The Latest Test
Behind the Tests. By Norman Cutler. (Putnam. 10s. 6d.)
Cricket Triumph. By Bruce Harris. (Hutchinson. 8s. 6d.)
Picture Post Book of the Tests. By Denzil Batchelor. (Picture Post. 3s. 6d.)
Test.Matches of 1953. By E. W. Swanton. (Daily Telegraph. 2s.) IN an old scrapbook of mine I have just re-discovered a cutting front the Manchester Guardian of August, 1920, in which " Cricketer " describes one day of the Yorkshire and Surrey match.
On that day, it appears, Sutcliffe played the " innings of a young, modern cricketer out of form so completely that he quite gratefully turns to first principles for succour .... He supported his failing strength on the straight bat of his grandfathers. He ate humble pie as though glad of any kind of sustenance.... How sad to see any young Samson shorn of his locks. Still Sutcliffe's will grow again and abundantly."
The rest of the cutting describes George Hirst. " Hirst is an elemental force, none of your wire-drawn products of the academies where, forsooth, they go about cricket as if it were experimental psychology. - For Hirst it is enough that the ball has circumference, his shoulders weight and his bat good English willow. Let the pundits talk about the margin of error lurking in a beefy pull across the line of flight. Hirst will smile broad Yorkshire at this philosophy of discretion and just go on pulling them. He was -not quite as venturesome today as in the old times but now and again we saw the right knee go down to the earth and the ball sweep round from
the off to the deep on the boundary and that was enough to set the vast,crowd clapping its delight and speaking out of its heart a deep- rooted affection for this great Yorkshireman whose spiritual home is the Hambledon of old, the home of lusty cricketers big of heart and girth and happy as the wind."
A bit flowery in parts ? Maybe if Cardus had had the chance he would have cut here and there in the morning light. But he had no such chance. By the morning light that match account was in my scrapbook ; and today, thirty-three years later, it is still bursting with the life of cricket.
I cannot say the same about any of this first batch of books on the past season's Tests. The writers, though in a hurry, had not to get their copy on the evening wire, as Cardus did, and they had a chance to check and prune their proofs. But none of them shows either the freshness or the maturity of Cardus's daily journalism and none of them has Cardus's flair for transmitting the feel of the game and its players.
Each book contains competent accounts of the Tests. Rex Alston sketches, and Bruce Harris gives the plain facts about, the rest of the tour as well. Norman Cutler throws in some dressing-room gossip and just occasionally John Arlott gets in those touches which make his cricket broadcasts such a delight.
But the two I recommend are Jim Swanton and Denzil Batchelor. Swanton provides easily the most knowledgeable commentary and Batchelor provides easily the best pictures. The two, in fact, are complementary, and further, as their books are much the cheapest, You can buy both for less than the cost of one of the others.
J. P. W. MALLALIEU
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