BRIGHT STAR IN THE NORTH

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30680, 20 February 1965, Page 13

BRIGHT STAR IN THE NORTH

T7VERY few years, even in New Zealand cricket, there appears a player who is obviously possessing much more potential than the average. During the war, it was B. Sutcliffe, and later, J; R. Reid, and their performances for New Zealand are now history. And a teen-ager who has been on view in the last fortnight at Hamilton, W. J. Mitchell, appears to have the ability to become another great New Zealand player. A prediction such as this could be foolhardy but the confidence, and ease of Mitchell’s stroke-play, place him in a higher bracket than most. Christchurch people will be able to assess Mitchell’s ability soon, as he will probably be selected for the New Zealand under-23 team to play Canterbury, the Plunket Shield winner, and will also be spending the last few days of the season in Christchurch, attending university. When “The Press” spoke to Mitchell in Hamilton, he was unsure of the club he would join but it will probably be West-University, as he wishes to play in the University Easter tournament. In his brief first-class career of two matches, Mitchell is already a recordholder: he is the first player who has made a century on his debut, to make it against an international side, on this occasion, the Pakistanis. He played his natural, attacking game—under sensible instructions from the Northern Districts captain, B. H. Pairaudeau—and batted in the same manner against Canterbury a few days later when making 56. Mitchell’s willingness to attack was a rather new experience for this year’s Canterbury team, which saw only devoted defence from the young Otago batsmen, G. M. Turner and R. L. Murdoch, and only short stays by other young players of promise (who have both made the New Zealand team), T. W. Jarvis (Auckland) and V. Pollard (Central Districts). When facing his first full over from R. C. Motz, Mitchell was served up a halfvolley outside tile offstump, often a dangerous ball to a new batsman. But with no hesitation, he hit it high over gully’s head for four, a shot remarkable, not so much for its execution,

as the composure and confidence with which Mitchell played it After his quick start, Mitchell found himself up against J. W. Kiddey, then in an outstanding spell, during which his sharplybiting cutters had Mitchell dropped once and playing and missing frequently. But instead of trying to hit his way out of trouble as many a more experienced player would have, Mitchell kept his head down, steadily overcame his problems and was soon scoring freely again. But the bowling of Kiddey added to Mitchell’s cricketing education, as he ruefully confessed at lunch. Another example of Mitchell’s ability to adapt himself to the bowling came in the middle of his innings. P. A. Sharp was bowling his off-spinners fairly accurately and to three short-leg fieldsmen while Mitchell played him dutifully with bat and pad close together. However, when a loose ball came along, Mitchell played a con-

trolled sweep for four. Then a half-volley was off-driven with ease for four; and a shorter, faster ball produced a flashing square-cut and two more runs. Mitchell later took heavy toll of some very loose bowling by B. Andrews, probably a little tired in this match after a heavy season. A full toss went purring through the covers for another four; another full toss, head-high, was flicked disdainfully backward of square-leg and nearly a six; and three overs later, three gentle pushes were worth a couple of runs each. Plunket Shield standard bowling is no new experience for John Mitchell, who has been playing senior cricket since he was 15. He had the benefit, in his very young years, of a keen father who played City and Suburban senior cricket in Auckland, and when at primary school, was in the representative team for three years. Then, at Hamilton Boys’ High

School, Mitchell spent half a season (as a third former) in a junior grade, before moving up to the first eleven for the rest of his time at school, captaining the team in 1963-64 and for the beginning of the 1964-65 season. Mitchell’s first year with the school team was spent in the second grade competition, but the following year, the team moved into seniors and in his first innings Mitchell scored 25 against the formidable Old Technical club, which included E. C. Petrie, M. C. Langdon, W. P. Bradburn and N. Puna. Mitchell scored runs steadily from then and feels the reason he has made such progress is because of the experience gained in playing against international and representative players. He also feels he owes a lot to one of his early captains, R. Tasker, now playing Rugby for the University of Canterbury, and B. Batten, a Waikato representative and player-master-coach at the school. . Mitchell has played for Waikato Colts since 1962 he had scores of 142 not out and 89 against strong invitation elevens—and played for Waikato for the first time last season, when he failed most of the time. He played for Auckland in the Brabin tournament last season but his only scores of note were 34 and 38 in the vital match against Canterbury. This year, Mitchell made 91 against Otago and two or three useful scores for an , average of. 35 and selection 1 for the New Zealand team. In last year’s Rothman’s tournament, he did not perform very well at • all, his only score of any consequence being a 30 against Wellington. After the Brabin tournament this season, Mitchell was made twelfth man for Northern Districts against Wellington and Central Districts before becoming one of Northern Districts’ 10 new caps this season. This unsettled policy of the Northern Districts met with much criticism in the district but it did have one redeeming feature: it unearthed in Mitchell a batsman of the very highest promise.