Cricket 1914

N o . 4 , V o l. I. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1914. P r ic e 2 d . Mr. J. W. H. T. Douglas on the M.C.C. Tour. O u r side was a m agnificent one, as everyb od y knows. Its great stren gth la y in the all-round ability of p ractically every m an. This, to m y m ind, is much better for a touring side th an to have stars in any p articu lar branch of the game w h o are w eak in other departm en ts— unless, of course you can get real stars— men of the calibre of B arn es and Hobbs. There is one poin t which is often overlooked, I consider, in p ickin g men for a Colonial tour, and th a t is the su ita b ility of the p layers to the w ickets th ey h ave to p la y upon ou t there. Y o u m a y p ick people who h ave done w ell in this cou ntry ; bu t it does n ot in the least follow th a t because a m an has had a good season a t home he is going to have a good one aw ay. W e had a number of dis­ appointm ents in bo th b a ttin g and bow lin g— B ooth, T en n y ­ son, W oolley, Hearne, and, up to h alfw ay through the tour, Mead. It was not th a t the men referred to did bad ly, b u t th a t th ey did less well th an w as expected of them , and w ere in and ou t in their form . R hodes did n ot make m any big scores ; b u t he was exceed ingly useful, as very often his 20 or 30 to o k a n y ­ th in g from an hour to tw o hours to make, th us w earing down th e attack . In bow lin g, B arnes stood head and shoulders above the rest. B u t perhaps th e other people h ard ly had a fair chance when he w as playing, because he p ractically monopolised one end. I th in k there is no d o ub t th at, had not B arnes been in th e team , some of our other bowlers would h ave had far b etter figures. The analysds in the fifth te s t suggest this, an yw ay. Mr. J. W. H. T. D o u g l a s . L ots of things have been said ab ou t the team in the papers. I never have been fond of w ritin g to papers, and so I have let them go th eir own sw eet w ay, n ot troubling to con tradict th eir stories. Social functions caused most of the trouble— the new spaper trouble, th a t is. These social functions are all v ery w ell in th eir w a y ; b u t th ey don’t help one to do oneself justice on a strenuous tour— such as this w as— w ith so much tra v el­ ling to b e. got through. One meets a lo t of people, n atur­ ally, and th ey tr y to do one well, b u t too much can be had, even of a good thing. T he men were a happy fam ily. I had no occasion to speak to anyone abou t his beh aviou r either on or off the field. Bird and Tennyson backed me up lo ya lly, and enjoyed th e trip imm ensely, as indeed all of us did. W hen we left home, some people said the fielding of the side would not be good. But th ey would have opened their eyes if th ey had seen it. Jack Hobbs a t cover was m agnifi­ cent, though not quite up to his wonderful standard of the Australian trip. T ennyson is a brillian t long-field, a very safe catch ; he would be worth his place on an y cou nty side for his fielding alone. In the third test m atch, a t Johannes­ burg, I calculate th a t he m ust have saved us over 30 runs in an hour and a half. W oolley and R elf were very good in the slips, as th e num ber of catches th ey made w ill testify. Personally, I like th e m attin g w ickets v ery much. T h at m a y be because I am not a v e ry forceful batsm an, though I m ight add th at I opened ou t a t tim es during the tour. The m atting helps the bow ler trem endously. It w ill take I