AN ANGRY CROWD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 68, 2 January 1936, Page 5

AN ANGRY CROWD

DEMONSTRATION AT CAPE TOWN RAIN PREVENTS THE TEST. THREAT TO TEAR UP PITCH. United Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) CAPE TOWN, January 1. Play was abandoned for the day in the second test cricket match between Australia and South Africa at 3.30. A showed at 2.45 prevented the captains again inspecting the wicket, there having been no play in the morning owing to rain. Several thousand people blocked the entrance t° the pavilion, passing the time with community singing and call- 1 ing for Richardson and Wade at intervals. Eventually the captains, under a police escort, struggled through the crowd to make a final inspection and decided to abandon play. A large section of the crowd demanded the return of gate money and assumed a truculent attitude. The cricket union officials were adamant, refusing a refund. A hostile section lingered on, meanwhile the -sun was quickly drying the outfield,' rendering the wicket playable within an hour. Threatening to tear up the pitch the rowdy element approached the wicket and even the police could not retard their progress, some of them actually walking on the wifcket, while others deliberately dug their lieels into the turf close to the wicket,' until the police eventually succeeded in roping off the wicket. The crowd then adopted a passive resistance attitude, refusing to leave the ground and announcing- their intention to sleep at Newlands, thus obviating the necessity of having to pay again to-morrow. Arthur Mailey attempted to humour the crowd by drawing sketches of famous cricketers, pacifying the more hostile section. Reinforcements of police later succeeded in shepherding the mob out of the ground but in view of the threats an armed guard is watching the ground and wicket to-night.