THREE YEARS IN BIG CRICKET AT 21

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 160, 10 July 1939, Page 5

THREE YEARS IN BIG CRICKET AT 21

DENIS COMPTON'S CAREER FOLLOWS IX HEXDEEX S FOOTSTEPS Denis Compton, Britain's brightest batting star, was 21 on May 23. His coming of age heralds three years in front rank cricket, and a meteoric rise to fame that reads like a fairy dream come true. This Hendon schoolboy follows closely in the footsteps of Patsy Henaren, also football winger and Middlesex cricketer. Both were programme boys at Lord’s. Both pulled the roller to the captain’s orders, and both went through drudgery of net bowling. But Compton’s promotion has been quicker than that of Hendren. Compton’s second team apprenticeship was remarkably short. He got into the first eleven against Sussex for the annual Whitsuntide Lord’s fixture in 1936, and since has never looked back. Nearly 1000 runs in his first season, a Test match against New Zealand in 1937, and 100 in his debut as the youngest cricketer ever to pi ; against Australia last season. That is Compton’s record. Compton has already mqde | centuries for Middlesex this season, his ; latest being 103 (not out) against Somerset at Frome last wek. The young Middlesex star has a habit that recalls a classic story of Bobby Abel, the famous Surrey player. It is told of Abel that after he had made a score topping 300 he was found in the pavilion practising strokes before the mirror. When asked if he was not satisfied he said: “Yes, but i cannot think why that ball got m'

out.” Compton reveals the same interest in the mistakes he makes in batting, and the mirror at Lord’s works overtime.