MR FREDERICK WILDING

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24616, 12 July 1945, Page 4

MR FREDERICK WILDING

A GREAT FIGURE IN SPORT [By VETERAN] The death of Mr Frederick Wilding, K.C.. will revive, in the minds of the older generation especially, memories of one who played many parts in the life of this province. On arrival from England as a young man he at once won fame as a cricketer: Canterbury has had many noted players, but few, if any, have earned the reputation he did.. He was a stately figure on the cricket field, and always genial and friendly, yet no one ever thought of addressing him as other than Mr Wilding. His status in New Zealand cricket was similar to that of Lord Harris and Lord Hawke in England, for he became a great administrator as well as a noted player. Classed among the great all-round-ers of the game in this country, he was, on the field of play, as wily as George Giffen, as playful as Johnny Briggs, and, when his side was in a tight corner, as courageous as Joe Darling.

An illustration of his artfulness is to be found in an incident in the test match at Christchurch against Trott’s Australian eleven of 1896. The visitors began their innings in great style with Iredale and • Darling scoring freely, when Mr Wilding, in his cultured voice, jokingly said to his captain; “I have not broken my arm, Cyfl." The latter, though amused, did not immediately respond, but when Iredale had reached 75 he threw the ball to the Canterbury veteran. Now. when bowling, Wilding had a tantalising habit of fiddling with the ball in his hand, as Giffen used to--do- he would wrap his forefinger round it as though his one aim was to make the ball break about a yard from the off. Down he came to Iredale, and this graceful Australian batsman, playing close to his pads in anticipation of the break, was chagrined to see a perfectly straight ball go on to hit the middle stump. That this was not an accident may be gathered from the fact that 10 years earlier Wilding had taken seven wickets for 21 runs against Alfred Shaw’s English touring team. The Canterbury-Otago match of 1893 provides an example of his greatness at a pinch. On a bad wicket, with 83 runs to get. Canterbury batsmen had to face the redoubtable Fisher, Downes, Hope, and Lawton, then the best quartet or bowlers in the Dominion. Wilding was the only double-figure scorer on the side, and his forceful innings of 45 enabled Canterbury to win an exciting game by two wickets. The crowd at Lancaster Park was never more croud of its hero than on that day. Mr Wilding was for many years president of the Canterbury Cricket Association and several times president of the New Zealand Cricket Council; but perhaps his greatest administrative feat was his steering of Lancaster Park through all the difficulties this famous ground experienced in its earliest years. On the tenni? court he was as clever and capable as on the cricket field. His policy was that of the British Navyattack, attack all the time—and this often carried him to victory. His association with R. D. Harman in the New Zealand doubles .championship, which they so often won. gave cricketers an added interest in the sister summer game. Present-day tennis players may not all be aware that it was Mr Wilding who blazed the trail in making Sunday afternoon tennis accepted as harmless recreation. Fifty years ago churchmen were less tolerant than they are to-day. and Mr Wilding’s Sunday tennis parties in the beautiful grounds of his own home at Opawa raised a storm of protest. For many years “Fownhope” remained the Mecca of tennis, and many noted players from all parts of the world have enjoyed the hospitality of Mr Wilding and his gracious wife, who made such charming hosts. Cricketers, too. shared in similar entertainment. Mr Wilding was in his time a noted advocate, and his appointment as one of the first K.C.’s in New Zealand was a well-deserved personal honour, as well as the reward of a distinguished legal career. Anthony Wilding won a world-wide reputation, but his father’s record, too. will not readily be forgotten. , „ After Mr Wilding had passed four score years and ten, cricketers began to have visions of his reaching the century. but Providence decreed otherwise. and so, when approaching ,his ninety-third birthday, this great citizen and grand old man of cricket and tennis passes from the scene.