Cricket 1886

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1886. p r i c e 2d. not out for the Zingari against Bichmond 011 the day preceding the match, an innings which settled his place in the eleven of New South Wales. This was his first important fixture, and he showed capital cricket, scoring 47 in the first innings in very promising style. Later in the season, on January 1, 1885, he represented Combined Australia at Melbourne as well as New South Wales in the return match against Shaw and Shrewsbury’s team, though owing to the studies incidental to his B.A. examination he was not in the best of practice. As a consequence in these, as well as in the return Intercolonial Match in Febru­ ary, 1885—his last fixture in Australia before his departure for England, he was only moderately successful, though his average for his University that year was an excellent one of thirty-four runs per innings. The season of 1885 found him studying medicine at Edinburgh University, and both for the 'Varsity and the Edinburgh Australian team he did good service. Scotch cricket alto­ gether, indeed, derived useful assist­ ance from his presence at Edinburgh, and several of his performances last yearoverthe border wereconsiderably above the average. For the Australian team in particular he was remarkably successful, and his average for the season was an exceptionally good one of 54. He scored 95 against Lasswade and 87 against Dumfriesshire on two successive days, though his best inn­ ings of the year was for the Austra­ lians in England, against Ealing, at Ealing on August 3, when he was responsible for 172 out of a total of 339. For the Gentlemen of Edinburgh against Inverness, in September, he went through the innings for 38 out of a total of 66, and among other good scores of last year may be noticed his 36 and 26 not out against Mr. A. G. Steel’s team at Dumfries. His record of 1885 was a most creditable one and altogether he scored 1,300 runs in thirty-two innings,making an average of 40 runs per innings. During the ^present season Mr. Pope has been so closely identified with the Australian team that he has had few opportunities in other matches, though two good scores of 59 not out for Corpus College, Oxford, as a visitor, against Keble, and 70 for Lord Chesham’s eleven against the Thespians, have been credited to his name. The Australian team have so high an opinion of his capabilities that he has MR . RO LAND JAM E S POPE . T h o u g h not in the strict sense a member of the Fifth Australian Team, the Melbourne Club and the English public will always asso­ ciate Mr. Pope’s name actively with it, by reason of the excellent service he has rendered it whenever required as an emergency or reserve man. Like the rest of the cricketers now here under the com­ mand of Captain Scott, Mr. Pope is, too, a pure Australian. This cheery little sportsman was born at Sydney, on February 18, 1864, and is conse­ quentlynow in his 23rdyear. Although a native of New South Wales, he re­ ceived his early cricket education in Tasmania, towhich colonyhe removed when onlytwelve years of age. Though not yet in his teens when he made his first appearance in a match, for the second eleven of his school, at Hobart, he had already shown such proficiency that he was selected to be captain of his side, a choice he justified by two notable scores of 58 and 24. Subse­ quent successes in the first eleven of his school led to his selection to play for the Break-o’-Day Club, one of the foremost cricket clubs of Tasmania. In his second season for the Break-o’- Day, when only sixteen years old, he made his mark with an excellent score of 67 against Wellington, and this led to a material advance in the position he held in Tasmanian cricket. His reputation ^as still further enhanced by an innings of 52 for Hobart, in a match Town against Country, and a little laterhe was selected to represent South against North Tasmania in the annual match between these two sections of the colony. The termina­ tion of his school career at this time, when he was eighteen years of age, though, severed nis connection with Tasmania, and he returned to Sydney to study at the University, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts in March, 1885. During the three years he was associated with it, he showed consistently good cricket for the University, one of the strongest clubs, it may be added, in Sydney. In 1883-84 he was top scorer against the Albert Club in the final match for the Holdsworth-Gardyne Trophy, and at the end of the season he had an excel­ lent average of 32, one only inferior to that of the crack batsman of the present Australian team, Mr. S. P. Jones. Several capital inn­ ings for the Incogniti during the season of 1884-85 brought him still more prominently before the Sydney public. One in particular against the United Banks of Sydney, on whioh occasion he carried his bat through the innings for 82, improved his reputation considerably, and he was picked to practise for the eleven to represent New South Wales against Shaw and Shrewsbury’s Team in November, 1884, though not ultimately chosen to play. Another excellent score of 118 for hisUniversity against Carlingford—the highest individual score for the University team during that season—led to his selection as one of the thirteen to go to Melbourne for the Intercolonial match, New South Wales against Victoria. There he was fortunate enough to score a big innings of 170