Cricket 1882

TH OM A S H ORAN . A ustralian Cricket has good reason to be proud of the production of two such accomplished bats­ men as Murdoch and the subject of our present sketch. We have named them together for the reason that they can claim to he the foremost players of their respective colonies, New South Wales aud Victoria. As Murdoch is essentially the champion bat of the former, so Horan can claim to have heen, for the last few years, tho most successful scorer among Victorian cricketers. Each, too, is a native of the colony he so worthily represents. Horan Was born in Victoria in March, 1855, and his career has been inseparably asso­ ciated with Victorian cricket. It is something of a coincidence that two Buch prominent players as Blackham and Horan should have been educated at the same school. As cricketers, too, they began their career together, and the first club with which they were associated was the Carlton Club of Mel­ bourne, which they joined during the season of 1878-79. For three years Horan played chiefly for the South Melbourne and Carlton Clubs, but it was not until he became identified with the East Melbourne Club, in 1873- -1, that he began to show signs of the batting skill which has made him so famous. He was fortunate in finding such keen cricketers as W . W. Guggin and Dan Wilkie to coach him, and he has to thank these two old Jolimonters for many a useful lesson during the sum­ mer’s evenings on the East Melbourne ground. Under their tuition he soon began to show possession of batting powers above the average, and in December, 1874, ho made his first ap­ pearance for Victoria, in the Inter­ colonial match with New South Wales, the same contest in which Blackham also made his debut. In his earlier matches for his colony he was not par­ ticularly successful, but during the last Jew years he has been one of the largest and most consistent scorers in the Colonies. He took part m the first match against Lillywhite’s team, at Melbourne, ou Boxing-day, 1876, and was the highest scorer for the Victorian Fifteen, with 34 and 47. In the Inter-University match in De­ cember, 1879, at Melbourne, Horan (109), andDonald Campbell, who will be remembered by English |cricketers as olie of the Oxford Eleven Of 1876, I (117), scored 226 out of a first total of 376, a ] game remarkable for the fact that Sydney, though they followed on in a minority of 137, eventually won by ten runs. About this time he was in rare form for run - getting, and it was in December, 1879, that he made the highest score as yet attached to his name—250, not out. This was for the East Melbourne Club at Mel­ bourne against Tasmania, and on that occasion he was nearly nine hours at the wickets without giving a chance. He was one of the first Aus­ tralian Eleven that visited England, under D. Gregory’s command, in 1878; but ho was not in the best of health during that trip, and he did not come up to the expectations that had been formed on his home reputation. Ilis best-innings in an eleven a-side match during that tour was his 69 against the Orleans Club, but his average was by no means up to his undoubted merit, and his aggregate for 28 completed innings was only 375 runs. Engagements prevented his joining the second team which cam© to England in 1880, but he has shown by his subse­ quent performances that he has no supe­ rior in Australia on his home form as a batsmSn. Last season he was in better form than ever. In the first Inter­ colonial match at Melbourne, he made 95, and in the memorable return at Sydney, when New South Wales was credited •with the huge score of 775, though he failed to get a run in the first innings, his second contribution amounted to 102. It was his bowling, too, that got rid of Murdoch when ho seemed sure of topping Mr’. Grace’s 314, the best record in a first-class match, though this may fairly, be accounted as something of a fluke. Shaw’s team, during their visit to Australia last winter, found him one of their most troublesome opponents, and perhaps the very best innings he has ever played was his 124 against Shaw on the Mel­ bourne ground, when he was run out, after having given nothing like the ghost of a chance. Some years ago he used to start with Boyle the bowling for his club, and with a fair amount of success. During the Australian visit of 1880 he was more than once very useful as a .change, but lately he has not bowled much, owing to an accident he met with in a gymnasium. His per­ formances during -the present trip will be well known. Why he did not play against the Gentlemen of England is a mystery, for in the next match he proved how superior hf was to the majority of the team, and his 112 at Chichester has been one of the best played innings of the tom’. As a bats­ man he is not particularly attractive, but he plays with great care and he can hit well at times, though his defence is his strong point. He is a sure field, and as a bowler can always be relied on, being very straight, at times difficult, when the ground helps him. Horan is a journalist -by profession, and his weekly Jottings on Cricket to the ic ti'&lttsio.n newspaper over the signature of F e l i x are much appreciated in the Colonies, “ Toge ther joined in Cricket ’s man l y toil .”— Byron. THUKSDAY. JULY 27, 1882. p r i c e 2d.