CRICKET

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 July 1927, Page 10

CRICKET

THE N.Z. TOUR. ENGLISH COMMENT ON THE PLAYERS. It was very .bad luck that the weaklier lobbed tine New Zeaitand-ers of a pr.acttciailiy certain victory over Warwickshire, one of the counties that stands pretty high in the list of competing teams in the Old Country, and includes some of the best ol the cricketers in. England. They have thus fair in the tour exceeded the anticipations ot their warmest admirers. It is stated that a man m Wellington who follows cricket, and has apparently a strong opinion on the status of English cricket, made a wager for a pretty large amount that they would not win a match. And 'he has, it J;s understood, accepted the position and paid without a complaint. Perhaps the most heartening item o! news connected with the tour is a statement by Colonel. Trevor that, while they had soon proved they could bat and bowl, and while their fielding gave much room for question, they hau shown a marked improvement jn tipi; essential part of the game. ft gives much ground for the assurance that from the good players they meet, they will gain such knowledge as will improve their own play and enable them when they return to pass this on to their fellows in the game in the Dominion. If they do this, they will more than justify the confidence of the promoters of the tour.

A Canterbury scribe asks the question : “Can Roger .Blunt perform the feat o.f scoring over 2000 runs and talcing over 100 wickets during the tour of till© New Zealand cricketers in the Old Country ? If Blunt can accomplish this it will ibe a most noteworthy feat of all-round cricket.” Warwick Armstrong is the only Australian to have performed the feat on a tour of the Old Country. In English cricket- W. G. Grace did this in 1873 and in 1878, while the feat has since been accomplished by F. E. Woolley (four times), G. H .Hirst and J. W. Hearne (three times), W. Rhodes (twice), C. L. Townsend, G. L. Jessop, V. "W. C. Jupp, and F. A. Tarrant (once). Merritt has undoubtedly been the “find” of the team, and it is all to the credit of the selectors that they were courageous enough to back their own Opinion against all the volunteer selectors. He has come to light in barting o.n several occasions, and his ilasit feat, against The Army, saved his side from almost a debacle. Writes Colonel Trevor in the Wellington “Post” : “1 would like here to interpolate the statement that this team, captained by Tom, Lowiy and managed by Mr. Hay, is welcome wherever -it goes. A wise old man of my acquaintance who, toy the way, preserves a boy’s enthusiasms, said to me recently at Lord’s: ‘These New Zealand lads are- -real cricket lovers, and that’s what makes them attractive on the field and off.’ Then the old man reminisced : ‘l’ve seen every team that has come to this country from every Dominion and dependency. l’ye never seen one in which the .spirit of cricket as a, game lived so- vitally as in this New Zealand one.’ And then he prophesied : ‘New Zealand doesn’t rank as yet n-s a first-dlass cricket land. Give it ia.i few years and it will. -And when it docs if they’ve done their technical improvement without losing the spirit in which, they now play they may save first-class cricket in. all 131111? from toecoming what it now threatens to become—namely, an institution in which) financier ranks first and cricket second.’. V