NOW BRING OUT YOUR BULLDOGS!

NZ Truth, Issue 1200, 29 November 1928, Page 14

NOW BRING OUT YOUR BULLDOGS!

But England's Canine May Worry The Kangaroo At Brisbane So to-morrow Australia will set off on another of her cricket cum-endurance tests against the Englishmen. There is no time length allotted to the game and it might tend m six days. I: 'J

MIGHT is used advisedly. To "N.Z. Truth's" way of thinking, the Test should be over m less than five days and. the decision go to England. "Truth" has reason for this forecast and the reason is backed up by good judges of the game throughout the country. England has new blood and youth on her side and the Australian selectors pinned their faith to old campaigners with a sprinkling — m fact, just a light sunshower — of new blood. Aussie critics are satisfied with their team and they have good reason for that satisfaction. ' Have they' not got the great Jack Gregory and Charlie Kelleway to help them through? Have they not got their two great batsmen, Ponsford and Woodfull, to open for them ? But are both Gregory and Kelleway as good as they used to be? "Truth" does not think so, though it is admitted that both are still m the first flight. Considering that the rubber will consist of five Tests. Australia could quite easily have dropped two or three of the veterans m the first match m order to give the young players a chance. \ Vie. Richardson is one good "example and Otto Nothling, the ex-Cornstalk Rugger player, is another. Their inclusion m the side would not have made a great deal of difference m the long run and quite possibly Australia would have found two excellent players capable of upholding the honor of their country against the best of England. Of course, England still has her veteran master batsman, Jack Hobbs, but a big falling-off m the great player's form will be amply covered by such run -getters as. Jarcline, Hammond. Sutcliffe, Hendren and Chapman. Even m bowling, England appears to hold the balance of power, but such tnuridlers as Larwood, who, by the way, is sending them down faster than .

Gregory, and White, who may gain a place m the Test side, have to be taken on .chance. They might not stand up to the conditions at Brisbane. Dan Reese, doyen of the cricket game m New Zealand, and late chairman of the New Zealand Council, was brief, but pithy, when invited to express his views on the prospects of the two sides. "The Australian side is too old," he said. 'JThere are only two men under thirty m it, while, if we look back a few years to the famous Australian side of 1902, we find that it contained only two men over thirty." . . ' Dan. went on to refer to England being, for the first time since the outbreak of the war, m the moral ascendancy. : "In the last series m Australia prior to the war," he observed, "England won four out of five Tests, but with the advent of the Armstrong and Collins combinations, England was overwhelmed and they are only recovering from the setback the game received during the war years. "In each series since the war, the Australians have taken the field always confident of victory, whereas the 3Dnglishmen were' prone to doubt their own chances. "This year, the first for many, the position is reversed and England is m a moral ascendancy. * "However, while we might be inclined to favor England's chances on the general face of things, the Australians are such great fighters that we can't look upon this year's series of Tests as a foregone conclusion." So there you are. "Now bring out your bulldogs," was the Australian slogan after the selection of the team, but there is more than a probability that the bulldog will have a large slice of the kangaroo before things are finished. ,