CRICKET BOOKS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 September 1930, Page 2

CRICKET BOOKS

' J .vV 4 A STRIKING ARRAY. .1. . v “The Game" of Cricket,’ ’ by A. P. ■ 'Chapman, and others, is bound to be most popular—in New Zealand—vol- , nrnes of the Lonsdale Library. It says much for the general editor, Mr Eric Parker, that have been able to enlist,an ai’piay of contributors including Chapman .(who writes on Fielding,) Fender, on Captaincy, B. R. Jardine, on. Ratsmansliip, D. J. Knight, on Coaching- Martin and Robertson Glasgow, on Bowling, W. B. Franklin, on Wicket Keeping. Lev-eson-Gower,' on Umpiring, and W. T. Bosanquet, Bearley, Hirst, Tate, Rhodes and' Wells on" Bowling. From these a very strong English Test team might be •-- selected. Chapman’s own contribution is so “meaty” and sensible that special, regret must be felt that this fine player had been left ....out, of the English team. The book f ilf'jffiil/'of.igbod hints and useful infor-•-matinp for oncoming men, and is libr erally ' enough furnished with talk aboutf “modern methods” to last flirnnjrh a good many “pavilion” gossijy§¥; aitd ...oriclcet dinners and suppers. The book Js ri'h in action photographs which ought to be useful, and there is no lack cf good stories. Mr Leveson-Gower has several tales to..tell. of> I;is fellow umpires some of . whom nlns.Tnro more inclined to favour .local patriotism than to be governed bv a", sense ..of .justice. Some may not -know the story of the F.'n dish man ; felding.in the deep when a high -catch '■'was hit out io him. Tn the momentary silence which nearly always follows such an. event, he heard a voice behind him say, “Drop it—drop it. and T’ll let von ki®s mv sister!” Fortunately. . perhaps, for the English teams’ sake, he wn*.;~a: cautious fellow, and as he said himself. “I hadn’t seen his sis + er!” Mr Jardine. who- writes verv sensibly on Test "Match Cricket and “Barracking,” says that “with the. exception ' of the Manchester crowd, which in my iH.bpi.uion lvhs no superior,, Australian ■; crowds. arp. he f ter judges and keener. " critics of. the game than most English will be a thousand pities s?if a "generation is allowed to grow up inj,•Australia, which allows a wellearned reputation for sound criticism and: fair play to he discounted bv partial, and unintelligent “barracking.” There are only, two possible attitudes" for the individual to take up toward ( the: “barrapkerSj” one-is- to jest with them, the- otheY is to take no notice. Thq .more diverting, anch R. is not difficult to “score,’.’ but the latter, though less diverting, is pro;,J>jrhly safer, since it is les s distracting. : Mr Jardine-says, that Australian teams-are);definitely,'less prone to attacks.jof tha’iT.their English oppone)it§';;:;t>fft'":;wliy many hardened veterans should suddenly fall victims to “Test matchitis” is beyond all ordinary powers of explanation, That there 1b such a thing ns a Test match temperament is beyond question, the names of Hobbs,. Sutcliffe and Hammond, W-oodfull and Ryder, spring to the the mind at once a,s these possessed of "this'priceless asset in more than ordinary measure. The effect of the big occasion is to bring out all that is best in such as these.

The full page plates and the diagrams in the text of this book are. beyond all praise. Specially interesting and valuable,to the players, are the diagrams 'illustrating a wise disposal of the field to suit certain classes of bowling. ; NEVILLE' CARDUS TALKS. Mr. Neville Cardus has a wonderful reputation as a writer on cricket. For some years he has been the chief authority on the game for the “Manchester Guardian;” and Manchester is a place where so long as it is not raining, which it has a nasty trick of doing, the folk take the game very seriously. Mr Cardus has written a volume on “Cricket” (Longman’s English Herivtage Series). He writes with great ;yivacitv and much grace of expression on, the progress of the English national game from the days of Myron and *the Hambleton men to the present time. The apearanee of the book is very timely. Mr Cardus says: “In the spying, cricketers are fresh and eager; ambition within them breaks into bud; new bats anti flannels are as chaste as the Apriiywitids. The showers of May drive the players from the field, hut soon they are back again, ■ and every blade of- grass around'them is a jewel in the light; I like this intermittent way of cricket’s beginning in spring weather. Ay season does not burst on us as football-:, does, full-grown and arrogant: it' comes to us every year with a modesty that matches the slender tracery ,of leaf and twig, which belongs to the l setting of every true cricket field in the. Reason's first days. When Jiine grows to splendour, like rich part of the garden of an English 'summer time. The author knows the game in its eveiyy form, from the boys’ cricket match and the village contest to a big Test match, and has much to sav on tlje changes, chiefly in stvlss of which find exposition to-day. * But ever is be most readable. His is riot a big book, but is one of the most readable that we have met with.