Cricket 1883

f e b . is, 1883. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 9 ^ P 7 I Y I M 0 ] S v 6 0 S g I P * - e - The abstract and brief chronicle of the time.— Hamlet. T he glorious uncertainty of the game! A fruitful subject for many an interest­ ing sermon on cricket! But I fancy that the glory of the uncertainty for English cricketers was never more pronounced than just at the present time. One match with Murdoch’s Eleven, which, owing to an error in the cablegram, we have for so long been hugging to ourselves as a victory, has proved to be a decisive defeat. If the code word should happen to have been equally wrong in the case of the other matches ? It would surely be a delicate attention of the innocent purveyor of the erronious message, to put an end to the public suspense, at a slight expenditure, by procuring an im­ mediate reply from the Colonies, as to the results of the other contests with the Australian Eleven. The dinner at Melbourne in honour of the Australian Eleven, on their return, does not seem to have been altogether a success to judge from the following com­ ments in a Melbourne paper:— The affair was badly managed from the start. It was a blander to place Mr. Runting in the chair, for not only was he almost inaudible, but he made spme most injudicious remarks, and as our English visitors were present they were doubly disagreeable to Australian ears. The wrong men were chosen to propose certain toasts and the twaddle that was sung and recited about the Australian Eleven could have been'dis- ensed with. Altogether the thing was a ungle, and could hardly help to elevate us in the estimation of our English visitors, some of ■whom, doubtless, enjoyed a more sumptuous banquet when the Lord Mayor of Lon­ don entertained the Australian Eleven, and the comparison must have been “ odious ” to them as well as to the Australians. T h e New Zealand correspondent of the Australasian, gives an account of a most remarkable innings which was played at Christchurch on the 11th November. It was in a match between the second eleven of the Midland Canterbury and the St. Alban’s Cricket Clubs, and the ninth wicket of the Midlanders, who were Batting all day, fell with the score standing at 116. H. Row, the last man, then joined E. Whiting, who went in first, and had made 45. Eow went in for slogging straight away at a terrific rate ; the score was increased from 116 for nine wickets, to 308 for nine wickets when time was called, and the game was drawn. Eow made 131 (not out), and Whiting 101 (not out), and the pair between them put out 192 runs. The correspondent adds his opinion that this is the first time on record where the last man of any eleven has carried out his bat for a three-figure score. If I remem­ ber rightly it was done in a match at Toronto last year. M i d w i n t e r , “ the Sandhurst infant,” as the Colonial press delights to designate him, does not seem to be able quite to make up his mind as to his nationality. This is rather a pity. “ He has ceased,” says an Australian journal, “ to be a professional cricketer, and will not again appear in that capacity, having made up his mind to play henceforth as an amateur. Mid., whose club will be South Melbourne, says that he has left England to return no more, that he con­ siders himself an Australian to the heart’s core, and that his motto is and always has been vincit amor patrice. He objects therefore to the term “ Anglo- Australian ” being applied to him, for he felt as much an Australian at heart when playing for Marylebone Club or Gloucestershire county as he does now, or as he did when learning how to play the game at Sandhurst, which he looks upon as being virtually |the land of his birth.” What he means by looking upon Sandhurst as virtually the land of his birth it is not easy to understand. J M id ’ s noble sentiments, however, do not seem to have impressed the strong- hearted Sydney critics. This is the un­ grateful way in which “ Censor ” in the Sydney Mail recites the eccentricities of the whilom Gloucestershire p r o .:— I would ask seriously, are the cricketers of the colony, and especially those of Victoria, to submit to another season of vagaries from this very slippery cricketer? One day he is an Australian, and next day he is an English player. Last season he played with England against Australia, and wanted badly to go to England immediately after as a full-blown Australian cricketer in Murdoch’steam. Failing to induce the Australians to take the giant to their arms, he journeyed back to the old country with Shaw’s team, and played for his county (Gloucestershire) during the whole of the last cricketing campaign. In order to ingratiate himself with the colonial cricketers, who will not forget his base desertion of the first Austra­ lian Eleven at Lord’s, he returned to Australia with Murdoch and his companions, announcing his intention of “ never, never ” returning to the old country. One year he plays with Shaw’s Eleven for England against Australia, and, after spending the intervening time in the old country as a professional cricketer, and emphasising his position as an English player, he appears in the short space of six months as an Australian against England. A n o t h e r paper comments ecstatically on a statement of Midwinter that he refused to play for England against Australia last September from patriotic feelings towards the land of his adoption. As a matter of fact, Midwinter was never in any way thought of for the match in question, much less invited. On September 14, according to the Field, a peculiar match was played just outside Port Said. The game was be­ tween A and B Companies of H.M.S. Agincourt and the rest of the Camp (12 a-side). Both teams scored 58 for a completed innings. The Correspondent of the Field gives the following details of the encounter:— We were stationed a mile outside the town on a broad spit of sand extending from the town to a distance of about five miles, where there is a narrow channel, a hundred yards the other side of which is Fort Gim-el, held by Arabi’s men. Our camp consisted entirely of blue jackets, 280 in all, every soul only too anxious to have a go at Arabi, but unfortunately we were notallowed, so had torelieve the monotony by playing cricket on the sand. The heat was too great to do anything before 4 p.m., so we were only able to have a single innings match. The blue jackets insisted on playing bare-footed, but luckily they sustained no damage, except a few extra mosquito bites. a AUSTRALIA’S VICTORY. All England vanquished ; can it be ? A lurking phantom in our Australian sky, Or an Australian Borealis do we see In such great splendour bright and high ? But another light has dawned upon our shores In brilliancy supreme; with their honoured stores Of princely laurels from their English foes. In friendly battles fought, their duty nobly done, Has brought Australia to the front rank place ! Though hard the tussle they fought andwon, And n ade Old England proud of her own race. Let Britons know that in this the Sunny South, Her glorious sports are brought to skilful use" By acts, and not by Anthony Trollope’s “ blow of mouth.” We act ! we fight! win ! and disregard abuse ! The palm of victory “ Our B oys” have won; The cricket sceptre in triumph now is our own! Fraught with marvellous pluck—pluck we know must run Through true Australians from our British sires. Fairly ! nobly! have their glorious honours come. Australia longs to-day to praise her every noble son Of our cricket heroes. A ll! all! have shown Grand British pluck beneath a British sun. C a p t . H o l d e n has resigned the office of Hon. Sec. of the Notts County Club he has held so long. No one can say that in his hands Nottinghamshire cricket suffered in any way, and none can deny that he had the best interests of the game at heart. Mr, Henry Bromley (son of Sir Henry Bromley) is his successor. C r i c k e t e r s , and theirnumberis legion, who have enjoyed the pleasant company of the Crystal Palace Ciub,as well as the excellent sport provided under their auspices, will be glad to learn that the committee of that flourishing society have at last, by an agreement with the Palace Co., succeeded in getting the management of the ground into their own hands. I shall count on some big scores there during this summer. The Club, I am told, has arranged over fifty matches already for 1883, including a trip to Sussex and a fortnight’s tour in Scot­ land. a From the programme of the complimentary banquet to the Australian Cricketers, Melbourne, November 27th 1882.