Cricket 1882

r f A r w , 1882. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 21; HORAN. “ I will be correspondent to command, and do my spiriting gently .” — The Tempest. SPOFFORTH. “ I have touched the highest point of all my greatness .” — Richard III. BLACKHAM. “ A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.” — The Winter’s Tale. JONES. “ A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy .”—King Henry IV. U n til Lord Mayor Truscott in 1880 set a worthy example in inviting the Australian players to the Mansion House, cricket had as a sport not received any official recogni­ tion from the chief magistracy of the City of London. It will be strange though if the game does not meet with a little more direct encouragement presently. There is more than one alderman among the candi­ dates for the civic chair whom cricketers may fairly claim as one of themselves. It was Alderman Hadley who founded the Melbourne Club, in conjunction witli Mr. J. C. M'Artliur, and I am told that an in­ scription testifying to this fact is to be seen on the ground of that Society in what poor old James Southerton was wont to describe as the perfection of a pavilion. Alderman Hanson is also a keen supporter of the game, and it is only a fortnight ago that he joined the Committee of the Surrey County Club, with which he has been associated for years. Murdoch may yet live to see cricket practised on a wicket of his favourite fibre matting in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House. T h o s e who remember— and there are many who will never forget it—the gallant fight made by the last Australian’s wickets at the historical encounter at the Oval in 1880, may possibly be glad to learn that W . H. Moule, who helped to entirely change the aspect of the memorable game on September 8 of that year, has not altogether lost his form. It was Moule who came in as the last batsman to join Murdoch when thirty-two runs were still wanting to avert defeat in one innings. It was Moule who stuck _at the wicket with the Australian captain while eighty-eight runs were added to the score, and it was his pluck at a most critical point of the game that very nearly turned the scale against the English Eleven. The last Colonial advices report an excel­ lent innings o f fifty-one to his name for the Melbourne Club against South Melbourne in one of the final matches for the Cleeland Challenge Cup in the Victorian capital/ There are many over here who will be pleased to hear cheery news of one of the most popular members of the Australian team of 1880. T h e k e seems good reason for the belief that the unwearying efforts of the Surrey Committee have this year been in some measure rewarded in the discovery of one or more Colts likely to be of permanent use to the County. Since last week, Haden, of Dulwich, has confirmed the expectations formed from the style he showed on the first day’s practice at the Oval by two very creditable innings. On Thursday he carried out his bat for 114 against a team of Beigate at the Oval, and on Saturday against some very fair local bowling of Mitcham and District, he was credited with forty-one on Mitcham Green. With a view to get a better test of the young players’ capabilities, the Committee have arranged to oppose to them on Friday a strong eleven, including Messrs. Shuter, Bead, Boiler, and if possible Mr. Lucas, with M. Bead, Barratt, and Jones. Most of the Surrey players are working to get into practice for the match with the Australians next week, and I shall expect to see at least two young players in the team. In all probability, the eleven will be as under :— Messrs. J. Shuter (captain), Lucas, Bead, Boiler, Parfitt, and Barratt, Jones, M.Bead, Abel, Jackson, Haden, and Pooley. Mr. Lucas is a certainty for this match at least. An unusual incident occurred recently in a match in Australia, between the Melbourne and South Melbourne Clubs. A batsman named Trott,' hit the ball twice, attempted to run,and was very properly given out by the umpire as the law directs. In the score lie is recorded as “ hitting the ball twice,” and the Australasian, in commenting on the fact can only trace one similar case in the Colonies. This was in 1878, iu a match be- weenGregory’sAustralian Eleven &Fifteen of Melbourne, when C. G. Allee was given out on this ground by Allan, facetiously termed by the Australians, “ the bounding Kangaroo.” In our records there are few, very few, precedents certainly of late years. Still there are some, and I can remember well the dissatisfaction created on the Brighton ground in the match between Surrey and Sussex, in 1872, when Julius Cassar gave Charlwood out on an appeal of this kind. W hat possible chance the Marylebone Eleven sent down to Cambridge on Thurs­ day could have expected to possess against the University it would have been very difficult to tell. Public opinion has cer­ tainly not been impressed with any great belief in the strength of the Cantabs this season, but to entrust the reputation of the first club iu the world to an eleven which contained as many as six players of inferior pretensions, and only three batsmen who would have been backed to get ten runs, was simply to court defeat. Midwinter, too, the most dangerous batsman on the side, had suffered so much from the effects of his long voyage home as to be almost useless, and in fact George Hearne and Flowers were the only likely run-getters, Under the circumstances it was hardly a surprise that M.C.C. should have only scored 80 and 46, or that Cambridge should have won bv 189 runs. The chief feature of promise id the play of the University eleven was thq bowling (slow round) of B. C. Bamsay, one of the Harrow eleven of 1880. In all he was credited with thirteen wickets for 54 runs^ but it would be absurd to estimate this per-i formance at a very high rate, considering the less than mediocrity of the majority of the opposite batsmen. T h e report of a rather remarkable bowling; feat comes to us from the other side of thq border. On Saturday, May 6, in a match) between the Carlton and Loretto Clubs, at Edinburgh, H. McNeill, for the former, took six wickets for no runs. The best feat , ol this kind in a contest of any importance was in 1875, iu the match between Gentle­ men and Players, at the Oval, when Mr. George Straclian, then captain of the Sur­ rey eleven, got the five last wickets of the Professionals, those of Emmett, Pooleyj Martin, McIntyre, Shaw, and Hill, in the first innings without a run. T h e absence of a professional cricketer from one match would hardly be regarded as so exceptional an event as to require special notice. But the non-appearance ol James Lillywhite in the Sussex eleven at' Lord’s, on Thursday, was a fact really; deserving of perpetuation. It was the first match that he had missed for his county! since he joined the team in 18621 Twenty years of county cricket without a break.: As Dominie Sampson would have said, Prodigious ! ! ! I t is very satisfactory to find that the differences between Shaw and Shrewsbury and the. Notts Committee have, as I ven­ tured to foreshadow last week, been finally healed. A letter received from a promi­ nent member of the County executive con­ tains the following extract:— “ Since their return from Australia, Alfred Shaw and Shrewsbury have each sent a letter of apology, to the Committee expressing their regret for their conduct last year, and their willingness to serve the County when required in future in accordance with the rules of the Club. The Committee met on Saturday last,and decided to accept these apologies. Shaw and Shrewsbury’s names will therefore appeal in the list for the Notts v. Yorkshire match to be beguu on the Trent Bridge ground to-morrow.” I n its life “ Old Bel l ” of the sleepless eye has played many parts. Only a few weeks ago it passed into the hands of the proprietors of the Manchester Sporting Chronicle. Since then there has been another change, and the new owner, it is said, is Mr. C. H. Ashley, the proprietor of tho Sportsman and other papers. A n o t h e r testimonial for Shaw’s Austra­ lian Eleven and a well deserved one. This