Maurice Tate

[zaremba]

A fine article in the Guardian about this great player.

Sad to hear about the deterioration of his grave but my money's on that being rectified sharpish following publication of the article.

 

[vcs]

Great article about the first man to dismiss Bradman in a Test match.

Love this picture.

 

[_Ed_]

The guy in uniform is trying to make himself more imposing than he is, IMO. Can't thrust himself out anymore than he has. Fail.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Read the article in the dead tree version over me teabreak and my first thought was Mr z, what with Tate jr having been his avatar for many moons. One of those "You know CW is taking over your life when..." moments.

There was a pic of the untended grave in the paper which was almost unbearably poignant. I would scan & post it were my scanner not currently (and probably irreparably) buggered. As Mr Bates suggests in his rather splendid article, it does look altogether too small to contain a chap of Maurice's size, in the literal as well as the figurative sense.

 

[fredfertang]

Remarkable how quickly it must have deteriorated - I have a 1999 photo of the grave (well that's when it was published) and it looks in reasonable shape - I will try and scan it at work tomorrow

 

[zaremba]

A tiny bit of Pathe footage of MWT bowling.

 

[fredfertang]

The game is not, as they say, the same - but still reassuringly similar

 

[zaremba]

Not actually sure whether all 3 clips of bowlers in that Pathe footage are of Tate. The chap who's bowling from left to right as we look at it (just before the words "Australia acclaim Tate the best bowler in the world" appear) looks to be Tate to me. Good, strong action and bowling at a good pace. The chap bowling from the other end immediately after has a much shorter run-up and seems to bowl slower and with a more round-arm action.

 

[wpdavid]

I just love the complete indifference of the fielders whenever a wicket falls.

 

[zaremba]

A bit more Pathe footage here, from 1932 with Tate bowling off about 6 paces (you need to skip past some unidentified football to get to the cricket). Gets a bit excited when he gets Leyland out, then restrains himself.

 

[Dissector]

I just love the complete indifference of the fielders whenever a wicket falls.

Yeah and you still have that in the early 50's, for example the clip on Laker's 19 wickets. I think it was Richie Benaud who pushed the envelope when it came to wicket celebrations around this time.

Anyway the Pathe archive looks like a fantastic resource and I always love watching old cricket video clips. I just wish there were clips of even older players especially Barnes. I am sure there must have been some footage shot but the issue is whether it's survived. For all we know there is a reel of him in some basement somewhere waiting to be discovered...

 

[bagapath]

certainly the no.1 choice to partner larwood with the new ball if a team were to be chosen from the time period between the two World Wars. tate had an awesome SR with the bat as well IIRC scoring at 70+ runs per 100 balls.

thanks for the video links z. it is good to see jack gregory walking out with his team (at around 1.15)

 

[JBMAC]

certainly the no.1 choice to partner larwood with the new ball if a team were to be chosen from the time period between the two World Wars. tate had an awesome SR with the bat as well IIRC scoring at 70+ runs per 100 balls.

thanks for the video links z. it is good to see jack gregory walking out with his team (at around 1.15)

Partly agree there but feel Voce was a perfect "foil" for Larwood

 

[zaremba]

I seem to remember Don Bradman saying in The Art Of Cricket that his ideal opening bowling attack would be Lindwall and Tate.

 

[zaremba]

The grave has been cleared up.

(Nice to see an acknowledgment for those of us who expressed our views on the Sussex messageboard as well.)

 

[Dissector]

On a tangent, the article mentions the grave of C Aubrey Smith, a well-known Hollywood actor whose face will be instantly familiar to those of you who watch 30's Hollywood films. I vaguely remembered he was involved in cricket too but I didn't know before reading the Wiki article that he actually played test cricket, captaining England to a victory in his only test while also taking 7 wickets. Has any other player ever captained a team in his only test? And his test bowling average of 8.71 makes him something of an Andy Ganteuame of bowlers.