ENGLISH CRICKET

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 670, 24 October 1933, Page 3

ENGLISH CRICKET

SEASON'S LESSONS DEARTH OF YOUNG BATSMEN OF RECOGNISED CLASS: i FEW BOWLERS 0F MERIT. Cricket and summer are always1 : lovable — and this summer has been fit J for a crieketer's heaven. But, frankI ly, first-class cricket on the whole has ' lacked consistent greatncss of -style. The truth is that an anti-elimax' set ini after the alarms and excursions of last winter (writes Neville Camhie in The Field of August 26). The strain of the game is h'eavy on our finest playtrs nowadaysi As D. R.. Ja.rdine has put it, unlimitad cricket is only desirable between- "the inky hut enthusiastic ages of eight to 14." There are too many winter tours, or rather, they are too frequently placcd in the charge of the sarne men. ICounty cricket in the lump has been bad; this is nof the opindon merely of "disgruntled criticism"; itis shared by most players competent and txperienced enough to know what they are talking ahout. Wlith Larwoqd injured, the season has been without one really great fast bowler, while the hcst right-handed spin howlers are veterans — Freeman and Marriott. When all is said in praise of young men such as Bakewell, James Langridge, Ames and others, there is nio getting away from, the fact that in evcry county the be,st batsmen are pre-war batsmen. I need mention only Hobbs, Woolley, Mead, Bowley, | Eiynest Hyldesley and Hendren — ■ there you have the men with the | strokes, the styl© and the personality. I Not yet has first-class cricket reeovered from the terrible blow to 'genius caused by the vacant ytars between 1914 and 1919. Yorkshire's Strength. Yorkshire, ckiarly the bcst of the j countries, owes much of their strength to the weakness of others. Verity is a superb left-handed bowler, but Macauley is to-day not better at spin than 1 he was six ytars ago. And Bowes is j definitely not a great fast bowler. It is absurd to claim that Ytorkshire's ' attack at the present time is fit to l compare with the attack of Hixst, | Rhodes, Haigh and F. S. Jackson, i The hatting of this year's cham1 pions has surdy been mediocre; with- ] Sutcliffs unreliable for once in a way, | and with Holmes out -of fo-rm, the .Yorkshire innings has scarcely ever I achieved a solid foundation. Leyland ' has shown wavering form, tc-o. Be- : sides, no bowler ought to feel d:pressed as he considers the run-making I abilities of Sellers, Verity, Wood, I Rhodes, Macaulay and Bowes. j On paper, indeed, the Yorkshire eltven this y-ear has frequently worn a rnortal look. But the other side has j more often than not gone into action I against Yorkshire bea.ten before ihe I bowling of the first ball. Mioreover, | Yorkshire have had the g-ood sensa j not to support the practice of cover- ! ing" ihe wicket on their own grounds. j Hence, -in part, the successes of Veri- ' ty and Macaulay in May and June. ! The really pleas-ing -aspcct of the summer has been the- fine cricket d:s- ! played by one or two of the "un- | fashion-able" counties — Essex and i Derhyshire, for example. Essex have j enjoyed a s-eries of victories which. ini j ancient days was beyond the powers j of an eleven that boasted Perrin, Me- ; Gahey, Carpenter, II. G. Owen, Mead, j Young and Kortright. At least four j of those hygone heroes would "walk" | straight into- the England eleven of i the present moment. Achievement j has become easkr. What About the Australians ? The question on the lips of many cricketers jus-t niow is precisely the sarne question they were asking this time last year: Wh.ere are the howlers to get Bradman and Woodfull out? It is almost certain, after all, an Australian tearn will visit us next year, and it is almost certain that there will he n-o- Larwood anid no fast leg-theory of the kind to which the Australians (and the majority of English cricketers now) have taken exception. 1 Therefore, the Bradman problem remains exactly where it was twelvemonths ago — isave that Bradman is to-day a greater batsman than ever h'e was. Everyhody who sa.w him in Australia last winter are agreed that his stroke pl-ay is inco-mparably the best in the game. 'Had Larwood not : bowled his 'theory.' Bradman would i have scored anywhere he liked and as many as he liked." That .is the opinion of most judges of the game who saw : Bradman last winter. , Glark is, as far as I can see, our only bowler who can he said to stand a dog's chance against Bradman. On i "sticky" wickets, of course, w-e- could . find spin howlers enough to give Bradman and his .countrymen severe trou- ; ble. But on "sticky" wickets O'Reilly ! and Ironmonger might eas--ly prove as ! nasty ,a. combination as anything that j we could discover. And anyhow, our 1 lEnglish summers have changed; they ! are going to he dry and warm and j Australian for s-ever-al years to come. | The next England team will more . or less have to be chos'en from the ! following resources:— Sutcliff.e, Bake- | ' well, Walters, Hammond, Jardine, ! Ames, Keeton, Jam-es Langridge, Id- j | don, Nichols, Pataudi, Verity, Barnett, 1 C. S. Marriott, Bowes and Clark. Next j year other comets may swim into our I kea; if they do not the Australians j will begin even favourit-es, so. to say. | As a lover of the game who is com-

I pelled to watch many , cricket matches ; . in the North of England, I would like 1 to toueh on the point of the slow' scoring that invariably .is witncssed iait Old Trafford, and not only wihen Lancashire lare hatting. Nearly every one of Lancashire's epponents, in fact, have this year fadled to -score at Old Trafford at a consistent speed of 55 to 60 runs ian hour. Eno-rmSities of ' s'tonewall'ing h-ave hecn coinmHtted by Sussex .and Gloucestershire, of all counties. There is a feeling getting around Old Trafford that visiting counties1 are deliberately paying .out Lancashire for old and long-dxawn scores. Soipething clearly has been "hiappening," -in many miatches this year at Old Trafford. Lancashire have in the majority of their enaggements scored ' at a quicker paee than their opponents. Perhaps Lamcashire's bowling has had "something to do" with the trouble. It is not dcadly bowling, true; but no bowling in the land is cleverer than Lancashire's at keeping the runs down. As I wrdte, Lancashire have -lost only one match and ' w-o-n f ew-er than Derhyshire. Hias the term "the rough stuff" reached the South of England yet? Do left-arm howlers at Ho-ve and Portsmouth howl -over the wicket and .pitch the ball outside the leg s tump — ; just outside it, wii-th their field set accordingly ? Protective bowling is reasomably .employed when you are compelled to work to save a match, But Lancashire seem occasionally to bowl proteetively simply to stop the other side from winning; it li-s not a policy that is likely t0 enooura-g-e visitors to Old Trafford to play what is known as "sportinig" cricket.