NOW OR NEVER.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18670, 20 April 1926, Page 7

NOW OR NEVER.

—» ENGLAND'S CHANCES IN TESTS.

WELCOME FOR AUSTRALIANS

(BT CABLE—PBBSS ASSOCIATION—COPTBIGHT.) (acstraliak and S.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

LONDON, April 18

Never before in the history of international cricket has there been anything like the amazing scenes of welcome to the Australians. Two hours before the train's arrival the streets outside Victoria Station were thronged with patiently-waiting people. When the cricketers were rocoguised there was a spontaneous burst of cheering. The crowd soon broke down the barriers, and the cricketers, amidst the surging mass, made their way to the conveyances in which they travelled to tho Hotel Cecil, in the Strand. An official guard of honour, composed of men from the cruiser Melbomuo, helped tho strong force of mounted police to keep the crowd back.

The Australians arrived at Victoria at 6.15 p.m., from Dover. Mr Sydney Smith, manager, on behalf of tne players, said that he again looked to the tour to be the means of improving the Australians' play. "If our ph.yois really reproduce their batting nud bowling form under the changed r-ir''-tions," he said, "we will be very strong indeed." He recognised that England particularly on her own fields, would be most formidable.

Sir Joseph Cook and Mr M. L. Shopherd, secretary to the High" Cmniivssioner, on behalf of Australia, and Mr Arthur Gilligan, on behalf of the Marylebone Cricket Club, received the Australians.

Comparing past and present | erformances, , the "Observer" asks: "Have we been making a habit of loingP" and concludes, "England cannot take on' the Australians nr.'l an inferiority complex at the same imc."

One correspondent says that it is obvious the Australians, above sli, dread wet wickets.

F. E. Woolley, the well-known professional, 'said: "They are good feilows and deadly serious. Nevertheless, ibese Australians cannot, in my view, irate a super-eleven out of their 16 players. I can assure you it is most likely that England will win. Cricketers 7 hcye met recently are going to put theif very hearts into the task. We all, for some reason or other, have got the feeling that it is a case of tow or never."

A NOVEL EXPERIMENT. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, April 18. P. G. H. Fender initiated at the Oval an interesting cricket experiment. He engaged an Anglo-American baseballer to coach Snrreyites in the practice of fast low-pitching, believing that a baseballer's throw will improve the fielding and keep down runs.