SPECTATOR SPORT
Batting honours
Frank Keating
A NICE letter from an Australian friend about Colin Cowdrey's New Year knight- hood. 'With "Sir Kipper" now padded up to go in at second wicket down, I am starting a campaign for a knighthood next for either Clyde Walcott or "Godders" Evans. This would provide a wicket-keeper for an en- nobled XI of knights which would give one heck of a game to a Mars XI or anyone namely Sirs Len, Jack, Don, Colin, Frank, Gary, "Plum", Learie, Gubby and Richard.'
With Cowdrey following Hutton, Hobbs, and Bradman — and preceding Worrell, Sobers, and Warner — the batting order represents an immensely powerful roll-call of run-makers. And the bowling is not too bad either — Constantine and Hadlee fol- lowed by a burst from Allen, then Sobers with either his wrist-spin or his swervers, Worrell's military-medium floaters, and perhaps an over or two after tea of flighted leg-breaks from Hutton and Cowdrey. Though not perfect, the attack at least gives the lie to dear old Alec Bedser's moan that the Palace honours system is weighted in favour of batsmen — The last ruddy bowler to get knighted was Sir Francis Drake.'
So Mr Major has to turn his attention to the midsummer Birthday Honours and get us a wicket-keeper. Godfrey Evans is still full of the joys, permanent smile always framed by his mutton-chop whiskers. But I should think he is out of the frame now. But Clyde Walcott remains a distinct possi- bility. The huge bear of a Barbadian stumper-bat continues to do sterling work in the cause of all the Caribbean's cricket.
Though who could possibly put it past the new captain of Mr Major's Surrey to grab the gauntlets first? 'Sir Alec Stewart' does have a ring about it — so does the young man's speed of promotion. He is cur- rently, and suddenly, the England vice-cap- tain. He has scored two successive Test centuries and is on the verge of again deposing the specialist wicket-keeper, Jack Russell, in the team. From No 6 and a 'use- ful 30-man', he has been promoted to open the batting with Gooch. Doubtless, in the next Test he will be opening the bowling. A knighthood should come as a cinch. Espe- cially with his fan in high places.
Stewart is 29 in April, so he can be pre- pared to wait. Sobers was 38 when the Queen told him to stand up straight, in Barbados in 1975; Worrell, Hutton and Hadlee were all tapped by the sword at 39. Bradman was 40. The others, like Cowdrey, were honoured long after they had unbuck- led their pads.
The youngest 'sporting' knight I can find in modern times was 33-year-old Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest. I suppose when Geoff Boycott beat Sir Gary's all-time Test batting aggregate record in 1982 you could detect a popular clamour for a knighthood. But the old boy cussedly N'-signed such a possibility by promptly organising an unofficial tour to South Africa. A few banners proclaiming 'Arise Sir Geoffrey' did, however, follow him around till the day he ran himself out for 61 at Scarborough on the last day of the 1986 season, and that was that.
Bradman's honour in 1948 was certainly helped by public acclamation. When the tour ended, Andy Flanagan, of the Sydney Herald, wrote: 'Even Lords and Dukes in England are obsequious in Bradman's pres- ence. He could, it seems, receive a Duke- dom or a Baronetcy for the mere asking, so there is little relevance in discussing whether he is going to receive just a humble knighthood.' And, by New Year, it had duly arrived. Pity the Don couldn't keep wicket.
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