SIXTY-MILE-AN-HOUR BOWLERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16823, 23 August 1920, Page 8

SIXTY-MILE-AN-HOUR BOWLERS.

AMAZING FEATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. How far can you throw a cricket ball? One of tho longest officially-recorded throws covered a distance of 140 yards 2 feet, and was achieved by Mr. R. Percival, as long ago as Easter Monday. 1884 (says ‘•Tit-Bits”). The scene of his record throw was the Durham racecourse. The record was previously held by Ross MTvenzie, a Canadian, who, at Toronto in 1872, threw a ball 140 yards 9 inches. At the Bankers’ Sports at Herne Hill in 1901 Mr. A. E. Mauley threw 138 yards 2 feet. ' A ball can be bowled much farther than it can be thrown. The longest distance‘ covered by a bowler is 300 yards. That record has several times been approached but never surpassed, and tlie general average ia 250 yards. Tho highest record for length of drive by a batsman was achieved at the practice nets at Christ .Church. Oxford, by Mr W. Fellowes, who drove a ball 175 yards. The distinction of makina- the'longest drive in an actual match fell to Mr. V. F. S. Crawford, who, playing for Gloucester at Bristol on one occasion, hit u ball 160 yards. Mr. C. I. Thornton made some big hits, his highest being 152 yards when playing against the Australians, and 168 yards while at the practice nets. Even Bonner, tho Australian slogger, could not equal this, although once, when practising at. Mitcham, lie drove a ball 157 yards. There is always a thrill when a fast howler sends tho bails flying, How many spectators could tell how far the bails actually travel ? Brearley, the Lancashire howler, did a big thing when, in 1905, he howled Mr. IV. B. Burns, sending the bails a distance of 48 yards. Two years before, W. Sargwell, playing for Stourbridge against Kidderminster, dispatched a bad 60 yards) but the record achievement in this respect is credited to Mold, who, bowling at the Oval in 1896, sent a bail 63 yards 6 inches. On another occasion. Howitt, playing for* an English XI. at Hull, sent a bail out of the ground, a distance of 60 yards; and Fielder, the Kent fast bowler, once bowled Tyldesley* with a ball that sent the bails a similar distance. Brearley once sent his opponent’s middle stump flying back for 10 feet —a unique record. In the hands of a fast howler, a cricket ball-can .be made to travel’at an amazing speed. Tests were made on one occasion at Woolwich Arsenal, Mr. C. B. Turner bowling through the electric screens used for measuring the velocity of projectiles. The experiment showed that even a medium paced bowler can dispatch a ball at the rate of 554 milijs per hour. Really fast bowlers, like Brearley, Cotter, Mold, and Tom Richardson, must have bowled at a rate of over 60 miles an hour.