“NO DONNYBROOKS.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 932, 30 November 1933, Page 6

“NO DONNYBROOKS.”

League Cricket at Home Defended. REPLY TO CROMB. Recent comment made by I. B. Cromb, as well as by A. W. Roberts, on Lancashire League cricket has caused surprise, especially among those cricket enthusiasts who are acquainted with league cricket in England. Of what Cromb had to say in interviews, a correspondent, “ Lancashire Leagueite,” writes to the Wellington “Post” as follows: “ Some of his remarks are so misleading as to call for some correction. I have had long experience of league cricket in Lancashire (our local team, Rawtenstall, won the cup in 1894 and again in 1904). The standard of play all round was very high indeed; the captain of each club was an exceptionally finev cricketer, assisted by a good side of fielders and an extra good wicket-keeper, with never a shortage of splendid amateur bowling and highclass batting. In all my experience I have never yet seen a ‘ donnybrook,’ even among the spectators, let alone in the ‘ middle of the wicket,’ as Cromb says. Many Participants. “In mentioning 14 clubs in Lancashire does he mean those in the Lancashire League? There are hundreds of clubs in Lancashire, all playing in different leagues, all playing good cricket (no * donnybrooks ’) and all with good grounds, mostly their own, with big, attendances of keen followers and keen judges of the game. If the Wellington spectators could have seen George Parker, Bill Harris, Charlie Salkeld, or Jack Usher, all of Haslingden, give one of their usual displays, or Hardstaff, Nicholson, and Fred Pickup, of Rawtenstall, W. Cook, Sam Moss, Harry Cudworth, Tom Lancaster, or W. Fowler, not to forget the one and only Sid Barnes, it would have given them something to .talk and think about—and remember. In New Zealand I have yet to see a club team equal to a league team. There have been, of course, outstanding players such as Dempster, Hiddleston, Vivian, Stan Brice at his best, Dick Rountree, and Ken James —Badcock is the best all-rounder in New Zealand but I will not count him. These players have all given pleasure to great numbers of cricket followers, and the same thing is happening in Lancashire League cricket every Saturday afternoon. “ Cromb says that cricket and football are practically the only interests that people had in life. The people in Lancashire and Yorkshire take just as much interest in politics and affairs of the day as do the people of New Zealand, or anywhere else for that matter. Some kind of sport is needed after their being shut up in mills and factories for such long hours (it used to be ten and twelve hours a day), and the actual game of cricket does count.”