Cricket 1912

C R I C K E T : A W E E K L Y R E C O R D O F T H E G A M E .— J u l y 13th. 1912. Together joined in CricKet’s man ly toil.”— Byron. N o . 1 6 . V O L . I. New Series. No. 905 Old Series. S A T U R D A Y , J U L Y 13, 1912. istered at the G.P.0.~\ D q _ as a Newspapet'. J A Chat about /VLr. S. J. Pegler. Sidney Jam es Pegler, a Natalian by birth, not yet 23 years of age, the youngest player on the South African side, has been thus far perhaps that side’s greatest asset. He is not a googly bowler, though he has been called one. It is a m istake to suppose that the Afrikanders have no weapons in their battery but the googly, which, by the way, has lately been rather under a cloud. In the last team Sinclair, Snooke, Nourse, and Kotze, though overshadowed by Yogler, Faulkner, Schwarz, and White, were all capable exponents of other styles; and of the present combination, besides Nourse and Snooke (it puzzles one why the latter should scarcely ever bowl now), there are Pegler him self, Cox, and Garter who do not specialise in the m ystery ball— less of a m ystery now than a year or two back. Pegler’s first-class career is a comparatively short one ; and until this tour it was m ainly a matter of promise. Now he has redeemed his promise, and confounded his detractors; whatever he may do in the next two or three months his splendid form in May and Ju n e will have made of him one of the tour’s most prominent figures. He began to make his mark in cricket on the Rand quite early. In the “ South A frican Cricketers’ Annual ” for 1906 he may be found thus described, at the age of six­ teen :— “ A young player who is bound to make a nam e; good bowler, breaking both w ays ; has made several centuries in junior cricket; should practice fielding.” In 1907 he was in England with his father, played regularly with the Granville (Lee) Club, headed their bowling averages with 119 wickets at 10*8 each, and made a fair number of runs. It was in March, 1909, during the Currie Cup Tourna- p/i0t0 &y/] ment at Cape Town, that he made his first appearance in M r. 5 . J. bi^ cricket. He played in all three matches for the Transvaal, but his only performance of note was an analysis of 4 for 22 in the second innings of Eastern Province in the first of the three. During the next season he was advanced to international honours. H is form in club cricket had been good, and he got a place in the second match between the Transvaal and the M .C.C. Team ; but he did nothing much, and it was only the fact that the S. A frican side was very short of bowling—this was the rubber in which Faulk­ ner and Yogler did practically everything for them—that took him into the team for the third test. H is performances were not out of the ordinary ; he scored 39 for once out, and took 2 wickets for 55, and he was not played in the remaining two matches. He was chosea for the team to Australia in 19 10, however, and just before sail­ ing bowled well for it against Western Province, taking 7 wickets for 42 in the match. To say that he failed in Australia would scarcely be fair. To say that he was a success would be to overstate the case. Setting aside the matches of no real importance, his best feats with the ball were with one exception only moderate—3 for 29 in the first South Australian match, 3 for 40 in the firs fourth test, and 5 for 54 and and 4 for 14 in the return with South A ustralia — except for the last these are scarcely imposing. If his figures for the two South Australian matches be deducted, it will be seen that his nine other first-class games gave him only 15 wickets for 7 5 1 runs. Yet the general impression made was that he might train on into quite a good bowler; the raw m aterial was there, anyway. Few could have expected, how­ ever, that in a couple of years (Hawkins Co., Brighton. or so he would be doing sueli big things. He was sent in last P E G L E R . early in the tour ; but scores of