ENGLAND'S BEST

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 79, 30 September 1930, Page 17

ENGLAND'S BEST

A GREAT ELEVEN

WARNER MAKES HIS CHOICE

MEN OF FOUR DECADES

Supposing it were possible to bring t life those who arc gone and to rejuvei ate those who remain of the cricketoi of tho last 40 years, which would be th best eleven to ropresont England in Tost match t wroto P. P. Warner, i "The Crickoter" in 1919, an artiel which is now recalled. It is partieularl interesting in its picture of the Hobt and Woolley eleven years ago. The choice of bowlera must bo on first consideration. Wo want tho fou best bowlers, said I would select Barnei of Staffordshire, as tho medium righi hander, the bost bowler on all wickot of my time, and one who has a long re cord of consistent success on all sort of wickets, not only here in Englant I>ut also in Australia and South Africa lioekwooa, as the fust bowler Pool, as the slow lefthander; am George Lohniaun, as the slow right bander. I do not think many will bo found t dispute the selection of Barnos, an* though the choice of Lockwood a against Richardson is open to argu inent, I would vote for Lockwood oi ■tho ground that, if he had not Eichard son's consistency, he was, on his day rather the more difficult bowler. Hi was, too, a far better batsman aiu fieldsman. Peel was, perhaps, the bos of all the bowlers of his type—Peate Briggs, Rhodes, Blythe, and Woolleyana as he was also a good left-hande( bat' and a capital field on the offside wo will, for the moment, put his name down. Lohinann was a great bowloi1 with hia clevor hoadwork and clifficul1 flight, and »s his fame as ai* extra slij is immortal, and he was also a dashinj hitter, we will include him in our list As a fi'th bowler wo have A. G. Steel who foi" a few seasons in and after 187 i pulverised tho majority of his oppon «nts with his tricky, slow leg-breaks and as he was also second-only tc •W.G. as a batsman, we have in him the idoal all-round man. : THi- WICKETKEEPER. There are so many splendid wicketkeepers th^t it is difficult to say which 5s the actual best, but my own opinion is that as a wicketkeeper pure and simple MacGregor was the finest. He "was not, however, so good a batsman as Lilloy, who played in no less than 35 Test matches and, perhaps, therefore., in order to strengthen the batting, we should play Lilley. Wo now have five bowlers—Barnes, Lockwood,. Peal, Lohmann, and A. G. Steel —and a wicketkeeper, Lilley; there remains to ehooso five batsmen, and my choice — again for tho moment' —would fall on "W.G.," K. 8. Eanjitsinhji, Hobbs, ■the Hon. X S. Jackson, and another.. I am quite aware that the choice of the "batsmen may be criticised, as I have left out such great names as A. C. SiacLaren, Shrewsbury, C. B. Fry, Hayward, and Tyldesley, but one can only play eleven men, and the difficulties of selection are, of courso, tremendous. "W.G." no one disputes, the Jam Sahib was, in some respects, the most wonderful batsmen who has ever appeared, and Hobbs Js performances on every kind of wicket, fast, slow, sticky, fiery, or matting, have not been surpassed by any cricketer of any time. He has made four centuries against Australia in Test matches, one v. South Africa, and three times ho has exceeded the hundred for the Players v. the Gentlemen. In addition, he is a fieldsman of the same class as G. L. Jossop, Vortnon Boyle, or 8. E. Gregory, an \ with Mm'at cover-point we cannot do wrong. A GREAT BAT. There, are some who aver thai;, magnificent player as the Hon. F. S. Jackson was, he was not really so good as MaeLaren, Fry, or Tyldesley, but he was: a great, man on a great occasion, five times scoring a hundred in a Test match, and he has never been to Australia, where the wickets are, on- tho> average, much better than they aro here. It would be difficult to leave him out, especially as he was also an excellent bowler, who had the knack of getting a wicket when it was wanted. It was at Trent Bridge that he bowled his famous over in tho Test match there in 1905.'' The hundred went up with only one man out, with Hill and Noble well set,-when Jackson, took the ball.: Noble was caught at the wicket by' Lilley, off the first ball, Hill was clean bowled by the fourth, and off the sixth Darling was caught high up with the light hand by Bosanquet at slip. To whom shall we give the last place? To Woolley? Ho is a magnificent lefthanded batsman, a,really fine fielder in the slips, and a slow left-hander of high class, who would bo invaluable on a soft .wicket' if' by aiiy chance Peel happened to be off colour, which, I readily admit, is not very likely. An important fact, to my mind, is that Woolley is a left-handed batsman. Few bowlers bowl really well to a lefthander, and .if ~ Woolley played wo should have two, as Peel is also left-' handed. If these men were eventually selected our. batting order would' be: "W.G.," .Hobbs, the Jam Sahib, the Hon. F. S.; Jackson, Woolloy, A. G. Steel, Peel, Lilley, Lockwood, Lohmann, and Barnes. MACLAREN'S STRENGTH. It is probable that the batting is not quite so strong as it might be if wo left ou.t one of our bowlers and played another batsman and we might, perhaps, leave out, Peel and play Woolley as the??stoek left-hander, and include MaeLaren, who has a wonderful record in. Test matches, particularly in Australia, where it is said at Sydney men used to lay a level "fiver'1 he could get a hundred whenever he went in to bat. MaeLaren was a grand batsman, with a masterly style, and a beautiful slip fielder; and it is hard indeed to omit so , superb a cricketer from our eleven, "If MaeLaren played our slip and country fielding would also be greatly strengthened, and wo should have in the slips MacLaren, Lohmann, and the Jam Sahib, a combination not easily surpassed.

There are some who go so far as to say that they would not include Jackson, especially as his bowling would not really be required, a pretty tall or-

i der, we must admit, but we will, for tho moment, leavo him out of the side. We havo at present nine certainties — "W.G.," Hobba, the Jam Sahib, A. G. Steel, Lilloy, Lockwood, MacLareu, Barnes, and Lohmann. We think that Pool or Blytho was the greatest of the slow left-handers, but wo aro alroady very-strong in bowling, and. I will hero risk something and include Woolley as the stock left-hander, as the batting needs strengthening The last place shall go to either Shrewsbury, Tyldes ley, C. B. Pry-j or P. S. Jackson, and on the whole we will select Jackson, because of his ability to riso to an occa sion.

Our final choice, therefore, rests on, in the ordc of going in: "W.G.," Hobbs, tho Jam Sahib, MacLareu, Steel, Woolley, Lilloy, Lockwood, Lohmann, and Barnes. The twelfth man shall bo C. B. Fry, a really wonderful batsman, with a record of 93 centuries in first-class cricket, and a novor-to-be-forgotten innings of I^9 v. tht great South African "googlie" bowlers on a sofc wicket at the Oval. This is a fine side, with Barnes, Lockwood, Loh'inann, Woolley, Steel, "W.G.," and Jackson to bowl; seven great bi-tsmen, two very good ones ' LilJey and Lockwood, and a dashing hitter in Lohmann. Hobbs will be at covor-point; Woolley, MaeLaron, and the Jam Sahib can go into tho long field for Steel or the champion's bowling, and there aro four magnificent slip fielders in MaeLaren, the Jam Sahib, Lohmann, and Woolley. "W.G." shall be our point and captain the side.