Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1927. CRICKET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16377, 27 June 1927, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1927. CRICKET

New Zealanders all, we, feel sure, ire proud of the record wlneh is being put up at Home by.the sons of the Dominion, under Mr. Douglas Hay’s control, who are touring the English countries —a record not. only for good brisk cricket, in whi'ch.JJiey-have. succeeded in holding their own well against some of the finest county teams, but also for that which gives ns the greatest pleasure to mention—for “playing the game.’’ The New Zealanders—.they are mostly just youths not long- from school or college—have impressed English people with their gentlemanly and sportsmanlike demeanor, and with their evident, uesiro to play cricket according to ihe best British traditions. It is a groat gain to the Dominion that our team should make and hold that impression, “A Straight bat one! a modest, mind’’ is Mr. Warner’s motto for cricketers, and, writes Air. Garvin, “it will be recognised as expressive of the game. There is no other in which ‘swank’ is so much the unpardonable sin. This is the naturally evolved morality of a pastimo in which individual exploits may be at once dazzling and meretricious. A century is always a century on paper, but there will often be. more merit in a few runs made in circumvention of ‘a bumping pitch and a blinding light,’ or in some feat of coolness achieved with ‘the last man in and an hour to go.’ The seasoned cricketer is always aware of how much circumstance may do for or against him. Ho will never take credit for his luck or blame it. Hs is. in a way, the Puritan among sportsmen.’’ It will be a great gain also to New Zealand cricket to have had ♦ hose young batsmen and bowlers associating with the cricketers of England, visiting the haunts of the national game, and absorbing its traditions. “One of the chief delights of cricket,” says a writer in the Daily Telegraph, “is the meeting with men who are the salt of the earth. John Nyren in old days, and Neville Cardus in our own time, have reminded us in unforgettable language of the fascinating personalities of great cricketers from Squire Asbakleston to Johnny Briggs, and lovable and strange characters are just as easy to discover in village as ui county ctickct, as Mr. Hugh do Soliucourt found and retailed for our advantage in liis little masterpiece, “A Cricket Match.” Cricket is alone among games in giving one time to know one’s, adversary, and, in knowing him, to love him. What is true of the man is true also to the place. From a cur, riding, or oven walking, we are apt not to see the English village at all. It is only as one sits on the rickety bench under the trees, in the company ot‘ bees, small children, and old men, waiting for one’s innings that one begins to absorb something of the of English village life. The game itself is an interpretation of the instincts of the race that loves it. Its grace, its ' leisure, its dignity, and its simplicity jure as English as .the none too skilful I way we play it.” In a further disj sertation on the charms of the game j this writer states: “In the winter ! there is no sight to compare with that ; of scaarlet-couted horsemen bursting I from covert-side; so in summer there • is no sight lovelier than that of white fingers llitting to and fro over the i smooth green turf of tree-fringed i plcasuunccs. The crack of a whip or | fnc whimper of a hound may induce a regret for November, > but there are i weird noises coming from inside the j walls ol’ Lord’s that cause us to spring ! up from our seats and,crane our necks | over the sides of ’buses, if we are i lucky enough to be in the SI. John’s i Wood-road, noises that send delicious I shivers down the spine and make us tako down and re-oil our bats on reaching home, humming to ourselves ' the while an anthem of our own in- ; volition, the words of which are, ‘The nets are up, the nets are up.’ Tennis and golf may let us down, but cricket never. Corpulent and short of bronth, j asthmatic and rheumatic, we can rtill • piny cricket. We play it neither to remove nor to avoid ailments. It is not an exercise, or n medicine, but an ecstasy. Tt. is perhaps the only game left iii the world that is played as games should bo played—that m, en--1 thusiastically by vast numbers of i sportsmen who not only are no good at , it, but know themselves to be no good, i The mind of the true crickoter is not ■ sot upon attaining serious honors. He j is content with a simple pass degree, I and even the obtaining of that do- ; mauds concentration; the pitching of • the ball on that imaginary sixpence ; six .times out of six, the clamping , down of that right foot, and the free manipulation of the left; how easy I these things are in theory every pri- ! veto school boy knows, how hard to • put into practice perhaps only those who have plodded unsuccessfully for the best part of three-score years can fully renKse. But it is a better thing to fail gloriously than never to try, so wo continue to run in to that catch which we never dgre hope to hold, run out to hit that tempting ball which we are sure to miss, and practice .that deadly spin which invariably culminates in the simplest of half-volleys, for the joys of cricket are not exhausted, are scarcely even tapped, in the mere playing of it. For the tens id' thousands' of boys, however, who never attain the eminence of even their school third eleven,, cricket is still the best of games, for it is the most sociable. To hold ti straight bat and keep a good length may be denied to all but the few, but to field competently is within the grasp of even tho least gifted. Summot’s hours are long, and ought, to be, for youth at any rate, golden hours, Thero is a

tendency in adolescence to overstrain the system athletically. Cricket is a natural ocorrective to this instinct, for it occupies a great deal of time without demanding any continuous muscular effort. It at once provides youth with something to think about, and yet allows him time to let his thoughts roam. It is unlikely that any battles have been lost or won on any cricket-fields, but ir is quite certain that many characters have been formed, many imaginative and aesthetic faculties developed, many life-long friendships cemented.'’ The bus-driver’a summing up in “Harry Richmond ” is given by the "Telegraph in conclusion: “There’s my notion of happiness,” said lie: “Cricket, in erieket season! Tt comprises—count: l.ots o’ running: and that’s good; just enough o' taking it easy: that’s good; a appetite for your dinner, and your tile, or your port, as may be the case: good, number three. Add on a tired pipe after dark, and a sound sleep to follow, and you say' good morning to the doctor and the parson; for you’re in health body and soul, and ne’er a parson 'll make a better Christian o’ ye, that I’ll swear.”