VOCE THE CULPRIT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 9

VOCE THE CULPRIT

Bowling Bombardment

DANGER TO BATSMEN

Body and Arm Pads Worn

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, Jan. 21.

The furore in Australia over what is known as body-line bowling was a subject of explanation by an Auckland cricketer who has just returned from Australia, where he witnessed the first Test match. He declares that it is not leg-theory bowling at all to which the responsible body of Australian cricketers has taken exception, but an ingenious system by which the English fast bowlers collaborate in bowling on the body-line of the batsmen with the field set for ordinary leg-theory bowling. The system used by the Englishmen, he stages, hinges on the bowling of Voce, a tall left-hander, who delivers the ball, not with an overhead action, but with almost a round-arm action. This bowler at work reminded onlookers of a person skating flat stones on water, in which, by making a moderately long (or good length) throw to the water a series of short, quick hops on the water was produced, but by a short throw to the water (or short length) a long, high hop was caused. Bowling short, and from the extreme width of the bowling crease, at a low trajectory, Voce, who was very accurate in direction, kept the ball flying high about the body and head of the batsmen. Fast, but Good Length. Larwood and Allen, the former very fast, and the latter not so fast, but having a swerve (and both of whom had a real overhead action), bowled practically for the leg stump on a body-line, but with a good length for fast bowling, which, of course, is much shorter than for the medium-paced bowler. The ball from these two bowlers rose above stump level only very occasionally, whereas it was the exception for the ball to keep down to stump level when dispatched by Voce. It was the system of bowling Larwood and Allen in collaboration with Voce’s body bombardment that producoed such devastation among the Australian batsmen, equipped though they were with arm and body pads in addition to the guards customarily used for legs and hands in cricket. It was especially hazardous for the tail-end batsmen, who, being in the team- as bowlers or wicketkeeper, lacked the natural speed of foot and eye which protected the real batsmen from the dangers of the fast-flying ball. Voce’s Deliberate Bumping. The Aucklander declared that the responsible cricket folk in Australia did not object to leg-theory bowling at all, but they were concerned about the possible effect of Voce’s deliberate bodyline bump bowling on cricket apart from the Test matches. If it became general it would be bad enough in ordinary senior club matches, but the effect on junior cricket would be such that cricket would be banned by thousands of parents, and the game eventually disorganised and discredited. It would not be feasible, he concluded, for junior cricketers, or even for the average senior cricketers, to equip themselves with pads for abdomen, chest, and upper arms such as the Australian Test cricketers had been forced to wear.