SPORT IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 21828, 18 September 1934, Page 11

SPORT IN BRITAIN

IFrom Ocr English Correspondent.] LONDON, July 26. • CRICKET. The fourth test match of 1934 will be talked about when most others have been forgotten. Not once in this drought-ridflen season had an important game been interfered with by rain. Then, just as victory was in the grasp . of the Australians, there came such a downpour as is rarely seen in this country and no further play was possible. Our visitors are certainly to be commiserated with on their hard luck, and it is no consolation to Woodl'ull and his men to reflect that the captain might have made certain of victory if he had declared at the end of the second day’s play, when Australia had made 494 for four in response to England’s beggarly 200. It was a match of strangely varying fortunes. On the opening day thirteen wickets (including three Australians) fell for 239. On the second afternoon only one went down for an addition of 245. _ The third day the howlers were again to the fore and ten • men were got rid of for 278. It may be some satisfaction for English enthusiasts to reflect that all the damage to our chances was done by two men—W. H. Pousford and Don Bradman. A year or two back it looked as if Ponsford’s sun had almost set—he was dropped, it will be remembered, against Jardine’s men in Australia—but, as Yorkshiremen have it, he was “ champion ” at Headingley and stood nobly in the breach with Bradman ■when Bowes’s remarkable bowling on Friday evening suggested that Australia might follow England into the slough of inefficient batting. As for Bradman, superlatives have long ago been exhausted in his praise. To state that he hit up 304 and shared with Ponsford in a record partnership of 388 is all one need write here of this wonderful young batsman, undoubtedly the greatest scoring machine cricket has ever known. What can one say of the English eleven? That first innings’ failure is inexplicable unless, perhaps, the winning of the toss was not such a godsend as it was presumed to be. Whether as the consequence of the prolonged drought or not caiinot be asserted, but there have been quite a number of instances recently in which the wicket has played better after the match has been in progress for a day, and the Leeds pitch may have'done so. One can say this without- wishing to excuse our batting failures. It is a tribute to the Australjan bowling and fielding that not once in the four tests played has England gone through an innings without one or more crises. Hence the relief with which Sutcliffe will be welcomed back to the team for the Oval on August 18. As this game will be played to a finish the selectors must do some serious thinking. It is practically certain that Mitchell and i Uupwc ■ 1 vii’l he‘<l op 1 :-,l and two fast bowlers nho can also bat a bit ”

brought in, for we must have batting strength almost down to the eleventh man. [Australia won.] Reference has been made before to the fact that a county which supplies a player to the test team loses his services for two matches. Hence it may be argued that this year’s county championship competition, in which Sussex has established a commanding lead, is not a true index of the relative merits of the contestants. Yorkshire is proud of the international honours bestowed upon its men, and, notwithstanding stands second in the table. At Maidstone the Tykes took the field without Sutcliffe, Leylancl, Verity, and Bowes. Yet they dismissed Kent for 142 on the first afternoon and ultimately triumphed by eight wickets. This success took Yorkshire into second place, for Lancashire was soundly beaten in two days by Middlesex, and although leading Notts on the first innings, could not bring the match to a conclusion. Harking back to Yorkshire, there was a remarkable result of its fixture with Warwickshire, when the Midlanders, after being dismissed for the lowest score of the season, 45, recovered and squeezed home by one wicket. ATHLETICS. If Princeton and Cornell had beaten Oxford and Cambridge at the White City by 9 events to 3 nobody would have been in the least surprised. W. R. Bonthron might have won the mile and the half-mile, R. ,1. Kano only just lost the 220yds to E. 1. Davis after running a brilliant race in the quartermile, ami only a record long jump by K. S. Duncan gave that event to England, A simple sum in arithmetic wul show that if these events had gone the other way, the Blues’ success by 7 to 5 would have been turned into a 9 to 3 reverse. It would bo unfair to count the Englishmen lucky. It was simply that things came off for them and the men wete all at the top of their form at the right moment. One must confess to disappointment with Bonthron. No doubt he suffered from the contrast between the light, rarefied atmosphere of America ami the close, heavy air he had to run in last Saturday. But, making every allowance for that, one is compelled to criticise the great American’s judgment. In the mile he allowed his rival, .1. E. Lovelock, to call the tune as to the pace at which the race should be run, in the half-mile he was outwitted by J. C. Stothard. who “ jumped ” Bonthron 250yds from home ami set up such a lead that the latter could not recover. It was Duncan’s unexpected leap of 23ft 7Jin that clinched the issue of the match and brought the results in the series to three wins each, the first meeting, in 1921, having ended in a tie. Several athletes , who will he representing Great Britain next Saturday in Paris against France, took part in the triangular contest between the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force. A. W Sweeney, accomplished records for this particular meeting by running 100yds in 9 9-lOscc and 220yds in 22sec. The hurdler. D. O. Finlay, and tbs half-milcr. M. TI. C. Gul'tcridge, also heat records at their particular distances.

LAWN TENNIS. Australia’s luck seems to have deserted her. Not content with robbing her team of victory in the test match. Dame Fortune frowned in the Davis Oup interzone final. On Saturday evening, when Australia had won botli singles, J. H. Crawford having beaten M. F. Shields and V. B. M'Gratli overthrown S. B. Woods, it looked as if the right to play Great Britain must surely fall to Australia. The unexpected happened on Wednesday—the thunderstorm seriously curtailed Tuesday’s play—and America, making a brilliant recovery, won the last three matches. Tho crucial light was that between Wood and Crawford, and after some of the finest tennis one could wish to see the American, who seemed to be a trifle better suited to the fast surface, triumphed by three sets to two. Great Britain in the meantime has been getting its hands in for next Saturday’s “ deadly ” encounter with U.S.A. by a friendly contest with Japan, and won all five matches. F. J. Ferry scarcely showed his best form, but H. W. Austin played very finely, and may confidently be expected to give the champion full support at Wimbledon. [Britain beat America.] RACING. Apart from its intrinsic value and the standard of the entries the Eclipse Stakes at Sundown always enable racegoers to form a comparison between the classic horses of different years. Except that the 1933 Derby winner, Hyperion, was an absentee—it is now stated that after his failure in the Dullingham Stakes Lord Derby’s colt has run his last race—the field was a representative one. According to the scale of weight-for-age King Salmon should have been conceding 121 b to this year’s Derby hero, Windsor Lad. In the Eclipse Stakes there was a difference- of only 91b, and the success of King Salmon suggests that the classic runners of last year stand in a slightly higher class than those of this season; or perhaps Windsor Lad was not quite as fit as when he unexpectedly overthrew Colombo at Epsom last month. Windsor Lad was robbed of second place by Umedwar, to whom be was conceding 101 b. It was hoped that Windsor Lad and Umidwar would meet again in the St. George’s Stakes at Liverpool yesterday, but neither colt went to the post. We arc still seven weeks off’ the St. Leger, for which Windsor Lad stands a firm favourite in the betting. Colombo comes next —a markedly different state of affairs from that obtaining before the Derby. YACHTING. Air Sopwith’s challenger for America’s Cup, Endeavour, was given a tremendous send-off when she set sail from Portsmouth Harbour on her long.voyage across the Atlantic. We have nevei regained the cup which “ America ” won from us eighty-three years ago, in spite of many attempts—Sir Thomas Lipton made five—and enthusiasts, after so many disappointments, hardly dare to hope. Endeavour sailed with the best wishes of every British sportsman! and if it really is our turn to score a triumph in this particular event her owner will achieve a marvellous popularity. GOLF. Congratulations to the young and enthusiastic team of French amateurs who came to Wentworth and ran our amateurs to 3-J matches to s], The visitors actually won the foursomes by 2 to 1, and it was probably inexperience as much as anything that let them down in the singles. It is hoped to make this encounter an annual one. and it is not difficult to visualise the day when the Frenchman, who is always keen to learn in any branch ol sport, will prove to be every bit as good as bis tutor.