Cricket 1912

C R I C K E T l A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE Q A M E .-S eptembbr 7 th , 1912, 'Together joined in CricKet’s manly toil.”— Byron. No' 2V ™ ^ ‘w8EB'“ > SATURDAY, SEPT. 7, 1912. >*-« 2d- A Chat about /VIr. Gordon White. D aring the comparatively short time which has elapsed since South A frica became a recognised cricket power, the sub-continent has produced quite a number of first-class all-round men- One may leave R . O. Schwarz out of account, as his cricket was learned in England. Nourse is English-born, but he made him self a big cricketer in South A frica; and he must fairly be ranked with the all-rounders, though hii; bowling has never been given as full recognition as it deserves. Aubrey Faulkner stands first, of course, a world-player in his true form . Then there have been Jam es Sinclair, great hitter and fine bowler, Ernest \'ogler, a bowler first, but a capital batsman also, Sibley Snooke. and, not the least among them, Gordon White. Others might be mentioned, and Gerald Hartigan should scarcely be passed o v er; but those named are all men who have made their mark in test matches. It is not to be denied that the dashing little batsman who has so big a reputation in his own country has been disappointing here this year. Much was expected of him, and he has done but moderately. B u t, though he has not been the tower of strength to the side that it was hoped he would be, he has failed in good com pany; and failure in 19 12 cannot deprive him of the laurels he won in earlier years. And he may win more y e t; he is only 30. Business has inter­ fered with his cricket of late years, however, and is likely to do so in an increasing measure. Though he has played pretty regularly during this tour, his original notion was to come over for a holiday, assisting the team only when specially needed. Gordon White was born in Pondo- land, which is within the lim its of the Cape Province; but his early cricket was identified with Natal, and his fame was won as a Transvaaler. I believe he represented Natal on one or two occasions; but he never did anything of note for the Garden Colony, and he first drewpublic atten­ tion when he scored 54* for T ransvaal v. Eastern Province at Port Elizabeth, during the Currie Cup Tournamen of Easter, 1903. In the following season he made 53 v. N atal at Johannesburg, ran up 83 and took 1 1 for 96 v. Orange River Colony at Bloemfontein, and scored 42 and 30 and took 4 for 97 v. Western Province in the first Currie Cup match at Johannesburg. This was one of the two seasons in which the matches were not all played at one centre. Such form as this took him easily into the 1904 team for England, and throughout the tour he played really good cricket. H is first performance of note was 79 not out v. Oxford U niversity; a week later he ran up 52 v. Warwickshire. Late in Ju n e he made 1 1 7 (20 fours) in 80 minutes v. Dublin University, driving with great vigour, and followed this up with 5 for 34 in the Irish team’s first innings. A gainst the Gentlemen of Ireland at Cork he took 7 for 43. A score of 54 v. H ants and 5 for 43 in the second innings of Scotland at Edinburgh werehis best performances during the next two or three weeks. Against Leicestershire he batted very finely for 80; against Notts a week later he hit up 1 15 in two hours; in the second innings of Kent at Canterbury he took 5 for 46 ; against Yorkshire at Scarborough he scored 49 in a total of 102 ; and he finished up with 47 v. the South at Hastings. In all matches of the tour he aggre­ gated 937 (average 30-22) and took 56 wickets at 23 66 each. In 1904-5 he played in none of the big matches ; but in the following season he was one of the South African team which won the rubber against Pelham W arner’s side, and his per­ formances in three of the matches were really brilliant. In the first test, that which South A frica won by a wicket, his stand of 1 2 1 with Nourse proved the turning point of the game, and his 81 was absolutely a faultless innings. In the third match the scored 46 and 147, in each innings making a long stand with Nourse ; and in the fourth, at Newlands (the only game England won) his 4 1 and 73 represented nearly three times as m any as any other batsman on the side made. He was unquestionably South A frica’s premier batsman that season. A brilliant 82 not out v. N atal M r. (JORDON,W H ITE,