CRICKET

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 3

CRICKET

Mver Fern on the Veld. By 8. T. Brittenden. Reed. 223 pp. As the correspondent chosen by the New Zealand Press Association to accompany the New Zealand cricket team on its tour of South Africa last s immer, Mr Brittenden won an enviable position—a position, be it said at once, thoroughly merited by connstently excellent cricket reporting tor "The Press.” In a foreword, so great a player and so astute a judge of matters pertaining to cricket as W. A. Hadlee testifies to Mr Brittenden’s standing as a cricket writer and to ms understanding of the tactical and technical aspects of the game. Also, Mr Hadlee points to what it is that endows Mr Brittenden’s writing with Warming qualities; as Mr Hadlee says, as his readers readily perceive, Mr Brittenden is a great lover of cricket. Mr Brittenden travelled with the team rs one of the official party, having Opportunities to know what went on behind the scenes as well as on the fields of play. Thus, his book is more than an accurate and wellwntten account of all the matches of the tour. The players are brought before the reader on official bbd on unofficial occasions; the writer’s observations are keener, his Praise better merited, and his criti--1 asms better founded, because of knowledge of all relevant circumstances. The book includes 30 wellchosen photographs; on the dustroyer is what must surely be one of cricxet’s most dramatic photographs; ~ere is an extensive statistical sum™ry of the tour. There are a few finoor blemishes: notably, the book Would have been tidier and more conygljent to the reader had the score car d of a match been assembled on Pegs; in some cases the scorecard S»«S over pieces of three pages. But ™flts are few and small in a book yrtueh will serve as a worthy per?yynt recorC of New Zealand’s first tour of South Africa, and which will add Mr Brittenden’s name , w bo have contributed worththe extensive literature of