Cricket 1888

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1888. p r i c e s < l Registered M R . H E N R Y M O S E S . C l o se ly interwoven with the best records of Australian cricket during the last few years are the names of Messrs. C. T . B . Turner and H enry Moses, beyond doubt the representative bowler and batsman respectively of the Colonies at the present tim e. The form er’s continuous successes during the last three months on E nglish grounds have w on for him a reputation equal to that of any bowler, E nglish or Australian, of the present day, and his excellent all-round cricket will stand out in bold relief as one of the m ost remarkable features of the latest Australian tour. The absence of the great batsman of N ew South W ales from the team has been, it m ay be added, on the other hand, a source of universal disappoint- m ei^ to the English cricket public, as, of course, it has been to Mr. M cDonnell and to those who were responsible for the collection of the Colonial combination now with us. T o the latter his inability to make the trip has been, indeed, the cause of unceasing regret, as on his public form he has been for some years, as he is now, the m ost reliable bats­ man in Australia, and he would have been certain to have made as high a name for him self on English as he has on the cricket grounds of Greater Britain. Born at W indsor, in New South W ales, in February, 1858, Mr. Moses is in his thirty- first year. Educated at D octor S ly’s School, the well-known Calder House, in Sydney, he had excellent opportunities for grounding him ­ self thoroughly in the rudiments of the game. Though he has never shown any great proficiency as a bowler, as a boy he was very much above the average as a batsman, and as he has always been extremely good in the field, even when he was quite young his services as a cricketer were highly prized. On leaving school he associated h im ­ self with the Albert, one of the leading clubs of Sydney, and for several seasons was forem ost in the batting tables of the year,' having once an average of 64 at the close of one"season, and of 88 of another. In the Inter-colonial match at the end of 1883, going in second wicket down for New South W ales he scored eighteen in the first innings against the V ictorian bowlers at Melbourne, bu t his first performance of any exceptional merit was a few weeks later at Sydney, and his brilliant batting against the Fourth Aus­ tralian team was the means of establishing a reputation as a batsman, which he has not only held but increased during the last five years. The match to which we refer was for Fifteen of New South W ales against the Australian team then getting ready for E ng­ land, and his 149 out of a total of 374, obtained as it was against such bowlers as Palmer, Giffen, Midwinter, Boyle, and Cooper, was a very good performance, as all who know the powers of the five named w ill admit. Against the E nglish team which visited A ustralia at the end of 1886 he made runs with consistent success. In the first of the two fixtures he scored 31 and 30 not out each time, and in the return was even m ore fortunate, getting 73 in the second innings out of an aggregate of 169 from the bat, this, too, against a form idable com bination of English bowlers, including Briggs, Lohm ann, Barlow, Bates, and Flowers. H is extraordinary performances during the last Australian season were duly recorded in this paper, and will be well remembered by the m ore watchful C r ic k e t readers. Opening with a faultless score of 77 for New South Wales against Mr. Vernon’s English team, he followed this up with two brilliant innings of 78 not out and 69 in the second fixture with Shrewsbury’s English com bination. In the next fixture against the latter, too, he was seen even to better advantage with scores of 58 and 109 out of totals of 153 and 216, and his batting contributed very m aterially to the decisive victory of New South Wales. Though he made runs against every kind of bowling, his greatest achievement of all was in the Inter-colonial played at Sydney, on Jan. 26 and two following d a ys; on that occasion he was at the wickets ten hours and a half for 297 not out, an innings which, w ith the one exception of W . L. M urdoch’s 321 for N ew South Wales against V ictoria in February, 1887, is the best record in first-class cricket in the colony. In the first four games he played against the English teams last winter, he had an aggregate of 405 for five com ­ pleted innings, or an average of 81 runs, and his consistent success throughout, against all kinds of bowling, was one of the m ost extra­ ordinary features of Australian cricket last season. The Australian cricketers we have had here this summer agree in regarding him as the best batsman in the Colonies at the present time. “ F elix,” the cricket oritic of the Australasian newspaper of Melbourne, in com ­ m enting on his play in C r ic k e t of February 23, described him as “ the best left-handed batsman in the w orld.” Mr. Turner, the crack bowler of the Australian team, holds that he is distinctly the most consistent and safest player Australia has. H e has not only great defence but hits well all-round, cutting and driving as well as hit­ ting to leg with great freedom . H e is, too, not only good on one class of wicket, but accomm odates his play to suit any kind of pitch, and has proved his ability to make runs on m any important occasions when the ground