The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937. History of N.Z. Cricket

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22057, 3 April 1937, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937. History of N.Z. Cricket

The second volume of Mr T, W. Reese’s history of New Zealand cricket has now been published. Covering the period 1914 to 1933, it will necessarily have a greater appeal to the present generation of cricketers than did the first volume, 1841 to 1914. With the publication of this second volume the complete history of the game in this country has now been recorded to within measurable distance of the present day. Lovers of the game in the Dominion owe to Mr Reese a tremendous debt of gratitude for undertaking a task that might never otherwise have been performed. No doubt the most arduous part of Mr Reese’s task was in the collecting of data for the first volume, for, as he. himself remarks in a preface to the new volume, by 1914 cricket had been well established in every centre and many secretaries of associations held complete official records for the period 1914 to 1933. A glance at the 400 pages of statistics and records in the second volume will convince anyone that only a man whose heart is right in the game would even consider the enormous task of . their compilation. How much more difficult must have been Mr Reese’s task in obtaining his remarkably complete records of cricket in the early days. Granted a man sufficiently enthusiastic and painstaking, this history might still have been little more than a collection of facts and figures and still achieve a most valuable object.' But it is far more than that. It is a delightfully written and connected account of the growth of a game that has been one of the writer’s chief interests in life. As a player and as an administrator, Mr Reese gave freely to the game he loves; but it is as a historian that he has done it the greatest service. Few others would have had the courage to undertake the task; none could have carried it out better. Internationally New Zealand has become a cricket force only in the last 10 years, and though cricket has never achieved in this country the popularity of the national winter sport, Rugby football, it has nevertheless attracted thousands of enthusiasts whose love for the game is no less sincere than that of their fellow-cricketers in England, Australia, and South Africa. To these Mr Reese’s two books will be indispensable. The important thing is that the hardest part of the task is done. Mr Reese and historians who follow him will, it is hoped, face nothing like such serious difficulties when they come to record the history of the game from 1933 onward. Cricket associations and administrators now are fully impressed with the necessity of keeping records of their activities, and future historians should not have to search files of newspapers and canvass the memories of old players for their material. The sports-following public remembers only a few outstanding personalities; it needs a book such as Mr Reese’s to recall to mind the deeds of the many fine players who have represented the various provinces, major and minor, arid their country, even in comparatively recent years. The second volume really is a complete history in itself, for without giving detailed scores and statistics, it gives a very full summary of the progress of the game in the period covered by the first volume. Further, it gives the score sheets of Dominion and major and minor association matches between 1933 and the end of the 1935-36 season. The rise and fall of the provincial associations is most interestingly traced, and Mr Reese has the happy knack of conveying an impression of the personality of players and adfninistrators. To cricketers young and old the chapter headed “ Some Personal Impressions ” will no doubt prove one of the most interesting; for here Mr Reese lays aside the impersonal role of the historian and gives his opinions, based on 60 years of observation and practical experience of New Zealand cricket, of standards of play and players over the years. A great many charming anecdotes as well as useful information will be found, too, in the chapter, “ Pavil- “ ion and Secretary’s Room.” It is a miscellany of things that will delight the cricketer, ranging from serious poems by W. P. Reeves and Arnold Wall to a faithful account of the complaint and subsequent enquiry into the alleged watering of the Lancaster Park wicket during a Wellington-Canterbury match. Though the task has not been easy, Mr,Reese obviously has enjoyed it as much as cricketers will the reading of it.