Exit Holmes.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

Exit Holmes.

A Great Batsman Leaves the

County Ranks.

Percy Holmes is to drop out of county cricket and we are all truly sorry, writes Lord Tennyson in the London "Sporting and Dramatic." Without him Yorkshire VHH be strange and tlie poorer. For Holmes ft still of the giants, and I would that lie had tarried the longer. News that this is to be his last season came to me as something like a bombshell.

It cannot be, though he is but. five years short of <50, that he has come to the end of his tether. The limit of his

usefulness has surely not been reached. But that, perhaps, is not for me to inquire: it is too intimate and domestic. It might be that he himself decided that it were better that he should' leave wide open the door at which the younger generation have for so long and persistently and vigorously knocked, and wave a fond farewell to a great public of whose heroes he assuredly was one. Yet it seems but yesterday that, together with Herbert SutclifTe, he set up a new record for a first-wicket partnership—555 against Essex at Ley ton—and left the game's statisticians wondering whether there was a finality to the prowess of this famous pair. And the world of cricket did then give itself to rhapsody; the Old Guard was forced to confess a doubt as to whether even the square-cut J. T. Brown and Long John TunniclifTe were greater than the Holmes-Sutclill'e confederacy.

I have tried to imagine what transpired when it was more than hinted that Holmes must prepare to take leave of Yorkshire. We may never know. And it is well that we should be left to our thoughts. I would be spared the poignancy of whatever story there is to tell. We may bo sure, however, that Yorkshire feel acutely tho break that is so soon to take place, for the heart of Yorkshire is big, kind and loyal. The county ever did swear by their players.

Whenever I played against his county I have only soon daylight and hope for Hampshire with the dismissal of either Holmes or SutclifTe. It was not that the two dug themselves in. By their wealth of natural ability they roared defiance, as if all bowlers came alike to them; as if, and as. they pleased, they could give any lenprth to each and every ball, as if there were 110 end to their strokes,, as if it were automatic that they should lav the foundations to a winning score, as if near to a miracle would have to be performed to break their partnership before a century had been scored.

My Wisden tolls me that Holmes and SutclifTe not only went one better than Brown and TunniclifTe (who 0110 c helped themselves to 554 against Derbyshire) nut, for their county have hit up 100 or more in a first-wicket partnership 011 110 fewer than OS occasions; and the records do also tell that, next to Hobbs, Holmes made the highest individual score at Lord's —315. or one short of the score put together by the redoubtable Surrey man.

I have small appreciation for the figure fiend. Statistics may never make for a wholly just and proper assessment of the worth of any player. But regard must be had to the fact that for his county and throughout his distinguished career, figures prove that Holmes was more than a model of consistency. He was one of the most prolific run-getters of his time, and in association with SutclifTe had, in a batting sense, most to do with the glorious success of his county.

I have played with and against Holmes at home and abroad. Of those outside his immediate circle I may claim

to have had exceptional opportunities of studying and understanding him both as a cricketer and as a man. To all his beliefs lie held with the tenacity of a limpet and in a way characteristic. I recollect an occasion when, as a member of Mr. Solly Joel's side that toured South Africa, he was invited to take part in a Sunday match at Buluwayo. Without apology or excuses, Holmes said 'gS T o," which we knew was enough. Sunday crickct did not fit in with his

ideas, and much though I would have bad him play, we did all admire him for his candidness. 1 decided there and then that Holmes was of tlie breed that would rather go to the stake than sacrifice a single principle. To 111 c from that day lie ceased to be merely a cricketer. He became Holmes, distinctive and deepthinking.

I would not, as I have been tempted to do, appraise the value of Percy Holmes by his performances as measured by tho score book. 1 have preferred to put bim through a process of analysis. And at' tins definite conclusion have 1 arrived—llo set of figures pay him the. compliment be deserves. We may say that with SutclifTe lie engaged in perhaps more successful first-wicket partnerships than any other batsman of his era. But that is not enough. Rather does it misrepresent him, and may have limited the honours conferred upon him. I am no heretic in.tho way of refusing to concede that comparisons are odious, but I make bold to say that at his zenith Percy was not eclipsed bv SutclifTe. When T come to put him under review I am at a loss for an Explanation why he was only once selected to play against Australia in this country. Was it because our team-makers took the view that Holmes as an international and county player was two separate and distinct people ? 1 wonder!

For myself I never suspected him of otjthe temperamental kind, so well balanced was he. It is deep down in 1110 that the powers that be judged him wrongly in doubting, as they apparently did, that lie offered 110 guarantee that he would reproduce his county form in the Tests. Popular impression, I suspect, is that he was overshadowed by Sutcliffe. That he never was. He simply fitted 111 with SutclifTe, not as a machine, but because one was the inspiration of the other.

111 every respect Holmes is a complete and natural cricketer. With grace and ease he could fashion his fjame to the demands of the moment, but it will be as "one of the side" that I shall ever remember him. the more vividly as the best type of Yorksliireman, for whose county he contributed many of the brightest pages in its cricket history.

T would that the news of his retirement had not been imparted in a way so casual. Far better that it should have been withheld until the end of the season and accompanied by a song of praise by those he so lon<r lias honourably and chivalrously served.