ENGLISH CRICKET.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19111, 21 September 1927, Page 9

ENGLISH CRICKET.

SEASON'S FIVE BEST

PLAYERS. BLUNT GIVEN A PLACE. (BT CABLI PRESS ASSOCIATION -COPTRIGHT). (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, September 19. | The season's tive best cricketers in the nest ''WisdenV portrait gallery will be: Roger Blunt, New Zealand. . R. Hammond, Gloucestershire. H. T. Hardinge, Kent. V. AV. C. Jupp, Sussex. 0. Hallows, Lancashire. Well-informed people say that- Jardine mil apply himself more seriously to cricket in ID2B, and that it would not be surprising to see him captain the test team in Australia. ENGLISH TEAM'S TOUR. N.S.W. TO LOSE A TEST. (AUSTRALIAN AND K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) SYDNEY, September 20. The New South "Wales Cricket Association is badly perturbed over the recent decision of the Board of Control that New South Wales shall lose a Test match, which has been allotted to Queensland, during the forthcoming visit of the English team. New South Wales is being required to forgo its second Test. According to statements made by representatives on the Board, New South Wales and Victorian delegates each moved to retain this Test, but the voting , favoured Queensland by four to three, and tho Board declined to con- j sider the suggestion that delegates should consult their Associations before a final decision was taken.

The New South Wales Association has now decided to ask for the rescission of the decision.

DINNER AT THE OVAL.

NEW ZEALANDERS ENTERTAINED. THE TEAM SPIRIT. (from our own correspondent.) LONDON, August 13. In accordance with time-honoured custom, the Surrey County Cricket Club entertained the New Zealand team to dinner in the pavilion at the Oval on tho second day of their match. A company numbering about 70 was presided over, by Mr George H. Longman, president of the Club, and like Mr T. C. Lowry, a Cambridge captain, but 30 years ago.

Proposing the toast of "the King and the Royal Family," Mr Longman referred to the close relations that existed between the Prince of Wales and the Surrey Club—the Prince as Duke of Cornwall being their ground landlord, _Mr Longman, who, on the previous day had celebrated his 75th birthday, next proposed the toast of the evening—"The New Zealand Team." He expressed his opinion that the present New Zealand team was quite as good as the first team that came to England from Australia, and "he felt it could not be very long before teams were coming to England from New Zealand to play test games with the Mother Country. It gave his club great pleasure to be accorded the opportunity of entertaining the N|ew Zealand team, alike as cricketers and as citizens of a country which had always displayed a spirit of intense loyalty to the Empire. The team had proved itself a good side, and the strongest counties, had to look to their laurels when they met New Zealand. On the field and off the field the team had established itself in the public's estimation as a side which played the kind of cricket worth going to see, and it could always be relied upon to show the true sporting spirit on all occasions. Surrey was short of bowlers, but they were endeavouring to bring out new bowlers.

Mr T. C. Lowry responded, and thanked the Surrey team and the president for his remarks, which he was afraid they barely deserved. The team, however, had done very much better than they themselves, or their New Zealand supporters ever expected. The Young-Old Brigade. Mr Douglas Hay (lion, manager of the INew Zealand team) proposed the health of the president, and said that although Mr Longman was 75 years of age, he was still a keen and active follower of the good old game. * He represented a type of Englishman that was a surprise to the rest of the world the young-old brigade of whom England seemed to have a plentiful supply. Mr Hay thanked the Surrey Club for the honour done the members °f the New Zealand team on their arrival in England when they were elected honorary members of Surrey for the term of their stay in England.

Cricket and the Nation. Mr_ Hay briefly traced {he growth of cricket in New Zealand from its first beginnings, and said that in their country there was . a growing section of men who, while they fully appreciated the necessity for material production of every description, felt that New Zealand could never be really great unless more thought were given to certain other matters whose effect on a nation were perhaps not quite so obvious. Cricket was not only a magnificent game—it was thought the king of game; by the team—but it was also a wonderful agent in the proper education of young people, for no country could afford not to encourage the team spirit for which j cricket pre-eminently stood. Then again there was no game which, he thought, played so great a part in generating goodwill among any communcricket field all played on a level plane, and all classes got to Know and appreciate one another's good qualities. It spread goodwill and dissipated the unreasoning distrust from which the world had so much to fear in many places to-day. The team had come to England realising that they would here find cricket in its best form. On their return home they would pass on the lessons they had learned in England during their tour. Mr Leveson-Gower spoke and backed up the president in his eulogy of the New Zealand team. He pleaded guilty to underrating their ability when he was at first arranging his game with them at Scarborough, hut said he had made special arrangements now to ensure a three days' match and a good game.