A Test Bowler in the Making

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 9

A Test Bowler in the Making

W. E. Merritt Displays His Accomplishments

“It’ll be time enough to clap him when he’s taken a few wickets,” was the somewhat grudging remark of a “standite” at Eden Park yesterday afternoon, when “Bill” Merritt went on to bowl against Auckland to the accompaniment of a generous round of applause. But it is safe to say that what was in the minds of most of the spectators who so cordially welcomed the young Canterbury player, was not so much the adulation of a popular idol in sport, as a sincere tribute to a player who did so much in England last year to place New Zealand definitely on the map in cricket. A MATCH-WINNER? In any case, the disgruntled barracker hadn't long to wait for Merritt to display his wares. Before the day’s play had drawn to a close, he had secured the wickets of four of the finest batsmen in Auckland, if not in New Zealand. More than that, he demonstrated that if there is a matchwinning bowler in New Zealand at the present time it is this same W. E. Merritt. But that is anticipating—arid in the present case, most Aucklanders would prefer to see Merritt exercise his match-wirtning talents at some other time and place, generous as was their recognition of him yesterday. Most of us saw him in action for the first time, and at first sight there must have been a feeling of disappointment. It was speedily dissipated. Ambling casually up to the wicket, Merritt tossed down his first over as if he didn’t care twopence whether the batsmen hit him out of the ground or on to the roof of the stand. Frankly, his bowling at the start looked “tripe.” THEY KNOW BETTER NOW It is understood, however, that Messrs. Bowley, Anthony, Cooper and Gillespie are prepared to speak so emphaticillv on THAT subject that even the most confirmed Doubting Thomas could be convinced to the contrary. Really, it looked too simple to be true. Bowley lifted an innocent-looking one right back into Merritt’s hands; Anthony’s bat had a hole in it when a dead straight slow ball came along; and Cooper and Gillespie reached out in vain to a ball that wasn’t there.

Merritt’s casual romp up to the wicket and the innocent-looking delivery he sends down are, in the light of

his deadly effectiveness, liable to cause ®*ie to fly to tjie other extreme, and invest him with supernatural powers as a wicket-getter. Unsophisticated spectators were heard yesterday discoursing learnedly on the “wrong ’un” and other little-understood wiles of “bosie” bowlers until many must have gone home last night with the impression that Merritt was endowed with something akin to what Scotsmen call “fey-” Actually, I did not see Merritt bowl a genuine “wrong ’un” all afternoon. An hour spent by the sight boards, however, shed an interesting and instructive light on his capabilities. NOT QUITE THE SAME His stock ball is the leg break, which he bowls with more turn of the wrist, and at a slower pace than his “off spinner,” which, while closely resembling the leg break, can nevertheless be distinguished from it by a quicker and less-pronounced wrist action .and a lower flight. Merritt’s deadliest ball is a straight one, bowled with the leg break action; in other words, the ball made famous by Warwick Armstrong as the “straight leg break.” It was this ball which bowled Anthony, and it was this same ball, from which Dacre was lucky when his score was 14, to survive an appeal for leg before. Had the ball not risen a trifle too high, I think the umpire’s decision, would have been against Dacre, as it appeared to be on the line of the wicket all the way through.. When Merritt has found the secret of co-ordinating his leg break and concealed “off spinner” and bowling the former a shade quicker and faster, he will be a great bowler. It will be time enough then to classify him with Mailey and Freeman, who showed us in New Zealand chat they had the genuine “wrong ’un” in their kit. Yesterday was a good test. This view may be subject to slight modification in the light of the next day or two’s play, but taking yesterday as a guide to his great record in England, it is safe to say that Xew Zealand has in Merrit a Test Match bowler in the making.