IN ARTHUR FISHER'S TIME

Evening Star, Issue 25715, 12 February 1946, Page 3

IN ARTHUR FISHER'S TIME

Old Cricketers "At Home" IDEAL BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Mr Fisher Now 75 Not Out

[By "Wallabit."l

No more delightful way could be imagined for an old cricketer whose playing days are long past to celebrate the anniversary of his birth than to gather around him a party of former comrades of the field; fellows with whom he had played or whom he had played against on many a memorable occasion in rep. matches or in the less serious but no less enjoyable club fixtures.

So, when yesterday Mr.A. H. Fisher, one of New Zealand's best-known and most-successful bowlers of all time, reached the seventy-fifth milestone in his life and some 30 invited guests—all cricketers " in Arthur Fisher's time" met at the charming Fisher home at St. Clair to wish their host " many happy returns of the day "the stage was set for an ideally enjoyable afternoon. Six of the guests came from Christchurch specially for the occasion, the rest were local men, and each as he entered was decorated by the hostess, Mrs Fisher, with a blue cornflower for

the Otago men and a red carnation for those from Canterbury. A badge of honour, and a gesture in keeping with the whole proceedings. For it was a very happy, informal gathering. Some of the guests had not met others for many years, and greetings were spontaneous and cordial. . " Why, here's old Croxy " ; " Dan, old boy, how are you?" "Alec, you look as though you could still spin 'em " " Ye gods, it's Cliff Ridley," and 60 on. The clock is put back 50 years and more; the guests drift into groups which are dissolved and reformed, and the talk is all of cricket. Politics are taboo; world unity put aside for the time being; even the atomic bomb is a minor matter compared with the question of what Fisher and Downes did in such and such a match; how Jimmy Croxford kept up his wicket for Jim Baker to hit off the runs for a' win; and how great it is to meet " all you chaps. This " don't you remember" stage was maintained until, ' after three hours of fighting old battles over again, of friendly argument as to who did this thing or that thing,.and how,

and why, and of undiluted pleasure, the party regretfully broke up. Who were there? Well, so far as one can remember here is the list: Arthur Fisher, Dan Reese, Tom Reese, Wally Pearce, Cliff Ridley, Ted Ackroyd, Alec Dey, Alec Downes, Clem

Beck, Gus Restieux, Gerry Austin, "Tern" Austin, Alec Martin, Tom Downes, Bill Johnston, Bill Butler, Jim Croxfqrd, Harold Fisher, Basil Cotteril, Tom Adams, Jack Hope, Ernie Wilson, Mac Rutherford, Gerry McKellar, Doc Eadie, G. W. Johnstone, and George Wycherley. Apologies were received from Syd Orchard. Jack Ramsden, Alf Kinvig, and Bill Patrick. After tea had been dispensed the

time came for the inevitable speeches and toasts. They, too, were refreshingly informal, and were made and drunk in the open air of the iporch and the lawn. Cliff Ridley, Dan Reese, and Tom Reese all had something to say about their host and hostess; about old times; about the slow cricket of to-day. The keynote, however, was comradeship, comradeship between the cricketers of Canterbury and Otago, the unbreakable friendships made on the field of play. Arthur _ Fisher's reply was as "nippy" as _his howling used to be. He got in swingers about captaincy and other aspects of the game in his day; he delivered a "wrong 'un " at himself when he mentioned that dropped catch which people would persist in remembering, and he took the middle stump when he spoke of the keenness and 'enthusiasm of players of the past generation. , An adjournment was made to the big lawn, the lawn upon which young Arthur Fisher had many years ago practiced the bowling which had subsequently become so deadly, and here a series of photographs was taken.

And now Arthur Fisher is starting on his seventy-sixth year, but it may be taken for granted that neither he nor his privileged guests of yesterday will easily forget that happy afternoon of February 11, 1946.