Cricket 1883

Kfgi6tored°'o?'ZranXa8^oa Abroad. THURSDAY, MAY 1 0 , 1 8 8 3 . PRICE 2d. A L L A N G IBSON S T E E L . F ew cricketers have achieved such a world­ wide reputation at so early an age as the amateur of whose brilliant all-round record in connection with the recent tour of the Hon. Ivo Bligh’s team in Aus­ tralia Englishmen have such good reason to be proud. Allan Gibson Steel was born at Liverpool on Sept. 24, 1858, so that he has not yet com­ pleted his twenty-fifth year. His elder brother, D. G. Steel, had already made a name for himself at Upping­ ham as one of the best Public School players of his day, before the subject of this present sketch had as yet come to the front. It has been stated, whether rightly or not we are unable to say, that it was only an accident that deprived Uppingham of the credit of one of the very best all-round players cricket has produced of late years. It is said that it was intended for him to join his brother at Upping­ ham, but being unable to get in there as desired, he went to Marlborough instead. His ability as a cricketer was not long in dis­ playing itself ; indeed, when he re­ presented Marlborough against Rugby at Lord’s for the first time on July 28, 1874, he was only in his sixteenth year. His debut in the Marlborough eleven was in the year when Mr. G. Vernon was the Bugby captain, and it is hardly too much to say that never—“ well, hardly ever” —has such Promising batting been shown at Lord’s by a cricketer of his age and SIze. In the first innings he went in with the score at 46 for three wickets, and carried out his bat, having Contributed 41 out of 87 while he was jn. On this occasion he only de­ livered five overs, but in the next year he was the most successful of ‘be Marlborough bowlers in the match with Bugby, taking four wickets for 52 runs, 'hough then not yet seventeen, he was in addition already a batsman of unusual promise, and twice in li-75 he was credited with an lnnings of three figures, obtaining 150 for Marlborough College against Mr. Batson’s eleven, and 112 in a match for Lockerbie in Scotland. In 1876, before he was eighteen, he was captain of the Marlborough eleven, and it was mainly due to his brilliant all-round play that the Marlburians were able to claim the victory. His record on that occasion is indeed especially noteworthy, as he scored 84 out of 136 from the bat and 28, besides taking ten wickets at a cost of only sixty-eight runs. His hitting against the Bugby bowling in 1877 was perhaps the best ever shown in the match, and again it was solely due to his efforts that the Marlburians were victorious. In the second innings he scored no less thau 128 out of 182 runs while he was in, and his bowling was even more successful than in the previous year, as he was credited with twelve wickets for 59 runs, catch­ ing besides another batsman. In minor matches during 1877 he scored 106, 104, and 95, and these brought to a close his stay at Marlborough, a Public School career which for success we should be inclined to think is with­ out a parallel. The winter of 1877 saw him in residence at Cambridge, and his first year in the University eleven also found him,then only nine­ teen, representing the Gentlemen against the Players,both at Lord’s and at the Oval. In batting he was very successful in first class matches, with an average of twenty-two and a half for twenty-seven innings. On the wet wic­ kets of 1878,too,his bowling was quite exceptional, and he had the best analysis of the year, delivering 4,493 balls for 1,542 runs and 164 runs1or an average of only a little over nine runs per wicket. In the same year in the match for Coward’s benefit, between Lancashire andNotts, he did a splendid performance, taking thirteen wickets for seventy-tworuns, besides catching another batsman and scoring seventy-eight out of his onlyin- inngs. In 1879 he helped the Gentle­ men against thePlayersboth at Lord’s and the Oval, and on the Surrey ground he took seven out of ten wickets in the first innings of the Players, besides scoring forty-six not out. His appearances for Lancashire were only few in 1879 as well as in 1880, but in the latter year his record at Cambridge was a wonderful one, both in batting and bowling. Against Surrey at the Oval he scored 118 out of 150 while he was in, and the end of the season found him at the head of the batting ,as well as the bowling tables, having an average of 34 runs for each innings, and just over 12 runs for each