Personalities In Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 851, 20 December 1929, Page 12

Personalities In Sport

Serving in the treble role of captain, manager and “father’* of the M.C.C. bide (for the captain of a touring team which includes many young players has often to act in this third capacity). A. H. H. Gilligan, the genial loader of the English cricket side on its tour of the Dominion, shares many of thequalities as a cricketer which his brother displayed as an English test captain. The captain of a. touring side lias at «my time the most difficult of tasks, but when one man combines those duties with that of manager alto, he con have very little time to himself. It says much for Harold Gilligan that, "Idle shouldering these responsibilities. he has also maintained his form on the held. In fact, the batting of the M.C.C.’s captain in Australia has been one of the outstanding features of the tour to date. F’or Gilligan has not distinguished himself ;»t Home as a batsman of the first flight, and as a bowler lie is negligible. 'Tis true that as a fieldsman iio has a brilliant record, where here again he follows in the footsteps of his more famous brother, in his hey-day perhaps the most brilliant fieldsman m English test cricket of his time. Eut it seems that Gilligan’s batting abilities have been under-rated at Home, where a man is not counted a batsman unless his name stands high on the county averages. Improvement m batting was commented on at Home in 1927, however, when it was noted that the M.C.C. captain was capable of turning the fortunes of a game by his powerful driving.

Captain , Manager and ‘ ‘Fa then” of M. C. C. Tearn

i, } During that season ho played 40 innj inys for an average of 22.89, with a I highest score of SB. When Gilligan gets j going his batting is gracefully vigors I ous. He had never scored a century in >. a big game till this season, when he j» reached 143 against Derbyshire. With . Duleepsinhji he put on 118 for the third E ’ wicket in 140 minutes. £i It is, of course, for his ability 1 as a captain that Gilligan has been sent to Mew Zealand as leader 1 of the M.C.C. side. He has had much experience in that position, u a s he leads Sussex County when his ? I brother, A.E.R., is unable to play, • j and critics have noted that his > appreciation of the possibilities of his men is remarkable, i Gilligan had many thrilling experiences during the war. On one occasion his plane was hit by German gunners when he and a companion were flying over the Kiel Canal. With a damaged radiator, the two EnglishJ men endeavoured to fly back to Eng- © land, but they came down in the - Channel, and spent 20 minutes in the 1 water until a companion plane arrived e to take them aboard, s The extra weight, however, preY vented the plane from taking off, and u ; one wing broke. For three days and •• j nights the about at the = mercy of the waves, but were event tually rescued after sending out x pigeons, one of which dropped dead i with its message at the foot of a Yart mouth coastguardsman. e A fine captain, a fine fellow, and 1 the keenest of cricketers, Gilligan f should be able to get the best out of s his team as its tour of the Dominion progresses.