LARWOOD’S SPEED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 714, 18 March 1933, Page 11

LARWOOD’S SPEED.

Effect on Australia’s Cricketers. LEG THEORY IN PRACTICE. “ To see the batsmen out there ducking and diving, with one of them occasionally getting hit; and then to consider that this cricket was just a game. . . .” Mr W. H. M’Cormack, an old Victorian cricketer, who saw all recent Test matches in Australia, this morning told a vivid story of the effect of “-bodyline ” bowling on a team of famous cricketers and on a crowd of spectators to whom cricket is almost a religion. Larwood had gone Home, he pointed' out, but New Zealand might yet have an opportunity of seeing just what this form of bowling meant ... “If Jardine is fighting to win a Test he will use leg-theory,” said Mr M’Cormack. Mr M’Cormack was enthusiastic about the ability . f the English team. It was a splendid all-round side, he said, and Jardine was really a wonderful captain. Larwood, however, had been the keystone of the side. He had a perfect action, and the marvellous speed he put on the ball—ninety miles an hour—made him an extremely dangerous bowler even when bowling on the off-side. When the Australians had experienced his leg-theory for a time his “ mana ” was such that his very presence on the field seemed to have an unnerving effect on the batsmen. At Peak of Form. The old method of using the star bowler until he was tired, and then trying out the other stock men one by one, was gone, Mr M’Cormack said. Jardine made full use of Larwood. He would open the bowling and would stay on for five or six overs, usually getting a wicket. Then he would be rested for about twenty minutes, and then put on for another four or five overs. In this way he was kept always at his peak of form, and with his splendid physique Larwood’s bowling flagged very little even at the close of the day. It was not so much the “ body-line ” bowling that was objected to as the crowding of the leg field. It was remarkable to feel the tenseness that came over the ground when Larwood opened. A few balls on the off-side with an ordinary field, and then with almost machine-like timing the fieldsmen would come round to the legside—and from the crowd of 60,000 odd spectators would arise a gasp and an increasing murmur. Armoured Cricketers.

Mr M’Cormack painted a picture of batsmen going to the wicket padded everywhere where they were likely to be hit. As a result there was Lyons’s threat that he would use armour to protect himself. It was a development in cricket which had to be stopped, he said. The Australian Board had chosen a bad time to make their appeal to the Marylebone Club, but they were right in their intention. No one who had not experienced exactly what it meant when a bowler like Larwood used it could speak with authority of the theory, and if, as some authorities claimed, it had come to stay it would do tremendous harm to cricket. Larwood could not be classed with Gregory or M’Donald, said Mr M’Cormack. He had played against Gregory, and, though he was tremendously ‘fast and, like all fast bowlers, a bit erratic, so that occasionally a batsman was hit, he had not packed the leg field, and the batsman had a chance of scoring off him. Larwood’s new tactics had been introduced to combat batsmen of the phenomenal ability of Don Bradman, and as such they were successful. Bradman was a splendid cricketer, and, stepping away, he had delighted the crowd with some very pretty shots. Nevertheless, his leg stump had eventually gone. Woodfull had shown great courage in facing up to it as he had, but he was really too slow a batsman to combat it successfully. Watch Hammond! Apart from any use of “ body-line ” bowling, New Zealanders would find much to interest them in the forthcoming test matches against the Englishmen in this country, said Mr M’Cormack. It was a pity they would not see Larwood or Pataudi in action, but it would still be a wonderful offering. “ Tell your schoolboys to go along and have a look at Hammond,” he said. “He is the world’s best all-round cricketer, and he bats in classical style.” Mr M’Cormack, who is well-known throughout New Zealand as the traveller for Seppelt and Sons, Ltd., wine and spirit merchants, has been secretary and captain for the South Melbourne Club, and has represented Victoria. He first visited New Zealand when Harry Trott’s team toured here in 1896. Australia, he says, looks to W. J. O’Reilly as her “ white hope ” for the future. His performance in the recent Tests was not as good as it might have been, but so great was Australia’s need of new bowling talent that he was bowled too much.