NO PLAY IN TEST

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27091, 14 July 1953, Page 9

NO PLAY IN TEST

More Rain At Manchester

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 13. The history of test cricket at Manchester was not improved today, when no play was possible on the fourth day of the third test between England and Australia.

Theije was persistent rain overnight and this morning, and play was abandoned for the day even before the usual starting time—a course taken only in the most depressing conditions. It is unlikely that there will be any play on the final day tomorrow, and even if there is, the match seems certain to be added to the list of drawn tests at Manchester. TTie last EnglandAustralia test to be finished at Old Trafford was in 1905, when W. G. Grace was still playing first-class cricket.

A very rapid improvement in the weather and some extraordinarily dramatic cricket will be needed if this test is not also to be drawn. With England 126 for four wickets in reply to Australia’s 318, a finish seems almost out of the question. The captains, L. Hutton and A. L. Hassett, made the decision to abandon play for the day after an inspection of the pitch 45 minutes before play was scheduled to start.

Heavy week-end rain had flooded the pitch and dozens of lakes had formed around the ground. The rain had stopped, but black clouds threatened further heavy falls. Change Suggested The information officer of the Manchester Corporation (Mr Terence Usher) suggested, in a letter to ‘‘The Times” yesterday, that future cricket tests in Manchester should be played in June.

He said: “The papers, this morning (July 10) are full of woeful groans about the interruption of the third test match at Manchester by rain, and some papers have even gone so far as to headline their test report, ‘Why Give Manchester a Test in Future?’

“Of course the idea of omitting Manchester from the test series will not be taken seriously, but the suggestion that Manchester is an unusually wet city is wholly incorrect. “Manchester does not, perhaps, get as much sunshine as some holiday resorts, but the annual rainfall is less than 30in—two-thirds that of many south of England and Welsh coast holiday resorts.

‘‘The truth of the matter is that Manchester, like India, has a ‘monsoon season’ in July and August when the rainfall is sometimes more than double that of other months.

“The obvious answer is to change the Manchester test to the month of June. This would mean that the second test would be played in Manchester instead of.the third. “There is no reason why this change should not be made (except that July and August are probably just as wet in other places), arid it would at least dispose of the outworn legend that it always rains in Manchester.”