Cricket 1901

CRICKET, JUNE 6, 1901. “ Together joined in Cricket’ s m an ly t o i l .” — Byron. No. 571. VOL. XX. THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1901. PRICE 2d. A C H A T A B O U T W I L F R E D R H O D E S . Wise men— especially Yorkshiremen— shook their heads when Robert Peel was left out of the Yorkshire eleven in the middle o f the season of 1897, for, although they may or may not have approved of the reasons given b y the county com ­ mittee for not again playing him in the eleven, they felt that such a bowler could not be replaced for ages. But of late years the Pates have looked with a most favour­ able eye on everything done by Yorkshire cricketers or Yorkshire committees, and when the county season of 1898 opened with the match against the M.O.C. at L ord’s, in the middle of May, the man who was to take Peel’s place, and, moreover, to fill it very com fortably, had arrived upon the scene in the person of W ilfred Rhodes — another left-hand bowler. “ Looks a bit too innocent for county cricket. I ’m afraid he won’t do m uch” was the comment of a spectator when he first saw Rhodes, but for an innocent the new bowler soon showed that he knew a great deal. Rhodes was lucky in his county and in his captain. He did not share the lot of most young bowlers when they make their first timid appearance with the ball in a big match. They gener­ ally have to tear about all oyer the field, stopping hard hits until their fingers have no sense of feeling left in them, when the ball is tossed to them in a manner which leaves no doubt either to them or the batsmen that not much is expected of them. They have b y this time worked them­ selves into a state of nervousness which ^ e x ce e d in g ly satisfactory to the other side, and then they have to bow l to a couple of men to whom the ball has begun to look as big as a football, and the result is nearly always lamentable. A few such trials, and a young bow ler will take years before he comes to the front. W ith Rhodes nothing of this kind happened. The w ily Yorkshiremen knew that they had got a good thing on, and the w ily captain put his new man on first, making him feel oomfortable with a word or two of encouragement. He bowled W ILFRED RHODES. (From a Photo by 3Iessrs. Hawkins and Co., Brighton.) well, but no better than many another debutant who has afterwards proved a failure. Again in the second innings he was put on first, and from that moment he was a great bow ler. And yet one has an uneasy feeling that if it had been his fortune to make his dibut for some of the other counties it m ight have taken a lon g time before he would have had a fair chance to distinguish himself, and even then the odds are that so many catches would have been missed off him that he would have been counted as one of the unlucky bowlers. It is all very well to say that if a bow ler has anything in him he is bound to come to the front, but many a man who might have done well if he had been properly nursed, has “ broken his heart,” as ‘ bowlers say, before his chance has come. From the very first, Rhodes had a whole team working for him with a w ill; he was, therefore, able to try experi­ ments, and being apt by nature, he very soon picked up the little things which make all the difference be­ tween a good bowler and a great one. His pace is slow m edium ; it goes without saying that he has a faster ball, and a great deal of devil. It is not easy to dis­ tinguish the subtle variations in his pace, nor, when this is done, to judge the break rightly. In his first season Rhodes met with altogether remark­ able success, often receiving a great deal of assistance from the wicket, and when the first match was played against Australia in the follow ing year, he was voted b y every cricketer in the land as being worth a place in the England team. It must be owned that his performances against the Australians were, on the whole, a little disappointing, but on the hard wickets which prevailed during the season his slight want of accuracy told against him considerably when he was opposed to the cool and calculating Australians, who played every ball for just what it was worth, and never committed themselves in any way. But Rhodes was only twenty- two years old at that time, and he has undoubtedly improved since then, being not only more accurate, but more con­ fident and more deceptive. Last year he