LORD SOMERS AS M.C.C. PRESIDENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 18 June 1936, Page 4

LORD SOMERS AS M.C.C. PRESIDENT

VALUE OF HIS AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE FORMER WORCESTERSHIRE CRICKETER (By Air Mail—From A Special Correspondent) LONDON, 16th May Many people are saying: that Lord Somers has been appointed new president of the M.C.C., as a gesture to the Australians. It is generally agreed that his five years in Australia, as Governor of Victoria, will prove valuable to the M.C.C., whose outlook on things Australian lias not been conspicuously successful in recent years. Lord Somers played for Worcestershire 12 years ago in the county championship and won his county cap. He is still in the forties and is one of the youngest M.C.C., presidents of recent years. For some time past he has been Acting Chief Scout during the absence of Lord Baden Powell in South Africa. At Pitt House, Hampstead, where he is staying, Lord Somers talked about cricket and cricketers. “For practically 10 years I have been abroad” said Lord Somers, “so have seen very little of English cricket. a ■ “But I was at Lord’s this,,week and saw M.C.C. batting. I though! Hendren marvellous. “The ground looks splendid and I heard all about the trouble last year with the pitches, and everyone has been impressed with the great improvement in the turf.” Lord Somers was a member of a remarkable Charterhouse School team and in a match against Westminster School he and C. V. L. Hooman between them scored 273 runs out of a total of 325. Lord Somers made 115 and the faithful Wisden says he “made his runs well.” “That was in my first school match” he said. “My best score for Worcestershire was 52 against Essex.” One of the bowlers who impressed Lord Somers most was Charles Parker of Gloucester, whom he described as “a great bowler.” “Parker always used his brains” he said. “He kept pitching the ball a little shorter and I suppose I was not thinking enough for I was drawn forward and Smith whipped the bails off.” Lord Somers used to field at midoff and in the deep. “I always enjoyed fielding” he said, “but as for bowling —no, I didn’t bowl unless I happened to be captain of a very bad side.” Now the new M.C.C., President is devoting himself to try to get back the Ashes. “I hope we shall have a good side and one that will play in the best traditions of the game” he said.