GRUELLING DAYS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1925, Page 4

GRUELLING DAYS.

TEST L-AIPIRKS’ job. WATCHING THE BOAVLERS. How does it feel to stand several days under a scorching sun and watch twelve different bowlers send down 8993 halls? asks a message from a -Melbourne correspondent to a Sydney paper at the conclusion of the second test, What is it like to have to watch the turn and break of every*one of those, halls, and the movement of every batsman with possibly a momentous test match issue hanging on keenness of eye and ear and alertness of brain ? ' Ask Bob Crockett, who is probably regarded as the best -cricket uritpirc in Australia, and who has just completed seven gruelling days of intense mental

concentration, Crockett, in an interview with the “Sun”, said that such an experience. produced a weariness of the brain rather than eye-strain. “(Hour after hour of watching that bowling,” he said, “makes yon long at times for an adjournment for the, night. I have never felt any ill effects on the eyes, hut the mental concentration, the counting of over after over and the continuous vigilance, fags the brain, and I suppose to some extent jades the nerves. “All .[ have to do is to count- the i>i"ht of each over, and then change across; and I can tell you that the couple of minutes’ respite oil changing and the alteration of your point of surveillance are very welcome,” For t’hiity-xoven years Crockett has. been studying the methods ol international holders and batsmen. He is well acquainted with all the intricacies of . finger spin and swerve, and his job demands such knowledge. The fast bowlc,..s, he says, are by far the easiest iu watch. They are straight up ami down the pitch, "Gregory,” he went on, “is certainty as fast, ‘if not faster, than the present lot of pace howlers. From outside the fence, when he is snicked by a batsman and there is a catch by the wicket-keeper or the slipmen, the ball, in transit may be invisible. But not; oven the fastest ball of 'Gregory or of Jones, who had more pace, is *vcr -u----visible to us. We can watch it ill every •foot of its flight,” hard to 'watch a-iailey. “But, without doubt, Alailey is ono of the most difficult bowlers for an umpire to watch. ••In a flash you have to decide by watching his hand exactly what he is going to do next. And he does so many different things with the hall, all of which might passible produ-c sudden and different results at the other end. You have to keep your, eye on his hand all the time, and then swing to the batsman to Match how he plays at the halt to deeido whether it may be a possible stumping or leg-before, or a catch behind the wickets.

“You lnr.e to he quick to detect that wrong 'tin. and to decide in a second, exactly what tlic batsman has done with it. In this match Alailey was far and away the hardest howler for an umpire to keep an eye on. “With this -class of Lowlling von become keyed up too because of tho trememloliis importance bf your decision. It is a big strain ■*> think that if you give a man out wrongly it may affect tlic result of the game.” Crockett says that Hordern, the Sydney googly howler, also tightened u]) an i;jm j>i re's concentration. lie was always doing somethin" dilleient with the hall.

‘•Cricket has certainly changed in the last twenty years,” he continued. “Neither England nor Australia has any swerve howlers now. such a Fielder, who used to swerve almost a yard. and. others in the past. And the batsmen seem to have developed a terror for a new ball. Now thev immediately seem uncomfortable when a bowler attacks them with a new ball. ON THE WICKET. “In the past both English and Australian batsmen have time and again said to me, 'What about a new ball, Bob?’ After all, a wearing br.il that may he chipping or knocked about holds sometimes more danger for the batsman than a new ball.

“Every time I hear someone out side the fence yell to a bowler, ‘Bowl on the wicket,’ ” said Croc-kott, I immediately say to myself, ‘there is a man who knows nothing about cricket.’ You are never going to get champion batsmen out hy howling at their wickets. A'ou could peg away all day at such a mail as Hobbs and he would he perfectly at home. Good batsmen have to be trapped into getting out.”

Crockett agrees that there is an impression among casual cricket fo lowers that a batsman cannot he given out if he gels his leg in front of : break ball. It must he straight. That is not so, lie roiliind.s these sen lots. A hull may he pitched on ihoff .stump and lie breaking on to the leg stump, and if a batsman stops such a hall with his pads without playing it lie is out.