WHY NOT GIVE BOWLERS MORE ENCOURAGEMENT?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19197, 10 October 1930, Page 9

WHY NOT GIVE BOWLERS MORE ENCOURAGEMENT?

Brains And Guile In Attack Would Raise Standard Of N.Z. Cricket, (Written foe the “Star’ ’ by W.R.K.) Do the various cricket associations in New Zealand give enough attention to bowling in connection with their many and varied coaching activities? This is a question which is exercising the minds of many followers of the game this season, more particularly on account of the coming tour of England. During the past few seasons the value of coaching has been realised by most of the associations, but this coaching has invariably been confined to batting.

Take a look through the performances of the various provinces during the past year or two. Auckland have had Ted Bowley and Wensley while Jimmy Lan grid ere and Cox have played a minor part in the same province. Wellington have had Badcock and now Dempster, Canterbury have had Jack Newman for the seniors and Shacklock for the boys while Dunedin have had Eastman. Even Taranaki had a pro. in Wilson while Nelson secured, the services of an Australian named Taylor. But have all these fine players improved the status of bowling in New Zealand? The answer would appear to be an emphatic no. Consider the various bowlers who have been the “ king-pin ” attack men in the varipus provinces and see where they have sprung from. Canterbury have Merritt, Lester, Read, and others. Wellington have McGirr, Henderson,- Massey, McLeod, and others while Auckland and Otago have had Allcott, Mathieson, Weir, Anthony, Alloo, Dickinson, Blunt, Dunning and others. No Special Training. Have any of these men had special training at bowling? No they have been born bowlers whose natural ability has helped them to overcome most difficulties. But for every natural bowler who has persisted and who has succeeded, another has given the art up on account of the gruelling he has had to take from young batsmen who have been in the fortunate position of knowing how to tackle the various styles of attacks. One has seen promising school bowlers playing tennis after a few years or else concentrating on the batting art. And why? Well naturally a bowler sickens of continual punishment or inability to secure wickets through not knowing what to do. Those cricketers who had the benefit of the 1927 tour of England had their eyes opened., Were they to tell all the tales perhapNew Zealand bowling would benefit and the experience could be handed on. Take Bill Merritt, the unknown bowler who rose from school ranks to New Zealand representative status. He had natural ability, could spin a ball at any time and under perfect command, and could keep a good length after practice. But was he a great bowler when he first arrived in England? After tons of advice in the nets as to how to go about his business in the opening match at Lord's, Merritt took the field full of confidence and commenced to bowl either a series of wronguns, or a series of leg breaks. Question of Tactics. The furthest thing from his mind at the time was the question of tactics — the art of giving away runs judiciously and the guile of sending down the trappy ball at the right moment. Few batsmen had faced Merritt for an over or two without knowing his whole box of tricks. But after a few games Merritt improved and began to realise the art of guiie. He succeeded in England even better than his friends had hoped. Merritt failed in Australia, but then he was stale after a~long season, and on the faster wickets the Aussies, with quick footwork, jumped cut and settled all his spin and guile from the outset. Then take Matt Henderson. Every member of the team which toured England knew Matt had it in him to bowl

with the best, but did he use his brains

Well, he might have, but he was mostly lacking in the same experience and guile as Merritt. Henderson was accustomed to tearing them down as hard as he could just outside the off pin. His object was to trap the batsmen to put the ball among the fieldsmen in the slips. But he could hardly have expected to succeed against 'such experienced batsmen as the Englishmen. A Tip to Henderson. I Members of the team must have : vivid memories of a certain old and ' experienced cricketer and umpire say- ' Ing to Henderson that he should hold the ball a certain way and send down one a little slower every now and then. This lesson went home, and Henderson bowled like a man possessed in one game. He took something like five or six wickets for quite a small total. But it did not take him long to get back into the old habit of tearing them down with the one satisfaction of seeing the ball in the hands of the wicketkeeper. A little later the same cricketer and umpire was standing at the wickets in an important game when Henderson was bowling. Matt sent them down as hard as he could and the umpire the while looked at him with a quizzical look. . Later he said to Henderson: “ Ah. lad, A sees thee has no brains.” No t w this gives a good example of where New Zealand bowlers are lacking. They have the brains all right, but they lack the studied advice of one who knows, if associations would only pay as much attention to bowling as to > batting, New Zealand would be a great deal better off. Canterbury will have to pay this attention to some of her younger brigade. Of all last year’s players, the most promising all-rounder Was Steve Lester, the young Collegian. Besides being a batsman of the first flight, Lester is a bowler with great potentialities. Now Canterbury, give Lester a chance 1 lie looks to have a wonderful chance of representing New Zealand in England next cricket season. Why not strengthen his claims by putting him through the hands of someone who knows something about bowling? English counties send their most promising young players away for lessons, Patsy Hendren’s school being the trying-out ground. Why cannot New Zealand associations put their most promising bowlers into the hands of one or two of the giants of the past for special tuition? The suggestion is one worthy of consideration at least. Sunday golf has become such a commonplace throughout the world on private and public courses alike that it comes as a shock to find organised resistance to it. This cropped up in Queensland lately at Ipswich. An application by the local golf club for a lease of portion of one of the public parks for the purpose of playing on Sundays roused as much indignation among the aldermen as a proposal to close the mayor’s cupboard. Previously a majority of the xmgodly had passed a resolution in favour of the lease, but the unco’ guid have rallied strongly to the rescue, and a rescission motion is now on the agenda.