G. T. Dowling In Form At Oudfshoorn

Press, Volume C, Issue 29695, 13 December 1961, Page 15

G. T. Dowling In Form At Oudfshoorn

[Specialty' written for '‘The Press’* bu LOVIS OU f FVS}

C UDTSHOORN. APART from kindness and unending hospitality—common factors everywhere on their tour —the New Zealanders are likely to remember Oudtshoom for only two things, an innings by G. T. Dowling and a visit to an ostrich farm. In his best score of 49 not out, Dowling showed that he had just about wiped off the handicap of having to miss the first four matches of the tour through injury and another because he had to write his audit examination. In the poor light which prevailed while the Kiwis made their 76, with 10 minutes to spare, to beat Western Province Country Districts by eight wickets, Dowling played with convincing soundness and mounting confidence. To.wards the end he hit a straight six. Otherwise the game will want to be forgotten. The country batting was painfully slow, the New Zealanders’ bowling and fielding both indifferent, and their batting patchy. If this display were taken as a criterion for the

first test it would have meant that John Guy, Dick Motz and Paul Barton in particular had lost their fine form of the early part of the tour. Since Oudtshoorn, the capital of the Little Karoo, is a nice quiet little town of 9000 whites and 18,000 coloureds, and was celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of its cricket club, it deserved something more memorable. Off the field the Kiwis, as always, did their best. Eight of them visited and addressed schools and an enthusiastic gathering of coloured teachers. ■ Nothing should be read into > the fact that M. E. Chapple ■ had now captained the team ’ in two of its three victories 1 —both against country sides ! —but the feat does offer the opportunity to repeat what 1 John Reid told me about his vice-captain. "What a I great help he has been to > me.” he said. “I have no r qualms whatever about turn- ’ ing the team over to him. - He organises all our practices > so that I can go off and prac- • tise on my own without wor- : rying whether a player has

; 10 or 20 minutes’ batting. I can watch the players and give advice where necessary." Chapple had to deal with ■an unusual occurrence in this match, one that remind- ■ ed us South Africans of the i unlucky dismissal of D. J. 1 McGlew in the Nottingham • test last year. ■ The last two country bats- • men were having a merry • time and had added 25 when • one of them was uninten- • tionally obstructed by G. A. J Bartlett, and was run out. The players all hesitated and 1 there was a murmur about having the batsman recalled. Chapple promptly waved ’ everybody off the field. ■ ‘‘lt was most regrettable," ;he said afterwards. “The ’ only appeal came from Motz , at square-leg where he probj ably did not see what hapt pened. I followed the cusa tom at home where once an umpire’s decision has been ’ given it can’t be altered.” ' Actually, in this instance, the umpire concerned said he s would have reversed his de- _ cision had he been requested to do so, but there was no " reflection upon Chapple for s the way in which he interpreted the situation.

The visit to the ostrich farm was full of revelations including the debunking of the belief that the birds hide their heads in the sand. When ostrich feathers were the height of fashion for fair ladies Oudtshoom. the only place in the world where they are produced, had a fabulous boom. Today there are 35.000 ostriches in the area. Every part of the bird is used commer.ially. The feathers, apart from a few that adorn chorus girls, are used for making dusters. Each New Zealander clipped off a nice plume and four of them—B. Yuile, P. G. Z. Harris, J. W. Guy and G. Dowling—undertook the difficult task of riding a bird, amid much laughter and clicking of cameras.