Cricket 1882

16 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. MAY 17, iS82. ;he Hambledonians; what they did, they did for the love of honour aud victory, and when one (who shall be nameless) sold the birthright of his good name fora mess of pottage, he paid dearly for his bargain. It cost him the trouble of being a knave (no trifle ! ) the esteem of his old friends, and what was worst of nil the respect of him who could have been his best friend—himself. Upon coming to the old batters of our club the name of John Small the elder shines among them in all the lustre of a star of the first magni­ tude. His merits have already been recorded in a separate publication, which every zealous brother of the pastime has probably read. I need, there­ fore, only subscribe my testimony to his uncommon talent, shortly summing up his chief excellencies. He was the best short runner of his day, and I believe him to have been the first who turned the (short hits to account. His decision was as prompt as his eye was accurate in calculating a short run. Add to the value of his accomplishment as a batter, he was an admirable fieldsman, always playing middle wicket ; and so correct was his judgment of the game that old Nyren would appeal to him when a point of law was being debated. Small was a remarkably well made and well-knit man, of honest expression and as active as a hare. He was a good fiddler, and taught himself the double bass. The Duke of Dorset luiving been in­ formed of his musical talent, sent him as a present a handsome violin and paid the carriage. Small, like a true and simple-hearted Englishman, returned the compliment by sending his grace two bats and halls, also paying the carriage. We may be sure that on both hands the presents were choice of their kind. Upon one occasion he turned his Orphean accomplishment to good account. Having to cross two or three fields on his way to a musical party, a vicious bull made at him, when our hero, with the characteristic coolness and presence of mind of a good cricketer, began playing upon his bass, to the admiration and perfect satisfaction of the inis- chevious beast. About this time I became a sort of farmer’s pony to my native club of Hambledon, and I never had cause to repent the work I was put to ; I gained by it that various knowledge of the game, which I leave in the hands of those who knew me in my high and palmy state, to speak to and appreciate. This trifling prelimimry being settled, the name and figure of Tom Sueter first comes across me, a Hambledon man and of the club. What a handful of steel-hearted soldiers are in an important pass, such was Tom in keeping the wicket. Nothing went by him, and for coolness and nerve in this trying and responsible post I never saw his equal. As a proof of this quickness and skill I have numberless times seen him stump a man out with Brett’s tremendous bowling. Add to this valuable accom­ plishment, he was one of the manliest and most graceful of hitters. Few would cut a ball harder at the point of the bat, and he was moreover an excel­ lent short runner. He had an eye like an eagle, rapid and comprehensive. He was the first who departed from the custom of the old players before him, who deemed it a heresy to leave the crease for the ball; he would get in at it and cut it straight off and straight on, and egad ! it went off as if it had been fired. As by the rules of our club, at the trial matches no one was allowed to get more than thirty runs, he generally gained his number earlier than any of them. I have seldom seen a hand­ somer man than Tom Sueter, who measured about five feet ten. As if, too, Dame Nature wished to show at his birth a specimen of her prodigality, she gave him so amiable a disposition Ihit he was the pet of all the neighbourhood ; so I k no irable a heart that his word wTas never questioned by the gentlemen who associated with him ; and a voice which for sweetness, power, and purity of tone (a tenor) would, with proper cultivation, have made him a fortune. With what rapture have I hung upon his notes when he has given us a hunting song in the club-room after the day’s practice was I over. [T o be continued,) MR. W . L. MURDOCH , TH E A U S T R A L IA N C A P TA IN . (From tlie Melbourne Leader.) In virtue of his recent brilliant exploits in the intercolonial cricket arena, Mr. W. L. Murdoch is undoubtedly the popular man of the hour. His per­ formances are such as to attract universal admira­ tion, and but few cricketers, or indeed exponents of any other athletic pastime, ever live to attain such a degree of prominence as that enjoyed by the illus­ trious New South Welshman, whose name—-to use a hackneyed expression—has become familiar as household words with the English speaking popula­ tion of the two hemispheres. His memorable be­ haviour in the great international cricketing tourna­ ment at Kennington Oval in September, 1880, was sufficiently meritorious, but it will readily be ad­ mitted that the lustre of his achievements upon that auspicious occasion pales before the sparkling brilliancy of his later efforts with the willow on the New South Wales convincing grouud in Moore Park. A few remarks on the career of such an eminent cricketer will prove interesting. A Victor­ ian by birth, born at Sandhurst in 1855, William Lloyd Murdoch migrated with his parents to Sydney when onlv three years old, and there it was that the subject of our sketch became initiated in the rudi­ ments of the game in which he was destined to be­ come such an accomplished exponent. ^Graduating with honours in the ranks of a junior club, he eventually joined the Alberts, his promotion to the first eleven being more attributable to his efficiency as a wicket-keeper than to any special qualifications as a batsman. His hidden talent with the bat had not then even been suspected, and was consequently in a backward state of development. On the con­ trary, it was his smartness behind the sticks which first recommended him to a place in a representative eleven of his adopted colony, and in December, 1875, Mr. Murdoch made his debut as an inter­ colonial player oil the Melbourne Club ground, upon the occasion of the nineteenth match between Victoria and New South Wales, which will long re­ main memorable for the sad havoc created among the Victorian wickets by the famous bowler Evans, who was chiefly instrumental in infiipting the scathing one innings defeat suffered by the repre­ sentatives of the younger colony. Although Mur­ doch failed to make a double figure in either of his first two intercolonial matches, he made his mark as a wicket-keeper ; and as there was little or nothing to choose between him and Blackham at the time of the formation of the pioneer Australian eleven in 1877, he was regarded as a most eligible candidate for a place in the first representative team which left these shores for England and America. Although there were for a time conten­ tions as to whether Murdoch or Blackham was the better “ guardian of the sticks,’’ the latter gradually asserted his superiority, whereupon Murdoch, Othello like, found his occupation gone. When the New South Welshman decided finally to relinquish the gloves in favour of Blackham, he did so with a determination to devote his entire energies to the improvement of his batting, which up to this period of his career was not of a very high standard of ex­ cellence. His progress as a batsman soon became manifest. During the preliminary tour of the Aus­ tralian eleven in the colonies bis average was but 12 runs for 30 innings, while in England he increased it to 13 runs for 02 innings. In America he still further improved his record to 21 runs per innings, and on his return to the colonies he attained the height of his ambition by getting to the top of the list with the splendid average of 29.10 runs for 12 innings, obtained in matches against odds repre­ senting the remaining cricketing creme of the several colonies, and against Lord Harris’s eleven. On his return Mr. Murdoch forced the admission of his superiority as a batsman. His masterly contribu­ tion of 153 against fifteen of Victoria was pronounced on all hands to be the most perfect exhibition of cricket ever witnessed on a Victorian cricket field, 1and the performance has never since been emulated n point of merit on the southern side of the Murray. Horan, Massie.M’Donnell, Gregory, and the brothers Bannerman have at various times been credited with highly meritorious performances in important con­ tests, but each of their individual efforts have in turn lacked that brilliancy of execution, that elegance of style, that accurate timing, that impreg­ nable defence, and, beyond all, the superb cutting which characterised Murdoch’s magnificent innings on the East Melbourne ground. It was a batting triumph in every sense of the word, and with the decline of the elder Bannerman Mr. Murdoch became worthily recognised as Australia’s premier bats­ man—the W. G. Grace of the southern hemisphere. This title he has heroically maintained to the present day. Mr. Murdoch’s popularity led to his selection as captain of the second Australian eleven, a post for which he was admirably qualified, and the duties of which he fulfilled with credit to him­ self, his team, and the colonies at large. His second pilgrimage on the green swards of England afforded additional proof of his prowess with the bat, though in a measure his previous performances were obscured by his famous unfinished innings of 153, at Kennington Oval, in the great match Eng­ land v. Australia. For two consecutive days he withstood the attacks of Shaw, Morley, A. G. Steele, W. G. Grace, and Barnes, which represented the combined strength of English bowling, amateur aud professional; and in the end the redoubtable Aus­ tralian retired, the hero of one of the greatest matches ever decided within the environs of the United Kingdom. So enraptured were the Aus­ tralian residents in Loudon with the praiseworthy doings of the young New South Welshman, under exceptionally trying circumstances, and when no­ thing but inevitable defeat stared him and his con­ freres straight in the face, that they instituted a tes­ timonial which resulted in the Australian captain being presented with a massive silver loving cup, weighing 65oz.: suitably inscribed. From the same source was raised a 50-guinea cup for presentation to the highest individual scorer in the intercolonial matches of the present season, and by means of his mammoth score of 321 in the match just terminated Mr. Murdoch has also become the recipient of that coveted trophy—a strange but particularly happy coincidence, deserving to a degree. His last per­ formance takes precedence as the highest individual score ever made in the Australian colonies, and taking into consideration the unquestionable quality of the opposing bowling, as well as the efficiency of the fielding, the innings is entitled to take foremost rank in the cricketing records, English and Aus­ tralian, of the past. It was in every respect a most accomplished display, entailing not only the neces­ sary skill, nerve, and patience, but an amount of physical power and endurance not possessed by every cricketer. Take him all for all, Mr. Murdoch may be held up as the most scientific batsman of modern times, and electrifying as is his most recent performance, his presence in the third Australian team now in course of formation is calculated to en­ hance our chances of success when we throw down the gauntlet to John Bull at Kennington Oval in July. Popular among cricketers, and respected by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance, Mr. Murdoch is of an unassuming and retiring disposi­ tion, and eminently qualified to pose as the cham­ pion cricketer of the period. Latterly Mr. Murdoch has taken up his abode in the flourishing township of Cootamundra, the so-called “ City of the Plains, where he follows his profession as attorney to the Supreme Court of New South Wales. At Shrewsbury there ai'e six members of our las year’s team left—F. C. Homfray (Captain), C. H Marriott, W. Chariton, F. W. Burbury, W. V Thomas, H. J. Grosvenor. Among the new candi dates, G. Kemp promises to be a good bat, and II T. Wilson has every sign of developing into a good bowler. The Salopians have just gone into new schools and to a new cricket ground, and there is every hope the cricket will show amaterial improve­ ment.