Cricket 1887

No. 166. VOL. VI. Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1887. PRICE 2d. MR. CH A R L E S A U B R E Y SM ITH . B y this time the two teams of English cricketers who are to star in the Colonies during the coming winter, are well on the first stage of a journey which, should the time of their return be fixed for about the same period as in previous tours of the same kind, wi'l occupy over seven months. The Orient steamer “ Iberia,” one of the best sea-going boats bearing the flag of that well-known Company, left Plymouth on Saturday, carrying the twenty-six English cricketers, amateurs and professionals,engaged, the one party by Mr. G. F. Yernon on behalf of the Melbourne Club, the other by Shaw, Shrewsbury, and Lillywhite, as agents of the Trustees of the Association Cricket Ground in Sydney,it has always been understood in England, though the responsibility has recently been re­ pudiated in New South Wales. Several of the twenty-six have already made their acquaintance with, as well as their mark on, Colonial grounds. To many of the amateurs, though, to the majority, in fact, the land of the Southern Cross is a terra incognita. The two gentlemen who will cap­ tain the respective teams will both find a novel and pleasing experience in the knowledge they will gain on Australian grounds, and their intercourse with Austra­ lian cricketers at home. If we are informed rightly, the lion. Martin Hawke will have charge of the Melbourne Club eleven in the field, and Mr. C. A. Smith the control of that selected by the professional triumvirate whose names we baye given. Both have had experience here to qualify them for the responsible positions they are to hold, and in fact, both havo proved themselves well fitted for the post. Mr. O. A. Smith, whose portrait could hardly havo been presented to C r ic k e t readers at a more fitting period, has played a distinguished part as a cricketer during the last seven years. Though he learned the game in Sussex, and his aliegianoe to the County haa never been shaken, he is a Cookney, by birth at least. Born in Finsbury Plaoe on July 21, 1863, he has not long com­ pleted his twenty-fourth year. His early cricket was learned in a good school, under the fostering care of a keen cricketer, Mr. William Adams, for many years Honorary Secretary of the Queen’s Park Club of Brighton, and Prin­ cipal of the Crescent House Academy, on the Marine Parade. Grounded inthe rudiments of the game under such capable supervision, Mr. Smith went to Charterhouse School with all the advantages of a good cricket education. It was not long, too, before Charterhouse oricket profited by his assistance, and, indeed, his first season in the school team established bis reputation as a young player of excep­ tional promise. The Charterhouse eleven of 1880 was under the captaincy of another amateur who has made a name in county cricket* Mr. Q> Powell, who also subse­ quently figured, and with credit, at Cambridge, though not fortunate enough, for reasons best known to the authorities there, to attain the height of a University cricketer’s ambition— his blue. In the early part of 1880 Mr. Smith bowled with great success for Charterhouse, and one of the very best of his many good performances for his school was soon after he had got his colours. The annual match with Wellington College of 1880wasreally thefirst occasion on which he made his mark as a bowler, and his excel­ lent bowling in the first innings of Wellington—when he get six of the ten wickets at a cost of only twelve runs—contributed in a vny great measure to the vietory of the Carthusians on that occasion. The summer of 1881 marked a new era in Mr. Smith’s career as a cricketer. His successes were continuous, some of his performances quite out of the ordinary. The Wellington match again furnished him with his best record, and his bowling did much, as in 1880, to decide the game in favour of Charterhouse, his twelve wickets being obtained at an expense of but fifty-one runs. This, though, was only one of a series of noteworthy achievements, and the quality of his bowling for Charterhouse that year can be estimated when we add that his summary showed 1,523 bal’ s for 587 runs and 64 wickets. Considering the amount of work he had done, his average of 9.11 was one of ex­ ceptional merit, and there was a consensus of opinion among those capable of judging, that he was decidedly the best school bowler of the year. Later in the season, ho made his first appearance in a match of any importance at Shef­ field Park, for Lord Sheffield’s Eleven against Fifteen of Sussex, but here he had little chance of showing his ability as a bowler, although on other occasions he fully verified his school form. For Cuck- field against Ardingly College, he got seven batsmen in the latter’s first innings for 15 runs, and again for Sheffield Park against East Grin' stead he proved quite as effective, obtaining cite eight wi k ts for an average of two and a quarter runs. Having matrioulated at St, John’s College, Cambridge, the spring of 1882 found him in residence there. His bowling, too, proved singularly successful on the occa» “ Toge ther joined in cricket’s m an ly toil.”— Byron.