Cricket 1888

A P R IL 2, 1888. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. 65 “ THE TERROR ” ON BOWLING. MR. C. T. B. TURNER, THE AUS­ TRALIAN BOW LER. T iie A r t o f B o w l in g . On his form during the last two seasons, Mr. C. T. B. Turner is, without doubt, the best Australian bowler of the day. He is now on his way to England, and English cricketers will, this summer, have an opportunity of seeing how far he will maintain on English grounds the de­ servedly great reputation he has won by his remarkable and continuous successful bowling in the Colonies. His views on the art of bowling will be read with general interest. They are reproduced from the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Mr. Turner, we may add, enjoys the sobriquet of “ The Terror,” as Spofforth in his day bore that of “ The Demon.” “ You ask me how I bowl,” he commenced. “ I look upon it as a pure gift—or knack, you can call it if you like—that some men possess. It is no good saying that any man can be a bowler, as some people do. He must be specially constituted for it; be strong, robust, healthy, have all his nerves about him, and a perfectly true eye. Lots of men have all these qualifications but still they are not bowlers, and would not be no matter how much they tried. There is in it a gift that I cannot ex­ plain, but it is still there all the time. No, I did not commence young. Lots of cricketers who do not know me suppose that I must have commenced as soon as I got out of the cradle, but it was after I left school that I fairly went in for it. Indeed, until I was eighteen years of aee or so, I never cared a straw about the game, and though our school played matches every week during the season, I only took part in two of them all the time I was there. This was at Bathurst, and later on I was induced to join the club there, and it was not long be­ fore I found out that I had the knack, or gift, I told you of. In our club matches my average was the best, so when Shaw’s team went up there in 1884 I was chosen against them, and my performance really made my name as a bowler. They put me on at the third wicket, and I took 17 wickets in succession, taking the remaining 7 in the finst innings and the whole 10 in the second innings; and when I came down to Sydney I had no difficulty in getting into a good club. ‘ How do I bowl V you ask. Well, as you say, I go more for the wickets than for catches. But let me tell you this as my experience. In bowling I have always made it a point to commence at a new man with a view of finding out his weak points, and then go forhim with a break. W ith the wickets we have now on our best grounds it is all non­ sense to suppose you can get a man out by straight or fast bowling. If you send them dead for the wicket you are knocked about all over the place, and that is a sort of thing you cannot afford. Now, again, there is the off theory, that everybody talks so much about just now. For myself I don’t believe in it, for a good batsman may let every ball pass. The object, of course, is to induce him to try to hit them, and then for a certainty the ball rises and gives some one an easy chance. The leg breaks of Ferris are much more to my liking if you play for catches, for the batsman as a rule will endeavour to get one away, and all he does is to give the wicket-keeper a show, or raise one to the short-slips or third man. That is Ferris’s strong point, and if you take the trouble to look up his records you will find that he has got more wickets in that way than in any other. When I go on to bowl, as I told you just now, I, first of all, find out the weak points of the batsman, and then look out for the soft spots of the ground. No, I do not change the style much, for if one ball fails to get him, I argue the next may, and, as a rule, it does. In breaking a ball your eyemust bevery true; you must pitch it exactly in the right spot, and keep it up time after time, and to do this you must have energy and endurance. Strength is not an absolute necessity, though you are better off if you have got it, of course. Ferris, now, is not strong, but he is as good a bowler as there is anywhere ; and I could give you lots of other similar instances. A h ! I was going to tell you that. Others have asked me if I make an examination of the wicket before I start bowling in order to find out soft places. N o; I let the ball do it all. It doesn’t take very long when you know how to do it, and in an over or so you can find out all you want to. There is'another thing, too,that, strange to say, a great many people believe—that is, that we put the twist on the ball with our hands. I once thought there was something in that, and for a long time I tried in every way that was possible, and the result of all this work was only to convince me that it could not be done. The break must be got after the ball touches the ground. Who is the best bat I know of ? Moses, most certainly. He is far and away the best left-handed—no, absolutely—the best bat we have in Australia. He is so thoroughly con­ sistent in all his play, and whether on a slow or a fast wicket, his performance is always good. Mind you, he is not a pretty bat; you might almost call him ugly, and he has none of the bril­ liancy that Percy M’Donnellhas, orlots ofothers that we know, but he beats them all by the regu­ larity of his play. Oh, yes! I have been against him. That is what I was coming to. I was going to tell you that he gives me more trouble than any one else. Bruce is another who worries me a lot, and I have no hesitation in saying he is the bestbatsman you have in Vic­ toria. I place him next to Moses, and so I think will most people who know anything about the game. He wants an awful lot of looking after, for though he does not seem to put on any force he hits very cleanly, and sends them to the fence before you know where you are. Moses has not the same style and dash, but at times he lays the wood on, and when you see him commencing that you may know that you are going to have a lot of trouble before you get rid of him. Horan is another man who gives a lot of trouble. He is such a sticker that he wears out most men. Watch­ ing Horan taught me that as a bowler I must be as good at the finish as at the start, and so that I can keep all my strength, I never bowl in practice. You do not want it, if you are in form and take care of yourself. Between the intercolonial match we played down in Melbourne and the English match we finished here a day or two ago, I did not touch the ball once, and I was in just as good form as I was at Christmas. Ah, I thought you would ask that. How was it that I could not bowl yesterday ? One wicket for 79, eh ? Be­ cause I was—well, what shall I call it? off colour—felt as we all feel now and again, a general lassitude, and a disinclination to play. If I had to bowl this morning things would be different, for I feel fit for anything just now. It is not overwork. I take good care of that, for, as I say, I never practise, and only bat about once a week, except in matches. Be­ tween you and me that is the mistake that has been made with Ferris; this season they let him do too much, and he is suffering from a general feeling of having overdone it. Still, a week or two of rest would have put him all right again. Six balls to the over ? I like it, and wish they would adopt it here. Men who tell you that it wearies the bowler don’t know what they are talking about. I suppose I ought to know, for I do as much as anyone at it, and I am no more tired of a match with six balls to the over than with four. It has a wonderful tendency to shorten the game; and as one who believes that cricket is the best sport, I am naturally anxious to see it go ahead again, and this shortening I find increases the interest tenfold. Senior cricket has fallen off because the players will not lay themselves out to play the game. They make a point of sticking at the wickets, and block, block, block all day long, until everybody gets disgusted. If you had an eleven of Bruces, now, you would very soon find interest back again. Scotton, I think, was the chief of these blockers, and you know now how dreary it was whenever he was at the wickets. There is one other little matter, too, I should like to men­ tion before we part, and that is the rule about leg-before-wicket. You know it is particularly interesting to a bowler like myself, who plays more for the wicket than the field. When I get such men as Shrewsbury, of course, my breaks do not come off, for he simply stands in front of the wicket and plays every one that comes along with his pads. Perhaps nine out of every ten would knock over his stumps, but I have no redress, because the rule prevents a man being given out lbw off a break ball. Now, as to the alteration of this rule so as to give the bowler some reward for his skill, there is much to be said on both sides. It would be wise to alter it for the reason I have named, but it would not be wise on the other hand, because too much discretionary power would be placed in the hands of the umpires. Mind, I do not say that their decisions are not fair, but you know how often it happens that a man is given out for something that only the umpire can see. In this you have the great knot in cricket, and if you can unravel it you are a smart man. So long as men can go in front of the wickets to a break ball, there are some of them who will do it, though to my mind it is very mean cricket; but, of course, I look at it from purely a bowler’s standpoint, and I may be selfish consequently; but, at all events, I have the interests of the game at heart, and I should be glad, no matter how it was brought about, to see it flourish as before.” CROYDON CLUB. F ix t u r e s f o r 1888. April 14—Croydon, C aptain v. Secretary. April 21—Croydon, Married v. Single. April 28—Norwood, v. Norwood. April 28—Croydon, v. Oakleigh Wanderers. May 5—Croydon, v. Clapham Wanderers. May 5—Lee, v. Granville. May 12-N orth E nd, Croydon, v. W hitgift School. May 12—Croydon, v. Brixton Wanderers. May 16—Norbury, v. Mr. J. W . Hobbs’s. May 19—Croydon, v. Stoics. May 19—"Whitehorse Rd., Croydon, v. Selhurst. May 21—Addiscombe, v. Addiscombe. May 21—Croydon, v. Addiscombe. May 26—M itcham , v. Mitcham. May 26—Croydon, v. Carlton. May 29—Croydon, v. Hackbridge House. June 2—Sutton, v. Sutton. June 2—Croydon, v. Kenley. June 9—Croydon, v. Spencer. June 9—North End, Croydon, v. W hitgift School. June 13—Clapton, v. Clapton. June 16—Herne H ill, v. Lennox. June 16—Croydon, v. Forest Hill. June 20—Croydon, v. Mr. J. W. Hobbs s. June 23—Croydon, v. M itcham. June 23—Addiscombe, v, Addiscombe. June 27—Hornsey, v. Hornsey. Jnne 30—Kenley, v. Kenley. June 30—Croydon, v. Granville. July 3—Lee, v. Granville. July 7—Croydon, v. W hitgift Wanderers. July 7—North Park, Croydon, v. Carlton. July 10—Croydon, v. Hornsey. July 14 —W andsworth, v. Spencer. July 14—Croydon, v. Norwood Park. July 17—Croydon, v. Stoics. July 21—Croydon, v. Hampstead Nondescripts. July 23—Croydon, v. Burlington Wanderers. July 24—Croydon, v. Addiscombe. July 25—Croydon, v. Surrey Club and Ground July 26—Croydon, v. Granville. July 27—Croydon, v. Clapton. July 28—Croydon, v. Sutton. July 28—Penge, v. Pengc. Aug. 4—Croydon, v. W hitgift Wanderers. Aug. 4—Forest H ill, v. Forest H ill. Aug. 6—Croydon, v. Norwood. Aug. 6—Carshalton, v. Carshalton. Aug. 10— Croydon, v. Peripatetics. Aug. 11—Croydon, v. Beddington. Aug. 18—Croydon, v. Penge. Aug. 21—Croydon, v. Brixton Wanderers. Aug. 25—Croydon, v. Burlington Wanderers. Sept. 1—Croydon, v. Lennox. Sept. 8—Croydon, C lub Match.