jif the "bosio type, and it is a ivery fine thing . .for a team to possess a fowler of this sort, for it -is quito probable'th'at, on his days, he will bowl a whole side out for a very small score. Yet, when he cannot get a length, he is a most expensive bowler, and might often lose a match"if persevered with. Every bowler of this class -has his good, and bad days. "Hs:-- , Carlton,- of Canterbury, is possibly one of the best .left-hand bowlers in New Zealand—he keeps such an admirable leDgth, and sends down very few loose balls. A. good lenfcth bowler will always do well on your wickets, for, as a rule, the ground helps him. : As I have said, Robinson, of Wellington, seems to-be th-e fastest bowler whom we met on this tour, and, in our last innings, with a gale fi( wind behind him, he bowled like a champion. He,is quite young, and has a grand physique, go should develop even moro pace os he grows older. -. Southall,' also of Wellington, is a fine slow left-hand bowler, keeping a fine length and using his liead a lot. I heard fiomo comments on the fairness of.-his tblivery. He certainly pushes the ball as it leaves,his hand, but it is not a throw, and, in my , opinion, perfectly fair. Cr. H. S. TKOTT.