DOUGLAS HITS OUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 501, 2 November 1928, Page 6

DOUGLAS HITS OUT

PANNICKY ENGLISH CRICKET WRITERS REPROVED

Famed as a stoneAvaller in Australia, J. W. H. T. Douglas had his initials cleverly satirised in the famous saying: “Johnny Won’t Hit To-day.” England’s dour leader of several years ago, however, belied his nickname in England last week A\4:ien he was interviewed about the temporary incapacitation of M.C.C. players in Australia. He hit out good and hard on the subject of pannicky writers in the British Press. “Because Freeman has a stiff neck, Staples lumbago, Tate a stiff arm (which comes and goes in five minutes), and Geary a broken nose, we are expected to send assistance from England,” said Douglas. “It’s absurd. They’ll be Avanting nurses next. “When Gregory fractured my rib at the Oval,” Douglas told the Sydney “Guardian’s” London representative, “I didn’t cave in. Some players should enter the prize ring and get a few punches to harden them.

“When I visited Australia my team was detained in quarantine at Perth for a fortnight. Now the Press is wailing because two or three men are laid up after the first match.

“If the Nvorst came to the Avorst, they could invite Fender to play.”