"A STEADY CRICKETER."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 October 1922, Page 3

"A STEADY CRICKETER."

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S REVELA-

TIONB.

, Mr. Austen Chamberlain delivereii a humourous speech in the House of Commons recently at a dinner given to the Canadian cricket team. Proposing the health of the visiting team, he said he had only one speech on cricket, and was embarrassed in making it a third time. (Laughter.) "What are my qualifications?" asked Mr. Chamberlain. "You won't find them recorded in county cricket, you won't find them in match cricket, and you will have to search the records, if there be any records, of the preparatory schools which I attended, or of my early days at Rugby. I can say for myself, and I hope the company won't think I am unduly boasting, that I belong to the class of steady cricketers. (Laughter.) "It was not one of those who had 1 days of surpassing splendour, and then disappointed his friends by playing much worse cricket the next day. Mine was good steady cricket* I was always put in last. (Laughter.) I always went out at the first ball if it was ! bowled straight, I never caught a ball ; i except on the top of my head, and I never stopped a ball with a proper part of my body." He was afraid he would never become a cricketer. He could conceive of ! only one possible thing that could make . him take up a game in which he suffered so much, and so ingloriously; it ! would be some new legal enactment that would require him to talk or play erolf. He believed there were people who found pleasure in golf. (Laughter.') He "had asked them why? They told hrm it put them intp pleasant; sooietv, that, they got delightful views, and 50 forth. He got all those things

without golf. (Laughter.) "If I do not appreciate cricket, do not think it is because I have given myself over to one of the latter sports," added Mr. Chamberlain.