"Very Much in the Game"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 803, 10 December 1954, Page 12

"Very Much in the Game"

er eg R.FERN ON THE VELD: New Zealand CritKeters in South Africa, 1953-54, by R. T. Brittenden; A. H. and A. W. Reed, 17/6.

(Reviewed by

A.

M.

_ place and the*loved one all together!" Such is New Zealand’s record in Test cricket, where it has not won a game. There have been fine batsmen, bowlers and fieldsmen, but they have not come off sufficiently in unison. R, T. Brittenden, New Zealand Press Association reporter with the team in South Africa, who now gives us the history of the tour, refers to "the traditional Test habit of failing to press home an advantage to the full." It may be, he thinks, that we should not aim much higher than being, as we sometimes have been, "very much in the game." Anything more than extending our opponents, and perhaps enjoying an occasional success, would require "a complete revision in organisation," and it might well be asked if this would really be worthwhile. Of the ‘lovely Capetown ground of Newlands, he says a Test match should never be played there, for its atmosphere "demands the expression of the YING bee the time and the

cricketing graces, and is quite unsuited to the smell of cordite which nowadays hangs heavily over any Test match." From this you will judge that Mr. Brittenden holds unorthodox views and that he can write. This cricket book is well above the average. It is as full a record as one could desire of play on New Zealand’s first tour of South Africa, clearly and acutely and sometimes pungently written, combined with much about the personalities of the players and the social scene, and bright glimpses of travel in an exotic land. The author is critical of selections, weaknesses in the side, and tactics, but never unkind. The one criticism I would make is that rather too much is made of humours of the players off the field. The team’s losses notwithstanding, the story is rich in interest. The visitors had to contend with a strange and varied climate and a grievous list of injuries. On both sides there was great batting and bowling, but the New Zealand batting was patchy, and s0 was the fielding. Our fielding weakness, including "the bad catching which has affected New Zealand cricket like some wasting disease," is a mystery as well as a bane. In this branch the South Africans are magnificent. Is there something special in the South African and the Australian

air? New Zealand’s chief glories were Reid’s "double" with bat and ball, and Sutcliffe’s batting. Cricket history does not show a more heroic and dramatic fight against fate than Sutcliffe’s resumed innings in the second Test. Cartied off the field injured, he returned, pale and bandaged, to hit 80 in an hour and a half, including seven sixes. Playing in Australia on the way home, the

side lifted our hearts by polishing off two States handsomely and holding a third. Socially the tour was a complete success. Hospitality was overwhelming. The tourists, a happy band among themselves, made firm friendships with their opponents, and were most popular abroad. This book, which is well illustrated and fully furnished with statis-

tics, should appeal to all lovers of the game, and have considerable value for its governors.