Cricket 1884

OCT. 30,1884. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 461 the twelve other English professors who are to star with him in Aus tralia this winter, must have, all being well, by this time reached the Colonies. At least “ Censor,” the able cricket gossip of that paper, an­ nounces that they will open their campaign at Adelaide to-morrow. He adds that theywill, after opposing the strength of Victoria at Melbourne on November 14 and following days, pro­ ceed to Sydney, where they will meet New South Wales a week later. In addition to two matches against the combined strength of Australia to be played at Melbourne and Sydney re­ spectively, the Englishmen will, if possible, arrange two fixtures against Murdoch’s Team, It is said that all the representative matches of the tour will be played out. T h e correspondent of the Sportiny Lije with Shaw’s Australian team has supplied some interesting details re­ specting the early days of their out­ ward voyage, and accordingtoaccounts all the members of the team seem to have been enjoying themselves thoroughly. A match was played at Suez on October 2nd against a Twenty - two mainly composed of Officers of the two Services, and the professor? were evidently most hosp­ itably entertained there. Read and Shaw had left the “ Orient ” at Port Said for a tour down the Suez Canal to Aix Zig-zag, Tel-el-Kebir, and Cairo, and thence on to Suez, so that they were not able to play. The score of the match, which was played on cocoa-nut matting tightly stretched on the sand, will be found in another part of the paper. T he exact amount which passed into the hands of the adminstration of the Cricketers’ Fund, after all ex­ penses in connection with the match played at Lord’s between Smokers and Non-Smokers, was £561 lGs. Gd. The figures will be of interest to the far - seeing critics who were rash enough to predict that the fixture was an injudicious one, and that the match would not be in any way a success. I h a v e as yet seen no mention of the election of officers of the Oxford University Cricket Club, which took place on Tuesday week. Mr. H. V. Page, of Wadham, was chosen as captain of the Eleven in succession to Mr. M. C. Kemp, of Hertford, who liaa taken his degree. Mr. T. Case, Fellow and Tutorof Corpus Christi College, was re-elected treasurer. Of the last year’s team all are in residence ex­ cept Messrs. M. C. Kemp, T. R. Hine - Haycock, and T. C. O’Brien. The last-named, it is said, will be up for the summer term, so that nine of the successful eleven of 1883 wi'l be again valuable. T h e annual meeting of County Secretaries will, as usual, be held at Lord’s on the Tuesday of the Cattle Show Week, December 10th. It is rumoured that the Lancashire execu­ tive proposes to arrange a fixture between Gentlemen and Players at Manchester next season for the benefit of that most deserving profes­ sional, A. Watson, D e r b y s h ir e has been fortunate of late in securing more than one young player who is likely to be of great use to the eleven. There is just the off-chance, too, that they maybe able in 1887 to boast the addition of two tried cricketers who would very materially strengthen their team. I allude to Murdoch and Spofforth, who, I hear on the best authority, are affianced to two of Derbyshire’s fair daughters resident within two miles of the county town. It is to be liopel for the sake of Derbyshire cricket that the expectations raised in the minds of some of those most interested in its welfare may be fully realised. I t will be of interest to secretaries of cricket clubs to know that the dates for some of the chief fixtures for next year have been provisionally settled. The Oxford and Cambridge match will be played at Lord’s on June 29 and two following days, Gentlemen and Players on July G, 7, and 8, and Eton and Harrow on July 10 and 11. The annual match between Gentle­ men and Players at the Oval is down for July 2, 3, and 4. The Canterbury Week will presumably commence on the August Bank Holiday, Monday, August 3. T he news of the destruction of the grand stand on the Melbourne ground by fire will be received with regret by all classes of cricketers, but more especially by those who have seen the game played on the Lord’s of Aus­ tralia. The stand, which was de­ stroyed on the night of August 81, was, though not so sightly or so capa­ cious as that on the Association ground at Sydney, a building of considerable dimensions. It was built in 1877, on debentures, taken up principally by members if the club. It occupied an area of 240ft. by 80ft,, and was intended to seat 2,000 per­ sons, though as many as 3,000 have been accommodated when inter­ colonial and international cricket matches were played on the M.C.C. ground. A novelty about it was that it could be reversed for use in the football season, when matches were played on the ground adjoining. It was a two-storey building, the ground floor being occupied by ladies’ rooms, a skittle-alley, a large luncheon room, and two refreshment bars. The sit­ ting accommodation was above this, and was reached from the lawn in front by three broad stairways. As an idea of its holding capacities I may add that the extra shilling charged for admission into this stand during the matches played by the Hon. Ivo Bligh’s team realised a sum of £1,052, T he Melbourne Club will be a con­ siderable loser by its destruction, for only £3,000 of the £5,980 which it had altogether cost was insured. At a meeting of the Committee held on the following Tuesday it was decided to recommend to the members that a new stand should be erected, but not on the old lines. Plans were also to be prepared for a temporary structure capable of seating from 1,800 to 2,000 persons to be completed by the end of this month, and sketches of a new stand and ladies’ pavilion were also to be submitted to the annual meeting of subscribers. T h e death-roll of cricketers this year, it is sad to reflect, will be a un­ usually lengthy one. Since the last number of C r ic k e t appeared twoother once prominent exponents of the game have, I hear, been gathered to their fathers. Mr. Edward Boyd Fawcett, who died on Sept. 25, was within a few days of the completion of his forty-fifth year. Educated at Brighton and Cambridge,he played for his University in 1859 and two follow­ ing years, and subsequently identified himself with Sussex cricket. When only eighteen years of age in the Brighton College Athletic Sports he threw the cricket-ball 126J yards, and this, disallowing a reportedthrow Next issue o f Cricket Nov. 27-