Cricket 1914

No. 5, V o l. I. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1914. P r ic e 3 d. Mr. S. J. Pegler. No man of the last South African team found greater favour w ith the cognoscenti than Sydney Pegler. To-day there are few better bowlers than he anywhere. He came out of a trying ordeal w ith flying colours, for he had to do far more than one man’s share of bowling during the tour. Mitchell had plenty o f bowlers— on paper, th at is— but the majority of them were not suited b y the kind of wickets we got two years ago. On a soft dead w icket, the googly bowler is altogether too expensive. To my mind the only type of w icket on which these googly merchants are worth their salt is the plumb fast one. On th a t a gifc four is not a heart-breaking m a tte r; but gift fours cannot be afforded when every single run matters. Pegler could never be given a real rest. The price was too heavy for the side to pay. So he had to go on bowling when a rest would have done him no end of good. There were Faulkner’s googlies and Carter’s left-hand stuff ; but Nourse was the chief length bowler for the other end, and, useful as he is, one would be flattering Nourse in calling him a test match bowler. Under easier conditions, Pegler will, I am confident, meet w ith even greater success. He is far better suited by our w ickets than b y those of either South A frica or Australia ; in fact, the matting of his homeland does not suit him a little bit. His chief reliance ison length w ith linger- spin ; and a bowler of his type has a much better chance on our ever-changing pitches than on the matting or the adamant-like Australian wickets. Pegler swings w ith his arm enough to cause the bats to make mistakes over this particular type of ball. He possesses, too, rare body swing, and he utilises to the full the advantage given him b y his height. He can bowl both spins w ithout losing his length, and this is a very rare attribute indeed. Lord’s should suit him as well as any ground in the world, and I do not think it will be long before the M.C.C. authorities realise— if th ey have not already done so— what a nugget they possess in this excellent cricketer and splendid fellow. He did great work at L ord’s in 1912— 5 for 75 and 6 for 44 v. M.C.C., 7 for 65 v. England, 5 for 37 v. Middlesex among his figures there. In the M.C.C match he had had 34 runs scored off him before he took a w ic k e t; then he took 6 for 10 more, those of Relf, Thompson, A. P. Day, and J. T . Hearne in five balls ! Nearly 1300 overs did he send down during the 1912 tour, and 189 wickets fell to him a t about 15] apiece. Note how quickly he takes his w ickets— one in about every 40 balls. Compare this w ith Nourse— nearly 70 balls for every w icket ; or W h itty— 47 per w icket ; H azlitt — 48 ; Newman of Hants— 52 ; Relf— 57— I have taken a few names quite at random for this purpose, in each case using the 1912 figures. The bowler who can get w ickets quickly is as valuable an asset to his side in a three- d ay match as the batsman who makes runs at a good pace ; but this fact is often overlooked. We are going to hear a good deal more of Pegler yet. A. C. M.