Cricket 1887

MAR. 31, 1887. CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 41 style of batting, and hits very hard. He bowls a medium pace ball, but the difficulty to the batsman is the pace with which the ball gets up from the pitch. Besides keeping a good length he breaks from each side. He is 24 years of age, and is 5ft. 9Jin. high. J. J. Ferris is very young yet, and is only 5ft. 7in. high, so that his success with the ball is the more remarkable. He did well both with the bat and ball for the Sydney Junior team against Shaw’s last team, but like Turner, his great successes have been this year. He is the crack bowler for the Belvidere Club. In “ big ” matches this season he has secured 34 wickets for 438 runs, giving an average of nearly 13 runs per wicket. He, too, was at times assisted by the wicket. Like Turner, he breaks from both sides, and being a left­ hander, much faster from the leg side. He uses his head considerably, and as he is young, should gain yet more distinction with the leather. He also bats left-hand, and is a fair performer. T h e extraordinary scoring in the match between Smokers and Non-Smokers at Melbourne a fortnight ago, has already furnished the present year with a sensa­ tional performance which it is hardly probable will be eclipsed during 1887. Eight of the ten Non-Smokers, who con­ sisted of W. Bruce, Bates, Shrewsbury, Gunn, Barlow, Houston, Musgrove, Worrall, Cooper and Sherwin, got double figures, and the result was a huge total of 803, to which Shrewsbury contributed 234, Gunn 150, and Bruce 131. The Smokers, represented by Palmer, Bead, Briggs, Flowers, Lohmann, Scotton, Boyle, Walters, Browning, Lewis, and Duffy, scored 356 and 135 for five wickets, bo that altogether 1,294 runswere totalled for the loss of only twenty-four wickets, or an average of the smallest fraction under 54 runs for each batsman. U n t i l this month the 775 made by New South Wales against Victoria in Sydney was the highest total in a really important match, so that to Melbourne now belongs the distinction of the best record. This big score of the Non- Smokers had only been once exceeded prior to 1886, and that was also in 1882, when the Orleans Club was credited with 920 against Bickling Green, at Bickling Green. Last year, though, the Hamp­ stead Club made 813 against the Stoics at Hampstead, a match which will be well remembered as the occasion of the highest individual score ever recorded—485 by Mr. A. E. Stoddart. A s c h e m e has recently been approved by the Private Bill Committee of the House of Commons, the details of which will be of no small interest to South London cricketers as well as to the many thousands who visit Kennington Oval during the course of the year. The Bill is to grant the City of London and South­ wark Subway Company, which has already got powers for a line as far as the “ Ele­ phant and Castle,” to extend the same to the “ Swan” at Stockwell. The other terminus will be at the “ Monument,” London Bridge, and the engineers have already, I understand, completed the work of tunnelling under the Thames. As it is proposed, too, to have a station at Kennington Paris, within a stone’s throw almost of the Oval, it will be seen that the proposed Subway will be a great boon particularly to business men, who at present, especially in the case of the more important cricket and football matches, find the ordinary means of public con­ veyance for the first part of the journey, on the City side of London Bridge, hardly adequate for the traffic. An item of strictly pavilion gossip. During the last fortnight a great change has taken place in the appearance of the Pavilion at the Oval. A new room is being added on each wing of the first floor, one to serve as a Committee room, the other above the present Players’ room, as a luncheon and sitting room for the amateurs playing in matches, and for other purposes when not so required. An extra room is also in course of erection for the professionals playing in matches. The additions will also provide an in­ crease of accommodation on the roof for members, as well as give greater facilitates for the caterer on the ground floor. C r i c k e t e r s of the new, as well as the old world, will learn with the deepest regret that the Earl of Sheffield has decided not only to withdraw from the Presidency of the Sussex Club but also from county cricket altogether. This decision is the result of a series of anonymous attacks of a most contempt­ ible character, reflecting on the manage­ ment of his cricket ground at Sheffield Park. Lord Sheffield’s severance, if only for a time, from the support of cricket is a severe loss to the game, but no one can wonder that after providing amusement for the public for many years, and con­ tributing in the most princely manner to tne development of cricket, he has felt bound to withdraw his support from all the local institutions he has assisted until the writers of the communications which have caused him so much annoy­ ance have been unearthed. I have my­ self experienced so much courtesy at the hands of Lord Sheffield that I can only express my personal sympathy as well as regret that cricket is to lose the active support of one of the best patrons it has ever had, The English cricketers who have been starring this winter in Australia, with the exception of Alfred Shaw, who reached Nottingham on Thursday night, left Adelaide on Saturday evening last in the P. and 0. steamer “ Massilia.” All being well they should be due at Plymouth early in May, so that they should all be in good time for County cricket. Out of twenty-nine matches, twelve were won, fifteen drawn, and only two lost— to wit, the first and third matches against Eleven of New South Wales. From a purely cricket point of view their success has been most gratifying, but the unex­ pected continuance of wet weather had a very prejudicial effect on the success of the tour financially, and the ill-luck which attended the promoters in this one im­ portant respect is a matter for regret. A t a special general meeting of the members of the Melbourne Club held last month it was decided to invite a team of English cricketers, mainly composed of amateurs, to visit Australia next winter. The only amendment was one to adjourn the meeting to allow of the attendance of the President, Mr. Frank Grey Smith. Mr. Smith made many friends during his stay in England last summer, and all will be glad to hear of his safe return to Melbourne. The general meeting thus voted unanimously its approval of the negotiations commenced by the Secre­ tary as long ago as last summer in Eng­ land, and as the Melbourne Club is not likely to recede there seems at present to be little doubt that next winter will sea two English teams in Australia. I n this case it is quite indisputable that the Melbourne Club was the first in the field. I cannot understand how any one who remembers what took place here last summer in connection with the dispute between the managers of the professional combination now returning from Australia and the Secretary of the Melbourne Club can do other than sup­ port the latter. This time, at least, it will clearly not be the M.C.C. of Australia who will be to blame should by any means the absurdity of two English teams tour­ ing simultaneously in the Colonies be realised. C r i c k e t , I need hardly say, suffers, and to a greater extent than many imagine, from such disagreements as those which have recently occurred on the subject of this interchange of visits between English and Australian cricketers. As I was one of the first to congratulate Australian cricket on the fact that the management of the team visiting this country last summer had been undertaken by the Mel­ bourne Club, a responsible and substantial organisation capable of carying out such a project satisfactorily in every way, I cannot be accused of inconsistency in urging that it is o f vital necessity for the well-being of the game, as well as for the maintenance of International relations, that an arrangement of the same kind should be made for teams going to Aus­ tralia from here. A r e f e r e n c e to “ Pavilion Gossip ” of August 19 last will show that I advocated a similar line of action in commenting on the withdrawal of the Melbourne Club in favour of Shaw, Shrewsbury, and Lilly- white last season. A fortnight before, too, I gave it as my opinion that the Maryle- bone Club as the accepted head of cricket ought to take steps to ensure a definite arrangement between the chief cricket bodies in England and Australia with a view to have this periodical interchange of visits carried out on some basis of mutual agreement. If only to prevent the possibility of further disagreements, which cannot fail to injure the game, I am of opinion that the Marylebone Club in the interests of cricket ought to take some action in this important matter. I h a v e to thank an old correspondent for the following correction of the state­ ment, on the strength of information received, which appeared in last month’s Next Issue April 14