SCHOOL CRICKET

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 19

SCHOOL CRICKET

IDEALS AND AMBITIONS Problems of school cricketers, with their ideals of the past, and their ideals of the future, are discussed by a well-known recorder of English public school cricket, Mr. H. S. Altham, in the “Cricketer Annual.” “The season of 1922,” he says, “opened almost as gloriously as its predecessor of brilliant memory. After the usual showers in the first days of May, wo entered upon a month of glorious weather, and before long fast wickets and hard grounds began to. bo taken for granted as callously as they were in the dog days of last year. . But Nemesis, too good a cricketer, perhaps, to suffer the game to degenerate into an orgy of rungetting, or moved -with pity for the groundsmen or the bowlers, took things in hand at last and in earnest, with the result that a warm and brilliant Juno night turned to a cold and pelting day, and from that moment the pondulum swung over, the bowler entered into his own, and the batsman began to learn once more how difficult a game is cricket. “From the point of view of the school batsman, the change was at once too abrupt and too permanent. Without warning, he was forced into tho necessity of practically recasting his whole batting method, and so relentless was the weather that if he failed to do so he enjoyed no respite. Of course, tho boy with real ability Won through, and will probably be all tho better player in consequence, but the struggling batsman was hard hit, and in danger of losing confidence. A few short spells of turning wickets are oorflainlv desirable; they teach the batsman to watch the ball, and to strengthen his back play, as well as giving him an opportunity for learning tho hook stroke, and they encourage the bowler to spin the ball, while rewarding him more generously for a good length. But such conditions, if prolonged, tend seriously to cramp tho average school batsman; tho sma and relatively weak player, who bats correctly is liable to drop behind in tba race in favour of the older and stronger bov, whose chief assets ar« a good eye and a stout heart. Vorst of all, forward play tends to discredited, and the ability to get runs

somehow, generally on the on-side, to be raised above that essential soundness of method wlu’ch, for 99 cricketers out of 100, is the precondition of sustained success. “In spite of the bad weather, there was plenty of good school cricket; there were somo strong elevens, two or three perhaps up to almost the highest standard, and certainly there were several very promising individual players. It is not a little encouraging to find that no fewer than nine school cricketers were given places in their county elevens during August. True, their collective performance was not impressive, but the wickets were almost invariably difficult, and under these conditions experience or luck, or sometimes both, are needed if a batsman is to do much against the best professional bowling. It is, however, a little disappointing to find that at a time when most counties are crying out for bowlers, not one of the school players thus honoured this year was selected on that account. “From most schools the reports bespeak enthusiasm, confidence for the future, or at least resignation over a temporary set-back; but I am bound to record that in more than one case—in fact, in half a dozen—my correspondents refer regretfully to the weakness of the school fielding. Now, it is, of course, true that from one year to another a school’s fielding may deteriorate for causes outside of its control ; one year the side will consist almost entirely of natural athletes to whom anticipation, quickness, and cleanness in the field come almost as second nature; the next there will be four or five members in the eleven less favoured by nature, and literally incapable a£ becoming anything better than ' ‘sound’ hi the field. Nevertheless, ills safe to say that no school side ha* any business to be bad, and most of them should be, and can be, definitely good. In batting and bowling thin years are bound to comb, and no amount of coaching on the one hand, or zeal on the other, can make up for lack of natural ability. But fn fielding it is different; practice on the right lines will do wonders, but only if reinforced by a whole-hearted determination on the part of all the side to be content with noffiing but the best. Hero, at any rate, tho best is not the enemy of tho good; no standard is too high to aim at, and the enthusiasm of its pursuit is not seldom the index figure for tho condition of the game as a whole in a school.”