CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11768, 15 October 1932, Page 10

CRICKET.

: : JACK HOBBS'S, VIEWS. NOT INVINCIBLE'’. IDEAL BQWL-Etb-TO DISMISS HIM V, b , CHEAPLY. It-; Las. been,- - suggested that we should.'.takQ to'Australia- a. “mystery** bonier foT' thc.I special,, benefit of Don Bradman, the rim-getting robot, whose phenomenal- success has scared some people’'in this tight little island of ours;,(writes Jack Hobbs, in the London • ‘’-‘Sunday Dispatch’\j V Make no mistake about it 4 I think wo &h aye-exploited all the possible ••mysteries” and, in any case, we mustn’t-’put--it into the heads of oiir bowlers 'that; this young man is invincible.. -jCs-ce 'Australia has discovered a left-arm . googly, and if only we had one this might upset- Bradman for a bit—but not for long, lam afraid. A class, batsman soon gets to leam a bowler’s -little tricks. , Tho ideal man to dismiss Bradman —br anybody else for that matter—is.,the one who can howl tjio hall that runs away. The .going-away ball— pitched on the middle stump and-hitting they'off or leg—will deceive -the most wary batsman, especially if the- ball is of good , length. But have we/got such a bowler? The atmosphere in Australia is. so thin that it is. impossible t-o bowl the swinger for any length of time. I - am sure confidence is half the battle' in dealing with Bradman. It will : be necessary for our bowler.? to attack Him with eagerness, even venom', from the .start. THo bowler must get Bradman thinking-from the start. Ho is then not. so liable- to stop the good one whep. it eothes along. ONLY HUMAN AFTER ALL. . Otherwise, with tbe help of a few easy-fours from anything half-bad, he will;go .from' strength to strength. Don is-young, he has a quick eye, and i,S lithq in his movements, but he is only l human after all. This has been proved in the tour of .America arid Canada. Bradman has had-.by no means all his own way, How many people have thought of the countless runs Woodfull means to Bradman? Think of him, standing like an immovable rock, gradually taking tile edge off the bowling and paving the way for Don’s non-stop centuries. I gay deliberately that- Bradman is as great in the field as he is atthe wicket. Hill’s avalance of runs has distracted attention from this part- of his' cricket, but he must be tho greatest field in the world to-day. Ho is usually in the country, but all positions come alike to him, and, though I have not seen him in the slips, no doubt he would he' a sinking success there. As a great believer in. the law of averages, I think Bradman is due for a less successful time with the hat. No doubt England’s bowlers will echo that belief. Ho has had , no.,setbacks and will Teel it worse than the average -cricketer when he does have- a Tun of failure, because hfe' has set-'himself such" a high standard. But people must- not "'belief • that once Don is cut all :W- plain''bailing. Though the other Australians played up to Bradman on tho ldst tour and nursed him, they are capable of taking the initiative. Substantial'totals can be looked for, and our job is to get more. In most of the tours since the war there has been nothing in it down to No. 6. Then, their-ta.il got runs. Ours didn’t. The nest is history. '■‘NOT HAD-ALL ins OWN WAY.” As is suggested in this Jack Hobbs article, reports reached England that. Don Bradman was having a loan rungetting time on the Canadian and American tour, (comments “Not Out” in tjio “Sydney Referee.”) To' show what a lean time the young man had, let me quote his scores, there being, I. believe, only one innings missing from the following little sequence : 60, 94, 110 not out, 42, 180, 27 not out, 11, 40, 52, .260, 10 not out, 109, 95, 200 not out, 92, 105, 114, " 117, 0, 35, 8, 57, 26, 24, 10, 13, 41, 2, 116 not out, 110, 100 not out, .115, 88, 34/159 not out, 69 not out, 103 not .out, 125 not out, 88, 171, ' 122, 121, 48, 52 not; out, 19 not out, -and 83 not-out. .-, ? ''' ’’ This gives -3659 Tuns at 110 per innirig3l' Not much failure about those scores. In any' case', whether a batsman scored heavily or the reverse; it- need not bo regarded' too seriously on' such a. tour as this, on j all sorts of wickets, even though the 'bowling may have been cricketing trips. THfe' STRAIGHT BUT BATSMEN MUST CHANCE ; : THEIR ARMS. • "-‘ ''Paynter, / tho Lancashire batsnian who ‘ was tried out last season against, the New Zealanders, has been making eficket'ihistpry iii'vtho last Tew* Vrieks. ’ (writes t'Andferif; Bipba-t?, /in’ * ‘The Ediri : ainst'Yorkshim" consolidated ;his 'elaim to bo considered, as a test ‘'possible,’.’ ■ : aßdJ'there aro' othor good feats to his

Credit. He bats first wiekqt, and there aro some who ar© already saying that we need look no further for a partner ii'or Sutcliffe. But the pavilion critics have something to say. One of them actually said to mo the other day, “Paynter ought never to have scored 152 against Yorkshire -on such a wicket. The finest batsman in the world could uot have done it except by “chancing his arm.” TAKING A CHANCE. What an outlook 1 On all hands you hear of dull i siting. Yet when, a young player “chances his arm” and makes 152 to win d match, it is said tjiat hi.- is no batsman because the wicket was not a, batting wicket. 1 seem to remember a player called G. L. Jessop, who, according to the critics, ought- to have got out morn frequently than he did. But h® won a good many matches for his side, tesis included. A first wicket batsman wJro can hit the ball and make the bowling and the wicket look easy is an encouragement to every player in the side. There are some who as-sert-that they have . seen Paynter wield a cross bat. Paynter does, indeed, exploit- tjio “pulled drive/’ but this is a shot that-.can only be used occasionally. AN ACQUIRED QUALITY. Don Bradman,- though now a- ruthlessly- efficient batting machine, was not- always an exponent of tho straight bar. “school:” A straight bat- is to a larger extent an acquired quality than any other merit in batting. Watch any schoolboy pick up a bat and bring it down' again. The last thing he thinks about is the straightness of tho bat. His on© idea- is to get all tho force he can behind the stroke, aD.d he does this by swinging across the ball. The peculiarity of tho straight bat is that- no quality is more freely urged, and none is more frequently neglected. Most players simply cannot- judge whether they arc wielding a- straight bat. In fact, I doubt if anybody can tell at first unless ho -cares to study his stroke in front' of a- mirror —a stop that I strongly recommend you to take. A bat that is picked up, straight will come’down straight—a fact which you cun. prove by letting the bat drop of its own accord, after having raised it first crooked and then, straight, A KEEN EYE. Given the. eye to see the ball, tho straight bat enables you io take it in the middle of the blade. The best of eyes cannot watch the ball during the last few inches —and that is just where it may “do things”. A straight hat is automatic protection against the rising or dipping hall, whereas if you hit across the ball you have no margin for rise- or fall. Cricketers sometimes knock up big scores because they see tho ball more clearly than ninety-nine men out of 100, and aro quick on the feet, but- if a player who is gifted with a good eye and a capacity for quick movement, cares to cultivate- the straight bat, then he will go much farther than if he depends on natural gifts alone. the case of hendren. At the same time, the fact that a .batsman occasionally hits with a cross bat does not prove that he is a bad batsman. Patsy Hendren frequently hits across the hall in piling up big scores. ’With a batsman, such as Paynter, on the threshold of his career, it is far better to see the willingness and the power to hit than an evcr-sfcraight hat.

ENGLISH GIRLS’ TEAM FOR AUSTRALIA ? For t-hq first time in. history am English girls’ cricket team may visit Australia in 1934, and fight for the “Ashes.” The New South Wales Women’s Cricket 1 Association-has been in close touch with the. All-England Women’s Cricket' Council regarding the matter, and there’is a distinct possibility that their efforts will meet with success. A chorus of approval has greeted the idea’ in Sydney, and C. G. Macartney thinks it is a fine suggestion. Thero arc 70 women 4 ? cricket clubs with 1000 players in New South Wales lalorie, and many feminine Bradmans and Grimmetts. If the 1934 English visit is a- success, it is proposed to send an. Australian girls’ team to England in 1936. It is thought that a -regular interchange of visits should he ns popular and as financially successful as women's hookey tours. FAIRFAX THE MAGNET, i Accrington Cricket Club’s gate receipts .for .the whole of last season amounted to £229. So far this, season ‘over £IOOO has beem. taken at' the turnstiles—eloquent testimony to the magnetic qualities of Alan Fairfax, 1 -states “News of the "World,” of August 2,1. If any further proof were heeded of Fairfax’s ability as a, -batsman ‘it was forthcoming when hq flogged the , attack of Nelson, one of .tho roost deadly in tho competition, for an unbeaten 125. In making his third century of tho, season, tho Australian hit so lustily that two of, bib drives cleared the ground. TJiis .innings may cost Nelson .the championship, for, as a result, they : could .only .qxtyact a .point from the encounter, thus allowing Bacrip/ their nearest rivals, who beat Church, to draw level at the head of the League table.

NOTES AND NEWS. W. E. Bowes, the seventeenth player selected for the English cricketteam to tour Australia, has no need to feel despondent over being the last man to catch the selector’s eye. AY. Woodful, the Australian skipper, was in the last batch picked fop the 1926 tour, says an exchange, and he performed grandly, being second only to Macartney as a- run-getter. In 1599 the team for England was completed when a youth named Tramper, by a brilliant innings, forced his way into the ranks of the tourists as an extra man. Victor’s electric Tost innings of 135 not out at Lord’s astounded the critics. It lias sometimes boon tho worry of the opposition.