CRICKET STORIES

Evening Star, Issue 22463, 7 October 1936, Page 4

CRICKET STORIES

HUMOURS OF UMPIRING They were a small group of cricketers enjoying one another's company. They got to talking about umpiring, and the humour of it from the player's angle. Someone had complained having been given out lbw to the ninth ball of an over, after he had " hit the ball hard " (states " Not Out," in the Sydney ' Referee '). A smile flickered across Wendell Bill's healthy bronzed features. " India's the place for umpiring," he observed,, " Some of them are great over there," he chuckled. " I can toll a story or two against myself. In one match I had made about 70 on a perfect wicket, and was sailing along placidly for the century. I glanced a ball nicely, oh, so nicely. Away it went to fine leg for four, and I watched it, feeling very content with my bat and the stroke. " ' Very nice, Wendell!' said I to myself. " Then I turned round to face the bowler again. And when he did not attempt to bowl I asked. ' What's up?' " ' You're out,' said the wicketkeeper. ' ' Out! How?' I asiked. " ' Lbw,' was the response. " ' Why, I glanced that one.' " ' Yes,' said the keeper. "I hesitated, and then looked around and saw that the only thing to do was to go, when the umpire confirmed the verdict. " Morrisby, my partner, must have quietly told the umpire that I had glanced that ball for four. At all events the umpire came up to me afterr wards, and referred to the matter. " I said, ' Couldn't von see that I played the ball?' He said, 'No.' Then amused at his attitude. I asked, ' Why! Could you not see it?' . " lie patted me on the back, and answered, 'Ah! Sahib. I'm deaf.' " That settled me. Ho couldn't SEE the ball because he was DEAF. " It was the same umpire who gave Frank Bryant out lbw. Frank did not hear anyone appeal,- and did not know lie was given out. Ho took his place at the crease, preparing to take strike again, when the umpire called, ' You're out!' " 'How?' said Frank. " ' Lbw,' said the umpire. " ' I did not hear anyone appeal,' said Frank. The bowler said he did not appeal, and the wicket-keeper didn't. " Frank calmly remarked, ' You cannot give me out without an appeal.' " And he batted on. " An easy sense of humour is a good ingredient to carry around with you while playing cricket in India. I could tell you a score of incidents that would make the Sphinx smile. •■" Umpiring! Why, my dear fellow, umpiring in England and Australia is so good, that no man should grumble if fate gives him out when he knows he isn't. It is an honest mistake and should never have a kick coming to anyone."

Wendell Bill, by the way, will have his hands full this summer. He is to write np the English tour for Australian, New Zealand, and Indian newspapers. And he will also send a broadcast for English listeners-in. That’s why he.turned down an offer to visit India this next summer. 'Umpiring stories ho can unfold, do not blind him to the charm of cricket in the land of the Rajahs. In fact, one believes he likes India’s umpires, even when lie is the victim of one of their errors.

Crew Together for Four Years. The Washington University rowing eight, which won the title at the Berlin Olympic Games, has been together lor the last four years, and was selected from tho 10,000 students at the university. Three professional coaches have had charge of the squad, which has practised every afternoon from 2 to 5 o’clock. Big, husky youngsters given that amount of practice had no alternative but to develop, and their success in America prior to the Games gave them tho necessary confidence over the hard stretches of the Olympic final.