Personalities In N.Z. Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 565, 18 January 1929, Page 7

Personalities In N.Z. Sport

Rival Captains in Plunket Shield Game Have Both Played for Hawke’s Bay

Hawke’s Bay had. the proud distinction of furnishing the captains of both the New Zealand Cricket team which toured England in 1927, and the All Blacks who returned from an epochmaking visit to South Africa last year. It has a further connection with the Plunket Shield final at Auckland, because in addition to T. C. Lowry, the Wellington captain, C. F. A. Allcott, who is leading the Auckland Eleven, lirst came into prominence in big cricket by a sound bowling performance for the meat and wool province against Ransford's Australian team in mi.

Actually, however, Allcott spent only one season in Napier, and practically all his career in big cricket is linked with Auckland, lie was a Marlborough representative during the war and immediately after, gaining interprovincial honours at the age of 16 w’hile stiH a High School boy.

Coming to Auckland in 1922-23 after a season in Hawke’s Bay, Allcott speedily made a name for himself as a medium paced left-hand bowler. For the North Island against the South in 1923, he took live wickets for 45, and scored 40 with the bat. That performance established him as a strong rival to Dan Mcßeath, then New Zealand’s best left-hand bowler, and when a New Zealand team went to Australia in 1926-27, both men were taken. Neither man was able to reproduce his best New' Zealand form on the billiard-table wickets across the Tasman, but Allcott blossomed out as a champion batsman. He scored centuries against Victoria and New South Wales, and topped the averages for the first-class matches. He was undoubtedly the batting discovery of the tour, although it had all ftlong been realised in Auckland that be was a batsman above the ordinary.

It is a moot point which was the better bowler, Allcott or Mcßeath. On all wickets, Allcott was probably the more consistent, although on a wearing pitch, there was no more dangerous bowler than the Christchurch man. . Allcott went Home with the New Zealand team of 1927, but an injury to hi* foot kept him out of a majority °t the matches, and he had little chance to reproduce his best form, although ’•n occasions he showed all his old and brilliant form with both bat and ball. Ho did not play at all last season in Auckland, wisely deciding to give his injured foot a complete rest. This reason, lie has reproduced his best torm in club cricket, and soon made himself the obvious choice as captain of the Auckland Eleven. Tom Lowry is tne oldest representa- ,'* e °f family which has a remarkable record in sport. His father, Mr. L H. Lowry, better known in recent >ears as a successful racehorse owner, 'yas a good cricketer and the captain of ‘he first Hawke’s Bay Rugby team. His three sons all secured their “Blues" in B Port at Cambridge University, Tom cricket, Ralph at Rugby and Jim at p n S* 8 ’ One sister is the wife of A. p’ *• Chapman, captain of the English S ie i en> and another is engaged to Dr. , h. Bettington, the well-known Australian player. Tom Lowry had cricket blood in his eins, and his enthusiasm for the game 2V as stimulated by the arrival in Hawke’s Bay before the war of Jack ~? ard * the Gloucestershire professional, nos© engagement by the Hawke’s Bay ncket Association was largely due to l i nterp st taken in the game by Mr. Lowry. The Lowrys had their ' n cricket ground at Okawa, and it • as here that Board laid the founda,n of Tom Lowry’s brilliant career. Lowry then went to Christ's College. i A re he captained the College First f^ en ’ and Rained his “cap” at Rugby '■■•'ball. He then joined the New ZeaT n i orce - and was training in ngland when the war ended. Several - ars at Cambridge University, where

his father had been before him, followed, and in 1924, Tom was captain of the Varsity Eleven. He also played for Somerset, and made his mark in county cricket as a dashing, hardhitting batsman. He was in New Zealand with Maclaren’s English team, and while on holiday in Australia in 1926, joined the side which the late Mr. J. F. Beaky took across in that year, Allcott, of course, being one of liis team-mates. When the New Zealand team was picked to tour England in 1927, his previous experience made him a*n almost certain choice as captain, and he led the New Zealanders in England, being himself one of the best allrounders on the side. It would be straining a reasonable eulogy too much to say that lie is a great leader. Of a rather casual disposition in the field, and determined even to the point of obstinancy in his leadership of a side, lie has often incurred criticism of his tactics as a captain. For all that, however, he lias proved a great fighter, a dour, determined batsman under difficulties, and a captain who is never rattled. Further than that, he has proved too have a keen, calculating brain behind his apparent indifference, and liis ex “ per:ience in England and Australia has been of great value to New Zealand cricket. . . „ Lowry owns and manages a nig station down Taihape way, and when “lie comes to town" for cricket, his famous white sunhat and cherrywood pipe are much in evidence. Aucklanders ■who are taking their half holiday at Eden Park to-morrow, will be on the look-out again for Tom’s hat. and if he hasn’t got it with him this time, they will be disappointed!