Cricket 1912

E eb . 24 , 1912. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. 27 Impressions of the English Team. B y G. H. S . T r o t t . LUM ” WARNER , as he is familiarly called by the crowd in Australia, is to my mind an ideal leader of men. His supreme confidence, in himself and his team, compels admiration. Without being bombastic he is determined in his every action, and he seems to infuse the same feeling into every member of his team. As a player he is in the first flight, but I must confess that until the lastfew years I did not hold this opinion. Havingfollowed his career very carefully during recent seasons in England, and having had the pleasure of seeing him in Australia, I feel it only my duty to admit that he has improved out of all knowledge and can now bo classed with the best batsmen of the day. His indomitable pluck and wonderful— one might say extraordinary—enthusiasm have no doubt been chiefly responsible for this increase in skill, and, although it is early in the tour to hazard an opinion, I feel certain your popular skipper will be one of the first three in the averages at the end of the tour. And it will not surprise me to find him leading tho English team in the Triangular Tests of 1912.* ” Jack ” Hobbs, for whose skill I have great admira­ tion, I consider the finest batsman in the side. When playing for England in South Africa the season before last he was the mainstay of the batting, and it will surprise me if he is not again to tho fore during his present trip. He is my ideal of what a batsman should be, for he watches every ball carefully, his placing is perfection, and, being a firm believer in keeping every ball “ along the carpet,” he rarely gives the fieldsmen a chance of catching him. He has lovely strokes all round the wicket, and can force the pace well when the ground is on the soft side. Being of an unassuming disposition, he is very popular with the crowd, and is really loved by his more intimate admirers. George Gunn’s is perhaps the hardest wicket to get on the side, for it takes a rare good ball to get past his defence. As a rule, if a ball does beat the bat, Gunn’s legs save his wicket, provided, that is, the ball has not pitched straight. On good wickets this is the only thing in his batting to which I take exception, for I have always regarded the bat, and not the pads, as the proper thing with which to play the ball. But, having been bom at Nottingham, and imbibed all his cricket there, it is no wonder that he is fond of legging, for his famous uncle, “ Billy ” Gunn, and the late Arthur Shrewsbury were past masters of that practice. Still, all the same, George Gunn is a great batsman, who will, I fear, worry our bowlers in the Test games. His 105 at Adelaide, made after a five weeks’ journey by boat, suggests what we may expect from him when he gets the proper use of his land-legs. Rhodes is perhaps the most popular of all our visitors. Ho is feted almost daily by Australian fellow-” Tykes,” who maintain to a man that ” Our Wilfred is the greatest cricketer in the world.” I will not go so far as to endorse this opinion, but I will say that he is—Warner not excepted —the most improved batsman in the world. I can remem­ ber the time when there was no occasion for Wilfred to look at the batting-list, for he knew well that his place was tenth or eleventh. But what a change has taken place! Now he is generally deputed to open the innings in Test matches, and he is an ideal player to do so. Taking no risks, but playing the game for all it is worth with good scoring strokes all round the wicket, he should bo high in the batting list when the tour ends. He appears to have lost most of his deadliness with the ball, and in the course of a friendly chat he told me he felt no inclination to “ wheel them up ” on our billiard-table wickets, on which he experienced much more pleasure in batting. In the opening match, at Adelaide, Sidney Barnes showed us that he had lost none of his cunning with the b a ll; and every cricketer, be he bowler or not, knows that it is partly cunning which gets batsmen out on good wickets. Australian players themselves admit that Baines * Mr. Trott’s article was penned before the serious nature of Mr. Warner’s illness was generally recognised.—Ed. Cricket. is one of the finest bowlers ever seen with an English team out here, and that is saying a great deal when it is remem­ bered that such experts as Lohmann, Peel, Briggs and Mr. Bosanquet have made the journey. He shows more “ headiness ” in getting wickets than any other bowler on the side, and I predict a most successful season for him. Strudwick is another member of the side with whom the Australian public had been previously acquainted. B y his quiet and clever work behind the sticks he has endeared himself to cricket lovers on this side. On his earlier visit ho had few opportunities of showing his worth, the popular “ Dick ” Lilley monopolising the position on the most important occasions. That Strudwick is quite first-class as a wicket-keeper we now have no doubt, but he hardly comes up to Sherwell’s form of a year ago. The latter set up such a high standard, that he has made it a very difficult matter indeed for anyone to be able to create a favourable comparison with him. As a batsman Strudwick is, I feel, somewhat under-rated, for I believe that, if necessary, he could make as many runs as some of the recognised batsmen in the side. And now a few words respecting the men who are paying their first visit to us. On account of the manner in which he opened tho tour—making a hundred both at Adelaide and Melbourne—priority must bo given to Mr. Foster. It seems a pity that he is not built on more robust lines, for he gives me the impression that he is likely to “ crack up ” if worked too much, although his all-round performance with the Champion County last season seems to refute this idea. Still, time will tell, and if he gets a real hot Australian summer and goes through it without any ill-effects, I shall have much pleasure in changing my opinion. As a batsman he has shown that he possesses the grit that goes to make a really great cricketer. He is forceful, and there is a delightful crispness about his strokos which are well played all round the wicket. His two large innings referred to created a very favourable impression among the best judges of the game out here. His bowling also has been spoken of most highly, and he will, I think, prove the next best bowler to Barnes during the tour. Although he takes only a very short run up to the wicket, his bowling makes great pace off the pitch, and at times swings in fully six inches from the off. Being, in addition, a good fieldsman, he is easily the best all-round cricketer in the combination. Mr. Douglas is another gifted player who opened the tour successfully. As a bowler he has a nice easy style of delivery and comes back a bit from the off, but to my mind the secret of his success is his wonderfully good length, he rarely, if ever, being guilty of a long-hop. On a perfect wicket in Adelaide he clean bowled Clem Hill without a run, and in Melbourne treated Armstrong almost in the same way. Each batsman remarked afterwards that the ball which bowled him was a “ bobbley dazzler.” In batting, his methods are open to criticism. Being of such a fine athletic build, it would be only reasonable to suppose that he could put a little powder behind some of his strokes ; yet in Melbourne he was in three hours for 30 runs on a run-getting wicket. In the early part of his innings his stonewalling tactics were the right thing in the circumstances, for his side was in a bad position, and his vis-ii-vis (Mr. Foster) was making the pace. But after the latter left, Douglas, instead of helping himself to a few notches, continued to stonewall to the very end of the innings. He has a wonderfully good defence and an abundance of patience, but I feel certain he overdoes it, and that he would be of much more use to tho side if he opened out a little more. Kinneir, whom most Australians were anxious to see, has so far been disappointing. On our good wickets we expect first-class batsmen to score fairly fast, especially when (as now) our bowling is not very deadly, but most of the present English team apparently have the idea that they have only to stay in and the runs' are bound to come. And so, from a spectator’s point of view, the batting of the side has been thoroughly disappointing. The crowd will not tolerate stonewalling, and sometimes their remarks and advice to the batsman are amusing. One leather- lunged individual asked Kinneir whether he would lend him a book to read, and another enquired of Douglas,