"ATTACK THE BOWLING"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16297, 23 March 1927, Page 4

"ATTACK THE BOWLING"

HUGH TRUMBLE'S ADVICE Hugh Trumble, in an interview in the Dunedin Star, discussing New _ Zealand cricket, • expressed the same opinion on the game in the Dominion as did Warwick Armstrong. Jlc said: "It seems to me Unit your players need to be more aggressive. The hall-volley is a half-voltey, and a long hop is a long hop, and both these bahs should be hit, but they are too often just played. There should be no risK in hitting a bad ball. Many players imagine there is a trap behind these bad length balls, but .there rarely is." Trumble said that most of the cricketers in Mew Zealand were obviously out of practice, and that, he added, is a fatal thing. "A cricketer should practise us a billiard player practises, constantly and conscientiously, specialising on shots that he is weak on, and keeping his eye and muscles in trim. The bateman should attack the bowling at every opportunity. A GREAT MISTAKE. "It is not only in New Zeaand," Trumble hastened to and, "that overcareful batting is noticeable. In Australia these methods are Largely in vogue. One frequently sees mediumpace bowlers operating without anyone in the out-field, which is a grave reflection on the batsmen. A good bat on seeing an open outfield at once lifts even well-pitched oalls over the infields' heads. It is, of course, a great mistake to hit across a.t anything but a lung hop. This is a fault very noticeable in Mew Zealand." Trumble said that he has noticed that some of our best-known Mew Zealand bowlers do not use their heads as they should. "In Christchurch recently," he said, "when the position of the game was such that the batting side had no hope of making the required rune in time, one bowler in his last over sent down seven balls a yard outside the off stick. He should have pitched them close to the oil stump and made the batsman play them. Bowlers should always start pitching them close to the oil' pin, and then work away, coming close again so soon as the batsman begins |to let them pass. Mo. batsman likes to 'take the risk of letting a ball pass that is only a few inches off the wicket. MATERIAL GOOD. "The day will come when Mew Zealand will have a tine cricketing side. You have real natural turf wickets, good grounds, and a One class of young athletic men. The grounds and wickets in the main centres are splendid, but in other parts the wickets are inclined to powder away. "But," added Trumble, "yon must practise. Coaching is all right, but you must mako up your mind to practise. You cannot teach a man to play out of a book. Put him on the right lines and then set him to practise." Asked what he thought of the chances of the New Zealand team in England, Trumble said they should win a good many of their matches when they get into their stride. One advantage they would have was that the English wickets were much the same as those in New Zealand, good sporting wickets that gradually wear away, and not cast iron that last for ever, like Australian E itches. Some of the men would come ack pretty good players, and this would be a good Ihing for New Zealand, in that these players would be models for the younger generation to copy. In our report of Saturday's competition games, Gisborne Club was credited with a victory over Celtic by seven runs. This, as the scores indicated, was incorrect; Gisborne won the match by seven wickets