WEAK BOWLING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 90, 13 October 1931, Page 5

WEAK BOWLING

WELLINGTON CRICKET

MR. BRICE'S REVIEW

An outspoken review of Wellingtons performances in last season's representative cricket was given in a. report submitted to last night's meeting of the Management Committee of., the Wellington Cricket Association by the sole selector, Mr. W. S. Mrke, who also made some miglotions with regard to. improving local cricket in the future. The report was rereived without comment, beyond an expression of thanks to Mr. Brice for having prepared it. ... "The annual report of your Association mentions the fact that our batting was (he weakness last year," stated Mr. Brice in his report. "I can hardly subscribe to that opinion. Certainly our representative sji.lt-> did not make as many runs as expected, 4iut this is easily explained. . SEARCH FOR BOWLERS. "l.v view of a team going to England, and in view of the bowling weakness throughdut the Dominion, I felt it my duty to give as many bowlers a chauoe to distinguish themselves as possible. This naturally weakened our batting strength, but Wellington, like other centres, had to take a broader, outlook for that year, ■ which would mean that the winning of the Plunket Shield was a secoudary consideration. One has only to mention that at some stage during last season bowlers such as A. Newman, who bowled so veil in the Town v. Country match, Crook and Blundell, who bowled ably against Otago, and Massey and J. Newman did well at times. Each of the above-mentioned players had chances of gaining places in the team for England, but unfortunately failed to take advantage of the opportunity. It was also unfortunate that our best bowlers were not very good batsmen, whereas in the past our best bowlers were also good batsmen. "THE WORST EVER." "If the position is properly reviewed, one must come back to the same fault as in the 1929-30 season—poor bowling. lv fact, I think one could say without fear of contradiction that the bowling in Wellington last year was very inferior to that of past seasons. To be candid, it waa the worst ever. "I pointed out in my report last year that an effort should be made by your committee to improve the practice wickets. I am sorry that evidently nothing very serious was attempted in this direction, or, if it was, it did not have the desired effect, and to my mind, until we have practice wickets equal to our match wickets, our cricket, both in batting and bowling, will not improve. Coaching is essential,, but without the wickets to coach on it is useless. :■ If our batting did fall short of expectations last year, I attribute the fact to the loss of Badcock at a critical stage. COLTS DISAPPOINTING. "A regrettable feature of our cricket last year was the fact that although some seven or eight young players were tried out in representative matches, exclusive of country players, it cannot be said that any one of them proved a success. It was left, as in the previous, year, for the older players to save the situation. It is 'really time we unearthed another Dempster, or I a bowler or two, but until we have real practice wickets I am afraid our standard of cricket will remain as it now is—very ordinary. ■■ TOO MANY SENIOR TEAMS. "Another contributory .factor to our weakness is the fact that we have far too many senior teams. You will never have really class bowlers until they are continually bowling against class batsmen. The remedy, therefore, is to tighten the class. This can be done either by having a Senior A and a Senkr B competition, or else, better still, revert again to the district scheme. District cricket has been a great success in Australia, Canterbury, and Auckland, and will undoubtedly come again in Wellington. "I would also suggest that if our future cricket is to bo assured, the best and easiest way to do it is to start in the schools. Your present coach is hampered by first of all having to make his pupils forget a number of things before he can start them on the right track. This is s6 much waste of time, which could be saved if the pupil were taught at school." Mr. Brice concluded by referring to a scheme which was successfully adopted by the Petone Club last year with regard to the coaching of schoolboys, and stated he could see no reason why it should not be adopted in the Wellington schools.