LOST; FORTY CRICKETERS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1935, Page 9

LOST; FORTY CRICKETERS

UNIQUE ADVERTISEMENT CAPTAIN’S FORLORN APPEAL. ATTENDANCE AT PRACTICE. WHAT WILL THE RESULT BE? “LOST, from Sanders Park Practice Nets, Forty Western Park Cricketers. Anyone knowing whereabouts communicate Club Captain.” r This is the wording of an unusual advertisement inserted in the Daily News this morning by the captain of the Western Park Cricket Club. It makes an eloquent appeal; the practice nets have been sadly deserted in the last few weeks. The picture called before the reader’s mind is a touching one—a forlorn club captain stands on a windswept field waiting in solitary splendour, longing for club members as keen as himself. His mind strays back to the captain of the Hesperus, who had a daughter “to bear him company”—he wants cricketers replete with pads and all. But he is left in lonely splendour. As darkness falls to hide his misery he returns homeward and prays the gods to turn his charges’ footsteps to the cricketers’ salvation—the practice nets. The attendance at the nets has dropped with disconcerting rapidity during the last few weeks. And so the growing anxiety of Western Park’s skipper has found unique expression. It was a glorious victory that fell to the club on Saturday, and with the result of the senior competition in doubt it is surprising to find such a lack of interest. The weaknesses that human flesh is heir to include, for cricket devotees, an annual decrease in enthusiasts “at the nets,” till finally the few who are constant are left without sufficient support. The burden becomes too great for them alone, and practice fades away. This was the case even with the New Plymouth Club last night, when lack of members caused abandonment of practice. All the season Old Boys and Western Park have offended, too, until to-day the captain of the Park Club has made a confident appeal. The spectators await the decision.