THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 5, 1989.
West Indies Score Steadily, Good Bowling
"I Told You They Were Not To Be Mincemeat
(EXCLUSIVE TO“ CHINA MAIL")
C. B. Fry, internationally-known authority on cricket, is writing a ser ies of commentaries on the three Test matches between England and West Indies, and also the Gentlemen v Players match, exclusively for the "China Mail."
C. B. FRY SAYS
A Lord's to-day there is
a
end. Grant plays the first ball with easy skill. Yes, the turf is slow A. treble of singles.
The rusty-headed Copson, another Bill, bowls from the Pavilion end.
Two good overs. Copson's the live- lier. Yes, a very paceless wicket,
very.
*** *
Grant is a nice batsman of easy manner, public school style, a good figure, a Valentine face, Stollmeyer, tall and slim, with long arms and pliant wrists, reminds me of Dulcep- sinhji. He has the Indian swivel-hit glance to leg.
Stollmeyer, except for an occasional over-elongated tentative reach out at the good-length ball on the offside, has shown us excellent cricket.
As for Headley, he has been quiet- ly competent; quick with his bat but no flashing of it. He does in his technique most distinctly remind me of Don Bradman in his quieter vein for playing himself in.
* *
A word for Wood behind the sticks. He has been so unobtrusively faultless. that we have scarcely noticed him. But praise for a stumper; I don't like acrobatics. Now comes Bill Bowes again..
Notable Reproduction
Our bowling all the forenoon has been sound, accurate, but uneventful. It has not overcome the unresponsive nature of the turf-except now a ball and then a ball from Copson.
So it is that the first half hour We have all liked Stollmeyer's bat shows 20 runs in ones and twos with ting. Nice, tall well-swung strokes; a Grant leading and Stollmeyer looking cool, commanding manner. A young stylish. And big Bill Bowes is be. Australian blood could not have given He has started us better cricket in his first Test ginning to warm up. to make the ball rise,
But to me the interesting feature has been Headley's notable reproduc- tion of the great Don.
#
1
Catch By Compton Then Grant, after a cool and de-
The same unerring footwork, for of Copson to Compton at silly mid- he moves his feet not to the line of cent little innings cocks up a catch
And the ball in the air, but to the line
never
on.
One wicket down for. 29.
in strolls the demi-Don George Head of the late with his movements.
A loy.
curious feeling of zest. feeling that something worth seeing is going to happen."
Remember that we, England, are the challengers. The West Indies won last time against R. E. S. Wyatt's team in the Islands, The turf is very green: the used pitches are ominously dark green; the match wicket is sound, dry and without pace. It should play easy. And Grant has won the toss for. the West Indies.
* * * Here comes shapely Walter Ham- mond, stepping delicately from the centre gate of the great pavilion, with his group of our flannelled champions, And here come Captain R. S. Grant and stylist G. B. Stollmeyer to open the innings.
Wicket Paceless
Big Bill Bowes takes the ball in his large, deliberate, right hand and starts our attack from the nursery
Towards the end of the first hour stylish Stollmeyer is beginning to graceful swing. He is like a bronzed look stroky, with his long reach and Reggie Spooner in face, with the same gentle eyes and resolute wrists. Clear- ly a high-class båtsman. The demi- Don has been sitting rather tight; watchful but alert; no fireworks. Bowes now has given place
Wright,
** * *
to
The same reservation of his strokes till the ninety-ninth hundredth of a: second.
at
The same closeness of arms to body the same flash into his stroke
Above all, the same the easy ball. general appearance in style.
They Liven Up
The afternoon session begins with. Bowes as before, but Wright from the Pavilion end. The light is brigh ter. the batsmen confident.. The: The light is dull. Wright bowls wicket is perhaps slightly faster.
hour than In the first quarter of an these leg-breaks much faster one's usual idea of such stuff. Now, young Stollmeyer reaches fifty in his too we have Verity for Copson. The first Test: the demi-Don is lively; modern avoidance of contrasts of pace, Copson does some brilliant fielding. in the management of bowlers.
The
Back to Copson for Verity. bowling has been sound, but has been able to screw little bounce out of the dull turf.
Wright. I think, is inclined to force, his pace: a trifle more tisty-tosty would enhance his sort of stuff. All the time Copson has looked the like liest for a wicket; most zip in his bowling.
Successful Schoolmasters
STICK TO SHERRY!
Amontillado Fino
* ** *
era, as seen to-day, lack any element of surprise; they leave the batamen, good ones such as these, too well prepared.
The demi-Don tops his half-century, and has become fully dangerous. The West Indies total of 184 for one wicket puts them well placed for the day. I told you yesterday this team no mincemeat for us--and you wait and see.
One Weak Stroke
WAS
Five minutes later Bowes flattened Stollmeyer's off-stump with a spring off-break that one weak stroke of Stollmeyer's, the tentative reach for the good length ball outside the off stump. But a fine innings of 59 with choice forcing strokes to leg and sun-
dry elegant off drives. This is a bats- man of class.
Total 147 for 2. Entrant J. E. D. with his raspberry cap askew over the Sealey, the dapper replica of Headley,
right eye.
the dull turf; but except for the fizzer Bowes and Copson worked hard at with which Bowes beat Stollmeyer. I have seen nothing troublesome. Bowes latterly is verging on his shorter good him back with ease. length, and these two technicians play hooks him with sombre venom and an The demi-Don
ivory smile.
Sneaked A Catch
One incident when Wright is tried for Copson is a genuine Harrow drive over cover-point by Sealey, whose cap fell more askew as he lunged.
But soon afterwards Sealey reached out at Wright and sneaks a catch to the absorbent gloves of Wood. Total 180 for 8. Headley going strong.
*** **
Weekes, a left-handed equivalent of Sealey, helps Headley in pushing up the score. But these lads seem to be trying to run themselves out. To them a good stroke is worth a run, even if it goes straight and hard to mid-off.. Mercurial is the word.
Between 4.00 and 4.30 the batting Headley has committed his first and subsides into virtuous solemnity. The only inadvertence; he missed an off- dead outfield, with a rich nap of grass, drive at Verity and was not far from does not allow the ball to travel and being bowled. Otherwise he now looks the dead wicket does not bring the ball uncommonly like a century. Some of into the bat with any ping. Meanwhile his cuts evoke enthusiasm.
the demi-Don approaches his century We have had Verity again, and with a masterful defence and few at- now Copson from the far end; but the tempts at forcing strokes. batsmen are undisturbed.
(Continued on Page 23)
"Our bow
WHAT C.B. FRY THOUGHT OF THE TWO TEAMS
London, June 28. Three-day cric- ket on a three-day wicket. That is how the Test match between England and the West Indies, beginning at Lord's to-morrow, proposes itself.
That is what it is intended to be And this character alone, weather permitting, endows the match with a special interest as a reversion to the original type of English cricket.
Plethoric run-making, with the bowler condemned for ever to be the under-dog-modern conditions and Australian predilections have super imposed this. But whatever there lative merits of the two types, old- fashioned time limit, with the players playing up to this feature as of the essence of the contest, Imprints a dif- ferent quality on the game,
dlesex at Lord's by an innings and over 200 runs, we are flattering our prospects at Lord's.
What have they got? They have at least six batsmen capable of centuries against our best bowling on a fast wicket. One of them quite capable of a double century; if not a Don, at least more than a Demi-Don,
Indeed, George Headley in form is a very near rival of Bradman in pheno- menal ability to blow such a - breach in good bowling that his comrades can crowd in runs..
That is where the Don comes in with such a punch; and such a punch is not beyond Headley's power, kiray
STANCE NO IMPEDIMENT He is a small man, like the Don, Apart, however, from this quaef and as quick as a rabbit on his feet. novel character, the match should He inclines to the two-eyed stance; prove of high interest. Put out of your but so swiftly does he change into the mind that the West. Indians are not proper poise for "strokes on the off- the Australians; forget that the West side that his stance is no impediment. Indian record against the counties has He is very quick with his blade; his been mercurially up and down. Or late cuts simply shave the ball from rather remember that the West In: his off ballets
dians are a mercurial team, and that Like the Don he plays often off the the barometer can be high as
in his forcing strokes. He low. As the ing Naval of
bok muchs. reported to his – Comm
the V. Lavery m
I LOOK AT MIDDE
These fel team N
as back
door
erience
and tur
he wristy
against
peter.