Chatfield hopes to leave hospital today

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 1

Chatfield hopes to leave hospital today

<Xew Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 25.

Ewen Chatfield, the New Zealand No. 11 batsman hit on the head by a bouncer during play in the first test at Eden Park this morning, hopes to go home to Wellington tomorrow.

In mid - afternoon, Chatfield, still in his cricket clothes, said he had been most touched that Peter Lever, the man who bowled the bouncer, was one of the first men to visit him in hospital.

“Peter looked a bit of a mess," said Chatfield, “but it was good of him to come to see me. Some of the other M.C.C. players are coming up to see me later.”

At the hospital, Chatfield, who is 24, was able to remember his own score of 13 (his previous best batting score was five), his team’s total, and the fact that his partner, Geoffrey Howarth, had just passed 50. It was a first test match for both players. First aid Swift action by a St John Ambulance Brigade inan, Mr J. Hyland, and the M.C.C. tour physiotherapist, Mr B. Thomas, had averted a possible tragedy after Chatfield was hit on the head. “Another 30 seconds and we may have been too late,” said Mr Hyland, who gave Chatfield first-aid as he lay beside the pitch. “He stopped breathing for about five seconds just after I got out there.”

While Mr Hyland applied heart massage to Chatfield, Mr Thomas gave him mouth-to-mouth • resuscitation.

“Chatfield was blue in the face and had swallowed his tongue,” said Mr Thomas. “I hooked out his tongue and gave him mouth-to-mouth for about five or six minutes.” The injury to Chatfield stunned the small crowd who had watched Chatfield and Howarth, the last New Zealand batsmen, fight for 46 minutes in a last-ditch effort to stop England winning. With Chatfield injured, England won by an innings and 83 runs. ‘Sad ending’ - “This was a very sad ending to the test match,” said Mike Denness, the England captain, afterwards. Asked whether the old custom of fast bowlers not bowling bumpers at tail-end batsmen was being disregarded, Denness said that this was a difficult question to answer. “I can tell you that Lever did not intend anything like that to happen.” Bevan Congdon, the New Zealand captain, said he regarded Lever’s bouncer as “a legitimate ball.” “All players must expect a certain number of short balls,” said Congdon, “I sympathise with Lever. The bumper is a recognised way of trying to get wickets.

“Perhaps in New Zealand we have fewer bouncers bowled at tail-enders than overseas.” No doctor The chairman of the Auckland Cricket Association (Mr W. K. Jagger), asked about the absence of a doctor at Eden Park, said that was “unfortunate.” But it had hardly

seemed necessary for what looked like being a short period of pjay. “Our honorary doctors have been very eond,” said Mr Jagger “We had severel of them on duty for the other days of the test. Tliev do not work on a roster “We will have to look closely at this matter ini future,” Mr Jagger said.