CRICKET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 August 1924, Page 10

CRICKET.

ENGLAND v. AUSTRALIA. The English cricketers will shortly leave London for Australia, morally fortified by conquest in two series of Tests with South Africa. It is for Australia to now consider keen organisation, with the different States working their leading players into early form. There is work to do, because W. W. Armstrong and E. A. McDonald have passed out of the Test arena, and some of the illustrious performers of the immediate past are becoming slow of foot and losing the wonderful precision of sight inseparable from the batsmanship and fielding of champions. Some of the writers are deploring the absence of G. Howell, the fast bowler, and the inclusion of A. P. Freeman, in addition to .T. W. Ilearne and R. Tyldesley, the slow bowlers. There is depreciation of C. H. Gibson, the me-dium-pace bowler. However, the team appears to finally include .T. W. 11. T. Douglas, as mentioned last week, and on Australian wickets he is a bit faster than medium and a difficult ,bowler when the sheen is on the ball and the wicket is fast. Clever slip fieldsmen may make him more successful than in the past. Gibson did not command striking results out here two years ago, but his bowling in Sydney in the last match was quite, up to the Test form of men like Arnold and other medium-pace bowlers we have seen who attained tolerably good results on Australian wickets. N.S.W~NEEDS. If the New South Wales Cricket Association appoint a keen organising selection committee, and that committee takes a personal interest in seeing that fitting practice, not alone at the wickets, but in the field, is gone through, the State team ought to, be much stronger than it was a year ago. But it will need to be, and so will the yictorian. eleven, that is, if Australia is to hold the Ashes for another year. SOUTH AUSTRALIA IS RIGHT. New Zealand desires, if possible, that the English team next summer should extend their tour to the Dominion. The only way such a thing could be accomplished is for the return match with

South Australia to be abandoned, and the return voyage to England made via America or Canada. The South Australian Association has very rightly determined to have none of it. That being so, the second match between the State and England will take place. The South Australian Association could not hold any other view as the body representing the cricketers of the State. Matches of this character are priceless in helping to develop a State’s best players, especially those with Austra.lmn Eleven possibilities. It. would be most unfair to the South Australian cricketers to deprive them of such a match. It was cricket of this sort that assisted to bring to the front many of the greatest, players in Australia, Clem .Hill being a case in point among South Australians. New Zealand ought, to have a season free from overseas tourists. Two years ago they had the Eim- . hshrnen and last season the New South ' Wales team. If their cricket is to depend for its vlf-f* stl,,,ulus 011 regular annual i\-;ii L from ° l vers ® ns > the public taste i become cloyed and the local article - 1 nu j et Wlth far less appreciation - and perhaps encouragement, than might othenuse be the ease. MORE ABOUT J. 11. HOBBS. J JaS « We ? k We gave an extract or two fiom the latest book of J. B Hobbs in which a letter from an nsshiineS lacker was reproduced. Here is anau inni,,gs of 215 Mr ’Obbs.—No doubt you felt verv fine making that 215 Monday, but tlie people who paid to see a game of cncket were terribly bored t O S compel hours f ti l ° 11C? “ ai ? sloggi,1 g" for four liouis ta earn talent money. It. is JJ 13 filing cricket, chaps like you sticking in all day. How would you ike to watch one man kick a football foi four mortal hours on end? To me half ™V a darn T u S'y bat to watch for finS v° Ur ’ I , say ’ didn,t y° u f eei Sfv T IOU won t come off so grand vvith Jacques and Kennedy’s boiling. I hate your dam swank.—Fr,om one who hopes to see you out on Thursday. There was only on e retort to such a letter Hobbs made it; 167 of- the best. That was m 1914, and if anyone has doubt of what Jack Hobbs is worth he had better dare him some time this season with a similar letter and see what happens For, though this book is called My Cricket Memories, Hobbs is a man not only with a past, but with a present. Possibly a future For finite a number of years still the opponents of Surrey, and of England, will be pretty glad to see Hobbs on his way back to the pavilion. He realises, moreover, .that the cricketer owes something to the spectators. There is a tendency in certain quarters to accept the public’s money, and at the same time, to regard the public as an undesirable nuisance whose presence is tolerated, but not invited. But if there were no public, and no gates, there would be certainly no professional cricket, and probably no first-class cricket either. Hobbs realises this. He realises that the man who has paid his shilling at the gate has the right to expect amusement. There are times, he says, “to remember the members and other spectators, and to give them something to cheer about. . . I myself am temperamental; the enthusiasm of the crowds always draws a response from, me. . . Many a time I have thrown away my wicket in order to give the spectators bright cricket.” FLYING ROUND THE WORLD. The imagination of people in every part ot the world is being greatly stirred, by the daring, attempts which are now being made to encircle the globe by aeroplane. This great contest between the invention and the determination of man on thq one hand, and the elements on the other, makes a direct appeal to everyone’s interest and admiration. Ihe wide-spread interest in aviation at this time in indicated in the fact that three nations are represented" in the simultaneous a tempts to fly round the world—to keep flying in a given dnection until the starting point is reached. The aviators of England and France are flying east from Europe. Ilia united States airmen are flying west from the Pacific coast of North America. There is a fine .spirit of sportsmanbeing manifested by the airmen and by the various officers in charge ot supplies and repairs for the different divisions. One nation is assisting the other by practical suggestions and cooperation. . International flying not only brings, in a sense, the geogrophicai world together m friendly rivalry and, in time, will actually bring them together by speedy and widespread transportation facilities. In choosing a brand of lubricating oil to bo used in their DW—C type aeroplanes, fitted with Liberty engines, the United States authorities had to decide not only upon an oil which could be absolutely depended on for uniform high quality under the severest tests of temperature variations and strenuous engine operation, but which was available at the many different points designated as supply stations all along the route. In the early part of November, 1923, the War Department advised the / Vacuum Oil Company of tliei proposed •' project, asking if the company were in a position to supply lubricants for this flight from the time it left the army base to its return. An immediate reply was sent informing them that the world-wide distribution of the Vacuum Oil Company’s products already made Gargoyle Mobiloil “IF’—the recommended oil for the Liberty aero engine —available at a majority of the stations outlined in the proposed route. The Vacuum Oil Company, after the exchange of many letters, telegrams, and cables, was able to supply the Government on the date requested, with the only 100 per cent, proposal received, covering, delivery at every point specified. World-wide distribution—likely to bo thought of as an advertising phrase—was proved to lie an established fact. Twelve thousand gallons of Gargoyle Mobiloil “B” in sealed containers of foui’ gallons each, or the nearest equivalent of the country in which the cil was to be delivered, were offered tha Army at the delivery points required within the time specified.*