Cricket 1887

458 C E IC K E T : A W E E K L Y EE COED OF THE GAME . NOV, 24 ,1867 Bradford, Surrey twice, Gloucestershire at Clifton and on the first day of the Chel­ tenham week, Kent, to open the Canter­ bury week on Bank Holiday, Aug. G, Middlesex, and Lancashire. O n Sept. 5 the Colonials will visit Scar­ borough to meet Lord Londesborough’s Eleven, and fixtures will also in all likeli­ hood be made at Leyton against Past and Present of Cambridge University, on the United Service Recreation Ground at Portsmouih against a combination of Past and Present members of the two Universities, and at Liverpool against an eleven of the district. It is possible that matches may also be made at Birmingham, Hastings and other towns. M r . C. W. B eal , who was manager of the Australian team which visited England in 1882, will have charge of affairs here, and this will, of itself, be a guarantee that the management will be in good hands. Mr. Beal is confident that the combination he is bringing will be as strong as, if not stronger than the best of its predecessors, high praise it may, and with reason, be said. C. J. Turner and Ferris, the two bowlers who were credited with such remarkable performances for New South Wales, will both, I understand, positively accompany Mr. Beal, and particular curiosity is sure to be excited to see how they come off here. B oth of these bowlers, I learn on good authority, have started the Australian season just commenced in fine form, and it will be interesting to see if Turner is able to equal his records of the last colonial cricket year. One of the latest Sydney papers to hand, contains a report of a match between two of the most prominent clubs of that city, the Albert and the Belvedere, in which he took Beven of the latter’s wickets at a cost of 35 runs. He has been batting, too, so far, with no mean success. The coming team, I may add, is not sent by the Trustees of the Association Ground at Sydney, as has been stated in some English papers. T h e volume on Athletics and Football has just been added to the Badminton series of Books on Sport published by Messrs.'Longman and Co., and I suppose it will not be long now before that on Cricket sees the light. The authors, I understand, are the Hon, R. H. Lyttelton, who will be remembered as a regular con­ tributor to the green Lillywhite before it merged into the Red Annual, Messrs. A. G. Steel and Andrew Lang. The work in the hands of this trio ought to be well done, and cricketers will await its appear­ ance with interest. I n view of the annual meeting of county secretaries, which is to be held as usual on the second day of the Cattle Show week, which this year happens to be December 6th, it may be of use if I give the dates of the great matches of the next season at Lords. Perhaps I should say as they are at present arranged, although even in an Australian year there is not a very great chance of any alteration. T h e four chief purely English fixtures of the year will be as under Monday, July 2, Lord’s, Oxford v. Cam­ bridge. Thursday, July 5, Oval, Gentleman v. Players. Monday, July 9, Lord's, Gentlemen v. Players. Friday, July 13, Lord’s, Eton v. Harrow. L o r d H a r r i s , I have seen it stated in the papers, proposes at the meeting of the County Council, which is to be held at Lord’s at two o’clock on the afternoon of December the 5th, to call attention to the abnormally long scores of the past season with the view as, I [assume, to take the opinion of the representatives of the County Clubs present, as to whether some alteration should not be made in the laws of the game to prevent the heavy runget- ting which has of late in ordinarily good weather been the general rule certainly rather than the exception. I am inclined myself to think that it will not be an easy task for anyone, even if it be admitted that there is anything to need a change, to suggest a remedy which would be gen­ erally acceptable. S u r r e y CRicKET-readers will be in­ terested to know that the Corporation of Croydon will for the next twelve months be presided over by a keen follower and liberal supporter of our national game in the person of Mr, J. W. Hobbs, whose ground in Norbury Park yields to none in the country in the picturesqueness of its surroundings. As was only to be expected, the cricket element was worthily represented on the occasion of the in­ augural dinner of the new Mayor at the Greyhound Hotel, at Croydon, on Friday last. Lord Harris was in his happiest vein in responding for the House of Lords, and the duty of proposing the toast of the host of the evening could hardly have been in better hands than those of Mr. J. Spencer Balfour, himself the first Mayor of Croydon. Mr. Balfour, who is well known in Surrey cricket as for some years past on the Committee of the County Club, is, it will be in­ teresting to many CRiCKET-readers to know, canvassing the electors of Don­ caster in the Liberal interest with a view to represent that town at the next parlia­ mentary election. I t will be satisfactory to the general body of English cricketers to learn that an agreement has been come to between those who are responsible for the manage­ ment of the two English teams now in the Colonies, to combine with a view to place the pick of the two parties in the field to meet the cream, of Australian cricket. The complication of two rival teams in the Colonies from England ought never to have arisen, and those who read “ Gossip” carefully do not need to be reminded that I have expressed a very strong opinion throughout on the priority of claim of the Melbourne Club in this matter. The authorities here ought, to my mind,to have interfered to prevent this dual trip, but as there are two teams inAustralia, the wisest course is to accept the inevit­ able and make the best of it. A recent tele­ gram statesthat there will be a fusion of the two interests for the purpose of a common alliance against Colonial cricketers, and there is every reason to believe that fixtures between the best eleven of the English players and a representative eleven of Australia will not only be lucrative, but exceedingly popular. A n o t a b l e figure in Victorian cricket will be seen no more. One of the latest numbers of the Leader contains the announcement of the death of Mr. Thomas Henty, one of the vice-presidents of the East Melbourne Club. Mr. Henty took a great interest in Melbourne crioket, and indeed was devoted to the game in every way. I t is so rarely that a side is dismissed without a run from the. bat that any in­ stance of the kind is worthy of mention. A recent number of the Sydney Mail gives particulars of a match played in that city, between two elevens represent­ ing the Verona Club and the firm of W. Akhurst and Co. respectively. The latter were all dismissed for one run, and that was a wide. One of the team, it may be added, was run out. The/) delaide Observer recently mentions a youngster who bids fair to njake the heroes of some of the longest throws re­ corded sit up. His name is O. Bertram, and he is, according to the Observer, not yet fifteen years of age. At some College sports held in Adelaide lately, he threw the ericket ball 99 yards and a foot, though it is added that he had previously thrown it 105 yards, a pretty good performance for one of his age. The writer of the paragraph, commenting on this perform­ ance, states that the longest recorded throw is that of an aboriginal named King Billy, who threw 140 yards on Boxing Day, 1873. Is there, though, any proper authentication of this performance? If so, it would be interesting to have full particulars. F o l l o w i n g the example of the good folk of Hastings, the leaders of cricket in East­ bourne are making the necessary prepara­ tions to hold a cricket week on the Devonshire Park ground there next summer. In all probability there will be three fixtures, in which the local club will meet I Zingari or the In ­ cogniti, M.C.C. and Ground, and Surrey N E X T IS S U E , D ECEM BER 29.