Clem Hill's Reminiscences

slip fieldsman replied that as a young man he employed two young stones into a hedge and he caught the sparrows as they flew out. This was the first Test match of Victor Trumper, and he had the same experience as I had in my first Test innings – a duck. The first time I met Trumper was in a match between New South Wales and South Australia in 1895. That, by the way, was also my initial match against New South Wales. Victor was not a success, and was not persevered with. Three years later, however, he was playing for his state again. He was not selected to go away in 1899, but he was showing such fine form that the team later decided to ask him to make the trip. The arrangement was that he should be on half-shares in the proceeds. He was such a great success, however, that he was given a full share. Bowlers are born, not made. Wilfred Rhodes, of Yorkshire, who now appeared against us, was a great bowler who made himself a great batsman from a poor one by practice and study of the methods of others. From being last to go in he worked his way up until he was opening batsman. It was he who with Hobbs in Melbourne in 1912 made the record opening partnership of 323. Some bowlers never improve as batsmen. Ironmonger has not. J.V.Saunders never did. Rhodes did with a vengeance. A slow to medium pace bowler with the left-hander’s natural turn from the leg he was the most dangerous on a wicket damaged by rain. He owed his success also to accuracy of length, deceptive flight, and skilful variation of pace. 11 Teamwork in Tests: knocking off a difficult bowler; player who overslept A bowler will be worrying a batsman, but his partner at the other end will be playing him confidently. Victor Trumper and Clem Hill had their own way of removing an annoying trundler. The one who had little trouble with him would punish him so severely that he would be taken off. Hill tells, in this article, how effectively Trumper drove a bowler off at Lord’s. He also relates the story of a player who came down to breakfast at 11.15 am on the morning of a Test, and to his horror found that he was more than two hours late. Rushing off to the ground, he arrived just in time to find that he had been left out. It is the ambition of every Australian batsmen to make a century in a Test at Lord’s. Trumper and I did this in 1899 for the first time. Both us made 135. He was not out. What a great deal Australian batsmen owed to Trumper! Mead, one of the English bowlers, was worrying me, although I was feeling quite at home. He was using the slope from the pavilion end. He was spinning the ball from my legs, and it was taking all my time to keep my wicket intact. I casually mentioned this to Vic, and he replied, ‘You stop at the other end, I’ll have a go and try to knock him off.’ He went for Mead in such a business-like fashion that MacLaren, the English captain, could not get his bowler off quickly enough. That’s what I regard as His Second English Tour 48