Surprise Selection In Plunket Shield Team

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 8

Surprise Selection In Plunket Shield Team

Six New Zealand representatives are included in the 12 players chosen to represent Canterbury in the first Plunket Shield match of the season, against Otago, at Lancaster Park, beginning on Christmas Day. The only newcomer to representative cricket is the Sydenham right-hand leg spinner, D. L. Gallop. The team selected is:— R. T. Dowker (captain) M. E. Chapple J. W. D’Arcy B. M. J. Dineen D. L. Gallop G. N. Gcarry S. C. Guillen P. G. Z. Harris B. A. Haworth A. R. Mac Gibbon M. B. Poore I. McK. Sinclair The twelfth man will be chosen on the morning of the match. The team selected has an extraordinary long list of batsmen, but doubts about the bowling remain. Although 10 of the 12 players named will be expected to make runs in representative cricket, of them only D'Arcy is at present an opening batsman for his club. But Chapple has been an opener for New Zealand and Poore has enjoyed some success as an opening batsman, scoring 142 against Central Districts in that position and sharing two notable opening partnerships with J. G. Leggat against Hutton’s M.C.C. team. With these two as possible openers, d’Arcy may be considered as twelfth man with Dineen.

If Dineen is given a place in the side, it may be partly because of his reputation as a useful medium-pace bowler—an attribute not so far exploited in club cricket. If Dineen is included as a batsman able to give the only two pace bowlers some assistance, it would cause no more surprise than the selection of Gallop. This 19-year-old certainly shotvs some promise as a spin bowler, and he has the virtue of confidence. But since he started playing senior cricket in the middle of last season he has taken a total of five senior wickets.

Every cricket enthusiast will hope that Gallop succeeds, and certainly he shows more than ordinary promise. But to rush so inexperienced and so far unsuccessful bowler into representative cricket merely because he shows promise is no more than clutching at straws: if selections are to be on this basis, anyone able to turn the ball or plav a good-looking stroke is automatically a candidate for a Plunket Shield team. Gallop may succeed,

but there is less prospect of that than of his being set back in his career. | Dineen is another who seems to, have a. fine future, but on his performances with the bat this summer he is not yet quite ready for it. His inclusion lends weight to the belief that his bowling is expected to be useful. No Criticism There can be no criticism of the selection of Guillen, Harris, Chapple, j Mac Gibbon, Dowker. Poore or Gearry, particularly as both Chapple and Poore : will no doubt be expected to bolster; the bowling. Sinclair has been unim- I pressive in some matches, good in l others, but recalling his fine spell for Canterbury against the West Indies, and his success in the last series of shield games, as well as his fine fielding and usefulness with the bat, his retention is justified. Haworth may be regarded as a little lucky to be included, for he has not made many runs in the club matches. Again, <his performance last season must be taken into account. He batted most ably for Canterbury, and his fielding is outstanding. His choice will be a particularly popular one. D’Arcy has not had a particularly successful season, although he scored 99 in the first round and a century against a country team. However, he is a determined batsman, and another who will help maintain a high standard of fielding. The chief weakness in the team is an unavoidable one—instability in the bowling. H. N. Dellow, of Timaru, was not available. Should Mac Gibbon or Gearry break down, therp is no attacking bowler left in the side other than Gallop. The batting is long, but somewhat brittle, and it is regrettable that there is no-one with the solidity of J. G. Leggat to insure against a break-through. It is a pity, too, that if a leg spinner was to be chosen, W. Bell was not given an opportunity; last season’s matches could not be regarded as proper trials for him. There are others unlucky not to be included —G. G. Coull, a determined batsman, a useful bowler and a fine field; B. A. Bolton, whose partnership with D’Arcy last season held high promise, now deferred for a little; R. T. Hunt, whose lively batting and qualities of cricket appreciation would have been valuable: W. E. Muncaster, a lovely batsman once on the way; D. J. Reid, a left-hand swing bowler who is in excellent form this season, and A. G. Duckmanton, an all-rounder whose figures this season hardly do justice to his value.