Was It Cricket?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 812, 18 February 1955, Page 21

Was It Cricket?

You, who on Friday, February 25, willbe listening to the final Test between England and Australia, don’t know the whole story. Even at Lord's, that fixed and immovable tabernacle of all things cricketing, they don’t know Of course, they know Jagger (William Austin)--Jagger the Superman of the last hundred years of cricket, the man who ran up the most fabulous total ever recorded for England in the most desperate circumstances, Truly it was an epic stand, worthy of the plains of Marathon .. . but up till now only Jagger could tell you how he did it. However. by careful and tactful investigation on the part of the author, Maurice Moisei- | witch, and faithful re-creation by the NZBS Productions Department, you, too, can hear the real story of Jagger and the Magical Bat. Poor Jagger! For the Skipper of an England side the whole thing Pa rather uncomfortable telling, but perhaps it’s not quite as sticky as the position Jagger finds himself in when the | story begins. Imagine yourself in Syd- | ney-not at the Sydney Cricket| Ground’s practice nets with the rest of | the side, but in a hotel room with _Jag- | ger,, who is having a rather distressing interview with Lord Longstop (Hector Ross), manager of the team. Lord Longstop usually believes in hitting hard, but | now he plays softly at the pitiful sinht |

of Jagger, whose form and _ spirits have sunk to duckege blue. Whenever, before Adelaide, had a Test captain been out off a long-hop? Lord Longstop had _ to confess that the only occasion he

could remember was wher he saw it happen to Ranji at Lady Inflation-Huckster’s garden party-a friendly match. Jagger is visited by a mysterious Oriental princess (Davina Whitehouse) who, obeying her dead husband’s spirit, has come to offer Jagger a magical bat which cannot miss the ball. She’s right. Jagger smashes.an impossible ball right out of the window in proving her statement. Not for nothing did the late potentate have an average of 109.4, Now comes the fateful Test. First innings-Jagger 0. Second innings --Lord Longstop dancing the Lambeth Walk with the twelfth man in broad daylight! England has won the Ashes! Just what did happen in the meantime? Did Jagger use his magical bat or could he go back on Founder’s Day with a clear conscience, knowing that he had, after all, "played cricket’’? Listeners can hear what the full score was when Bernard Beeby’s production of Jagger and the Magical Bat is broadcast from 1YC at 10.0 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23. It will be heard later from YA and X stations.