CRICKET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 12

CRICKET.

by the enthusiasm of players likelv 6 ?? h at the present tJ| ne, there is liKel> to be a great season ahead of the cricketers. Most of the clubs report aecessmns of strength, and no doubt an increase of members makes for greater interest in the game no-o n, c J e ? ring . to note that the Man..ia Club is going to lay down a decent pitch in the Domain, and as one of the members of the Town Board ’i 1 7’ l b n a great asset the town. the footballers seem to resent the laying down of the pitch, hut their rears will prove groundless. Other places have laid down concrete pitches and no harm has accrued. Australia is tufl of examples of concrete or asphalt pitches on grounds, and there no one seems to complain. Australia, will win if the teams be chosen and captained.” This is the view of Warwick W. Armstrong after seeing a good deal of cricket in the current English season. He states that England and Australia are both very strong in batting and weak m bowling, and that all batsmen should eliminate the tendency to squat at. the wickets, and in its'place stand up and pelt the howling. “Well chosen and well captained.” There you have it. This observation is crammed with good sense. You can apply it to not alone Australia, but to the States and the clubs. It counts all the time and every time.

COACH.ES FROM ENGLAND.

EAGER, TO COME TO NEW

ZEALAND

Evidence' that New Zealand is gaining more prominence in the cricket world is furnished by a desire on the part of a number of well-known English cricketers to receive appointments in the Dominion as coaches. TheWellington Cricket Association has fully considered the question of improving the standard of play, and H has secured the services of Captain F T. Badcock, of Wellington College, Berkshire, who is due to arrive from Eng band this month. Captain Badcock will take up his duties at the commencement- of the coming season. During the present cricket season in England Captain Badcock has put up some good performances with’bat- and ball, and these go to show that his services will be valuable in the de-

velopment of more than one department of the game locally: Recent advices were .to the effect that in three innings at one period ,of the season he scored 148 runs (0, 41 and 107), and he also took -10 wickets fox*: 134 runs in 39 overs, 10 of which were maidens. Playing for Old Wellingtonians he compiled 76 in one innings. Among those who are keen to-come to New- Zealand is G. P. Buckenham) who has had many years’ experience' in first-class cricket and who has been coaching at several of the big. schools. He has represented Elssex for ;••• many years, and was with the: English team in South Africa fn 1909-10. In addition to being on the M.C.C. staff for ten years, he spent a season (1912-13) coaching in . South Africa. In the course of -a letter to the Wellington Cricket Association he states that hh is eager to come to New Zealand as' a coach, either to live here permanently or to come each season. He prefers to. stay permanently. 1 He has juH finished coaching at Repton School, Derbyshire, from which many firstelms players have been produced amrmg them O. B. Frv, Jack. Crawford. the Palairets and the Fords. He is at present residing in Scotland, and has been playing in, Scottish county cricket; heading the batting averages rn 1920-21 for the Forfarshire. County Club, which were the leading county ip Scottish cricket. He has been it member of the Bast of England teams and champion counties on four occasions.

George E. Wharmbv. who played for Bedfordshire from.-' 1900 to 1914.‘is alfSo keen on coining to New Zealand; During the period , mentioned he acted as coach to the Bedford schools; ■He has had first-class county experience having played for Notts (his .native county) and Lancashire, During the past three seasons he has acted as coach for Trinity College, Glenalmond. hir \ Scotland. The college -.amed championship honours last year. , .

Word has been received from A P Freeman the English professional who visited New Zealand with A C C a Huhht S last sear ' on • that j! t, Hubble, of Kent, who is a prominent batsman and wicket-keeper, is also cw™, °f CO n- to NeHzealarJ £ act, as a coach here. Freeman can ?f de New h V i ieW England hf T * team t( > prior to +L i 4 * seMon 8 coaching P , to the departure of the ten™ W °j! d - nf> d° u bt be very acceptable, ni understood that- Sutcliffe the j'2 "’ ruling to come to New Zea£!?dS& SeaS °" to Ca '-T P* -each.

CURIOUS OFFER TO H. HOWELL A cable recently stated that in England a provincial bookmaker has promised fast bowler H. Howell £5 for every wicket lie takes in Test' matches m Australia.” Howell had a narrow escape when the motor, car in which he was driving to Mansfield after a match overturned. Four of. the occupants were pinned underneath, the driver being cut about the head and the others bruised, but not seriously. On the first tour Howell secured seven wickets at an average of 65 run s apiece, and if the offer be correct, even on this basis, he would garner a nice little sum. But the slip fielders may be much more effective in snapping up the snicks this time; and, if so, and Howell has not his pace, he should do much better than seven for 468.

WHEN IS A BAIL STRUCK OFF?

Umpires everywhere might make a note of the following Just to hand from England. It throws a little more light on a matter that has been a trifle obscure.

M.C.C. Ruling. The M.C.C. make the following announcement (23/7/24): The attention of the M.C.C. having been called to a.case at the Oval, where the wicket was struck, hut the hail did not fall to the ground, the umpires were requested to give an exact description of the position of the bail. Their reports agree that they gave the batsman out because they say the Jjail was removed from the groove, and, therefore, in accordance with an instruction of 1923, they gave the batsman out. They have misinterpreted the instruction, which is as follows: The striker would he out under this law if any part of either hail is struck off (see Law 20) the top of the wicket. Law 20 uses the words “struck off,” and the M.C.C., in their ruling, have held those words as meaning “struck off” the top of the stump, and no mention is made of the groove. The description of both umpires as to the position of t-lie bail is that no part of the bail, though out of the groove, was off the top of the stump. The top of the stump, of course, includes not only the groove, but the space on either side of it. The umpires were, therefore, wrong in giving the batsman out.

ARTHUR GILLIAN

CAPTAIN OF ENGLISH CRICKET

A PERSONAL SKETCH

(By Paul Pry in the Bystander.)

There are, some plavers who. though head and shoulders above the ruck of mankind at their particular game, are nevertheless bored with it, and would much rather be plaving some other. Kenneth McLeod, the famous wing three-quarter, was a- ease in point, and there have been many others.

Generally speaking, if you study star performers closely in the games arena, you find that for some queer reason, which. I imagine to be the contempt bred of familiarity more than anything else, they play their shots or get their runs, or score' their tries with a marked absence of elan or enthusiasm : the thing just happens. There are others, a. few only, who having climbed to fame up the games ladder continue to. flourish at the top .with all the boyish delight- in the particular game, and all the high snirits tlmv had when at the bottom of it.

Of sueb is Arthur Gilligan, captain of English cricket at the age of twenty-nine.

It makes one’s own age the more depressingly pronounced to be near him in the navilion on a wet day. He has a quaint habit of carrying a* little sobd rubber ball in his blazer pocket which he bounces and catches all over the. nlnce. Moreover, you mav get roped in to plav a Gilligan species of French cricket in one of the dressiimrooms. and as he and his Sussex men play it it is by no manner of means a. middle-aged man’s game. Arthur has a . joie vivre that is really inWtmus. Nothing ever upsets ’him If he comes out for a “blob,” which i.-, not often, it is with a cheery smile and a- joke at his own expense. YVhen ' ussev are fighting for runs against the clock. and all the. host hats h*y« come back, it will „ ot he a worried skinner von will see exhorting “the ail m. the dressing-rooms, but a confirmed optimist. He .is the sort of

team captain who sends in a wobbly bat, who is, perhaps, in the side for his wicket-keeping only, so bucked with himself that he may quite possibly knock up a few, contrary to precedent. . The fact that the Sussex team this year is the most popular side in the country to watch is almost entirely due to his : influence and personality. Every player is khown by his Christian name. A small thing, you will say, but it makes a lot of difference to some men. That is Arthur’s doing. There is no swank of any kind what- 1 soever tolerated in any team he skip- i pers. Having less than none him-1 self, he abhors it in others. The fact that Sussex is also the finest fielding ' side in the country ' at the present time is because he has taught them that whereas a batsman may have, to be born, good fielding is an acquired art, and can be learned by anyone, provided the keenness and continued alertness.are there. I imagine nobody would dispute that Arthur Gilligan is the finest mid-off in the world. When the Sussex side is fielding it is difficult to watch any one particular man, because they are all doing • something. But if you watch mid-off and nothing else for a time vou will see-a man “on his toes,” sfretehla limit of anticipation, a possibly one wearisome! maiden may follow another. Someone said’ at Lord’s on Whit-Mondav' that even if there had been no "ood 1 batting nr bowling to see, to umteh | field value for vour i shilling Gilhcran’s catch that dis-' missed F T. Mann will long be re- ■' membered, there and elsewhere. ! IS i P T b [ lbly t}l ° youngest skip-j per England has ever had. ft is a t 0 be ohosen fnr this posi-! \ urt S - amC tlme ' y° n are making I .rour debut. m test match cricket in this But he has crowded a great _amount of experience into his' five seasons of first-class cricket in I -ngland , and his season in South* the last M - C - C - team T'hc South Africans took him to their heart a r nd - when the y heard he was 1 destlped to ]ead the English ' eXpres f d themselves in no* uncertain voice about it. a member of saSitH'-S'-England fame, as an *"'! Wl4 he- headed the schoo? ht!; 1 " S ki K r'' 5,10 “ -iekets f„ he ,e^m,f ; 9 lle took » He is one e, tho^a^^d

going in last, can make a century in a first-class match. He actually did this while up at Cambridge. Funnily enough, he got his Blue at Cambridge because in 1919, when cricket was resumed, there was a lack of bowlers—that, seems odd now, especially after his galvanic performance in the first test match. But his bowling recorded for Cambridge came out rather badly, thirty-two wickets at a cost of a little under 27 runs apiece. However, in the ’varsity match he gave some hint of the fame ; that was to come to him, for on the I third morning he disposed of Oxford's I second- innings by bowling nine overs I and three balls for 18 runs and o I wickets ! Fast bowling of such quality had not been seen "in the University match for many a long day . J* 1 f. as in !922 that he really' came into- his own. In that year he took lib wickets for Sussex i n county matches for an average of 17.25 runs. I . en , P lo hed for the Gentlemen ? yerS at Lord ’ s hc helped on the first day to make the fielding of £ Gentlemen more brilliant than it had been for years. Given a nlace m the M.C.C. team for South Afriia he ro.se to the. occasion as a batsman v hen a great effort was needed helpno'H Russell \ n the stand that practii 4sl y nv fT the , the last ! He i C V a, ' d ; ,Vlth ifc the rubber, tie m also a fi rot-rate golfer He s m business with his father'in the city, presun,ab!y only in the winter and b’ SGei r" that and £ | slimmer d,rc " wd ° f - tiTe i