Cricket 1906

414 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 13, 1906. AN APPRECIATION OF HAYWARD . The following remarks concerning Hayward and hismethods arereproduced from an interesting article, entitled “ Three Cricketers of the Year,” which appears in the September number of Fry's Magazine :— Many a true word is spoken for the sake of something to say. Last May, during one of those early matches at the Oval when cricket seems raw and half­ fledged, Tom Hayward paused to greet some friends as he passed along the pavilion rails at lunch-time. Talking as cricketerstalk early in May, with another expected season upon them like a sur­ prise, “ Well,” he said, “ at any rate we shall be able to enjoy ourselves this year. No worry.” He slightly indicated the middle of Kennington Oval with the back of his chocolate cap. I knew what he meant. I had not seen him since the final Test match of last year. There was a gleam of humour in his prudent blue eye, a kind of winkwithout movement of the eyelid. He looked prematurely fit and brown, and sound, and leisurely as he leaned against the rails. No doubt he half hoped to make a few runs, about as many as usual, and to see Surrey win a few matches. He did not know quite how much he was going to be able to enjoy himself. Now I claim to know Tom Hayward, the batsman, very well. I have fielded out for him many sultry foot-sore afternoons; I have been in with him during exacting periods of Test matches ; I have run his runs on the matting pitches of Kimberley and Johannesburg; I have worked at the problem of getting him out by the use of bowlers and fieldsmen as active pieces on an unsquared chess-board; I have studied his methods for the sake of profiting by them—I know him, and, with ample leisure for reflection, I am unable to advance any reason why he should not, if he likes, enjoy himself aB he has this season. Now it is one thing to play well, make high scores, and secure a total of between two and three thousand rnns for the season, and another to achieve a level, uninterrupted consistency, match after match, as Hayward has done this year. It is the cas9 of the exceptionally first-rate batsman playing up to his true form, not now and then, but continu­ ously. For free scoring power combined with absolute soundness I would put Tom Hayward at the top of the group of great professionalbatsmen of this genera­ tion. Really the distinguishing main feature of his play is the development of soundness into a free, untrammelled instrument of aggression. I have never asked his opinion, but I feel sure that Hayward is an admirer of correctness of style. Now, there is a certain kind of correctness whichis crampedandilliberal, but Hayward’s style conforms to the canons of orthodoxy, yet, as it were, rises above them by carrying their full meaning into free effect; it is as though his natural way of playing had been taken as the model by the man who first wrote down the laws of correct play; it is not that he obeys the laws, but that he does what they say ought to be done. Correctness and soundness are often mistakenly regarded as, in a sense, limitations. There is supposed to be “ genius” in successful unorthodoxy; but correctness and soundness, as realised in Tom Hayward’s style, with full freedom and elasticity, are very different from these qualitieshalf realised and misrepresented in the play of the inferior performer. Take, for instance, the case of forward play. Nothing could be more different than Hayward’s forward play and that of the average good, but over-coached school-boy. Both equally obey the rules, but the one stroke is played naturally at the ball itself, the other artificially at where the ball is supposed to be. Now I would point out that many players, in endeavouring to carry out the rules of correct forward play derived from some writer’s study of the forward stroke of a Tom Hayward, merely achieve a kind of elongatedhalf-dead stroke, which consists in simply feeling forward for the pitch of the ball. But Tom Hayward’s stroke is full of life and decision, and he plays it, not in doubt as to what will happen, but fully conscious of the exact effect aimed at. Escapt in dealing with very fast bowling he does not push at the ball, but swings at it, and his forward play par­ takes in general not of the nature of pushing, but of driving. The fact is, he is essentially a driving batsman, who is almostunrivalled for the trueness of direction of his drives; and whether he simply makes one stride, with left foot advanced and right foot in its original position inside the crease, or jumps down the wicket to get nearer to the ball, he swings his bat and manages his balance and poise in almost exactly the same way. Now this trueness of direction comes from a combination of perfect timing with perfectly correctmanagement of the feet, the arms, and the body. The feet, the placing of them in the process of the stroke—there is the main secret of pre­ cision. But the correctness of Tom Hayward’s driving comes from co-ordina- tion of correct action and correct timing. I am not at all sure Hayward ought not to be described as a hitter. He hits as hard and as often as many batsmen who are called hitters; but because he hits chiefly along the ground and with con­ summate correctness—in fact, because the soundness of his method eliminates risk—both the power and the frequency of his hitting often escipe notice. There is a mistaken idea, common enough with the uninitiated, that fast scoring, and what is called match-winning batting, depend upon hitting in such a way that only good luck can save the batsman from being caught in the deep-field. This is ignorance. Thereis just as much science in hard hitting of the best kind as in the most rigidly defensive back play, and those who confound the “ scientific” batsman with the unenter­ prising and ultra-careful plodder, and use the term “ scientific ” in a sense uncomplimentary to the player, simply prove that they do not understand. In batting, soundness and science are the same ; and neither has anything what­ ever to do with slowness or lack of enterprise. Each in his own way, Victor Trumper and Ranjitsinhji, two by-words of brilliance, are as scientificas Hayward. No batsman ever makes high scores con­ sistently throughout a season whose method is not sound, whatever the style and general character of his play. It is amusing that this s ■ ason, when there has been such an outcry about brightening cricket, andsomanywingedwords flungat the“ scientific” player,thebatsmanwhose play has been sopre-eminently successful, and who has won the highest commenda­ tion from every source, is above all a scientist—a scientist in the sense that the foundation of his success is correctness of method. But, after all, it is excusable to forget the invisible lath andplaster—the method and the science. Hayward in form and making runs is natural and enjoyable, elegant and most entertaining. When he draws back both feet towards his wicket, faces thebowler, and with a short swing of the arms and a half turn of the wrists places the ball forcibly where he chooses to the on-side; when he throws his right foot across the wicket and cuts with a short, sharp, yet deliberate, flick past third-man ; when he stands up and presents an easy, broad bat to the fast rising straight ball, he is the natural batsman, completely capable. When we see him rise on his toes and dance out well poised to drive we praise him for something more that method. He is enjoying himself. JOCKEYS v. ACTORS. Played at Lord’ s on September 10. Actors won by 52 runs. A ctors . V. O’Connor, b J . Hunt 77 F.J.Rlackm;m,cW ood­ bind, b Ohaloner ... 0 H.E.Pearce, b I’Anson 11 OscarAsche,bChaloner 13 R. Evett, b Ohaloner 47 F. Mouillot, b J. Hunt 0 E. Burnaby, ran out... 14 W right,jun, not out 1 W . G. Browne, b Ohaloner.................. 0 W .Lotinga, c J. Hunt, b l ’Anson ........... 6 W . Dawes, b IA nson 0 L.Bradfield,bOhaloner 9 B 20, lb 7 ...........27 205 J ockeys . P. Ohaloner,b Evett... 8 T.Cannon,jun.,bAsche 2 It. l ’Anson, run out ... 1 E. Hunt, b Pearce ...5 4 G-. Williamson, lbw, b Asche... ...................10 M. Cannon, b Asche... 30 H. Woodland, b Bur­ naby ........................16 D. Maher, b Pearce ... J. Hunt, c Mouillot, b W right ................... K. Cannon, b Wright H. Jones, not out ... J. H. Martin, b Asche B 15, lb 2, w 1, nb 1... 19 Total ...153 A ctors . O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Ohalloner 20.4 4 68 5 1 J. Hunt... 10 2 50 2 I'A nson... 16 2 60 3 | J ockeys . O. M. R. W . O. M. R. w l 14.5 1 42 4 | Pearce ... 7 1 33 2 7 1 30 1 Burnaby.. 3 0 5 1 3 0 22 0 | W righ t... 1 0 2 2 Asche .. Evett O’Connor Asclie bowled one wideband Burnaby one no-ball#