CRICKET IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 75, 21 December 1929, Page 25

CRICKET IN ENGLAND

PAST SEASON REVIEWED PRAISE FOR SOUTH ' AFRICANS “The visit of the South Africans added much interest this season, because, with the exception of H. G. Deaue, H. W, Taylor and R. H. Catterall, they were the youngest touring side any country has sent to play representative games,” writes H. A. H. Carson, in reviewing the last cricket season in England in the “Daily Mail Year Book.” “The South African selection committee,” he states, “was determined to build up a great side, and in pursuance of this policy, sent to England a team of sixteen youngsters who could field superbly. Accustomed as most of them were to matting wickets, the team looked a little raw when they first turned out to practise at Lords, but the experience and the cricket learned in all parts of England made them a magnificent side before they left for home. “Five test matches were played, and though South Africa did not win., one of them, the margin was not greatly in England’s favour. South Africa led in the first innings at Birmingham, Lords and the Oval; they lost the games at Leeds and Manchester; but their superb fielding, their willingness to play the game, and their never-failing good temper, endeared them to all cricketers. Of the South Africans, D. P. B. Morkel distinguished himself as one of the best allround players, and H. G. Owen-Smith was conceded generally to be the best allround fieldsman in the world. England’s Teams. The English selectors (Messrs. N. Haig, H. D. G. Leveson-Gower and J. C. White) never succeeded in finding a stable English team. The team that had done so well in Australia during the winter of 1928-29 was not available in its full strength, as D. R. Jardine took no part in English cricket during the season and A. P. F. Chapman played in very few matches. J. B. Hobbs was not anxious to play test match cricket if it could be avoided, and others of the Australian touring side were feeling the effects of too much cricket. The selectors attempted to introduce a little youthfulness into the English team. E. T. Killick, K. S. Duleepsinhji, R. W. V. Robins and J. O’Connor found places in the early matches, but these attempts to build up a team in similar fashion to S. Africa faded away, and the team which represented England in the final game at the Oval was one of the most mature representative sides we have ever put into the field. Outstanding Players. So far as representative cricket was concerned, the outstanding individual was Frank Woolley, of Kent, who came into the side with marked effect. In the opinion of the South Africans, Woolley was the only batsman they feared, because he was the only player who could score sufficiently quickly off their steady bowling to enable a game to be finished in three days. . “The Yorkshireman, H. Sutcliffe, batted well in most of the games, but W. Hammond, of Gloucestershire, was hardly at his best. As he had three seasons in England, a tour in South Africa, and another in Australia, it is a matter of surprise that he did as weir as he did. “J. B. Hobbs had an excellent season, and increased the number of his hundreds to 170. K. S. Duleepsinhji made over 2000 runs for Sussex, including sevencenturies, scoring his runs on all occasions extremely quickly. Another batsman who showed all his old skill was H. Makepeace, who came back into the Lancashire side to prove that at 46 he was as great a batsman as ever. O'Connor, of Essex, showed excellent all-round cricket and might well have been given more than a solitary trial in the series of Test matches. The Bowling. No new bowlers were conspicuous in 1929. Maurice Tate did some wonderful bowling for Sussex, and ’ Freeman bowled well in all the county and test games. Larwood did better in Nottingham matches than he did in the test matches; Richard Tyldesley bowled well; but, with the exception of R. W. V. Robins and I. A. R. Peebles, both of whom played for Middlesex, and Voce, who bowled for Nottingham, there was little bowling to look forward to which seems likely to trouble the Australian batsmen i who visit England in 1930. Early in the season Goddard took many wickets for Gloucester, and as a fast-medium bowler with a high action and an off-break it may'be that he has a future as an English bowler. It was only at the last moment that it was decided to leave him out of the English team at the test match at Leeds. World’s Best 'Wicket-keeper. The wicket-keeping throughout the country has kept up a reasonably good average. Duckworth (Lancashire) appeared to be the best of the county ’keepers, with Ames (Kent) and Elliott (Derbyshire) next in order. The best wicketkeeping of the year was shown by H. B. Cameron, of South Africa, who is probably the best wicket-keeper in the world at the moment. His understudy, Van der Merwe. was not greatly Cameron’s inferior behind the wicket, but was not so good a batsman. Game More Popular Than Ever.

“Cricket was never so popular as in 1929. The influence of the South Af-

ricans, with their determination to play the game to the last ball bowled, may bare inspired English cricketers, for it is rare to find a season when the games have been better fought out or have given the spectators more pleasure. Whether the larger stumps or the altered leg-before-wicket law will stand is a big question. The Dominions appear Indifferent to the whole matter, while elub cricket in Eng-land-is definitely against any alteration in the original laws of the game. The general opinion of the public is against the adoption of one code of rules for first-class games and another for ordinary cricket.

“There is also a divergence of opinion as to the value of giving points in the county cricket championship for a lead in the first innings. Some players consider that a numerical recognition of the value of a lead on the first innings at cricket is contrary to- the spirit of the game, and that the playing of such points has a decided tendency to reduce interest and foster slow play.”