Plunket Shield Captain

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 13

Plunket Shield Captain

The appointment of R. T. Dowker to lead Canterbury in the coming Plunket Shield matches was expected and well-earned. Last season under Dowker Canterbury won all four of its matches, only the second time a province had performed such a feat. Dowker is not a lecturer in the batting classics, he does not have a particularly wide range of shots, nor is he often capable of taking the bowling by the scruff of the neck; but for the steady accumulation of runs in innings after innings he stands almost alone. He is a neat batsman, a safe one, and one more gifted than most at finding and exploiting gaps in the field. His consistent scoring in senior championship cricket is remarkable. He has already made more than 5300 runs in these games, and regularly finishes the season high in the averages. In the eight seasons, 1947-48 to 1954-55, he scored 4419 runs at

an average of 43, an extraordinary success, for a season’s aggregate of 500 runs is exceptional. In senior matches, Dowker has made 24 halfcenturies and 12 centuries, with 208 against Sydenham six years ago as his best.

Dowker has a remarkable record in sport: a South Island soccer player, a representative tennis player, a junior golf champion, a very able table tennis and billiards player, and a Plunket Shield cricketer. Making his first appearance for Canterbury in 1949-50. Dowker took a little time to establish himself as a leading batsman, although in 195051 he scored a half-century in each innings of the match with Auckland. It was not until 1954-55 that he came into his own. An aggregate of 386 in 10 innings, with a century against Auckland made him the “New Zealand Cricket Almanac’s” batsman of the year, and last summer he had another very successful season, with three half-centuries and an average of almost 40. Dowker was a very successful spin bowler at school, but he is now of the occasional variety, and his victims in senior cricket are a select band numbering 15. As a captain. Dowker is watchful, careful, parsimonious. He is unlikely to make the bold master-stroke by flying in the face of convention, but he is even more unlikely to lose a match by taking an unwarranted risk. His field placing is of a particularly high order, and he has a cheerful personality which means much to a team. Dowker is full of good cricket sense, and under him Canterbury can be expected to make another good« showing in the weeks ahead.