Cricketers at Golf

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1065, 1 September 1930, Page 13

Cricketers at Golf

AUSTRALIANS ENJOY IT

Richardson the Best Player

THE Australian cricketers, who are nearing the end of a successful tour in England, have found golf an excellent antidote for the strain of a strenuous tour. The following bright article in the “Melbourne Herald,” by Arthur Mailey, who is travelling with the Australians, gives some idea of the prowess of Woodfull and Co. at golf.

While almost every member of the Australian eleven plays quite a decent game of tennis, very few can find any reasonable excuse for carrying golf clubs around England- Vet they play golf and I think prefer it to any other game even including cricket at times. When the team is chosen to play a county those who are left out invariably rush back to the hotel, pick up their clubs and plus fours (if any) and spend the day on the golf links. Woodfull did it last week during the Notts match. I know it to my sorrow. 1 happen to have lent him my clubs, which were returned with a covering note apologising for having sent the driver back in two nieces. Vic Richardson is probably the best player in the team, but with a little more practice Bradman, who is quite a novice at the game, will give Richardson a start and beat him. Bradman, if lie chose to practice, could, I am sure, come lown to scratch. He has that uncanny faculty of adapting himself to golf just as he has with other games. He can drive a ball 200 yards without any trouble and play approach shots like an expert, but he is not too sure on the green. I think he covers a secret hankering after golf honours and 1 would not be surprised if the Bowral lad made a name for himself at the game. The members of the team were invited out to Lord Belper’s country home, where they spent the day at golf, tennis and billiards.

Those of the team who are not too good at golf always avoid playing with strangers. You will find that Ponsford, McCabe, Walker, Hornibrook. Wall, Woodfull —in fact, all the inferior golfers—will mobilise on the first tee and go off like a packet of crackers in different directions. “This is an excellent way of seeing the country,” said Woodfull last week when he sliced the first ball into a neighbouring fairway in the direction of cover point. After hitting off at the first tee the players seldom get within speaking distance again; they surge over hills, coming from all angles. Some disappear into clumps of bushes, others are seen emerging from bunkers wiping sand out of their eyes. But still they* go on unaffected by the diverj sions. It is positively dangerous to be on a golf course on which the Australian cricketers are let loose. Members usually retreat to the comparative safety of the clubhouse and watch the battle from the verandah. Golf balls are flying in all directions, balls are given up as lost without a search, otherwise the team would never get through. They never keep a score card. It looks too much like evidence, but they judge their game according to the number of balls lost. “How did you get on today, Ponnv?” “Oh, I was one up on the course, Cla rrie.” “I lost four and found five. I had a good day, really.” A day on the links is like a tonic to the cricketers. It takes their minds from cricket, crowds and civic receptions. Some people say that golf interferes with cricket, but if they saw tho class of golf played by certain cricketers they would come to the conclusion that golf doesn't interfere with anything, excepting possibly the green-keeper’s peace of mind. This poor fellow spends many anxious moments when the Australian cricketers aro invading his course. The manager, Mr. Kelly, by the way. has established a reputation in England of which any schoolmaster ; might be proud. After reading the j papers here, one would think that the j manager spends his night walk- * ing around the town armed with a bulls-eye lantern, looking for players | who stop out after 10 o'clock. This i is not so. I saw several come in to j the hotel the other night at 10.15, bu Mr. Kelly did not say a word.