CRICKET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 11

CRICKET.

A. E. R. GTLLTOAX

ENGLAND’S YOUNGEST CAPTAIN

Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan, who has recently been making cricket history in the England v. South Africa match at Birmingham, and who lias taken 1.1 wickets for 90 runs’in addition to loading his team to victory, is the “beamish boy” at the game. He is also to captain the English team which is touring Australia this summer. But Surrey, when they had the chance of him, did not say “Gome to mv arms.” They let him go, as they let G. B. Fry, Phillip Mend, Leonard P.rauml, and others go. It has proved a sad thing for Surrey; but Arthur Gilligan lias never let it worry him, writes P. in the Daily Mail. Worry and Gilligan do not go hand in hand: he is one of the most cheery, smiling, optimistic cricketers you can find in a season’s search. He lias a happy temperament, and he is so fond of cricket that lie lias said lie would play ns a professional if needs were.

One of three brothers who did some of their early batting and bowling on the sands at Bognor, Arthur Gilligan is 29 years old, mid the youngest man to whom the committee of iho M.C.O. lias ever entrusted the captaincy of an English eleven. He has been given the job partly on personal grounds, partly on what lie has done as skipper of Hie Sussex side since 1922. I'air-hairerl, sunburnt almost brick-red, and always tremendously fit —he plays hockey in the winter —he is the fastest bowler in England for a few overs, and the

best fast bowler on a “dead” wicket. But lie takes so much out of himself that he is sometimes apt to sloav doAvn after a spell of boAvling. In the field lie is the finest mid-off playing, as quick as a terrier and as fearless. lie catches hits that look quite impossible and stops strokes that seem to be certain boundaries. He is an improving batsman'Avlio believes in putting the bat hard against the ball. Mr Gilligan was educated at Dulwich College and Cambridge,-and among his oilier qualities is the ability to make amusing after-dinner speeches.

GRTMMETT, OF WELLINGTON.

TO PLAY FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

A Wellingtonian who has made his mark in eric-kef in Australia is C. V. Grimmett, who will be remembered as one of Wellington's most promising oriekoters of a few years ago. 1 From the lor-al boys' league he made a rapid advance to the senior grade, and his performances with the East Club gained him representative honours. He transferred to Victoria some years ago, and has since done well at cricket "in that State, so well, in fact, that he is now regarded as one of the best googly bowlers in Australia. Last season for Victoria against South Australia, at Adelaide, he took eight wickets for 8(1 runs in South Australia’s second innings. In the first innings he howled only three overs, taking no wickets for 12 runs. It is probable that his performance in that match has accounted for the South Australians getting Grimmett to settle in their State. Vows comes to hand of his arrival in Adelaide from Melbourne, and for next season good performances may be expected of him with the South Australian representatives. He is as great an acquisition to this State as he is a loss to Victoria, with this difference —that South Australia needs good bowlers more than does her sister State, says the Adelaide Observer. He has been offered employment here, and will play for the Adelaide Club, but what is more to- the point is that after three months’ residence in South Australia he will have qualified for inter-State games. For some years past Grimmett has played for t.iie Prahran (Melbourne) Club, with which he has won distinction, and followers of cricket will not vet have forgotten his sensational performance on the Adelaide Oval last February, when he dismissed eight South Australian batsmen for 8(i runs. With such -a bowler as Grimmett in the State, South Australia should be able to give a better account of herself in interstate games of the future. Apart from I this fact local batsmen should have a better chance of development with a player of this standard trundling to them in the club mate-lies. He is a right-handed bowler, with a great variety of deliveries, although he has not the imposing delivery of some other prominent googly bowlers in Australia. Grimmett was greeted at the Adelaide railway station on arrival by Messrs J. A. Riley (secretary of the South Australian Association), .). F. Travers (one of the selectors of the South Australian colts), A. J, Lee, L. >S. Kelly and E. McCarron (of the Adelaide Club), V. Y. Bichardson (Sturt), and IT. Bridgman (West Torrens). The Victorian was accompanied by his wife and child.

A CRICKET ANTHOLOGY. SOME COVER SHOTS. (By F. .T. Chappie)

This cricket anthology has been compiled by Air Chappie in such a form that it can be taken in the porrket tothe ground and read there during the interruptions for meals and the intervals between the innings; the writer thinks it will serve, 100, to fill in the gaps during which optimists put it' about that the pitch is drying, but. it is not long enough for that. Most of the extracts are short, for though Air Chappie would not have the attention of the spectator wander at any time from cricket, he would not have him read about it when he can watch it. He includes a few reminiscences—he could hardly do otherwise —hut lie subjects them to a severe scrutiny. When the pavilion bore starts clearing his throat he is to be conceived as saying hurriedly, “Excuse me, I see W. G. beckoning,’’ and W. G. proceeds to leii him how —it must have been long ago, for il was at Prince’s—he and Hornby decided to play tip-and-run to demoralise Ilio field and achieved the infinitely more remarkable feat of demoralising themselves as well: — One run was a curiosity, f played a ball in front of me, and withoul look - ing where it was going yelled, “Come on, Hornby!’’ I had no need to say “Come on” to him, for he was up like a liasli of lightning, am! had crossed before the words were out of my mouth. The ball travelled straight up the pitch to Willsher, the bowler, and l thought it was all over with me, for I was not more than half-way when lie picked it up. I had the sense to keep running, and Willsher, hearing my feet thundering behind him, lost his head, and, instead of putting the wicket down quietly, let fly with all his force and missed it bv vards!

Willsher will be pardoned by those who know what hunters say of their sensations when chased by rogue elephants. Nor will Air Chuppel cumber Ills pages with those statistics which reduced batsmen —the most sensitive of human beings—into run factories by eliminating the luck which is the life blood of the game. In thus loiunieiid ing luck the reviewer can shelter himself behind high authority. Bishop Welldon is quoted as writing: Crieket is the greatest of all games —the greatest because it presents a unique combination of skill and hick. Nowhere perhaps does proficiency count for so much, yet nowhere is proficiency so easily defeated by the accidents of weather or the state of the ground, or even the winning or losing of the toss: in no game is it so easy to make a mistake; in no game is the cost of a single mistake so dear. It is no wonder, then, that the memories of cricket awake infinite discussion.

Not that the desire to eliminate luck is a purely modern development; the of the game had a way of their own of setting aboul it which would hardly command episcopal approval—the bowlers chose the patch

.and chose it to suit themselves; and we are reminded how “Lumpy” came by the epic epithet which distinguished him from less scrupulous fellow-crafts-men :

Honest Lumpy did allow

He ne’er could bowl but o’er a brow

Give him a “brow,” and he would bowl shooters. Another passage describes perhaps the first’ example of Hint self-sacrificing team-work of which we now make so much. The words are

Xyren \s, who noticed with pleasure the pains that Harris took “in choosing

the ground for his follow-bowler as well as for himself.”

Mr Chappie does not confine himself to the ancients; he lias laid under contribution modern writers on the game too numerous to mention, and he has been guided by the principle that it is not embellishment that is needed, but varietv of interest. j

AN AUSTRALIAN’S IMPRESSIONS

(Referee.)

ATf. O. A. Smith, of the Commonwealth Hank in London, so well know'll out here as an amateur athlete, a keen and able cricketer with Paddington and in the Interstate banks contests, and a very sound judge of the game, sends me some very interesting views on cricket in England this summer. He writes;

BOWLING ON GOOD WICKETS. We have had a very wet cricket season, but the past two or three weeks have been delightful. Unless iery material assistance is gained trom the wicket, both English and South African bowling is weak. 1' say this deliberately, notwithsanding the performances of Gilligan and date in the first Test match, it is such, a long time since England won a Test at home that Gilligan xs being lauded as a cricket genius—a captain beyond compare. 1 thought his judgment m handling his bowling in South Africa’s second innings very faulty, and he exhausts his field unnecessarily. Parkin, Dick lyldesley, Fender, lVLaoauley, Kilner and even Wilfred Rhodes are often successful with the hall. You know most of these, and as Wilfred is a real veteran. you can guess that the County teams generally are not strong: but a selected side would score heavily on Plumb wickets. 1 ' fancy Whysall, Holmes, Watson and Ernest Tykleslev as well as any of the professional cracks constantly chosen xn the big teams. M. D. Lyon and Knott (of Oxford) are dashing amateurs. Percy Chapman i$ fortunate, on performances, to be in the big side, but lie is a marvellous field, and it is a good policy to experiment with a few likely young ones, seeing the Test opposition is so Aveak.

•Tack Hobbs makes a lot of runs, despite misfortune with injuries. 1 would not pick Arthur Gilligan to he great in Australia with the ball. He is only moderately last for a few overs, and then woidd be not difficult on our wickets. However, he’s likely to make oO runs at any time. Tate, I scarcely think will be dangerous—lie's too bulky, and the heat will try him. He bats well.

Of the South Africans, it is difficult to make, any laudatory remarks as a team. Old Dave Nourse is their best and most reliable hat. Taylor hag gone off somewhat, hut he is classy at the top of his form. Perhaps the captaincy worries him, for his is a baseball side, indeed. The bowling is so-so. Pegler (now a veteran) is easily the best. I’m afraid cricket the world over, bowling especially, i.s on the down grade. An English team with six batsmen selected from Hobbs, Holmes, Hemlrcu. ITcarne. W bysall, Watson, Sutcliffe, Russell, T.yldesley (F.), with all-rounders like Gilligan. Tait., and Fender to back them up. will make our howlers sweat on good wickets: but then so will our chaps retaliate.

“NO BUN, SIR!” A very peculiar thing is reported by the London Daily Chronicle of June 23 to have happened in a first-class? match in June. It is probably without precedent : At Leyton, in the Essex v. Middlesex match on June 21, there were two unusual incidents. The lirst came when H. M. Morris kicked a ball i’roui J. \Y. Hearne through the, slips and ran. Umpire Chester promptly walked in front of the stumps ami waved Morris hack. The kick-ball act of Morris' was a deliberate act unprovoked by (.he howler, so the umpire declined to allow leg-byes for it. The other item on I of the ordinary was the manner in which Captain P. Ashton was dismissed. Stooping very low for a hit to leg, he was leg-before when the hall struck him on the head. It was bis lirst appearance in , county cricket , and he did uncommonly well to score 31 (second top).

The umpire took a most unusual course, evidently basing it or the powers invested in him by law dealing with fair play.