THE CRICKET FIELD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 27, 13 November 1935, Page 3

THE CRICKET FIELD

A BOOM SEASON LIKELY.

PREPARING FOR SUMMER (By “Mid-On”). A boom season appears likely for cricket in Nlew Zealand. The English team is to tour the country and there promises to be more than ordinary interest in the games for the Plunket Shield.

A feature is the spread of the coaching movement among associations. L. F. Townsend, of Derbyshire, and F. T. Badcook, after a great run in League cricket in Lancashire, is to resume duties with Otago. W. E. Merritt, the slow bowler, is also returning from a very successful season in the Lancashire League, to coach in Canterbury. A. E. Alderman, of Derbyshire, lias been engaged by a number of minor associations in the North Island, and W R. Patrick, the former Canterbury and New Zealand representative, will again be .employed in Southland. C. G. Dacre, former Auckland and New Zealand representative, is also to have a season in 'New Zealand, returning after playing with Gloucestershire.

Wellington Prospects. Wellington has secured L. Keating, of Melbourne. He is an experienced player with a good record, and is most highly recommended as a coach. His influence on club cricket should be considerable. Even more revitalising, however, will be the appearance in club cricket of T. C. Lowry. The big fellow is one of the shrewdest captains of post-war cricket in any country, and withal, a great fighting batsman. If he recovers form after an absence from big cricket * of two seasons, he will almost certainly lead Wellington in Plunket Shield sanies and New Zealand against the Englishmen. This may be unfortunate for I. B. Cromb, of Canterbury, who was developing fast as a tactician last season, and who should one day lead New Zealand. It will, however be decidedly to the advantage of New Zealand. Wellington club cricket, it seems, will be keen and probably even. Kilbirnie the champion team of last season, has lost Crook and Griffiths, but has a good nucleus available for a strong team in Christophersen, Wiigley, Parsloe, Ward, Hepburn, Ashenden, Handscomb, Wilson and Turnbull.

Yorkshire’s “Rebuilt” Side, A run of half a dozen victories since the shock administered by Essex at Huddersfield has taken, Yorkshire to their eighteenth championship, of which nine have been gained since the war. On all hands there are congratulations for the side that has, without a doubt proved itself to be the best in the country (writes “Little John” in the Yorkshire “Evening Post.”) When the last wicket had fallen at Worcester in the final match (against Worcester) and the players turned toward the pavilion, Perks, the Worcester bowler, who had just been very finely caught by Sutcliffe on the longon boundary, turned to the Yorkshireman nearest to him and congratulated Yorkshire on taking the championship. “Thanks,” said one of the members of the side, “thanks very much . . . but (pointing to Bowes) there is the man who ought to he congratulated on winning the championship because he s done the trick just as he did it in each of the three seasons before the last.” It is conceivable that the championship could have been won without, shall we say, Sutcliffe’s or Barber’s runs; it is conceivable that the championship could have been won without the fielding of Mitchell, or of Turner, who is becoming an ideal substitute for Mitchell in the close-in positions, but it is not possible for the championship to have been won without the greathearted bowling of Bowes. Think of the times that he has separated the opposing Side’s opening pair. Think of the times that he has returned to make use, as no other bowler in the country can do, of the new hall, and then you get a fair idea of his worth to the side he first played for in 1929. . , ■, It was in 1931 that Yorkshire found their way back to the championship after being without it for five years, and it was in 1931 that Bowes and Verity first took 100 wickets each for the county. Bowes and Verity are now the veteran members of the attack, a fact which makes you think about the wav in which the constitution of the Yorkshire team has changed since the start of that season. Wilfred Rhodes played his last game for Yorkshire in 1930, Emmott Robmson and Edgar Oldroyd finished with he county in 1931, Frank Dennis was drooped out of the team about that time and at the end of 1933 Percy Holmes left the side. Now George Macaulay has severed his connection with tll SuteUffe, a Leyland and Mitchell, who nlayed on and off for the conn y several years before he got his cap, are thl only links with the side which won the championship in 1925, and in the which played at Worcester on Wednesday and Thnrsday there four men who were not m the siae which was led hy F. E. Greenwood to th £d?rS!ts been rebuilt » the last six or seven years and yet it goes marching on from success to success.

crimmett's Record. Clarrie Grimmett, the Australian cricketer, will be forty-three years of "fin December. Ten years ago he ”, u r st appearance m test; in a sensational match in Syd- ™ 4 wbie'> eaptated five for « 11 V • - fnr 37 on a perfect wicket and six lam j He has s ince figured in tests against three countries, having taken 106 wickets against England at 32 runs apiece and 33 each against South Africa and the West Indies at * trifle oyer 17' rtmsv