Cricket and rugby

Press, 20 December 1978, Page 22

Cricket and rugby

A statistician's delight: that is the first impression of NEW ZEALAND FIRST-CLASS CRICKET compiled and edited by an Auckland enthusiast, Francis Payne. This survey of the 1977-78 New Zealand season runs to more than 100 ample pages. It may be a pity that this new publication could not include the tour of England, but in every other respect it is well worthwhile.

Mr Payne has gone to extraordinary lengths to find figures of interest relating to the last firstclass season. He has tried not to cover too much of the ground found in the present two cricket almanacs and he has achieved some diverting results. He lists, for instance, those games in which extras provided a high percentage of the totals,

been a daunting task, trying to cover so much in such limited space: others before him have produced vast volumes on the same subject. But Bailey has a lively style, and if his history is not a detailed one, he tells the story cheerfully and well. Of particular interest to New Zealanders will be his chapter on “The Kiwis,’’ in which he runs swiftly through the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand cricket over the last half-century.

Jack Fingleton has been among the very best of cricket writers for a good many years. He has been a full-time journalist through a long working life, and he has produced some outstandingly good cricket books. It is likely that his latest one. THE IMMORTAL VICTOR TRUMPER (Collins:208 pp., $18.85) has given him

barians, has covered a tot of rugby teritory simply and attractively in this hard-covered publication which, he hopes, will become an annual.

Now firmly established among rugby literature, THE D B RUGBY ANNUAL (Moa Publications; 158 pp) is again crammed with statistical information, bold opinion, and eye catching action photographs. All grades of the game, down to schoolboy level are covered, and it is a credit to the editor, Bob Howitt, and the publishers, that the publication date is so soon after the end of the season. Howitt, so often a critic of the national administration, has a change of heart in the editorial reviewing the season, and has some nice things to say about the N.Z.R.F.U. council.