Philpott finds coaching cricket rewarding

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 9

Philpott finds coaching cricket rewarding

“TVE got to the x stage now where I enjoy coaching kids as much as I enjoy playing,” the former Australian test cricketer, P. L Philpott, said last week when asked for Ins thoughts on his twoweek stay in Christchurch conducting a coaching course for the Canterbury Cricket Association. The course was attended by 160 boys in the first week before 44 were selected for intensive coaching. Philpott was assisted during the two weeks by the local cricketers, V. Pollard, T. W. Jarvis, P. A. Sharp, C. J. Stevens, J. A. Harrison, and J. S. Baxter. “I think the most important thing for this kind of fortnight is to create interest and enthusiasm, to gather talented cricketers together who may not have met each other before, and to have a wide range of ideas to throw at them because in the long run it is entirely up to the boys themselves,” Philpott said in summarising his objects of the course.

“Any player who came along to this who had any real interest in the game at all must have had his imagination stirred up by it I am not building it up for potential test players; it is just for the interest of cricket as a whole.” The course finished on January 23, when G. T. Dowling spoke openly on cricketing topics and answered some thoughtful questions from the boys. After a film of the England v. West Indies Test at The Oval in 1963, Philpott, Pollard, and Harrison gave their final talks before sending their tyros away cm their own.

The Canterbury Cricket Association is keen to have Philpott’s services on a regular basis and the fairhaired New South Welshman is “quite happy” to co-operate. His first course was held in 1968 and when unable to fulfil his engage* ment last season, the former Western Australia and New South Wales player, K. Carmody, deputised. However, Philpott has cemented his association with Canterbury cricket and it is to be hoped that his coaching course can be made a yearly event His wealth of experience and congenial personality have probably been the two main reasons why young cricketers have benefited from his cricket knowledge.

Philpott’s extensive but chequered career helped him to become a successful coach, for he entered first class cricket in the 1954-55

season and had played Lancashire league cricket in England for four seasons and coached in South Africa before he won selection in the Australian team at the age of 30. After the 1963-64 Australian season he retired for health reasons. As a youth he suffered from rheumatic fever which left him with a heart “murmur.” But after a Sydney doctor’s report declared Mm fit enough to play first class cricket he reversed hie decision.

Competition was keen for the 1965 West Indies tour and Philpott was always in the reckoning after scoring a century and taking six wickets in the first Sheffield Shield match of the season against Western Australia. He says Australia was not good enough on that eventful tour, but Philpott played in all five tests and took 18 wickets at 34.88 as well as taking 49 wickets for the tour, a record for an Australian bowler in the West Indies.

Against England in 196566, Philpott performed hot and cold. In the first test he captured five wickets for 90 off 28 overs and one ball but failed to take a wicket in the second test, having figures of 30 overs, two maidens, 133 runs, no wickets. In the third test he took two for 86 in England’s match - winning 488, but following Australia’s innings defeat he was dropped and did not play test cricket again. Philpott has no regrets after a career that began 20 years ago with Manly club. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of my cricket career and if I had the chance I would do it again. I’ll never regret having those years in Europe and South Africa.”

Perhaps it follows that after a sporting career of ups and downs, of plugging away and patient grafting, Philpott is suitably equipped to coach young cricketers because he realises their problems and the stony road many of them will stumble on.

The picture shows Philpott beating G. Boycott in England’s first innings of the first test at Brisbane in 1965, when the Australian spinner produced his best effort in the eight tests he played, taking five for 90 off 28 oven and one ball. ; ■