CRICKET

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1921, Page 9

CRICKET

GREAT BOWLERS I HAVE BATTED AGAINST,

•BARNES AND RICHARDSON,

M. A. NOBLE, BEST AUSTRALIAN WICKET BOWLER :: STRONG POINTS-OF F. R.. FOSTER AND OTfiER STARS.

(By Clem Hill, in the Sydney Referee). Unquestionably the greatest bowler that I have ever played against was S. F. Barnes, the League-playing cricketer discovered by Archie MacLaren. If the latter had never sniffed out Barnes, and England’s great bowler had continued to trundle for Staffordshire, many of the Test matches which now stand to the credit of the Old Country would most assuredly have been won by Australia. My first 1 recollc ?tion of Barnes was watching him at practice on the Adelaide Oval, when he first visited Australia With MacLaren's Team in 1901. At the time we were all convinced that he was a bowler of possibilities, but even the most keen of his admirers and supporters never quite fancied that he would reach the topmost heights that he did as a Test match bowler in later years.

Barnes really developed in first-class cricket. When I first played against him in Adelaide in 1901 he kept a perfect length, turned the ball just a trifle from either the leg or the off, but was net a bowler to be feared. However, in time, he developed more spin, learnt to flight the ball and 1 discovered that slow flighty one which often caused so much bother. He developed until in 1911-12 he became, in tny opinion, the greatest bowler in the world.

WHY (BARNES WAS BEST ON AUSTRALIAN WICKETS.

Barnes practically taught himself to bowl. After all, haven’t all the great bowlers and all the great batsmen really taught themselves. Picked up the good points by watching others and found out for themselves what, in the long run, paid best. He was one of the few bowlers of all generations that was better in Australia than in England, and the reason was this: The wickets in Australia helped his peculiar length ball; it came off the pitch with added pace and drove the best batsmen of the day back on top of the wicket. In England, where .the pitches were a little slower, a batsman could stand back and force him to the onside. In the Old Country, when Barnes tried to get the same effect as he did in Australia, of forcing us back on to the wicket, he had to pitch that ball up another nine or ten inches, and the batsman was enabled to jump out and hit’ him.

However, no matter whether he was in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. Barnes was hard to play. He had us all defending our wickets, and over and over he bowled away at us without an outfield, and ohT how annoying it was to see that open sjiace and yet not dare have a go at him. The Staffordshire champion had marvellous control over the ball, and the best ball that he sent down was the one which nipped back from the off and always made a tremendous pace from the pitch, which was caused by his extraordinary spin. That particular ball was actually faster after it hit the ground than when travelling through the air. Right through an innings Barnes had you looking for the ball, for it was very hard to detb’et until the very last moment of delivery whether he was going to send one up likely to turn from the leg, or whether it was going to nip from the off, or whether it was going to be that deadly straight yorker. He was easily the hardest bowler that ever I played against to force and score off, and Australia is indeed in luck’s way that he is not included in the present. English side.

ENGLAND’S GREATEST FAST. BOWLER.

The next English bowler in my opinion was undoubtedly Richardson —a specialist in so much as he could bowl a fast ball and nothing else. Richardson relied entirely upon Ths pace. He never varied it, nor attempted any fancy works, but came straight at you with all the speed and with all energy. And what, remarkable energy and speed, to say nothing of stamina, he did possess. Undoubtedly his greatest effort was at .Manchester in the Test match in ‘96, when Australia -wanted 125 runs to win f and it took us over four hours to get them, and the big fellow bowled 42 overs on end without a spell. His delivery was never questioned. He was a fine fellow to meet on the field and off of it, and it was nothing for him when he had been bowling all day to gaily chase a ball to the boundary with the * vim and dash of a champion outJield. He had a nasty habit, of occasionally nipping back from the off and oftentimes a good batsman has been dismissed clean bowled (Alf Noble, to wit. in his first Teat match) hy a ball which was apparently off the wicket .and which the batsman thought safe to let pass. Richardson came right over, and being over 6ft high, this was a great advantage. He possessed a swinging run, a beautiful delivery, and was a perfect athlete. He was always exceptionally dangerous on the Sydney wicket, which at times greatly favors the fast bowler, as often the’ ball flies shoulder high. The same bowler of the same pace has failed on an Adelaide wicket to make the ball fly higher than the stumps, and that is why all batsmen have always looked forward to a feast at the expense of fast bowlers when a big match is played in Adelaide. The same Sydney wicket also at times assists the slow bowler as well. Hordern, for instance, in the two Tests in New South Wales against Warners last team, had the English batsmen scratching all the time, and he kept turning the ball both ways and did it quickly. When he came down to Adelaide he was no source of annoyance at all and found it even difficult to turn the ball in the slightest. B. .1. T. Bosanquet was another great Test- match bowler. He was the originator of the wrong ’uns, and we Australians are never likely to forget the way he rattled through us in the Test at Nottingham in 1905. We were playing for a draw at the time, and at the outset were very confident of ending the game that way, but we reckoned without Bosie. When he did find his length he was practically unplayable.

MOST AWKWARD LEFT HANDERS.

F. R. Foster was perhaps the most awkward left-hand bowler that ever I faced, but possibly he would not have been the same success in England as he was in Australia. He was one of the r very few bowlers that I have batted against who could make the ball fly a bit even on an Adelaide wicket, and it

| ont of a ball after it pitched. He could swing with a new ball, and always kept I a good length, and right through the Englishmen’s tour I never felt I could play him with absolute confidence. Even the right-handers also found it difficult with the ball from him swinging in to them and then flying coupled with his on-fleld, to make runs against this lefthander. Much of the same style of bowler as Foster was Sailor Young, of Essex*, in ’99, and it has always been a matter of wonder with me as to why he did not take higher honors. Possibly if he had come to Australia he would have proved just as difficult to master as Foster. He was the first left-hander with a fast swinger that the Australians ever encountered, but he did not retain his form long.

George Hirst, in marked contrast to Barnes and Foster, was a world-beater in England, and practically of no account in Australia. He could swing the ball in the Old Country and make it come back from leg in a most awkward manner; but in Australia, apart from swinging a new ball, he could not, to any appreciable extent, make it turn. W. R. Rhodes, like Briggs and Peel in England, on any wicket could always make the ball do a bit, and always kept a perfect length and was fighting it all all the time. In Australia, however, he has never been anything to really fear unless, of course, the wicket had been damaged by rain. No doubt, judging by his performances last season in the Old Country, W.R. would be a very nasty thorn in the side of Australian batsmen if he found a wicket to his liking during the present tour.

M. A. NOBLE THE GREATEST AUSTRALIAN.

Of all the Australian Test match bowlers that I have played against, I have found Howell the most awkward. Trumble, of course, was a bowler in his own elase, but I never quite feared him in Australia quite so much as I did the New South Wales trundler. Trumble could not make the ball pitch my leg stump and knock out the off pin like Bill Howell could. I only played against Turner at the tail-end of his career, and of course, George Giffen was on the decline when I moved into first-class cricket. Perhaps, year in and year out on all Australian wickets and under ordinary natural Australian conditions, the greatest of Australian bowlers, in my opinion was Noble—l must leave Jones out, because I only played against him in club cricket. Taken all round, I consider that Noble was the best Australian wicket bowler I (gave ever face*d. Where Noble had the advantage over Howell and Trumble was that he cbuld swing the ball on to my legs and then come back, while neither the tall Victorian nor the sturdy Sydneyite ever practiced the swing at all. In England, of course, Trumble stood out by himself as the greatest bowler who ever toured with an Australian side in reclnt years.

AUSTRALIA’S FAST BOWLERS.

Jones was Australia’s greatest fast bowler, and there was very little to chose between Richardson and the old Adelaide express. He also accomplished some great deeds on the Sydney wicket, and over and over again made the ball fly shoulder high. Poor Tibby Cotter did have Jones’ pace, but what a trier!

We in South Australia were denied the pleasure of witnessing the A.I.F. team in action, and as a consequence I have not yet had the good fortune to see J. M. Gregory and I do hope that he will realise the very high opinion formed concerning his ability by so many sound judges of the game. He has the height and comes right over, a great pull for a fast bowler, for it makes the ball jump directly upwards the moment it touches the pitch.

BOWLERS OF THE WRONG ’UN.

Among the googlies, Hordern stood out by himself, while of the left-hand-ers Saunders appealed most to me. On any wicket he could turn the ball from the leg and could also send down a real good swinger, but his length was erratic. Mcl\ibbig was a good bowler. He was the first man that I batted against that hid “the break” action in delivering a ball, and he had wonderful power in his wrists. I’ll never forget old W.G. at on one occasion facing McKibbin and trying to discover whether it was the leg or the off break coming along. The old champion performed some contortionist’s tricks on that occassion that would have made any “human frog” envious. McKibbin should have got a double hat trick in one innings and later on secured two wickets in succession, and if mid-off had not drop--ped a very easy chance, would have completed the double. What a pity it is that Australia has not got Jack Massie to help her in the forthcoming Tests. I regard him as the best bowler that the Commonwealth has produced of recent times, and if he had only had the experience of a tour through England, might have developed into the trundler of the country. Even on Australian wickets he had you playing him the whole time. By way of conclusion, I must say that Australian bowling has steadily been going downhill for many years, and we are weaker at the present moment than ever we were, but there is some consolation in the fact that England, with out Barnes, is not one whit better off than we are. Z