CRICKET

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 23 April 1927, Page 13

CRICKET

THE PAST SEASON. NOTES AND COMMENTS. The season, is over and the thoughts of the voung men who play both enicket and a winter game are now centred on something more vigorous, quite in keeping with youth. It is good to seta young men keeping to a game demanding strenuous exercise, as rpng as they can. It keeps them young longer than if- they relapse into an easier recreation, and is better for them, provided they take it iseriously and train so that the exerevs,',-) is a joy. That is, one fears, not so general as was the case before the days of motor-cars. Life is not so hard nowadays, and the conditions have affected the attitude of men to sports which demand training. But if only young men would once realis'the jov of absolute fitness and what it adds to a game, it is certain, they would all take the opportunities afforded for training without having to be urged and dragged into it. This would be all for the good of every sport. .. .. To rat urn from this digression, cricketers may with reason look back oni a satisfactory and .successful season in Taranaki. There have been more outside teams on the playing grounds of the province than ever before. Several teams have visited us, and the possession of the Hawke Cup, won from Wanganui, has given, a fillip to the game, as well as bringing challengers from other provinces. Cricket is on a higher plane than for many years past. To the club officials, to the provincial executives and to the many others who have 'lent assistance, devotees of cricket ewe a great deal. And at is good, also, to see that there have: been general 1 v many more spectators. ■’ It is interesting to know that though the two tests of the New Zealanders against the Melbourne C.C. were drawn the home team scored at a much greater average per innings than the visiters. Their totals were 190, 602, for nine wickets, 317 and 410 for four wickets, giving an aggregate of 1519 runs for 33 wickets, averaging 46 per wicket. The Melbourne! team scored 1044 runs for 27 wickets, averaging 38. The success of the New Zealand batsmen should build up their confidence against English bowling ini the campaign to open a little whie hence 1 .

CRICKET IN RABAT7L. A cricketer in R a haul writes _ to Johnny Worrall, of the “Australasian 1 : “Although it may seem strange to you, cricket is played extensively in this place, the heat not deterring the general run of sports: and tlitre are a number of players of class. who partake of the game. I saw a very fine innings of 43 not out played by Tom Garrett here in a match Rabaul v. Kokopo. He is a son of Tom Garrett, of Australian Eleven fame. Also, another incident which is rather unique, and may |>e. worth vour whi'e to publish. In a six-ball over (eight balls being thought too strenuous here) the first three balls were hit for six, and the remaining three balls took wickets (the: hat trick). 1 ’

THE CHOSEN TIVE. “Eire Cricketers of the Year” —In every volume of Wisden’s Almanack this heading covens a chapter that is read with interest, by enthusiasts the world over. In the 1927 volume the men singled out for special tribute arei:— W. M. Woodful 1, W. A. O',dfield, H. Larwood G. Geary. J. 'Mercer. Virtual I" unknown in this part of the world is the name of John Mercer. A native of Sussex, Mercer did valuable service for Glamorgan last year as <■ bowler. It was his most suoetassfu l ; season. fn county matches lie took 119 wickets for 15* runs each,/and later toured India with the M.C.C. team. As he wilt probably come up against Lowry's New Zealand eleven, it is worth stating that Mercer is a mediumpace, right-hand, somewhat similar in type to Maurice Tate; hut not quite so fast. Wood full is termed “the most dependable and consistent run-getter of the last Australian team”; Oldfield, “the best wicket-keeper in the world at the present day” ; Larwood, “the fast bowler who began Australia’s collapse in the last test” ; and Geary, “a fine type of medium-pace bowler —by his ffnta ba ti in.tr he ho'ped to extricate_ England from a verv awkward gitriatiom in the Leeds test.” .

BOWLERS’ VELOCITY. Spofforth. when at his zenith as a fast bowler bowled several balls at Woolwich Arsenal under an electric time test. His greatest speed w'as 57 to 58 miles an hour. When C. T. 13. Turner was in England he bowled through the electric screens used at Woolwich Arsenal for computing the velocity of projectiles. His fastest pace was recorded as 62.2 miles an hour. Turner was never considered to be a fast bowler, and his pace by no means represents what Kortright and Richardson accomplished. As recorded at Cambridge in 1922. by means; of the ballistic pendulum, it has been computed that the ve-locitv with which, a cricket ball is delivered by the fastest of bowlers is 85 fL-et per second, or 57.95 miles an hour. _ This compares adversely with the highest speeds cf a driven golf had and n fast service at tennis, whbh have bei n reckoned tv*' tko sninc 1 nstriiment jvs attaining initial speeds of nr-proxi-matelv 220 feet per second and 120 feet per isecond respectively.