NEW RECORDS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1930, Page 8

NEW RECORDS

In games of strength and skill there seems to be no final word. Man only began yesterday to play with aeroplanes, but he played with balls in the earliest historic times and almost certainly in prehistoric times also. At the moment one can think of no authority who can write with confidence concerning the world's first ball-game; but perhaps it was played-in trees with coconuts. Down through the ages evolution from the coconut has progressed both ways; it has expanded into the football on the one hand (thanks to hot air) and on the other hand it has contracted into the cricket ball, the billiard ball, and the golf ball, not to mention ping-pong and marbles. But although most games are very old, and, though one might think that there is not nearly so much room for improvement as in flying or motoring, yet billiardists and cricketers move constantly towards new records. Four-figure breaks are common in these days of Lindrum and M'Conachy, and Bradman celebrates the New Year.by over-topping Ponsford's 429 and Maclaren's 424 with a 452 not out. Assuming that he actually ran only 500 runs, Bradman covered more than six miles. Thousands and thousands of the public sat down to watch his jugglery with a ball. To most people it would seem to be quite a small ball, but (Bradman swung his bat as if it was a coconut or a football. If a dozen more Bradmans were discovered, a cricket ball might have to be shrunk down to ping-pong size. If that did not give the bowler a chance, the next step would be to remove the bat and give the batsman a wicket instead.,