Cricket 1882

a u g u s t 10,1882. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 213 - M c P ^ ¥ m i 0 N v 6 0 ^ g I P ^ They are the abstracts and brief chronicles of our time.— Hamlet. F riends , countrymen, and brothers, lend me your ears ! Last week, in tlie hurry of writing, I gave the result of the match between the Australians and Liverpool as a win for the former. As Othello says— “ The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more." So many kind friends have called my atten­ tion to a mistake which was noticed, though too late to he corrected, that I feel hound to make this public admission of my errors. Had I said that the match was a moral victory for the Australians I should have been correct. As it was, when time ceased they had only four runs to get with nine wickets to fall. Let me now set matters right by stating that the match with Glou­ cestershire finished on Saturday was the twenty-third engagement of the Australian team. Of the twenty-three matches six­ teen were won, six drawn, and one lost. A v a l u e d correspondent, for whose accu­ racy I can vouch, has sent the following table, giving the batting averages of the Australian team up to the completion of the first innings against Kent at Canterbury on Monday. Horan, it will be seen, has beaten Murdoch for the first place, and it is note­ worthy that the former is the only batsman who has not got a round 0 during the tour. Murdoch (286, not out, v. Sussex, and 107, not out, v. Orleans Club), and Horan (112, v. United, 141, not out, v. Gloucestershire), have each scored over a hundred twice, and Massie (206, v. Oxford) once. Inns. Not Runs. Highest Aver- out. Score. age. Horan ................ 03 .. 4 .. 823 .. +141 .. 36.5 Murdoch................ 83 .. 4 .. 1155 .. +286 .. 85 Massie ................ 83 .. 3 .. 913 .. 203 .. 27.22 Bunnerman .. .. 82 .. 0 .. 748 .. 88 .. 23.12 Blackham .. .. 18 .. 8 .. 885 .. 62 .. 21.7 Giffen ................29 .. 8 .. 611 .. 8t .. 21.2 McDonnell .. .. 29 .. 3 .. 549 .. 82 .. 18.27 Bonnor ................ 21 .. 8 .. 882 .. 74 .. 18.4 Boyle ................ 14 .. 8 .. 189 .. +39 .. 13.7 Jones ................ 18 .. 0 .. 240 .. 59 .. 18.6 Garrett ................ 26 .. 1 .. 322 .. 59 .. 12.10 Palmer ................ 23 .. 7 .. 263 .. 35 .. 11.10 Spofforth................ 20 .. 6 .. 212 .. 87 .. 10.12 + Not out. I t is now almost a certainty that the Aus­ tralians will meet Shaw’s Eleven which visited the Colonies last winter at the Oval, on September the 21st and two following days. This will, I believe, be their last engagement in England. There is some doubt about the match against the North of England on September 14 coming off -at Manchester as proposed,and, indeed,I should not be surprised to find them in Glasgow on those days, in accordance with their original Programme. T o - day they have to commence their second match against a representative team °f English cricketers at Kenningtan Oval. It is much to be regretted that the Players will not be in their full strength, in conse­ quence of the match between Lancashire and Gloucestershire at Clifton, which will take away Barlow— an immense loss—Mid­ winter, Pilling, and, I should say, Crossland. The eleven will consist of five Yorkshiremen, Lockwood, Emmett, Ulyett, Peate, Bates, five of Notts, Morley, Barnes, Shrewsbury, Flowers, and Sherwin, and one Surrey player, M. Bead. Lockwood was unable to help Yorkshire, at Derby, at the commence­ ment of the week, owing to illness, but I presume he will be all right for to-day. Considering the players available, the eleven is the best that could be chosen, but there are two weak batsmen at the finish, and it will be a surprise if the Australians should be beaten. I t is satisfactory to hear that the Mitcham eleven, after their defeat of Esher in the final tie for the Surrey County Cup at the Oval on Thursday, were treated to quite a triumphant reception on their return home that evening. As a rule there is such an air of composure about matters cricketical in Surrey, that it is only just to chronicle the outburst of wild enthusiasm which pre­ vailed in Mitcham when the victorious villagers arrived, flushed with triumph. The news of the excitement reads strange though side by side with a statement in the Standard of Saturday, that a raid had been made on a corrugated shed placed on a por­ tion of Mitcham Common in anticipation of some building operations. Small wonder if it were the case if Mitcham, with its cham­ pionship honours thick on it, determined thus to avenge this desecration of historic soil. The spirit of Captain Moonlight, I am told, stalks boldly at night at Mitcham, on the alert for any future sacrilege. T h e Australians, as I announced some time ago, will play an Eleven of England at Derby next Monday, instead of Derbyshire as originally arranged Mr. C. I. Thornton, I am told, is to captain the England team, and he will be supported by Messrs. E. F. Tylecote, W. H. Patterson, L. C. Docker, and A. Shaw, Shrewsbury, Scotton, Read, W. Mycroft, Peel, and Parnham. W h at a week of scoring! One little thought last February, when the news arrived of the huge score of 775 made by New South Wales against Victoria, that this season would see it eclipsed. Yet the innings of 920 made by the Orleans Club against Rickling Green on Friday and Saturday, at Bickling Green, far exceeds the best previous total (742 by the Friars against Gentlemen of Notts last year) in England, and any thoroughly authenticated record in the Colonies. A carefully-com­ piled Australian handbook gives details of a score of 1,238 made in a match between the Ulster and Macquarie Clubs in Sydney, which occupied four Saturday afternoons, but this wants the full authentication necessary for general acceptation. Barnes and Shrewsbury at the Oval on Monday made 289 runs while they were together for Notts and Surrey, and this is six runs more than has ever been got for a wicket at the Oval. On the same day at Brighton Over Twenty-five of Sussex scored 460 for eight wickets against Under Twenty-five, and on Tuesday at Cambridge Pembroke Long Vacation, in their second innings, obtained 856 for only three wickets, Mr. W . L. Hitchcock, an old Etonian, being not out 212. The score of 501 made by Notts, I may state, is not the largest made against Surrey. England has twice compelled the Surrey eleven to field for more than this number. A nent the article on umpiring which appeared in C ricket last week, I notice that in the recent match between Lancashire and Gloucestershire at Manchester, Dr. E. M. Grace was caught off the fifth ball of an over. It would seem superfluous to hint that the task of counting four balls with accuracy would not be difficult. And yet how often when a wicket falls even in good matches do you see umpires appealing to the scorers to know the balance to complete the over. In the third number of C r ic k e t I called attention to a Bowling performance of Mr. E . W . Lake, iu sending a bail 93 feet. In the final tie for the Surrey County Cup at the Oval on Thursday last, Jones, the Surrey bowler, bowled Mr. Wigram, of Esher, with a ball which sent the bail a distance of 45 yards 1ft. l l i n . ; some of the daily papers erroneously gave the measurement 45 yards and llin . The ball dropped just under the uncovered stand by the Pavilion. Another good piece of bowling. On August 3, in a twelve a-side match between the Gloucestershire Club ; and the Cam Wanderers, J. F. Brown, the captain of the former, took all eleven wickets— eight bowled, one caught and bowled, and two caught. I t is pleasant to record the fact that the Canterbury Week, now half advanced to­ wards its completion, has already proved a great success in its primary object, the encouragement of cricket—the only feature of the gathering of which this paper takes any notice. As C r ic k e t was the first to give the details of the testimonial subscribed for by the good folk of Kent in recognition of the zealous help given by Lord Harris towards the furtherance of Kentish cricket it gives me the greatest pleasure to record the presentation at Canterbury during the luncheon hour j esterday. A pair of can­ delabra, and a volume containing the names j of the sub-scribers, the gift of 700 sup porters of Kentish cricket, show how thoroughly the energy of the Captain of the County eleven is appreciated by those in whose midst he has worked.