High Art Of Batsmanship As It Was Practised By H. W. Taylor

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6864, 21 May 1932, Page 11

High Art Of Batsmanship As It Was Practised By H. W. Taylor

SOUTH AFRICAN STYLIST’S RETIREMENT FROM TEST CRICKET REGRETTED

20 years Herbert Tay\rs?! lor > the South African, has been recognised in iMjfJ England as a batsman of the highest class, says a [SSk'JDf 1 writer in the London “Observer.” Both as a man and a player he is very popular in England,. where he is sc well known. His retirement from Test matches cannot excite surprise, though his withdrawal from this field of action will he regretted by those who admire the art of batsmanship as practised before modern innovations tended to cause style to be regarded as quite a secondary attribute. It is not too much to say that South Africa has never had a clever scorer who has so assiduously cultivated and maintained such a chaste and facile manner of achieving his purpose, there was never a sigii of effort. His pose permitted all strokes. He was never a man who relied upon power to the on as a chief means of advance. He not only practised the drive past cover-point and' to cither side of mid-olf, hut regarded the square cut as a fruitful source of runs. When he wrote an article for the second volume of Maurice Luckin’s incomparable history and record of South African cricket, Taylor advocated the development of off-side play—especially the drive and the square cut. He said: “there is far too great a tendency on the part of most of our batsmen to wail for the short ball to bang to the on-sidc. By all means have a pull shot, but do not rely almost exclusively on it. . . . A Test match batsman should be master of all strokes. If he has not a square cut of sorts, what is he to do with the ball slightly short outside the off-stump? . . . A batsman who has not all the cricket strokes can he pinned down hv good-length bowling in no time.” Such words are a golden treasury of advice, and let us remember that Herbert Taylor was one who also preached by example at the wicket. A Born Batsman. Herbert Wilfred Taylor, born at Durban bn May 5, 1889, in the year that his father, Dan Taylor, a brilliant left-hand player, captained Natal, inherited a love of cricket manifest at Durban High School and Michaelhouse College. At the college he was given his colours, and when 18 scored a capital century in the final tie for the Christopher Cup. He jumped into the higher phase of the game and was played against H. D. G. Leveson-Gower’s tourists. When the Durban Cricket Union engaged Alec IJearne and George Cox as coaches he was the most interested pupil, and was chosen to come to England and play in the Imperial Triangular Tournament, the favourite scheme of Sir Abe Bailey in 1912.

at Johannesburg in December, 1922, hit 17C, his highest score in any Test. No other South African batsman was so consistent. E. P. Nupen has declared that “Taylor batted as only he and very few others can bat.”. It is the considered and “official” opinion in South Africa that ‘'for sheer artistry some of his many beautiful innings have never been excelled.” Some of the veterans of England have coupled Taylor with A. P. Lucas (“Bunny”) for his amenities and icsthetic appeal. The Test match arena will know him no more. Leaving out of reckoning unofficial tours of South Africa. Taylor has played in 42 real Tests, had 76 innings, been four times not out. and scored 2936 runs. His century successes have been against England, his centuries being 109, 170, 101, 102, 101, I*2l, and 117. It is curious that lie has never exceeded that 93 against Australia, at Lord’s, although

The youngest member of the party, he obtained 93 against Australia at Lord’s, and, considering all circumstances, this display was not unworthy of comparison with C. G. Macartney’s and R. C. Spooner’s great innings at headquarters in this tournament. The trip to the Motherland brought out all that was in Taylor’s mental equipment. He returned to the Cape, and in the Currie Cup tournament made 250 not out, when the situation looked hopeless, for Natal against Transvaal, and was the chief factor in gaining a remarkable victory. The Fion. Lionel Tennyson captained the M.C.C. team which went to South Africa in 1913-14, and when the first Test match began at Durban in December Taylor opened the game, being No. 1 on the card with 109, made against S. F. Barnes, M. W. Booth. F. Woolley, A. E. Belf, J. W. H. T. Douglas, and W. Rhodes. During the tour Taylor showed his ability against Barnes. By his superb skill he became a world batsman. His average for the rubber of 1913-14 was 50.80, figures which he raised to 04.66 against F. T. Mann’s team in 192223. Thrice he reached a and

when facing CollinsV troops at Johannesburg, in November, 1921, he obtained 47 and 80 against Gregory, Macdonald, and Mailey. The Contrasts of Cricket. From 1913 to 1924 he captained .South Africa. A certain reticent charm of manner and the attitude of the perfect sportsman made him many close friends among fellow players. < Probably his most painful experience, as the leader of his country, was when Arthur Gilligan and M. W. Tate dismissed his team in the Burlingham Test of 1924 for 30 runs. If he appeared in the debacle which produced South Africa’s lowest total in England, he had the satisfaction of scoring 121 at Kcnnington Oval in 1929, when the declared total was 492 for eight wickets—the highest ever made by the Dominion against the Old Counlrv. Such are the varieties of life to a cricketer. In the fourth Test, during the South Africans’ recent tour of Australia, Taylor, with 78 and 84, illustrated his capacity to remain undaunted, and yet in his last big Test his figures were 0 and 2. He decided not to linger on the green; rather to step aside for the rising generation now being trained on turf wickets. Taylor, when young, was so good a stand-oft half-back at Rugby that he represented Natal in the Curie Cup contests, and was talked about as. a probable for one of the teams which visited England. His fame must rest on his deeds in another sphere. Just as Herbert Taylor’s father was a colonel in the Natal Field Artillery against the Boers in the last South African war, so his lad, Lieut. Taylor, served in the same arm of the service in France during the European conflict. This quiet, retiring man, of medium height, was awarded the Military Cross for distinguished deeds.

The new athletic track at the White City, London, which was used first for the recent athletic meeting between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, is said to be probably the best in the world, both in the arrangement, of the track, and in the preparation of it. The surface is of red shale, which settles down much more quickly than cinders do. The general equipment, of the ground, too, is such that English critics expect the White City to become the greatest sports centre in the. world. It is in the Shepherd’s Bush district. 45'## Jackson Scholz, who won the 200 metres race at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, and who subsequently toured New Zealand, is making a big effort to recover his old form, in the hope of being chosen as one of the United States representatives at this year’s Olympic Games. He must be a real optimist.