Cricket 1884

m a t 1,1884. CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 89 I fan cy the members of the Fourth Australian Team will be surprised to hear the latest explanation of their dexterity in the field. It will, per­ haps, be hardly gratifying to them to learn from the Home News the following home truths. “ In fielding the Australians have been the admiration of every English field on which they have played; This is due, no doubt, to the constant practice al­ ready adverted to, but their marvell­ ous skill in catching came, it is said, from the size of their hands, and, still more, the strength of their eyes.” I can only say that if I had not seen this positively in print I should never have believed it. As it is, I do not know how Murdoch and his comrades will receive the ingenious theory that the secret of their general accur­ acy of catching lies in the extreme dimensions of their hands. “ Ma conscience ! ” A good deal of correspondence has taken place in some of the Colonial papers, on the policy of the managers of the Australian team not taking a fourteenth player. I have reason to believe that could either Evans or Garrett have been persuaded to come, the party would have numbered four­ teen, all told. As it was, I think I am correct ia stating that W. Bruce, the young player who recently earned the distinction of making the highest individual score in Australia, was un­ officially asked to join the team. His relatives, though, it is said were opposed to his going at the present time, and as it was considered that there was no player available who combined the capabilities required by the Australians, it was decided to limit the number of the party to thir­ teen. T he test practice of the Surrey Colts has been going on briskly at the Oval during the last week, and several well-known members of the County eleven, including Messrs. J. Shuter, W. W. Read, W. E. Roller, and E. J. Diver, have been assisting Mr. Frederick Burbidge in his work the discovery and development of young talent. More than one of the candidates has shown fairly good form, and it may safely be said that each year sees a visible improvement in the quality of the Surrey Colts. A match, in which some of the best per­ formers with a few of the chief members of the County eleven are to play, takes place at the Oval to­ morrow, and as Messrs. J. Shuter, W. W. Read, E. J. Diver, W. E. Roller, M. Read, Jones, Abel, and Barratt, will all assist, there should be some good cricket. T he Surrey County season will open, at the Oval, on Monday week, when the eleven will meet Norfolk. Mr. K. J. Key, who is up at Oxford, will not be available, I understand, until the 19th of June, but the other members of the team of last year will be to the fore, and, I believe, the eleven for the first match will con­ sist of Messrs. J. Shuter, W. W. Read, W. E. Roller, E. J. Diver, M. P. Bowden, M. Read, Abel, Jones, Bar­ ratt, Henderson, and Wood. The last-named, who played for Kent a year or two ago, has been located at Streatham for the last three years, and will, in all probability, take wicket for Surrey throughout the season. Henderson is now on his way home from America, having taken a trip to New York with the object of invigorating himself for the hard work of the cricket season. He went out in the “ Oregon,” which, on its last journey, gained the dis­ tinction of the fastest voyage on record. T he proposedmatch.between theAus- tralians and a picked eleven at South­ ampton on Thursday next has fallen through, and it is now certain that their first appearance in public will be at Sheffield Park on Monday week. Alexander and Boyle took part in one of Lord Sheffield’s trial matches there last Friday: Out of praotice, as they naturally were, they did not do much in a crioket sense, but I hear that they enjoyed their visit to the picturesque ground of the Sussex President immensely, and they speak in the highest terms of the hospitality accor­ ded to them there. Mb. A. Q. S teel , who, by the way, is now a member of the Inner Temple, took part with his two brothers, D. Q. and H. B., in the opening match of the Liverpool Club at Aigburth on Saturday last. He was stumped for a single by A. T. Kemble, who was, singularly, also the means of dismiss­ ing the other two Steels. The Child- wall Rovers, who opposed the Liver­ pool Club, had not the chance of an innings, as rain stopped play when the Liverpudlians had made 198 for the lossofnine wickets. Ofthisnumber T. B. Grimsdale, an old Upping- hamian, who went in first, contributed 85 not out. The Childwall Rovers team included W. S. Patterson and his brother, T. M. I t is very rare that a batsman of such extreme caution as Barlow is twice dismissed in a match without obtaining a notch. Every sort of ex­ cuse, of course, is to be made for ill- success in scoring at this time of the year, and in such un-cricket-like weather as we have had of late. None the less though, it deserves to be placed on record that Barlow was recently, in a match at Ashton-under- Lyne, twice dismissed by H. Bem- bridge, the Notts professional, without scoring. B y - t h e - w a y , while on the subject I may add that T. W. Garrett, a mem­ ber of the Third as well as the First Australian Team, earned a pair of specs for Sydney University in a match against the Albert Club at Sydney on March 1. Byway of a con­ trast it is worthy of remark that Gar­ rett made 64 at Christmas for New South Wales against Victoria, the second highest score on the side M uch capital seems to have been made by ingenious reporters out of certain rumours in circulation with regard to the composition of the Yorkshire eleven for this year. It would seem though, as if, at present at least, there is no desire, should the members of the team of 1883 retain their form, to make any very radical change in the constitution of the eleven. At least the players who have been chosen to represent Yorkshire against Gloucestershire at Moreton- in-the-Marsh this day week, helped the County last season. The eleven will be Hon. M. B. Hawke, Bates, Hall, Harrison, E. Lockwood, Hunter, Peel, Peate, F. H. Sugg, Emmett, and Ulyett. Sugg, it will be remembered, was tried in 1883. The rumour circu­ lated during the winter that he would in all probability play for Derbyshire, the County of his birth, this year, has therefore proved to be incorreet.