Cricket 1882

RegisteraPfor^Transmission* Abroad, THURSDAY, SEPT. 14, 1882. PRICE H E N R Y FR E D E R IC K BO Y LE . P ew Cricketers, English or Colonial, can boast suoli a busy record as the Victorian captain whose portrait we give this week. Henry Frederick Boyle, though not yet tbirty-five years of age, is the veteran of the Australian team. Not yet of middle age, he can claim to have seen twenty years of active cricket in the colonies. Though all his life very closely identified with Victorian cricket, he is not a Victorian by birth. He was bom at Sydney, in New South Wales, on the 10th of December, 1847, and is consequently a little more than seven months the senior of Mr. W. G. Grace. Like the Gloucestershire captain he was a youthful prodigy in cricket. Mr. Grace was 15 years old when he played for South Wales v. M.C.C. at Lord’s. Singularly, too, Boyle was just the same age when he took part in his first match of importance. When only three years old he had removed from Sydney to Victoria, and it was there in 1862 that he made his debut. He was one of the Twenty-two of Sandhurst and District which opposed the Victorian Inter-colonial Eleven in that year, and for a youngster did a very creditable performance, taking four wickets for nine in the first and four for eleven runs in the second innings. Despite this early promise he does not appear to have represented Victoria in the annual Inter-colonial match until March, 1872. F. Allan, the “ bowler of a century,” Sam Cosstick, the old Surrey player, and T. W. Wills, an old Rugby captain, on that occasion shared the Victorian bowl­ ing, but Boyle came off fairly well with the bat, being the second highest scorer with 27. In the following season he was chosen as one of the Fifteen of Victoria to meet Mr. W. G. Grace’s English team, and he is entitled to the distinction of being the first Australian to bowl the greatest of English batsmen. In 1874 Boyle settled in Melbourne and joined the East Melbourne Club, with which he has played ever since, having acted as its captain for the last seven years. He does not seem to have taken part in either of the Inter-colonial matches in 1876 or 1877, when New South Wales won easily. At that time though he must have been one of the first cricketers in the colonies, and his selection by Conway to form one of the first Australian eleven for England was fully justified by the excellence of his form here. He did not play in the first match of that tour, at Nottingham, but his performance in the second, at Lord’s, will still be remembered by those who witnessed that memorable contest. It is not easy to forget the way in which a strong eleven of Marylebone Club and Ground were got out for totals of 33 and 19. With the exception of nine overs delivered by Allan, Spofforth and Boyle did all the bowling on that occasion, and in the second innings the latter had an extraordinary analysis of 33 balls for three runs and six wickets. Some of his bowling feats during that tour were exceptionally noteworthy. At Elland he took seven wickets for eight runs, and at the end of that tour he was only second in the bowling tables to Spofforth. In England he took 197 wickets for 145 runs, and at the end of the trip his aggregate was 331 wickets at an average cost of just over seven runs. He was entrusted with all the pre­ liminary arrangements for the visit of the second Australian team to England in 1880, and in fact acted as captain during the preliminary tour in the Colonies, though Murdoch was elected to the captaincy at Suez, on the voyage to England. He had in the meanwhile played for the Combined team against Lord Harris’s Eleven at Melbourne, on January 2, 1879, and was captain of the Victorian Eleven in their last match at Melbourne, when a dis­ agreement occurred about the time of drawing stumps on the third day. During the visit of 1880 to England he proved himself to be one of the best all-round players in the team. Spofforth and Palmer were both ahead of him in the bowling tables, but his average was again under seven runs for 411 wickets. His batting during that tour showed a great improvement and more than once his hitting was of great use. Against the Players of the North, at Bradford, his 69 was by far the best cricket on the side, and his average of the whole tour was very respectable, showing over 15 runs per innings. His records with the team now in England are too well known to require comment here. His batting has not been by any means so successful as two years ago, but hi3 bowling has been of the greatest assistance. It would be tedious to recapitulate his many good performances, and prominence need only be given to his most recent feat against Shaw’s Eleven at Leeds, where he took twelve wickets at a cost of fifty-two runs. Though the oldest member of the team, Murdoch has no better all-round cricketer among the thirteen players now under him. Boyle bowls medium pace round with a break from leg. His accuracy is unerring, and though he looks easy to hit sometimes his length is very deceptive. He bowls with judgment as well as confidence, and, unlike many, does not mind being hit. In fielding his own bowling, too, he has no superior. Fielding, indeed, is one of his very best points, as anyone who has witnessed the pluck with which he stands close in on the on side even to the hardest hitters will admit. Boyle may fairly be considered the creator of the position he occupies in the field with the Australian team— “ T o g e t h e r j o i n e d i n C r i c k e t ’s m a n l y t o i l . ”— Byron.