Advertiser and Register (Adelaide, SA : 1931), Monday 24 August 1931, page 6


YOUTHFUL SOUTH AFRICANS

Best Team For Many Years BRILLIANT IN FIELD

By Louis Duffus (South Africa)

South Africa's second team of cricketers to visit Australia after an interval of 20 years is Made up of eager, ambitious young players.

We expect them to be brilliant in the field, strong in batting, and not without good possibilities in their moderate bnt well-varied attack. Before travelling to England with the 1929 team under H. G. Deane, I found South Africans generally prone to under-rate the ability of their players. They are chary, too. about "boosting" this team. But it is pos-sible that the team led on to the field by the young captain, H. B. Cameron, may yet prove to be the best combi-nation to go abroad for many years. Youth predominates, and, as in 1929, the selectors are pinning their faith heavily on youth to challenge Australia.

After Herby Tay-lor, who is 42, the next oldest mem-ber of the side is Cyril Vincent, a medium-paced left-hand bowler, who led the list of wicket - takers against A. P. F. Chapman's team here last summer. He is only 29. and then comes a string of youngsters right down to X. Balaskas - the "X" is for Xenophen — and L. S. Brown, the

twenty-year-old babes of the side, who have never made a seatrip before. Taylor is the only man who may have to be sheltered at all in the field, though Vincent is not much good near the boundary, as he threw his arm out in a school athletic meeting when he cast a cricket ball 112 yards. Bruce Mitaheli. in the slips, K. TOjoen, at cover-point, and 33. L. rurtfcnw, S. H. Cumow, and S. S. L. Steyn, in the country, are excellent fielders. Patient Opening Bafsmrn The withdrawal of L J. Siedle, who. with Mitchell, gave South Africa an accomplished pair of opening as well as two quiet, unassuming fellows, with endless patience and a steady defiance against the tricks of the new ball, may upset fbe HatHng order a little. The next ?*pTifjiri'gft> for the position is S. H. Cumow, who. two seasons ago, scored an unusually large number of runs in Transvaal league cricket, but who last season disappointed as an opening bat against the M.C.C. Then there is Herby Taylor. For more than a decade he has been South African's leading batsman. Last summer, as I watched him on the same fields as Hammond and several of England's best batsmen, I could not help Hiiniriiig that he is still well among the leading batsmen of the world. He is a master of footwork, and is the only married member of the team. It will be a aujaae to South Africa if he does not mate plenty of runs on this tour. Bruce Mitchell, who made a name for himself when, in his first ust match at Birmingham in 1929, be scored 88 runs in 7 hours, is today a most improved, and accomplished jmtfi man. He must rank nest to Taylor though, in the last series against £Sigland, he scored 455 runs in ni?? innings, with an average of 50.55 "gyms? Taylor's 299 runs in 7 inning.: and average of 49.83. J- A. J. Christy is a talL arresting figure, black-haired with streaks of grey, broad of shoulder, who swings his bat above the shoulder with a flourish. He is particularly strong on the off-side. Christy, D. F B Morkel, the best all-rounder on 1929. A. J. Bell and L. B. Brown are all over six feet. The midgets of the party are E. A. van der Merwe, ih^ reserve wicketkeeper. who teaches ?"Afrikaans" m a high school, and X. Balaskas who has Greek parents, but was bom ia Kimbarley. Captain a Daring ifa??a?wm H. B. ("Jock") Cameron is a quiet sort of fellow. He is a forcing batsman, and has played many daring- innings for South Africa. Last season, particularly, he made an heroic attempt to force a decision in the FourSi Test match and, during the summer, developed an invaluable adaptability to the needs of the innings. We know little of Morkel's present form in tins country, because he has been away in. England. He has played some cricket. however, and should soon get into trim when he joins his team-mates. Ee is a member of the famous Busby family, whose name is a household word throughoui Souai Africa, but he as known for cricket rather than football. Another of the proved batsmen is Quintin McMillan, who is tubby, and the best slow bowler of tbe tourists. He is, too, the big hEtec He maae a name and caused a stir at Lord's in the First Test match of his career in 1929. when he not only i.o hit J. C. White for six, but directed the ball on to the head of a lieutenantgeneral, who was sitting in && stand. Taylor, Mitchell, Curnow, Market Cameron, McMillan, and Christy hare" only to find good form in tie early S?W l ss h £s! of ** places * Of the new school of player to come to the front during the M.C.C visit Kenneth Viljosn, a twenty-one^w^ old player from Kimberley, is expected to be a most attractive and successful batsman on the tour. He has a. delightfully free style, wifii graceful wrist movements reminiscent of Frank Woolley, and a uommand of his feet so effective as to prompt many folk here to hail him as South Africa's future Herby Taylor. Strong Attack The fastest bowler in the side is iaSL long-limbed "Sandy" BelL He is not really fast. He and Morkel axe much of a pace, and are expected to be the most prominent of the attack. Vincent and N. A. Quinn are both lefthanders, Vincent being the stover and using more spin. Brown has only been a short while out of school. He has never played in a Test match. but be is a well-built youngster wfiih an easy delivery to a medium pace ball, and should develop as the tour goes on. Cameron must be very nearly the best wicketkeeper in the world. He was belter than George Duckworth last summer. He is cool and unostentatious and takes the leg ball with. ease. His understudy, van der Merwe, & nearly as good. He is best at rising to an occasion, and if he should ever be called upon to play in the Test the gloves will be in safe nnnVfc You will find the South Africans a keen clean-living band of rairfcpfaTs Apart from Herby Taylor, who owns a sports outfitting business, t&ey are mostly clerks setting out on their business careers. Bruce mmtriinin ,is qualifying- as an accountant, and Balaskas is articled to a chemist. Eleven of the party toured TCiVp-ianfl together. and at least seven of them neither drink nor smoke. Most of them can claim some other attainment besides cricket. Brown and Datton have reoresented their provinces at soccer football, Bell has held da South African tiUe in high Jump and throwing the discus, and Ttrtfrm has a gold medal for his baritone ringing:. The South Africans look forward with eager anticipation to seeing Australian cricket and its famous gmmrt^ and are prepared to meet a near atmosphere of the game with tbdr Introduction to Australiap, fISH9h

H. B. Cameron