GOOD TEAM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 251, 23 October 1935, Page 9

GOOD TEAM.

ENGLISH CRICKETERS. BLEND OF YOUNG PLAYERS. OPINIONS OF COACHES. Tho collective opinion of the cricket coaches and players who arrived at Auckland to-day by tho Rangitiki is that the English cricket team which will play in New Zealand this summer is a combination of very promising young players who will give attractive exhibitions and be equal to the best team that New Zealand can put in tho field.

There was practically half a first-class cricket team on the Rangitikei, tho players being Messrs. F. T. Badcock, of Dunedin, ■ who has been playing in the Lancashire League, W. E. Merritt, tho well-known New Zealand slow spin bowler ,who has been playing in the East Lancashire League, -C. ,C. • Daere, of Auckland, who has been playing for Gloucestershire, L; F. Towusend, the Derbyshire County player, who has come to fulfil another coaching engagement for the Auckland Cricket Association, and A. E. Alderman, a' Derbyshire County player, who has been' engaged" as coach for tho Waikato Cricket Asso-

ciation/ Merritt described the English combination as a young team which had been selected on the lines of building up for the future, and he thought that it was quite possible that New Zealand might beat the visitors in the Test matches. He 'aid that he had met Reveral of the players with tho New Zealand team in England on the 1027 and 1031 tours. There were several very promising young batsmen on tho side, and in Read the New- Zealanders would meet a very fast bowler. Baxter was another very good bowler. Personally he had had a very good season in England and had finished the club season with a record of 116 wicket**.

For tho past two seasons he had played Rugby League football with tho Halifax Club. '.'League football in England is a very strenuous game," he added, "and they play the inan a lot. The average player g&ta about £250 a season out of it. But for myself I ara finished-with football, as I want to give all my attention" to cricket." .

Speed of Read. : , In the opinion of Townsend, -Readj the much discussed English fast bowler, is not as fast as Larwood, but he*- is a player of great promise, while Holmes, Smith and Barber as batsmen should appeal to the New Zealand crowds. Personally he had a good., season in English county cricket, and, was looking forward to renewing his coaching work in Auckland. He was very pleased to hear of the promising debut of Bnrgess in Auckland senior cricket last Saturday and considered that the colt was one of the best that Auckland had. "Ces" Dacro said that the English team had no star attractions like Woolley and Duleepsinhji, but it was a good side, and he was sure that Read, the young Essex .express, would make a big impression. Hardstaff was one of the young batsmen of the side, who would probably do .exceptionally well. Dacre had a successful county season and was the third player to get a thousand runs for Gloucestershire last season. Late in the season his health was not good and he was now recuperating. He said that it was indefinite whether he would play in Auckland this season, and at the moment he felt that the thing that he most needed was a (real, good rest. •

F. T. Badcock gave a very bright description of Lancashire League cricket, where v they have one day games, starting at 2 p.m. and finishing at 7 p.m. He said that it made for fast scoring. He considered that the standard of play was aljout midway between the New Zealand club standard and the provincial representative standard. In Lancashire club cricket a batsman had to make runs fast, but there could not be blind swiping, as the bowling was, too good. Nearly every club team had a first-class professional bowler, while some of the amateur trundlers could not be despised.

Badcock played for tho WcrncthClub. He has a photograph of the ground under snow, a photograph of interest to him, as next day ho made a century on the same ground. He got his hundred wickets in the season and over 900 runs, a remarkably good double for English club cricket. Attractive Side. ; Badcock said that New Zealand could look forward to tho coming English ,team as a very attractive young side, with particularly good; batsmen in Holmes and Smith. Much hope was being held of Read, tho fast bowler. He was not as fast as Larwood. inaccurate on occasions, and had a peculiar long run up to the moment of delivery. In pace he was faster than Dickenson, the best New Zealand fast bowler of recent years. Baxter also had a fair turn of speed, and in the matter of pace could be likened to Nicholls, the Essex bowler who visited New Zealand with Gilligan's team. So well did Badcock do in English League cricket that he has been invited to return to Werneth, and after playing this season in Dunedin expects to return Home next March. - A. E.. Alderman saw New Zealand for the first time this morning through a curtain of mist and rain.' He is very keen on settling down to his coaching work at Hamilton, and made eager inquiries of the Waikato district and the schoolboys who will be available for his special care. One joint opinion of .the English cricket coaches is that England has run into a fairly lean period in big cricket. There were no great amateur 'players of the calibre of Ranjitsinhji, MacLaren, Fry, Jackson, Foster or Jessop, but there was. a wealth of young players, and there was every reason to think that the cricket England' of the future would fully hold her own with tho other cricket countries.