CRICKET.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 2, 8 July 1908, Page 12

CRICKET.

The Players defeated the Gentlemen at Lords by seven, wickets.

There was much criticism at the inclusion of F. A. Tarrant, the ex-Victorian, in tile Players’ eleven. In the county cricket competitions Lancashire, in the return match, beat Notts by three wickets. In the first match, Lancashire won by ten.wickets. Yorkshire have so far lost no matches, and Surrey, Kent, and Middlesex only one each. Yorkshire and Kent meet at Dover on Monday. The Art of Bowling. By J. N. CRAWFORD. To be a successful bowler implies that you must take wickets, or you cannot rank high as a bowler. From my earliest days I have always practised a great deal. The facilities afforded me as a youngster in always having a large lawn to operate on when by myself; with the addition of the Cricket Ground at Cane Hill adjoining the said lawn when my brothers were also able to practise with me, no doubt afforded me greater assistance than many another boy could possibly enjoy. The lawn tennis net for a background, and two umbrellas and grandfather’s stick in the centre for a wicket formed my materials; but, as far as I can remember an old ball of full size was the assailant on the improvised wickets, for an ordinary tennis-ball which youngsters use could never have smashed up the ribs in the manner they were smashed up. Often and often did my motheS look out of the window when I had in imagination bowled Shrewsbury round his legs, or given Gunn a scorching hot one from “a Richardson’s’’ delivery, and mildly remonstrate that I must treat father’s umbrellas with a little more respect. EARLY ATTEMPTS. In the days of my youth the latter form of bowling delighted me most. It ■was so pleasing to the eye to see the stumps knocked all over the place, one at right angles, another on the ground, and the third anywhere but in the perpendicular! A ten yards’ pitch was my limit at the very outside, and more often than not it was considerably less than that distance. Anyhow, I always used to practise whenever it was possible, and was always able to keep dead on the wicket at whatever pace I bowled. Then, too, I took advantage of a slope in the ground, and utilised that for an additional break; while it was my special delight to practise bowling with my brothers in the nets after they returned from school. However, they would not allow me to bowl fast at all when I bawled to them, nor at too great a distance. Later on, after seeing him play at “Lord’s,” it became mJ, great ambition in life to imitate Albert Trott, who was performing such wonders at the time in the vowling way, and who was able to hold the baH in such a way between his fingers that he could impart a tremendous swerve and bowl people out behind their backs! This sort of bowling seemed good enough for me, and so I assiduously practised it on every available opportunity, in the garden, or on the field. It has always seemed to me ridiculous to mind being hit for four (because forsooth they spoil your analysis) ; but to keep on trying to get them out. Nothing but constant practice can enable you to pitch the ball exactly where you want it to go. It is no use, in my opinion, to bowl the same length to a short man as you do to a long man, as some do, and then wonder why you cannot get them out. You often see in accounts of matches that so-and-so could not find his “length,” and was mercilessly treated by the batsmen. But more often, as has often happened in my own case, the poor chap has not been put on till the two batsmen were so well set on the plumb wicket that there was no getting them out, and you might bowl any length you liked, but it would never be the right one! Of course, a great deal depends upon the batsman. It used to be said of my brother and of a certain batsman, much in evidence round Eastbourne, that he made easy

bowling look difficult, and V. F. S. madn difficult bowling look easy. There is, toe,, a great deal of truth ig it. But how proud I was when, playing against the Caterham Depot in 1898, four kets fell to me in my first big club match, as well as scoring elevon runs. It was enough to make me keep on praotising! USEFUL IGNORANCE. One thing is very certain, that you must stick to one style of bowling; and I am sure that if their fathers had been cricketers they would never have allowed their sons to indulge in some of the styles you see in the present day. Why a man should run over 20 yards to deliver a fast ball when another man can deliver it equally fast with less than half the run is sheer waste of time and strength; Wass and Brearley seem able to keep on all day and to keep up tha pace too. But others of tile tear-away stamp must ere long suffer for their iniquities.' I am told that old Alfred Mynn, Tarrant, and Jackson, were all fast bowlers with a short run. It is sail that the latter was once bowling in a local match when a batsman came in who was under the impression 'that if he did not move his bat he waS out. Taking guard, he asked the umpire, “Umpire, shall I be out if I don’t move my bat?” “No,” replied the umpire, “but you jolly soon will be if you do!” But there are just as curious decisions in the present day. Many people imagine that if the bowler knocks the wicket down when in the act of bowling that the umpire ought to call, “nr ball.” Only this last season at a local match I overheard some of the players saying that the second innings would not count in the averages, because the match had been won on the first innings. This ignorance might be accounted ffir because some bowlers were being tried who would not figure in the averages or ever be likely to figure in their club’s bowling analysis. But it was certainly said by men who should have known better! “GOOGLEY” BOWLING. When I was out in South Africa with the last M.C.C. team, I came into contact naturally with the new “Googley” bowling to which we were total strangers, with the exception of what we had experienced when playing against B. J. T. Bosanquet. The latter was the inventor of the style, and no doubt he would have, in time and with practice, become as able an exponent of the new style of delivery as Schwarz or Faulkner or others of the team. This sort of stuff must always be difficult to play, as it turns so quickly on hard wickets, and also to a much greater extent than the usual style of bowling can go. Schwarz has, by- practice, brought Bosanquet’s theory to a very effective pitch, but has apparently not tried to bowl anything but the off-break, for fear of spoiling his length by practising both “off” and “leg-breaks.” Faulkner, on the other hand, as well as Vogler, has been able to produce both breaks without the batsman being able to notice which way the ball is going to turn —which, of course, makes the whole thing mud* more puzzling to the batsman. The way in which the Counties generally have been vanquished, and the great success of the team in a year totally unsuited by the weather to their style of batting and bowling, has marked out the visit of the South Africans in a very significant way. But howling as an art is not yet defunct in Old England. Hallam and Wass, and Dennett, and lots of others have demonstrated that our own style of bowling will get the finest batsmen out. And it is not a question of decimals that demonstrates that one bowler is better than another, because his analysis is some fifty-millionth part of a decimal on the season better. Some howlers, like Dennett, have to keep on bowling whether they like it or not, because they are short of bowling in Gloucestershire ; whereas if he was a member of the Yorkshire Eleven, he would be able to take a rest now and again! LUCK AND MANAGEML .i’. In bowling, as in other things, there is a lot of luck to make it successful. Very often a man has been led on by the bowler to give a chance in a certain direction. The batsman has fallen into the trap, and the hall has been missed! A fast bowler like Knox, must depend a great deal on the meji behind tho sticks; and many a brilliant catch has been made off a fast bowler by. some exaejr

tlonally brilliant slip, for which the bowler could not possibly claim credit. But it was lucky for him that it was caught at all instead of going for four runs. I must say that it is always more pleasant to the bowler to bowl the wicket down than for the batsman to be caught off the ball. Baigh, of Yorkshire, is probably the best exponent of how to hit the wicket. He bowls down the stumps more frequently than any other, and in fact has no superiors in the art of bowling on any sort of wicket. Playing against all the chief bowlers, as I have done, during the last two years, I have learnt whom to love and whom to hate. But it would not do to let out the secret, or they would be put on at once or taken off at once, as the case might be, directly you went in, by some very observant captain! THE OFF-THEORY. The off-theory, as it is called, so indulged in by many bowlers and so persisted in by them as well, as likely to make batsmen nibble at the ball, seems done to death. The extraordinary part of the business is that our great batsmen, in spite of all the practice they could have, have quite lost the art of cutting. In the last match of the season one batsman, who made a large score at the Oval, never attempted to play 19 out of 20 of the off balls he was tempted with; one ball he did cut, and four others he manipulated safely for a single each. Old W. G. or Murdoch would have scored off nearly all of them, and been pleased to do it. I have always been taught to keep the ball an inch or two outside the offstump, so that the batsman is made to play all the time. Whether one can always manage it is another question altogether. But still one can try, and try, and try. It seems to me that continual practice must be indulged in to succeed as a bowler—that you must use your brains to oust the . enemy—and that you must not overdo it either at the nets or on the field of action. Next week: “The Value of a Stonewaller to a Team” (by J. F. Tyldesley).

Triangular Tests.

The Counties’ Advisory Committee passed resolutions asking the Marylebone Cricket Club to inform the Board of Control in Australia that the counties are so strongly in favour of a triangular contest that it is impossible to invite any colonial cricket eleven for 1909 except for that purpose. The secretary of the Board of Control of Australian cricket views the English counties action as an attempt to force the hands of the Board. Mr. M. A. Noble, the Australian captain, favours triangular matches, though he considers that they should not take place at shorter periods than ten years. Three years would be too frequent for the counties concerned. It looked as if the M.C.C. intended to make a cricket carnival next season, and thought they should be supported by the world’s ericket bodies. He did not think the counties were trying to force the Board of Control.