Mills the Artist

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 213, 28 November 1927, Page 10

Mills the Artist

What the English Tour has Done For an Auckland Cricketer

Home again from as strenuous a six months as any cricketer could wish, Jack Mills was back in his old place with the Eden XI. at Eden Park on Saturday. Few would have blamed him if he had waited till after Christmas before settling down to his third season on end. It will be time enough to search for superlatives when the Eden left-hander resumes batting next week with 18 not out already on the score sheet. One remembers a phrase of an English critic: “Mills is the Palairet of the New Zealand team. He recalls the easy grace of that fine player of another generation.” At the time, one wondered a little, and mentally resolved to suspend judgment on the absent Aucklander. If he had acquired the polish of the famous English batsman of days gone by. he had gained-it on the pleasant fields of England. Before he left with the New Zealand team last season. Mills was a class batsman in the making. He gave occasional glimpses of real brilliance, and his plucky innings against Wellington at Eden Park last season be- 1 fore Stan Brice trapped him on the leg side, showed that he had the grit for 1 a big occasion.

NEARLY GOT HIM ; A slightly-built lad nearly achieved j the honour of bowling New Zealand's j opening batsman in his second or third over on Saturday. Pearce, the young Y.M.C.A. bowler, beat him all the way with a trimmer, which just missed the sticks. Roused from his seeming nonchalance, Mills gazed down the pitch with a puzzled frown. He hadn’t expected that one. But what interested a rapidly-thin-ning stand (it was close on seven o’clock) more than that was the batsman’s general methods at the crease. Possibly remembering Mills’s former fondness for leg stuff, Bowley started wheeling up “off theory.’’ It was a good test against as clever a bowler as there is in Auckland to-day. But Mills actually seemed to relish it. He met the coach’s every ball with a dead straight bat, and once sent a clinking shot clipping along the grass for as nice a “fourer” as one could wish to see. What Mills, with his free, erect carriage on the field, has brought | back from England is that entirely elusive and undefinable quality—j the artistry of the game. —j. M. McK.