A SPORTSMAN’S DIARY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

A SPORTSMAN’S DIARY

(By

Quidnunc.l

YOUNG PLAYERS TO THE FORE Boost To New Zealand Cricket One of the most welcome boosts cricket in New Zealand has received has been the success of young players in this season s Plunket Shield matches. Seven, centuries have been scored in shield games so far, six by players who are in their early twenties —W. M.. Wallace ana Sale (Auckland), R. J. Menzies (Canterbury), Mills (Otago), J. A. Ongley and W. Rainbird (Wellington). Wallace would appear a comparative veteran in this group, having represented his province for five seasons and touring with the New Zealand team in 1936-37, when he was rated as a batsman of great promise. He is only 22 years of age, however. Cromb (Canterbury), the other scorer of a century, is' in his early thirties and still has years of good cricket ahead of him. With such experienced players as Whitelaw, Vivian, Weir and Scott (Auckland), Tindill and Ell (Wellington), Bellamy, Kerr and Hadlee (Canterbury), Uttley, Moloney and Robertson (Otago) all showing fine form, the sole selector, Mr. T. C. Lowry, will have no easy task sorting out his best eleven to meet Sir Julien Cahn’s team in the Test match in Wellington in March. More, too, will shortly be heard of B. Smith (Canterbury), one of the most brilliant batsmen seen in a Brabin Shield match for years. His future will be watched with great interest.

With such a wealth of young talent, everything also bodes well for the visit of the Australian eleven next season. The Dominion is still searching for a slow bowler of the calibre, of AV. Merritt, but in Cowie, Pritchard, Roberts, Vivian, Ashenden, Mulcock, Donnelly, Cromb and Gallichan has undoubted bowling talent. Cowie has already been rated as one of the best medium-fast bowlers in the world, and it would appear that Pritchard merely requires further experience to reach the same class. Thus New Zealand possesses nt the moment two medium-fast bowlers fully capable of testing Australia’s best batsmen, in Roberts. Mathieson, Ashenden and Mulcock very serviceable bowlers of medium pace, with Vivian, Donnelly, Cromb, Moloney and Gallichan to toss up the slow spinners. The bowling, in fact, would appear to be the best New Zealand has had for many years, with the exception that there is no slow bowler of Merritt’s skill.

'The main weakness in the batting is the absence of a reliable opening pair such as Dempster and Mills., who were associated in many notable partnerships for New Zealand, including 276 against Gilligan’s M.C.C. team in Wellington in 1928-29. One of the major problems of the recent team which toured England was in finding a successful opening pair, and it still remains an unsolved problem. Possibly Mr. Lowry, who has an intimate knowledge of the strength of New Zealand cricket, extending over a long period—practically since the Great War —may hit on the right pair. This will, doubtless, be his biggest difficulty in selecting his team. It is not unlikely that he will try out Hadlee and Moloney.

Another problem is that of the captain. Of the four leaders of Plunket Shield teams this season, Postles, Tindill, Kerr and Uttley, Tindill would appear to be the only o_ne assured of a place in the New Zealand side, and may be well in the running for the captaincy. But by far the ablest general in cricket in the Dominion at the moment is I. B. Cromb. A young man of commanding personality with a. great big match temperament, he is now revealing the benefits of years of experience. A serious injury threatened to jeopardize his career a few seasons aHP. As it was he was compelled to give up medium-fast bowling. His adaptability was emphasized when he took up bowling slow spinners with which he has met with considerable success. A fighting batsman and brilliant field, he has few superiors as an all-rounder in the Dominion.

Rugby in England. Selecting England's 1039 Rugby side is not likely to prove an easy task, judging by the form shown in the trials this season. Eleven of those chosen for the first trial in iManehester were dropped for the second in Bridgewater, and further replacements were made for the third and final trial last Saturday. One of the difficulties has been finding suitable halves to replace Giles and Reynolds, who toured South Africa, and who have been out of action this season with injuries. A further interesting factor has been the defeat of the Probables by the Possibles in the first two trials, and the defeat of England by The Rest in the final trial — suggesting that the best balanced side •has yet to be assembled. The outstanding three-quarters in the trials have been Obolensky, who was one of the stars against the All Blacks in 1925, and Guest. A problem has been created in that both are wingers, and are essentially right flank players. Many of last season’s England team and some of those who toured South Africa, were not available this season. They included Giles, Reynolds. Sever, Uwin, Cranmer. and B. E. Nicholson. England will thus field practically a new back line this year. Search For Bowlers.

Cricketers are less interested in the actual result of the Sheffield Shield than in the rise of fresh howling talent to strengthen Australia against England in 1940, nays the “Sydney Referee.” Australian batting will be strong enough to look after itself, with Bradman, McCabe, Brown, Barnes, Hassett, and Gregory going strong, Badcock making recovery of his poise (though no one seems to understand why Don Bradman should “shield” him against Queensland) and Fingleton, Chipperfield, and others in the offing. If the best batsmen on form be selected, the Australian batting will be of a high order when the whips are cracking. Australia seriously needs more than anything else more class bowling of medium pace to give the right support to O’Reilly. The Australian team is to be sent to New Zealand immediately after the last Sheffield Shield match next season, to play there during the rest of the summer. The selectors will be expected to choose the best of the untried bowlers for that tour. . One of these should be C. Christ, the left-hander. He is the one flighty lefthander seen in action this season. He is not a colt exactly. But a tour of this character will help to develop him as a Test prospective against Test players. Soccer At Home.

The greatest surprise of th.e third round of the English Football Association Cup was the defeat of Derby by Everton. In the first division championship Derby beat and drew with Everton during the recent holiday period and were showing such convincing form that many expected that Derby would have a royal chance of carrying off the double —the championship' and the cup. With their cup hopes dashed, Derby will have to consolidale their position in the first division. At tlie moment they are in a strong position. Another surprise was the defeat of Arsenal by Chelsea. It was the first occasion for some time that Arsenal had failed to survive what, is virtually the first round of the cup matches. The earlier games were more or less preliminary elimination matches.

Chelsea fully deserved their win. Argue played a brilliant game at inside right, and his policy of continually changing places with Spence, the centre-forward, caught even the experienced Arsenal side ‘‘on the bop.” Last Saturday was not one of individual surprises, however. Other strongly favoured teams in Brentford

and Charlton Athletic were beaten and Aston Villa were held to a draw by Ipswich Town. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sunderland, who have been prominent in the cup for many years, came through successfully, also Tottenham Hotspurs, whose prospects are highly rated by many competent critics. Olympic Games.

At its December meeting the British Olympic Association considered the question of applying to hold the thirteenth Olympiad in London, and decided to appoint an investigation committee. Commenting on the decision, a London writer says:* . , . . , “The principal points to be inquired into will be the housing of thousands of competitors and the task of raising the fund of £lOO,OOO, which London will have to guarantee before it may press its claim. Both at Los Angeles and Berlin special Olympic villages were erected many miles from the scene of the Games. This naturally involved very considerable expense. The American land company recouped itself for the cost of laying a system of drainage and similar necessities by disposing of the huts as beach bungalows and disposing of the site as a ready-made trading estate. The Germans built accommodation of a substantial construction ,and immediately the Games were over turned the Olympic Village into officers’ training quarters. Neither of these courses is open to the British Olympic Association, which will have to do some serious thinking before it can adequately accommodate the competitors. “As for the possibility of the 8.0. A. persuading the International Olympic Committee to fall in with its desires there is likely to be strong opposition from Italy, which will press the claims of Rome, and Switzerland, which will extend an invitation to Lausanne. The writer cannot speak of the accommodation in the latter city, but a few months ago it was his privilege to visit the Mussolini Forum in Rome. Nothing could be more impressive. From the column erected to the Duce at the entrance everything is arranged to strike the eye for beauty and efficiency. Its marble pillarings and statuary make our White City Stadium, where presumably the track events will take place, ridiculous. Spectacularly, the Forum would be ideal. If the Games do come to London one may be assured that there would be none of that grandiloquent display which the Finns are striving at Helsinki to eliminate from the Games.” Twenty Years Partnership.

The oldest partnership in English Rugby football is playing back for the Old Millhillians again thus season. Roger Spong is 31. Cyril Wiggins is his junior—but, nevertheless, 31. They first played together at Belmont, the prep_aratory school for Mill Hill, in 1918, at the age of 11. And they have been on the same side ever since. Spong holds a “record” worth acknowledgment in the “Rugby Football Annual.” He has played against nine countries, as follows :—Scotland, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ceylon, Argentina and Uruguay. His biggest triumph was in New Zealand, where he was described as the best stand-off half ever seen there. Sam Snead’s Winnings. '

Sam Snead, U.S. Ryder Cup golfer, has won 17,572 dollars (£3514) in prize money this year—an average of £7O a week. America acclaims him as the leading professional golfer of the year, both from playing and money-earning points of view. His winnings are a record for P.G.A. tournaments in a single year, but Gene Sarazen is still the biggest pursewinner with £2OOO, first prize in the Agua Caliente Open. John Revolta (Illinois) is No. 2 on the money-winning list with 7353 dollars (£1470). Stale Cricketers,

Bill O’Reilly has announced his intention to retire from cricket after New South Wales has played Victoria—but his retirement will be only for a season. His decision, says Arthur Mailey in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph,” is not altogether unexpected. Fingleton and Chipperfield have also announced that they will not be available for the next Shield game—against Queensland.

McCabe had already dropped out of big cricket for the season. He took ill in Melbourne before the Victoria-New South Wales match, in which he was unable to participate. There is such a thing as mental tiredness in cricket —and in other sports, too—which converts the game from a pleasant pastime into real drudgery. Without intending to hurt anybody’s feelings, I would say that the more imagination a cricketer has the less desire he has to play first-cities cricket beyond a certain number of years. No member of an Australian eleven has worked harder than O’Reilly, and possibly no player has expended so much physical and mental energy. The reaction which isets in after an English tour is more or less obvious in all players, specially when they come back to find the cricket public somewhat apathetic. In addition to the psychological aspect, players who hold responsible business positions find that too much of their time is being taken up on the cricket field. Hutton’s Thrift.

Like Bradman, whose world record he beat in the last Test in England, Leu. Hutton, the Yorkshire opening batsman, is possessed of considerable business acumen.

Hutton does not hesitate in saying that he is thrifty. In an article in the London “Sunday Graphic and Sunday News” Hutton writes: “Today I cherish the ambition of saving a useful four-figure bank balance before reaching the age of 30.

“Yes, I am thrifty. Who can blame me? Moving about in the sporting world provides a good education, specially in regard to the importance of saving money.

"Cricket as a career can be both healthy and remunerative. In the matter of benefits, I am happy to say, the Yorkshire players are particularly welF supported by the public. “It is on record that George Hirst, whose advice has been invaluable to me, received £3703 in 1904 and a £7OO testimonial 17 years Ijiter. Wilfred Rhodes’s benefit in 1911 totalled £2222, and the late Roy Kilner received £-1016.”