REMINISCENCE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1874, 7 October 1913, Page 8

REMINISCENCE.

4 THE FIRST CRICKET COACH. [By Gyro.T Mr. Dan Reese, of Canterbury, has been saying liis pleasant say about Now Zealand cricket in a Sydney paper, and the old baiids at tlio Basin Reserve on Saturday wero discussing it with nods of approval. Mr. Reese is Btrong on the debt which Now Zealand owes to imported coaches. Ho thinks Relf was tlio best of these, and 110 doubt ho is right. Ho dashes into his subject by stating that Lawton, of Lancashire, was tlio first imported coach here, coming to Otago in tlio early nineties. He lifted that province out of the nnid into what was then the first flight. Then Sir. Reese dismisses Lawton, and goes on to speak of others. Lawton is worth a word or two more —the mOro becauso little ever appeared about him in print. In those days cricket stories in newspapers were brief and business-like. Of Iris first day's performance in Dunediii the reporter of the day evidently thought the following notice sufficient: — Saturday was a bleak, drizzling day, and tlio cricket .was poor. The new professional landed from the Homo steamer at 1 o'clock, and came on the ground ill a fashion-; ably-cut West End tweed suit. Ho bowled with a certain amount of execution, takiiig eight wickets for two runs. The reporter who could dismiss a bowling performance of that kind by a man just off the boat a, sis weeks' trip must have been an iceberg for coolness. Another cricket writer followed this up by drawing the distinction which is observed at Home in reporting such matches as Gentlemen v.. the Players at Lords. Ho prefixed each ordinary player with "Mr.,-' while the Lancashire professional was plain Lawton $11' the time. The bowling analyses, as printed, used to read something like this:—Mr. , 0 for 43; Mr. , 0 for 80; Mr. , 0 for 121; Lawton, 10 for 12. It is hardly necessary to say that under the stress of such figures, tho "Mr." fell into considerable disrepute, and, after a month or two, was dropped^ Facing Him. It was sometimes my ill-fortune to have to bat against Lawton. After you got to know the arsenal of tricks which ho carried in his bowling hand, going in was plain agony. Perhaps ono was better placed when he did not know anything about tho man at all for then, at all events, it was soon over. You caino in and took block; you saw a very handsome ' man—an Apollo Belvidere, standing 6ft.—run-' ning up to deliver; you at once noticed that he had a baffling way of holding his left arm extended at full length in your line of sight so tbat you simply could not watch the ball from the hand: lie flung in a windjammer with a vertical spin on it; as soou as it touched tho wicket it was up and at you with double the pace; as a rule you stopped two or three balls (with difficulty), and then made a bee-line for the pavilion while the umpire resurrected your middle stump. Simple, but Deadly. Law.ton was probably a copy of two English bowlers—Attewell and Alfred Shaw. Like Attewell, he was a master of vertical spin, and like Attewell, too, he could bowl all day with never a ball off tho wicket, if he wanted to keep down the runs. The vertical accelerating spin must have been tremendous for tlio ball flew off tho wicket, and at you, with wonderful speed. _ Tho only way to keep him out of the wicket was to play forward hard, but even that could not save. Ho had a vertical retarding spin which he wheeled up about once in two overs, and if the poor batsman had pinned his faith • to the forward stroke it merely meant that you played the ball back to him, and left the crease—caught and bowled. His imitation of Alfred Shaw, too. was sim--1 pie, but deadly. It consisted in pitch- ' ing ball after ball (for perhaps an hour) on a patch of turf about tho sjze of a. plate, thus wearing a "rough bit" into ' the pitch. Sometimes, at the tea ad- ' journmcut in matches Canterbury v. 1 Otago, someone would say: "You're 1 not getting many wickets i-oday, Law- • ton." To which' Lawton would reply: ■ "There'll be a grand liolo in the pitch by 5 o'clock." His Dealings with Pupils. His stylo of coaching was also remarkable. Every crickotor knows tho novice who steps away from a fast ball pitelied on his logs or body. Lawton 1 had to do with ono of these at the 1 nets ono night. Each time the batsman retreated to leg Lawton followed ! him up, and struck him a mighty boost. He must have been black and blue next ' day. He was certainly-sore in spirit, 1 for ho let it bo known among his in- ' timates that if Lawton that" again it would bo worse for the goneral ! state of his health. In fact he would : "punch him!'" Lawton opened the next week's practice by givmg the batsman a resounding wliack on tho body. The batsman ! laid down his bat and advanced on the " professional with war in his eye. ' After some preliminary altercation ' and threats of violence, tho Lanes. I man (looking rather amused) said: ' "All coom here laad to teach cricket; ' Ak'ra not paid for knocking dowii muti--1 neers. You've a bawt to plaay 'em " with, laad, and you will plaay 'em ' with your legs." Tho batsman returned to the crease, and Lawton's next delivery—a particularly fast one—was pitched full on the pupil's legs. Somehow ho managed to get his bat in front, and tho ball flew for what would havo been a fourer to , tho on boundary. In that ono supreme moment 110 had learned ono of the prettiest of strokes—tho log glance. Where Lawton went to after lie left New Zealand, or how he fared, is one' of thoso things which reminds ono of poor Tom Paino's epitaph—"Nobody knows and nobody cares." He had tlio misfortune to flourish in a time when cricket reporting was not so full as it is ; , I i 1

to-day. "When questioned as to tlio intentions of George Willoughby, Ltd. (late Geo. Jlarlow, Ltd.), Mr. Willoughby said that tho first notablo change was tho alteration in tlio name of the company from tho old title to tho now. \\ hen asked if the now firm would follow oil the same policy as the old, Mr. Willoughby replied "Yos" and "No. ' \cs because tho firm will continue to produco dramas'of .all kinds, but tlio occasion may arise when somo departure might be made from this. "I cannot disclose at presont tho full intentions of the company," added Mr! Willoughby, "but I will saj that our London and Now York agents havo already boon instructed to look out for everything of tho latest, tho most varied or novel, and the best procurable in drama while I am at present consulting with a representativo from America now in Australia for a number of new plays for our Australasian business. It may interest tho public to know that I am associated with such business men on the directorship of tho board as Messrs. Georgo T. Eaton and A. B. Davios, while Mr. Ben. Fuller, who directs the BronnanFuller Vaudevillo amalgamation, is 011 the board of George Willoughby, Ltd. At any rate, the public can rely on getting tho best in productions, plays, and artists procurable hero_ or an'ywhoro else," concluded Mr. Willoughby. In the course of a dispute among a group of youths 111 a park near Brussels, 011 c, of them, a boy of 15, suddenly fell stabbed to tho heart by a boy of 14, Tho assailant was taken by his father to the police station,