CRICKETING GENIUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 288, 5 December 1932, Page 8

CRICKETING GENIUS.

BORN OR ACQUIRED ?

THE "NATURAL" PLAYER.

HARD WORK ESSENTIAL.

(By H.'A.B.)

Eobert Louis 'Stevenson once declared that fine writing was ten per cent inspiration and ninety per cent perspiration. The eame dictum may be taken to apply to fine cricketing, though possibly in ■a; smaller degree. Put the percentages at fifty-fifty, and you won't be far wrong.

I In England, broadly speaking, the public schools are the recruiting ground for amateur players and the "nurseries," and the "club and ground staffs" of the county clubs for the professionals. These "nurseries" afford striking instances of the influence of birth and territorial tradition on the young player, for year after year, generation after generation, they have produced their crop of outstanding bowlers, batsmen or fieldsmen. And curiously enough each nursery specialises in one of the three. Take the Eastwood district in the Xotts and Derbyshire coalfield. A radiue of a few miles has produced Attewell, Lockwood, Wa'ss, Hardstaff and Payton, and, in more recent years Larwood and Voce. Hardstaff and Payton were batsmen of consistent ability, well up to county class, but the others bowlers of superclass.

Unlucky Sparrows. At Eastwood there is a tradition that there isn't a sparrow with two eyes— all have lost one owing to the deadly accurate throwing of the youngsters!

What makes fchia yearly production of line cricketers the mare remarkable is that in nearly all the North Country nurseries the young men are engaged in industrial occupations where there is little opportunity for outdoor recreation. A Yorkshire enthusiast once remarked to the writer: "Eh, it beats me. They works in t' pit all t' week and then they cooms out on Saturday afternoons ready-made cricketer*!"' He was, of course, exaggerating, but the natural in-born genius for the game must .be there.

But now for the . perspiration. The inspiration of the young cricketer is studied by the county coach, and the youngster has to practise hard and long before life style is moulded on sound lines. Wilfred Rhodes, one of the moat accurate length-bowlers the world has ever seen, relates how Tom Emmett used to make him howl at a penny lying on the ground in the practice shed. It was placed on a spot which fairly indicated a good length 'ball. When the delivery hit the penny and also the stumps "young Wilf" had the penny. Similar steady practice was rubbed into George Hirst and both became great cricketers. Now, at the end of their long and honourable careers Rhodes is coaching at Harrow and Hirst at Eton. When the two old-timers meet over a friendly pipe and glass, as the evening shadows fall, one can imagine George saying to his friend: "Eh, Wilf, me lad; we 'aven't done so badly."

The Art Of Batsmanship. Batting- is so often so much more spectacular than bowling that the orrlooker faile to realise that a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance has been necessary. That apparentlyeffortless, drive has not been perfected without long practice, that graceful leg glance, so perfectly timed, was developed as well as inborn.

Fielding, too, is a specialieed art and so is wicket-keeping. See a group of professionals put in a strenuous s>r>ell at the slip-catching board, and you will realise that the clean acceptance of the ball with one hand, and the easy, accurate return arc matters of training. Of course, the genius must be there, but tlie cricketer of tip-tup class liae also learned how to work anil to persevere;