Clem Hill's Reminiscences

better lead by way of return. If a difficulty arose, MacLaren was the first to see a way to smooth matters over, and the first, for the sake of peace and quietness, to concede a point instead of to take one. A favourite shot of his – which is seldom seen nowadays – was over cover’s head for four. He was very accurate with this stroke, and rarely failed to connect. He was particularly strong on the leg side, and his forcing shots past mid-on were those of a master. Victor Trumper, Charlie Macartney, and Don Bradman have made that same stroke, and a great run-getter it is. No matter where mid-on was placed, these great batsmen by accurate placing could get past that fieldsman. The first time I saw this shot made was when were playing Oxford University in 1896. It was made by H.K.Foster, one of a cricketing family of Worcester. His brother, R.E.Foster, compiled 287 in a Test in Sydney in 1903 and that stood as the record until Bradman came along. Leveson Gower was captain of Oxford at that time and ‘Plum’ Warner was also in the team. It is a coincidence that 37 years later these two helped to select the English team now in Australia. But to return to the Test match in Sydney, Ranjitsinjhi scored 175. It was a great innings, and reminded me of his performance at Manchester on our previous tour. He never seemed to be in trouble. In response to a total of 531 – the highest score made by England in a Test innings up to this stage – we made 237. Following on, we scored 408, to which Joe Darling contributed 101, leaving the Englishmen 96 to make to win, which they did with the loss of one wicket. Stoddart, the English captain did not play in this or the next game owing to a family bereavement. A new Australian champion was now coming over the horizon – M.A. Noble – and he was destined to have a marked influence on the game. In his first appearance in a Test, he bowled the great Ranjitsinhji. 7 Dream came true: player’s two ‘ducks’; Noble bowls Ranji Test cricketers dream. There was one who, in Sydney in 1901, dreamt that he would make a pair of spectacles. And he did. Clem Hill refers to him in this article as well as telling of an interesting episode at Leyton, in Essex, in which two partially deaf players were concerned. Each thought the other peculiar, because no notice was taken when spoken to. Hill also describes the successful first appearance of Monty Noble in a Test and gives his impressions of the future champion. In that match Noble bowled K.S.Ranjitsinhji with a beautiful ball. The second Test of the 1897-98 tour, which was played at Melbourne, was won by Australia by an innings and 55 runs. To use a racing phrase, it was a reversal of form on our part. One of many features of that match was a score of 112 by Charlie McLeod. I think I am safe in saying that it was one of the worst centuries ever made in a Test match. Stoddart’s Tour of Australia 34