CRICKET.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18159, 25 October 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

CRICKET.

ENGLISH TOURISTS. M.C.C. TEAM FOR AFRICA. NINE PROFESSIONALS INCLUDED. The M.C.C. team which left England for South Africa embraces six amateurs and nine professionals. Eleven of the fifteen have been seen in Australia. The M.C.C. have evidently concluded that nothing is to be gained, and possibly much lost, by sending seventeen, as was the case with the last M.C.C. Ashes tour in Australia. A P. F.' Chapman is to be captain, while R. E. S. Wyatt and J. C. White are in the party. The Captain

A. P. F. CHAPMAN.

With Sutcliffe and Hobbs going to India shortly, the English team may find it difficult to defeat South Africa, if, as is expected, the latter have improved since their visit to England. The champion county, Lancashire, has only one representative in the eleven, viz., G. Duckworth. Leyland is the only Yorkshireman. In batting, young England is not given much consideration in this fifteen. Three Tests will be played on turf and two on matting. H. G. Deane, the South African captain, regards this as the most powerful English team for South Africa in his time, though he thinks South Africa -will hold its own in the Tests. The omission of G. Geary has surprised South Africans. He bowled better than any other Englishman on the matting on the last tour, TO FLY- TO SYDNEY.

Mick Simmons Ltd. have arranged for Don Bradman to leave the ship and his Ashes pals and fly to Sydney on reaching the West. He lands at Mascot aerodrome on Tuesday, November 4. Three days later New South Wales will play South Australia on the Sydney Cricket Ground. Will Don be padded and batted for the occasion? Why not! He has played six matches against South Australia, made two centuries, and been dismissed for less- than double figures four times. H 6 averages far less against the Adelaide men than against England, which does not mean that the bowlers of Adelaide are more deadly in his eyes than Maurice Tate and company. Dick Jones is the man responsible for bringing Don Bradman down from Bowral to play in Sydney with St. George. He tells the story of Don’s first match and century. So much history has'been written in capital latters since, that It seems hardly that Bradman was unknown in Sydney four years ago. In his second season, three years back, he started with 4 and 7 against Petersham, then got 130 not out against Paddington, to fall for 7 and 2 in the next two matches. But after that he went on placidly among the runs. His outflelding at the time showed the speed and sparkle that stamp the true cricketer.

Thaf season Don missed the opening New Zealand and Queensland matches, but they took him to Adelaide, where he began the most amazing first-class career ever knowm, by making 118, to finish the season with 134 not out against Victoria.

ANOTHER RECORD. DON BRADMAN’S SIGNATURE, VISIT TO A BAT FACTORY. I have watched Don Bradman autographing cricket bats at the rate of 200 an hour. I have shaken hands with Don Bradman. I have fingered Don Bradman’s wonderful souvenir tie pin. I have done everything—except cajole Don Bradman into a pleasant little conversation. Don Bradman, Australia’s demon batsman, is . spending a holiday in Yorkshire—at Horbury, near Wakefield, to be precise—and apparently his conception of a holiday is autographing cricket bats. I saw him to-day at the bat factory of William Sykes, Ltd., of Horbury, autographing bats to be sent to Australia (writes an Evening Post reporter). Bradman is most particular about the bats on which he scribbles the magic words “Don Bradman." Occasionally he rejects one because the balance of the bat is not perfect, or the wood is not quite what he thinks it should be. His keen eyes miss nothing. “He is one of the most discriminating cricketers who have been here to sign bats," the manager of the bat factory remarked. Don, who was wearing a lounge suit, had rolled back his shirt sleeves. As his long, rather artistic -fingers guided a fountain pen across the surface of new bats, there stood on one side of him a man who was taking more new cricket bats out of brown paper jackets, and passing them to him. On the other side of Bradman were two enthusiastic schoolboys— Eric Dixon and Charlie Knight—who had volunteered to replace the bats in brown paper jackets in return for the privilege of spending an hour or two with the demon cricketer.

At the end of an hour I thought Bradman might possibly be suffering from writer’s cramp. But no. As a matter of fact, he must hold a world record for autographing bats, as well as for using one, because he set his signature on 1879 bats in seven hours —an average of 268 an hour—on the occasion of his first visit to the bat factory. Everybody at the bat factory fco-

day had a look at Don Bradman’s gold tie pin, a miniature cricket bat in gold, which was presented to him by a friend after his world record innings of 452 not out in the match between New South Wales and Queensland, in January this year. The tie pin is a masterpiece. On the gold front of the tiny • bat is inscribed a complete record of Bradman’s performance in this historic match.

Bradman was* still the same shy young man of the Test matches when I began to ask questions to-day. An embarrassing silence and a tantalising smile were the only response. Mr Harry Sykes, Avho is entertaining Don Bradman and Charlie Walker, the Australian reserve wicket-keeper, was in Australia during the last M.C.C. tour, and saw the third Test, at Melbourne. People were just beginning to talk about Bradman. Mr Sykes watched him closely. “When he was making his first 70, the other leading batsmen were falling down,’’ Mr Sykes said to-day. “Bradman came in in the nick of time. In the second innings he did better. “Who Is This Kid?” “Somebody got up in the stand and yelled out: ‘Who is this kid?’ Another burly Australian in the crowd yelled out: “He is a wizard} The biggest wonder since the days of Victor Trumper." “The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Bruce, was sitting near, and he laughed heartily.” Mr Sykes got in touch with Bradman, and offered him the pick of 50 bats. Bradman selected two. The next day he was due to play in a Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria. “I tried to persuade him not to try the bat which he had finally selected in such an important match,” Mr Sykes said. “Bradman was determined to do so, although I told him the wood was. not then properly seasoned. /“It was with that bat that he made 340 not out. And after that my business arrangement with him was plain sailing.” CAUGHT OUT. When in England Bradman receivel the following letter from an English schoolboy admirer:— Dear Mr Bradman, —I think you would like to know that in Church yesterday our minister was preaching about you, and holding you up as a pattern to the boys of this and other countries. In his sermon he said: “I am sure Mr Don Bradman is in the House of God at this moment.” Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture paper the next morning, showing a photograph of you playing golf yesterday. May I suggest that the next time you play golf on a Sunday, you don’t allow anybody to photograph you ?

NOTABLE FEAT.

J. C. WHITE.

For the second season in succession, J. C. White has scored 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets for Somersetshire. The merit of this is shown by the fact of no member of the Australian Eleven having done it. A very fine cricketer, and still finer sportsman, is J. C. White, vicecaptain of the last English “Ashes" team in Australia. A NOVEL POINT. An Ashfield correspondent raises a novel point in the Sydney Referee. The striker hits the ball, and a splinter from the bat flies into the wicket, dislodging the bails. . Is the striker out? Strictly interpreting the law, the umpire would be justified in giving the striker not out, but there is nothing definite about it. There is, however, a precedent. It says the striker is out. In the Surrey v. Middlesex match at Kennington Oval in 1894, D. L. A. Jephson, noted Cambridge University and Surrey batsman, in the second innings was given out to Rawlin’s bowling in this way. Llllywhite’s Annual said that: “Playing a ball from Rawlin, a piece of Mr Jephson’s bat was removed, and, falling on the bails, removed one, with the result that he had to retire, ‘hit wicket.’" A GREAT WICKET-KEEPER. BERT OLDFIELD. AN ENGLISH OPINION.

Mr 11. A. R. Carson, cdicket specialist of London Evening News, in an article on Bert Oldfield, says: “To-day he Is the greatest wicket-keeper In the world. Tho only rival he has, I think, is H. B. Cameron, of South Africa. .. . Wicket-keepers are of all sorts, some of them very fldgetty, others very noisy, and the man I have the greatest admiration for does not flick your bails off unnecessarily and does not deafen the batsmen with his appeals. ... I have seen Oldfield ‘keep’ during Test matches and a great number of ordinary games, but I do not know what tone of voice he uses In making an appeal to the umpire."

The writer states that in 21 Test matches in which England scored 12,061 runs, only 178 byes were permitted by Oldfield. Moreover, in tho 1921 tour, in England and South

Africa, in 24 matches he caught 36 and stumped 35. Oldfleld has made a remarkable impression on English authorities. ENGLISH CRICKET. DUNEDIN MAN’S IMPRESSIONS. NEW ZEALAND VISIT. Some instructive comments on the recent tour of England by the Australian cricketers were made by Mr Arthur Fisher, the ex-New Zealand representative player, who has just returned to Dunedin from a visit to the Old Country. Speaking first of the performances of Bradman, Mr Fisher said: “I watched him make his 250 at Lord’s in the second Test match, and from the first ball, which he stepped out to and drove through the covers for four, there never was a dull moment. His reception by the Englishmen showed how they appreciate good cricket even at their own expense. 'He saved four after four by fleetness of foot and lightning returns to the wicket. I place him on a par with Victor Trumper, but in Trumper’s day the English bowling was far ahead of what can be produced to-day. Tate and Larwood are past their best, and the best bowler in England to-day is Peebles, of Oxford. Without a fast bowler of the Richardson-Kortright type, without a spin bowler of the Barnes-Lockwood type, without a lefthander of the Foster-Rhodes-Hirst type, what chance has she of beatirig a good all-round Australian eleven with a Bradman in it? * “The English selectors w’ere under the impression that the old English team of 1928-29 could not be beaten by a team of boys, and when it was too late found it difficult to readjust the side,” said Mr Fisher. "I could talk to you on this subject for days.' “I would just like to say that I enjoyed the privileges of being a member of Lord's for the season, due entirely to the kind offices of the pic sidenl of the New Zealand Cricket Association, and tlie very high esteem in which New Zealand cricketers arc held in England. Many of the highest officials in the cricket world, notably Lord, Harris, P. P. Warner and A. C. Maclaren, spoke to me in glowing terms of our last team, and told me they were looking forward to our "\isit in 1930-31 with as much interest as an Australian eleven. Let us leave no stone unturned to send a firstclass representation who wall uphold the high esteem we now enjoy.”

A FINE RECORD. GREAT AUSTRALIAN ALL ROUNDER Tasmania’s representative on the Australian Test cricket selection committee, Charles J. Eady, known as "the genial giant,” was the finest allround cricketer Australia has produced. II his first twenty-three seasons of senior club cricket in Hobart he scored 12,584 runs at an average of 44 3, and secured 1138 wickets at 14.2. In 1901-2 he scored 937 runs at' 147 per innings. In one period, besides scoring heavily, he secured over 50 wickets in thirteen out of fourteen consecutive seasons, the highest year being 79 wickets at an average of 10.

Kenny Burn, a contemporary, is about the only Tasmanian with a finer batting record in club record over a number of years, but no one rivals Eady’s all-round record. From 1883 to 1907-8 Burn scored 15,557 runs, averaging 51 in senior club cricket. Burn and Eady are two of Tasmania’s three direct representatives in an Australian eleven, G. 11. Bailey having been the first in 1878. E. A. McDonald, if a Tasmanian production. It was as a Victorian cricketer that he made his way to the international front.