MEN WHO CAN SMILE AT DEFEAT.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 16 March 1927, Page 6

MEN WHO CAN SMILE AT DEFEAT.

Mr Laveson-Govrer. in his new bn«k. "Cricket Perscnaliues,'" gives this word pictui'i- of Maurice Tate: He i'- iust a big. smiling lad He e?--ades y. ith, choagh hi| years number thirtv" Long summer dayc spent "beneatli ihe root of the sky" liave bronzed his naturally dark eomplexion nntii he suggests a man boms. from the tropics. , Of Tate's howling, Mr "Leveson-Govver writes : . . Artifice lias no place fn his s-cock-m-trade ; he sets- no store hy tncks and traps.' But his. natiiral abilities— his leugth. his swerve, his spin, are sufficient to place him in the ranks of those who have earned the right to that often abused word "great." This is the aUthor's description of L. H. Tennyson's style: He does not, like so many oi the mocierns, imagine that every ball sent down, to him is going to be either & "googly" or a late swerver, and as & /consequence step back until he almost sits on the wioket. He is, on tlie eo'ntrarv, a iirm believer in the lefp foot weil forward and the left elbow >~ell rip. . . . Old fashioned, they say? Yes. perhaps, but it pays. . . Tennyson deserves to go down in history as the iaughing cricketer. He cavn Ja.ugh in the face of a "duck" — no mean feat. After describing In some detail the "true inwardness" of Sutcliffe's batsmansliip, • Mr Ijeveson-Gower savs : Actually he is very mnch of a fighter. . but he is a player who can still regard cricket as a. game, not as a painful dufv to be carried out at all costs. Tndeed, although he has now played first-class cricket for five seasons, he is still voung -enough to look pleased after he has plaved a big innings, and can. smile like a boy when he struggles througti the cheering crowd.