Lancashire County Eleven Greatly In Need Of A Fast Bowler

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1934, Page 14

Lancashire County Eleven Greatly In Need Of A Fast Bowler

PLAYERS AGAINST AUSTRALIAN TEAM IN MATCH AT OLD TRAFFORD

/CONSISTING almost entirely of professionals, the personnel of a county cricket team in the North of England is generally more constant than thai of a county side in the South of England, and as a rule the team which represents one of the northern counties against an Australian side does not differ materially from that which plays for it in county championship games In the southern counties the position is different, and one cannot estimate the strength of a southern county against the Australians simply from its position in the championship table. Two or three good amateurs who seldom play in championship games may, i.‘ they are available together, make a big difference to a southern county. Lancashire, the county now opposing the Australians, is definitely below its strength of a few years back, when it was the champion county. It finished fifth in the championship last season, and a few days ago it was beaten decisively by Yorkshire, holder of the championship. However, it has happened quite often that Lancashire, well beaten by Yorkshire in the first match, has won the second. Bowling is Lancashire’s weakness nowadays. Its attack is not well balanced, but depends too much on assistance from the wicket for certain bowlers. The county needs, especially, a good fast bowler for wickets that are not giving the slow and medium-paced bowlers any help. Lancashire is taking a long time to find a man to succeed its fine fast bowlers of the past. E. A. McDonald, former Australian Eleven player, filled the gap for a time, but G. Hodgson, a South African, who was tried after McDonald left the county team, did not show consistency, and complaints about his cutting up the turf in front of the leg-stump proved to be the last straw, for the South African, was dropped then. Desire for Brightness. Of late years Lancashire has been criticised considerably for stodgy batting. An excuse advanced sometimes for this stodginess is that the batting had to cover up the weakness in the bowling. Certainly it has often staved off defeat. However, last season, when the county was beaten only once —by Yorkshire —‘there were several instances of bright batting by it. Indeed, a London critic proved that over the season Lancashire scored faster than its opponents. Still, the batting was not always attractive, even when the rate of scoring was good for championship matches: there was too ’ much pushing of the ball “round the corner”. to leg The play irt front of the wicket needed improvement. The Lancashire County Club’s committee expressed, before the present season opened, a hope that the team’s batsmen would play more naturally. It seems to be concerned not so much with championship prospects as with a desire to see its batsmen playing their natural

game and providing attractive cricket. It is obvious, however, that this will not be done consistently until the team’s attack is strengthened and the batsmen feel less responsibility for covering up the weaknesses in the bowling. In the endeavour to turn a mediocre attack into a good one the county club has. taken two new fast bowlers on its ground staff. One of them is phenomenally tall for his age, and the county committee will need to take care that he does not bowl himself out before he matures. This lad, J. Bowes, from Stretford Grammar School, is only 16 years of age, but, like W. E. Bowes, of Yorkshire, he stands 6ft 4in.’ The other new fast bowler on the ground staff is T. H. Nelson, from Ashton-under-Lyne. Another recruit, but not a fast man, is A. Wrigley, a spin bowler from Heaton Mersey. However, until full details of the early matches in this season’s county championship arrive one cannot tell

whether or not any one of the new men has yet been tried out in a county match. Of the bowlers who have been in the Lancashire team before perhaps the man with the greatest possibilities is F. M. Sibbles, medium-paced spinner, who has done some remarkably good things at times, and who has played in several trials for the selection of English teams.’ His health, though, has prevented him from being consistently good. He is 30 years of age. No Lan-i cashire bowler took 100 wickets last season, and only two took over 80 wickets. Sibbles was one of them. The other was F. S. Booth, a medium-paced bqwler with a faster ball. Booth is 27. On his day he is good, but he is not consistent.

A. D. Baxter, an amateur of Scottish descent but born in Devonshire, has done some good fast bowling for Lancashire in matches outside the championship competition. Two other useful amateurs who assist Lancashire occasionally are H. R. W. Butterworth, a Cambridge blue five years, ago, who is both batsman and bowler (righthand slow), and E. A. Barlow, Oxford blue, who bowls slow spinners and sometimes makes runs.

Two good professionals of all-round calibre are J. Iddon and J. L. Hop-

wood. Iddon both bats and bowls lefthanded. He is naturally aggressive in his batting, and he has some excellent strokes, but’ too often he has repressed his gifts and let half-volleys go unpunished. It is said of Iddon that if he would trust his nature in batting he would be an England batsman. In championship matches last year he scored over 1500 runs at an average of 50.66, but in all first-class games his average fell to 48.48. He has made several scores over 200. As a slow bowler he took 64 wickets at 25.67 runs each last season. Iddon is 31 years of age. ' Hopwood, an opening batsman, bats right-handed, but bowls left-handed, at medium pace. Like Iddon, he has good strokes when he is not labouring under restraint: his driving is reported to be particularly good. Hopwood was second to Iddon in the county’s batting averages last year, and he headed the professional bowling averages, with 56 wickets at 20.76 runs each. He bowls slow-medium. Hopwood is 30 years of age. F. Watson, who last season was generally Hopwood’s partner at the beginning of the innings, is less disposed to stolidity than he was a few years ago. He had a bad illness in 1931, but in the following season he scored 1000 runs for the ninth time, and last year he made over 1400 at an average of 42.81. He is 34. The veteran of the side is Ernest Tyldesley, who is 45. This noted representative of England is no longer an opening batsman—he generally goes in first wicket down how—and he has fallen from first place to fourth in the county’s batting averages, but he has been making runs lately, including 89 and 100 not out in one match. The fifth man to make 1000 runs for Lancashire last season, is greatly admired by the Australians. for his very plucky batting for D. R. Jardine’s team in the Brisbane Test with Australia. He is Eddie Paynter, left-hand batsman. But playing in Test cricket seemed to have subdued Paynter last season; .he became too often a stone-waller, instead of the attacking batsman he is by nature. What he has decided to be this year remains to be seen. Occasional Players. Two players who made only occasional appearances in the team had better batting averages than Paynter had last season. C. Hawkwood, from the second eleven, played six innings in the first team, at long intervals, and averaged 42.6. He scored a century against Yorkshire. The other player referred to is an amateur, W. H. L. Lister, an old Malvernian who had failed to obtain a blue at Cambridge, but who then played 11 innings. for Lancasnire’s first eleven, scored a century, just missod two more centuries, and averaged 39.8. Cyril Washbrook, the colt who scored 202 not out for the Lancashire second eleven against Yorkshire’s second team and 152 for the first eleven against Surrey, scored 366 runs in 20 other in- . nings. Apart from his century, he showed strong defence but a lack of scoring strokes in front of the wicket. Thirteen of the players who appeared for Lancashire in first-class matches last season had batting averages over 20 < When Lister was not .playing the only amateur in the team in championship matches—-it has been noted already thdt A. D. Baxter did not play in these games—was the captain, P. T. Eckersley. He is a skilful and popular leader. G Duckworth, known to many thousand watchers of Test matches, is the best wicketkeeper in England, displaced in Tests by L. E. G. Ames only because of the Kent man’s great ability as a batsman. Lancashire’s reserve wicketkeeper, W. Farrimond, has also played for England, though not against Australia. _ A. L. C.