Down Underers

U. S. cricket enthusiasts last week got their first chance to see in action a 23-year-old Australian with a wide grin and protruding ears who is indisputably the greatest cricket batsman in the world. He, George Donald Bradman, with the other members of an Australian team that has been touring Canada, arrived in Manhattan to play three matches against teams of West Indians and one on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket Club. Fatigued by the Canadian tour, in which his team won 14 out of 17 matches, and bothered by the sun, Batsman Bradman was not at his best in the first match. He hit out recklessly, got only four boundary hits for four runs each, three hits for two, and seven singles. He gave three "chances" (fly balls) before he was caught out for 45. The West Indian players batted first and put together a creditable 152 but they had no bowlers to match left-handed Leslie O'Brien Fleetwood-Smith of Australia. The Australians promptly ran up 153 for four wickets. They had five wickets to spare when the stumps were drawn after their 300th run. In the second match against another team of Manhattan West Indians, Batsman Bradman contrived to compile a "century" (100 runs & better). His 117 helped the Australians put together 276 for seven wick ets. In the third match, Batsman Brad man had a disheartening experience. He took a tremendous swing at the second ball offered him by Bowler Clarke, snicked it slightly, was caught out for a "duck egg" (score of 0) for the first time since his arrival in North America.

Eight of the Australians who played in Manhattan last week were on the team that won the "Ashes" -- symbol of world's championship -- from England in 1930. Captain was Victor Y. Richardson, a first-class bat and Australia's greatest fielder. The team had a fine wicket-keep in Harry Carter, 54, oldest man on the team. Bowler Fleetwood-Smith dismissed the South Africans twice this season in Australia and will be a valuable googlie* bowler for the test matches next year.

But the main reason Australia will be favored in next year's matches will be, not Googlie-Bowler Fleetwood-Smith, but Batsman Bradman. Born at Cootanundra, New South Wales, he played no cricket until he was 16. He performed in the first test he ever saw, at Leeds two years ago, and astonished British cricketers by getting 131 runs in the second innings of the first match. He got 254 in the second match. His 334 in the third was a world's record for test play and when he helped Australia win the deciding match with an individual score of 232, he received telegraphed congratulations from Buckingham Palace. He holds the world's record for individual scoring in high-class cricket-- 452, not out, for New South Wales in 1929. In this summer's tour of Canada he averaged 123 for 16 innings. A chipper, slender youth, 5 ft. 6 1/2 in. and 145 lb., Batsman Bradman at 23 is considered a better bat than Dr. W. G. Grace who, in his prime from 1868 to 1876, most experts consider to have been the greatest British cricketer in history. Possessed of the peculiar intuition necessary for anticipating the devices of opposing bowlers, Batsman Bradman is assisted by extraordinarily good eyesight, abnormally strong wrists and an unrivalled repertoire of strokes. He carries 13 willow bats, drinks ale instead of tea in the 4-o'clock intermissions at cricket games. When asked how he explains his prowess on the field, he replies, "It's easy." After these matches in Manhattan Batsman Bradman & teammates prepared to continue their tour in Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver, and Hollywood, where they will engage a team of British actors.

*Slow-bowled the ball breaks viciously on the bounce (like a cut tennis ball), vexes batsmen.

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