Cricket 1885

m a y 34,1885. CRICKET; A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. 121 “ Constitutional” candidate for that division of the borough. Mr. Bristowe is a member of the Surrey County Club, and unless I am in error, the father of more than one cricketer who has won a place in a Public School Eleven. A mong other names recently men­ tioned in connection with the forth­ coming general election, I notice those of Messrs. H. E. Brand and S. Hoare. The former, who in his time played for Sussex, is the present member for Stroud Borough, and has been selected by the General Council of the Liberal Association for the Stroud Division of Gloucestershire to stand iu the Liberal interest for that con­ stituency. I h o pe I am not wrong in assuming Mr. S. Hoare, who has been chosen as the Conservative candidate for the Northern Division of Norfolk, to be the contemporary of R. Lang, A.W.Daniel, B. D. Walker, Hon. E . Stanhope, and Elphinstone, whose long stopping to Lang’s terrific bowling in 1859 is not likely to be forgotten by Harrovians cf the period. Mr. Hamar Bass, well- known in connection with the Incogniti Club, the present member for Lichfield, has withdrawn his candidature for that town, not wishing to divide the party, in consequence of Sir John Swinborn having been selected to carry the Liberal vote. L ie u t . W. C. H e d l e y , who was one of the most successful bowlers for the Boyal Military Academy in 1884, did a good performance for the Boyal Engineers against Hundred of Hoo, at Chatham, on Saturday. It was a twelve a-side match and in the two innings of the latter only one batsman, C. Lake (8 and 10) got double figures. Of their twenty-two wickets, fourteen fell to Lieut. Hedley at a cost of twenty-five, six to Lieut. Medley— an odd conjunction of names — for twenty-six runs. Though the Sappers only scored 102 they won by an innings and 47 runs. The following mention of cricket in a work ealled “ The Cyclades, or Life among the Insular Greeks,” by J. Theodore Bent, published by Long­ mans and Co., may be of interest:— Whilst on the subject of games, I will just allude to another island game I onee saw, called Sphaira, or ball, which bears a closer relation to cricket than anything I ever saw out of England. Instead of a bat the hand is used, and instead of wickets a stone is set up. There are five on each side, one is nt the stone, four are doing nothing, the rtmaining five are fielding, if the player hits the ball to a certain distance he counts one,but does not run. If the ball is caught or i hits the stone his innings are over. This game I was assured has been played in Greece as far back as the memory of the oldest inhabitant can go and no doubt much longer; it is obvious it was not borrowed from us. Did we take our idea from them, or will the minds of men intent on sport produce the same results in different parts of the globe ? As we all know, Sphaira is Greek for a ball, and is really the generic title of all the ball games of Greece. Sec of the twelve English Cricketers who left Adelaide on the 6th of last month, in the Orient steamer “ Potosi,” have, everyone will be pleased to hear, reached home safe and well. Lillywhite, Barnes, Scotton, Attewell, Flowers, and Ulyett, leaving the “ Potosi” at Naples, arrived in London early on Tuesday morning, and later in the day were welcomed by some two or three hundred friends atNottingham Bailway Station. The other six members of the party, Shrewsbury, Bead, Bate3, Briggs, Hunter, and Peel, are now on their journey by sea to Plymouth, where they are due to-morrow (Friday). Barnes, Scotton, Attewell, and Flowers, who are all reported to be very fit, will, I suppose, represent Notts against Sussex to-morrow. Shrewsbury, though, will not arrive in time, and Maurice Bead, who was ex­ pected to appear at the Oval to-day against Hampshire, will be an ab­ sentee from the Surrey Eleven. Now that the tour is a thing of the past, I feel sure that every lover of our national game will join with me in congratulating Alfred Shaw and the members of his team, on the manner in which they have off, as well as on the field, upheld the reputation of E nglish cricket. Though I myself did not quite anticipate the success they achieved, the fine all-round cricket they showed throughout a heavy and very laborious trip must be eminently gratifying to all well-wishers of the old country’s sports. I have had the chance of taking the opinions of many Australians now in England, who had opportunities of seeing them in the Colonies, and it is satisfactory to hear them described on all hands as the most popular team which has ever visited the Antipodes. I t will be a matter for universal regret that the tour has not been such a financial success as it would have been, had the members of Murdoch’s team only met them in the sportsman­ like spirit in which the Fourth Aus­ tralian team were received everywhere here last summer. As one who believes firmly in the good, politically as well as from a sporting point of view, to be derived from the interchange of visits between the crick eters of the old and the new country,I can only,in common with the general body ofEnglish sportsmen, sincerely deplore the short-sighted policy which seems to have guided a certain section of Murdoch’s team in their relations with the English pro­ fessionals. What the ultimate effects will be here, remains to be seen, but in the interests of English as well as Australian cricket, which has been the chief sufferer, even the best wishers of the Victorian players can only regret than they should have taken and so persistently adhered to an attitude which was in many respects inde­ fensible. H. V. P a ^ e , the captain of the Oxford University Eleven, has been giving the Oxonians still further proof of his versatility by appearing with great success in the role of Bar- dolph in King Henry IV., which is being acted by the Dramatic Society of Oxford. The Club has been started this year. A. G. G. Asher is presi­ dent. H. T. Arnall, the Leicester­ shire cricketer, is a lord in the same play, and is killed by C. W. Berry (the Scotch International Bugby Union Footballer). E . Money-W igram , G. W . Bicketts, A. B. Cobb, well- known Wykehamists and Oxford cricketers, fill the posts of stewards. I n o tice that the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton defended M. Gounod in the action brought against that eminent composer by Mrs. Weldon. Consi­ dering that the opposition won by no less than ten thousand runs—I mean pounds— the old Etonian must have had considerably the worst of the luck as well as of the wicket. T he Gentlemen of Philadelphia who visited England last summer made so many friends here that addi­ tional interest has been given to everything appertaining to American cricket. C r i c k e t readers here will therefore be glad to hear that two new cricket grounds are to be opened in Philadelphia this year. The Belmont and Philadelphia Clubs have secured new grounds, both of which will be provided with the best accommoda­ tion. Through the courtesy of an American friend I have received a sketch of the Club House of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, and this