SCHOOL TEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 115, 18 May 1933, Page 8

SCHOOL TEST.

UNINTELLIGENT ? 1 CRICKETERS AND WORK. BRAINER FOOTBALLERS. The suggestion that schoolboy cricketers are below the average of intelligence was made in London recently by Dr. E. D. Laborde, careers master at Harrow. Psychological tests, he said, liad been introduced at Harrow to help boys in their choice of a career. The number of cricketers at public schools who were not gifted with a great amount of intelligence was very extraordinary. "On the other hand," Dr. Laborde added, "it is my impression that the same is not true of boys who. succeed at Rugby football. "1 was told the other day that one of the big banks did not employ public schoolboys. The explanation was given that the public schoolboy did not settle down and was not satisfactory. I went into the matter, and found that he was expected to go into a bank and through live years' drudgery, which revolted'any boy of intelligence. He got very small pay, and there was no attraction. As a result the bank got the very worst kind of public schoolboy." Mr. W. W. Wakefield, former English Rugby captain, gave his views as follows: "I am gratified, of course, but not surprised to know that we Rugby footballers are more brainy than the cricketers. Speaking 011 the spur of the moment, I should say that the Rugby footballers have certainly gone further than the cricketers I have known.

"In my own time at the university most of the Rugby Blues were clever and successful, and some of them brilliant. "One reason for this may be that cricket occupies much more time than Rugby. A Rugby player can work extremely hard and at the same time play for his country or his county. A county cricketer can hardly do that. The difference in success in' after-life of cricketers and Rugby players may easily be a result of the little time needed for Rugby and the fact that the short sharp exercise is actually invigorating and keeps a man fit without keeping him long from his work. "During the time I captained England at Rugby I was working habitually from 8.30 a.m. to about 7.30 p.m., and sometimes in the evenings as well. What England cricket captain would be able to spare so much time for work?" Mr. P. G. H. Fender (the former Surrey cricket captain), said: "Cricketers have filled some of the highest positions in the world, and have been leaders in all forms of social, commercial, financial and political life. Their names are too numerous to mention. True, scholars have also filled similar positions. One cannot deny that some cricketers have been unsuccessful in the battle of life, but can anyone deny that scholars, as a breed, have been invariably successful? Most men of ordinary intelligence would admit that there are successes, and others, both among scholars and cricketers."