HOW TO BEAT YORKSHIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19202, 19 June 1924, Page 4

HOW TO BEAT YORKSHIRE.

By H. J. Henley, in the Daily Mail. “Yorkshire will be champions again, I suppose.” That is what thousands of people have said since their thoughts turned to a new cricket season. For by might of achievement Yorkshire have inspired a respect that amounts almost to awe. Three times out of five in the years that have passed since the war they have been leading county. Last summer they lost only one match out of 32. Everyone could tell you the reasons of their success. The team were the best balanced in the country “n people energetically busy; heaving, struggling, all shoulders at the wheel.” They were a combination, whereas so many teams were a mere collection of odds and ends. They had bowlers for all sorts of wickets : batting solid to the end; no weak spots in the field. And they might be suspected, of thinking in championship points. Not for them was cricket an expression of the joy of life. Instead, it was something serious as international politics, solemn as a religious ritual. All these things Yorkshire were last year. All these things they probably will be this year. They have by success been lifted to the heights of the gods. The strength of (heir personality intimidates. Rival counties are scared by thorn before the ball is bowled. “This is Yorkshire,” their opponents seem to soy to themselves; “therefore this ball cannot possibly be a balf-volley. Let us be careful.” f remember with particular vividness a certain afternoon at the Oval when Surrey, by rule a.n enterprising team. Kitted as if they were faced by supermen. E. R. Wilson, Rov Kilner, and Rhodes, all slow bowlers operating on a fust, true wicket, aetually sent down 127 overs for 237 runs! Of course the bowline was exceedingly good. But had Wilson been some unknown don’t think that he would have been faced so timidly. Had exactly the same kind of deliveries been howled by an obscure Jones, nf Glamorganshire, instead of by Rhodes, he would soon have required more than a single outfield. But the batsmen seemed to see a bogev behind Wilson and Rhodes. It was ns if Yorkshire’s tremendous faith in themselves acted like hypnotism upon their opponents. Bv what means can Yorkshire lee pulled off the championship perch? Hie team to outrace them in points must luive not only the men but the methods. They must also think in point percentage—make something of a fetish of the championship. They must decide upon an eleven and refrain from chops and changes—select a player and stick to him despite a few failures. Above all. they must remember when thev meet Yorkshire that they are facing mortals much line themselves—frail humanity, always liable to Kiwi a long bop or a half-volley. They must treat them “not as children or gods, but as men in a world of men.”