MANY THANKS, PAYNTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 24

MANY THANKS, PAYNTER.

THE GAME IS OURS. AND THE GAME IS THE THING. HAPPY DAYS FOR ENGLAND. Special to the "Star,'' by A. S. H. E. S. Subhs. Means of communication an open guess. Copyright in all countries. Australian translations now banned. TRENT BRIDGE, June 11. Thank you, Paynter! Some will hold you guilty of an audacious trespass upon Bradman's prerogative, but I am of a I different mind and mood. Thank you for that double century and thank you for each stolen single, for each brilliant four, and for those crashing sixes. Thank you for the finest innings by an Englishman for years! England has made a good start and a good finish, and, just as I expected, here are the Australians chasing our first innings total on a crumbling wicket. Only a flood wiping out further play can save tlieni—and am I liappy. They've had this coming to tlieni ever since they set foot in England. As the innkeeper at Trent Bridge put it, "It's been nice day again." The Game's the Thing. England, of course, puts very little store oil victory in itself. Winning for the sake of winning is never encouraged in tliis country, and cricket emphasises that supreme spirit of sportsmanship that is the very soul of England. The game is the thing. That is the spirit that takes us to Australia every two years. In spying that I don't want any bodyline stuff. 'J lis time the Australians are visiting us, and we want them <o enjoy themselves thoroughly. They should manage that during the coming two days, for there is any amount of batting ior them to do. One could say that Bradman and his men have a great opportunity to getting in some valuable practice for the second Test. Their gallant little skipper, Don, should welcome the impending follow-on with open arms. It will be a new experience for his team this season, and everyone knows there is nothing like an innovation to set a team going. We all admire the Australians. For the moment it is impossible to disguise the fact that we are in an excellent position for the indulgence of that admiration. But, putting all that on one side, you will admit that we English are always the first to say how much we like the Australians. They have indomitable hearts. This is an invaluable asset when a team is facing fearful odds. The Australians fight uphill with the same ease as ordinarymen fight down. Looking Down. As we look down the hill up which tohey are fighting we are deeply conscious : of their splendid courage. This, of course, i is a compliment to England, who seems to be just as good at building hills for i Australians to climb as she is at building . Empires for Australians to belong to. Personally, I am delighted to be an Eng- : lishman on top of the hill looking down , and not an Australian at the bottom . looking up. Vision is clearer at the summit, and I am already halfway'towards ; completing plans for the winning of the , next two Tests and tihe Ashes. This match, which is as good as over, . has proved that our team is a good team " as a team. One of the moat distressing I things that can happen to a major cricket- ; ing country is to find itself landed at the cross-roads with a team that is a good team but not as a team. Fortunately that has not occurred this year. The result is that you are witnesses of the joyous spectacle of a well-m®ulded English side going through the delightful process of unmoulding a once well-moulded Australian side. Happy Days Again. Truly, happy days are here again. All our batsmen can bat and all our bowlers can bowl, and between them I think they can win by an innings, or thereabouts, and take their place beside the great teams of the days when Herbie and I were in our prime. I watched Don Bradman closely, a 6 doubtless did many others. Don is deceptive. There is a difference between him and the next man, but it is ratiher difficut to define. Watching Don and the next man holding their bats before striking the ball you can detect no difference. It ,s only in the split second when Don hits the ball that the gulf between brilliance and mediocrity becomes discernible. Like our splendid Wally Hammond, Don crashed early. That is, early for him, and once again the glorious uncertainty of , cricket entered into the game. The stout heart of England stood still under this blow; Australia staggered slightly, too. Hoodoo Broken. Trent Bridge has previously held a hoodoo over century-makers in Test matches, but it now looks as if the spell has been broken. Here is England with a record Test score, three centuries and one double century, and the fifth and sixth batsmen to score centuries in a Test at Trent Bridge. All this in one innings. What a bagful of records, not forgetting the record fifth-wicket total. Ames was lucky when he survived that appeal for lbw in his first over, but he was not as lucky as tihe obscure batsman who survived three appeals for lbw against a medium-paced left-hand change bowler bowling over the wicket against the wind in the first three balk of the first over after the beer adjournment. Well, cheerio, I am taking the Australian manager to dinner, mainly to watch what he does with a dish of kangaroo-tail soup.