Days at Lancaster Park (xi)

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 11

Days at Lancaster Park (xi)

»B 2.HXXJ T revert from Blanket x Shield- gsmee to those against ovenena upon which Ihiiszm it do so for Ma/ch 6,1938, JtewZeatand began the fourth match against the ILC.C. side touring that summer. You could not.cail it an England side, no; but it was a good EngHah side, including such batsmen as Barber, Human, E. R. Holmes and Lyttelton and such-bowlers as Human, Sims and Read, It was a staggerer when Wellington beat them by 14 runs; and so they tame on to Canterbury hnd won bylo wickets, but flie warning sign was up; for Kerr batted through Canterbioyn' first innings for 148, not out I was not there to see. in toe ffrst game agafnat New dteoTatxt

neither Kerr nor Hadlee played; and MXLC. had . enormously the advantage ' of. a drawn name, in which tfiexecoud gun^tn-Welling-ton, the warning sign was aixin up; .tec Kerr, after 2 in the first innings, made 105 not out in the second, well seconded by Vivian on 96. The game was drawn, in New Zealand’s advantage. So, after another drawn game in Awekiand, the fourth match was played at Lancaster Rsrir, beginning on March 6, 1936, and ran to another draw. But the Warning signs that had been up were verified; for Kerr, opening with Whitelaw for New Zealand, easily “■-missed^his hundred; and

match particularly because hothKerranc them was hot England's best but it was fery good; and in Read and Suns it was represented at top level Sims I recall very well as a long, lean, well-dried type, who could (to all appearances) have spun the ball for ever, and have been unmoved. Whether he spun tt to toe batsman’s downfall or not Utterly different, indeed, from those Australians who leap to the skies, like Benaud, whose example Lawry follows, after trapping some innocent. I admit that I prefer Sims’s impassivity. The game ended tn a draw. New Zeeland leading M.C.C. by 150 or so and Griffiths took four of the Ingush wickets for Wto toe firat innings; but too funny thing is that I have no recollection of him whatever. Blundell bowled only 6 overs, two 'maidens, for two wickets, which were thorn of Parks, the opener, and Hardstaff, number three. Why he was not perseyered.withl havnno idea. But, for me, this was Kerr’s match and Hadlee's.