UNLUCKIEST CRICKETER IN NEW ZEALAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 16

UNLUCKIEST CRICKETER IN NEW ZEALAND

NORMAN GALLICHAN PRAISED Norman Gallichan can be reckoned the unluckiest cricketer in New Zealand, says the "Auckland Star." He began playing representative cricket lor Manawatu in 1922 at the age of 16 Since then he has represented Manawatu regularly ever since, and has played for Wellington in Plunket Shield cricket, for the North Island, and for New Zealand (twice—in 1929 and 1928). He is now 29 years old, with years of cricket still before him. During his career he has indisputably established his right to be called the finest slow bowler of any type ever fielded by a minor association in New Zealand. Many keen students of the game in New Zealand consider he has not had the chances in major association cricket which his ability entitled him to. In 1925 Edgar Mayne, the exAustralian Test match player, who captained the Victorian team then in New Zealand, singled him out as the most promising of New Zealand bowlers. In 1930 F. E. Woolley, K. S Duleepsinhji and A. H. H. Gilligan, in their renew of their tour, selected him as a bowler of great promise, one who was likely to rise to great heights on English wickets. Woolley, in particular, was very impressed with him.

Lately Gallichan has been looked upon as one of the finest all-rounders at present playing cricket in New Zealand, and his performances have supported that view. As a bowler he bawls slow left-hand, always with an immaculate length, flighting the ball well and changing pace very deceptively. He has reaped shoals of wickets in Hawke Cup and club cricket, nearly always proving too much for teams challenging for the Hawke Cup. As a batsman he has a string of centuries to his credit in this district, in representative as well as club cricket. He has two double centuries to his credit in local club cricket, one in 1925 and one in 1932. His ability as a batsman is undoubted. The only fault to be found with it lately is that he has become a little too impetuous and a little too venturesome. As a slip field he is reckoned by experts. Jack Lamason, the Wellington skipper, included, to be as good as anybody else in the Dominion.