EFFECTIVE ANSWER

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1934, Page 11

EFFECTIVE ANSWER

BRADMAN THE PLAYER

(By "Not Out") Tho big tour has opened, and any doubts that might have been entertained, through baseless reports, that the batting phenomenon of the last Australian tour in England was not urj to the mark have been removed right away; indeed, Bradman has given just the reply that was invited by those ivho served up sensationalism, as a preliminary to the tour. Bradman, we were told recently by one English critic, looks twenty years older than his age, and ho will have to be much healthier before he can play in the Tests. Well, Bradman gives a healthy enough sign on the score sheet, today, and 112 not out is not bad for an "old man." And as for cricket having been "reduced by these young fellows to a positively pathetic state," there is also the effective nnswer in today's news of their first appearance. They have made an auspicious beginning of the tour, much as good, in fact, as on their opening day on the previous tour —in 1930. The Australians in 1930 started their match play against Worcestershire, and, having dismissed the county team for 131, they niade 199 for .on© wicket. It is a coincidence that their total was the same yesterday, though for the loss of threo wickets. On the last tour the Australians went on to win their match by an innings and 165 runs. Bradman started his amazing run of records in England with a score of 236, and now he is again under way from the jump. Where Bradman is concerned one instinctively looks for records, and the young batting wizard has caused the statisticians, if not already prepared, to sharpen up their pencils for this, his second visit to England. To be marked down right away is another distinction, the scoring of a century on a first appearance on each of two successive tours. A.gain the entry is credited to Bradman. He has set himself a big task by his previous feats on English wickets, but there's no knowing how far, he will go. His first-day century will lead straight away to discussion on his prospects nf getting 1000 runs in May.

The wily.Grimmett has also given a very fair indication that he, too, will have to bo reckoned with once again. Five for 53 is a performance of no mean account for a slow bowler in his first match of a tour and against a side stronger in batting than when, the Australians were last ia England,