Cricket 1888

14 Together joined in cricket’s manly toil."— Byron. Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1888. p r i c e ad. M R . P E R C Y S T A N IS L A U S m c d o n n e l l . T h o u g h Mr. McDonnell’s portrait and biography have already appeared in C r ic k e t , we feel that it will be quite unnecessary to offer any apology for their reproduction at the present time. During the six years that have elapsed since his features were first made familiarto the readers of this paper, Percy Me, to speak of him as he is known to his many friends in the Australian Colonies, has played many parts on the cricket-field. During the last two or three seasons he has earned a reputation hardly, if at all, inferior to that of any cricketer of Greater Britain as a batsman. The fact, too, that he has been selected to occupy the dis­ tinguished position of captain of the Sixth Australian team would be sufficient explanation for his re­ appearance in our portrait gallery of eminent cricketers. Percy Mc­ Donnell, it will be news to some to know, is not a native of the Colonies. He is an Englishman, and moreover a Londoner by birth. Though bom, on Nov. 13, 1860, in Kensington, his association with Australia began at an early age, his parents having moved to Melbourne when he was only three years old. Educated at the Jesuits College in Melbourne, his fancy for cricket had full scope. His enthusiasm for the game was fully demonstrated by the interest he showed in every­ thing connected with cricket, and the aptitude with which he made himself acquainted with cricket lore made him, even as a boy, a reliable reference on cricket statistics of ev^ry kind. He was only fifteen years of age when he played for the eleven of the Melbourne Club, and little older when he felt for the first time the responsibilities of cap­ taincy, being entrusted with the management of the eleven to repre­ sent 1he Combined Schools against the fte.bourne Club. His first ap­ pearance in an Intercolonial match was at Sydney at the end of 1878, when he was just entering on his nineteenth year. Though not successful in either that or his next match, for the Combined Fifteen against the First Austra­ lian Team, his ability as a cricketer was G enerally recognised even by this time. His rst performance of any great merit in an im ­ portant fixture was at the commencement of the tour of Lord Harris’s English team in Australia, and the excellent play he showed in their opening match for his two scores (twenty- one and twenty-five), greatly impressed the members of that combination. Just about that time New South Wales had three excep­ tionally dangerous bowlers in F. R. Spoffortn, T. W . Garrett, andE. Evans, and the orilliant skill and judgment with which the young was one of the most noteworthy features of the Australian tour of 1880. His style was, indeed, just of the sort to be popular, with plenty of freedom and no lack of variety in nit. W ith the one exception of W . L. Mur­ doch, then hardly if at all inferior to any batsman of the day, Mr. McDonnell’s record was the best on the side, and his aggregate of 1,020lrunswas only afewpoints below that of the great master of Australian batting. Returning to the colonies, he con­ tinued to keep up his reputation as one of the most successful of Victorian batsmen. The first team which visited Australia under the management of Alfred Shaw, at the end of 1881, had practical evidence of his capacity tor scoring. On each of the two occasions, indeed, on which he represented the Aus­ tralian eleven against them he scored heavily, and his score of 149 at Sydney was followed by even a better display in point of quality, though of lesser value, at Mel­ bourne, where he made fifty-two without a mistake. A sunstroke just about this time placed his life in serious danger, and, in fact, he was so ill during his voyage to England with the Australian team of 1882, that more than once his recovery was regarded as almost beyond hope. Under the circum­ stances, it was not to be wondered at that he failed to play up to his form of 1880, although at times his hitting showed its wonted vigour. Though comparatively unsuccessful in 1882, he, however, more than atoned for any shortcomings when he visited England two years later. His record during the tour of 1884 was indeed a most creditable one. Batting altogether in fifty-four innings, two more than any other member of the team, he secured an aggregate of 1,225 runs, which gave him an average of over 23£, figures only second to those of his captain, W . L. Murdoch. The brilliance of his hitting on the first day of the memorable match between England and Australia at the Oval will still be vividly remembered by those who-^ witnessed that historic contest. He scored, we may state for the benefit of those to whom the details are unknown, 103 out of the first 158 runs, and it was in a great measure to the way he punished the English bowling at the outset that the Australians were indebted for the establishment of a best on record, Mur- Victorian Percy McDonnell met that formid­ able attack in the first Inter-colonial of 1879-80 added very materially to his reputation. His score of forty-eight on that occasion was really a display of unusual promise, sufficiently so to justify his selection as one of the Second Australian team to visit England. W ithout reverting to details which have already been given, it will be enough to say that his batting