Cricket 1890

®8 Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron- N o. 236. v o l . ix . T T T T T T ? S D A Y M A Y 8 1RQ0 R egistered fo r T ransm ission A b roa d. 1 H U I v O L /x i 1 } IViri. JL o , lOtJU. PRICE 2d. Mr, SYDN EY E DW A R D GREGORY . P u b lic expectation in English cricket circles has been excited not a little by the reports of the abnormal stature of a goodly proportion of the thirteen members constitu­ ting the Seventh Australian Team. If rumour has not spoken falsely, five or six of them stand over—and well over—six feet in height. Ihe average, though, was consider­ ably reduced when the inclusion of the sturdy little cricketer whose portrait we give this week was determined on. Mr. S. E. Gregor/ can claim, we believe, to be, with perhaps the one exception of Alick Bannerman, the smallest of the cricketers who have as yet visited England. Only five feet four and a half inches in his stocking feet, Bannerman, Abel and Briggs have all a slight advantage over him in the matter of height. The capacity of the midget of the Australian team, though, like that of the three ex­ cellent all-round players to whom comparison has been made, is not to be estimated by inches. The heredity ot cricket genius is exemplified in his case. His father, Ned Gregory, now Curator of the Asso­ ciation Ground in Sydney, was in his day one of the very best batsmen in New South Wales. His uncle, Dave Gregory, the captain of the first Australian team, which invaded England with such success in 1878, was an excellent all-round cricketer and a thoroughly good judge of the game withal. With every advan­ tage of precept as well as example, and with an innate love of the game as a stimulant, young Gregory had every incentive to develop his form as well as shape his future. Cradled as it were on a cricket field, and with his earliest recollections of style based on the best models, he learned in a really good school. Though still quite a youth, he pro­ fitedvery materially by the lessons he received. Born at Sydney, on April 14, 1870, he has, indeed, just com­ peted his twentieth year, having celebrated is birthday on the voyage to England. His cricket career, therefore, has only been of short duration. He first came into prominence during the season of 1886-7 by reason of his connection with the Oriental Club, then the crack junior team of Sydney. His consis­ tently good play for the Orientals secured him a place among the Eighteen Juniors who opposed Lillywhite’s English team. Though he only got one run in his two innings, it was still by no means an uneventful match for young Gregory, who clean bowled Barnes’ middle stump, a distinction considering the extraordinary form that batsman showed throughout the tour. Commencing the season of 1887-8 in promising style, he con­ tinued to improve in every department. Playing for Royston College against a Carlton Eleven he made 116, his first innings of three figures. All round, though, his cricket that winter was much above the average, and he won in all four trophies from his Club—for all-round play, second bowling, best fielding, and greatest number of catches. Again selected as one of the Fifteen Juniors to meet the English team brought out by Lillywhite and Shrewsbury, like the rest he only scored moderately, having to be content with innings of 6 and 9. Next year a number of Juniors combined to form a team to join the Senior ranks. So well were they together, too, that they were able to hold their own with the older clubs. Not a little of their success, moreover, was due to the good all­ round cricket of young Gregory, whose brilliant innings of 116 against Carlton—one of the best combina­ tions in Sydney—was one of the best performances of the season. During the year a New South Wales Eleven visited Brisbane, and here again he showed to advantage, his 18 being the third highest score in the second innings. Gregory’s con­ sistently good form last winter brought him at a bound into the front ranks of New South Wales batsmen. A succession of good scores, the most notable of which was 69 not out against the Yeronas, kept him prominently before the cricket public of New South Wales. His form was deemed good enough to warrant a still higher trial, and the Inter-colonial match in January of the present year found him one of the New South Wales team which opposed Victoria. An excellent first innings of 27 not only fully justified his selection but led to his partici­ pation in other matches of impor­ tance. A little later, against South Australia, he again batted in really good style for 25, and this again he supplemented with a capital per­ formance against Fifteen of Queens­ land, scoring 46 by sound cricket. The withdrawal of some of those who had promised to join the Aus­ tralian team in course of collection for England about this time was fortunate for him. It gave him at least an opportunity just when he was in particularly good form, and he was not slow to take advantage of it. As yet his capacity as an all­ round cricketer has to be proved on English soil. The Australian cricketers, though, have, it must be added, a high opinion of his merits. Mr. Murdoch, the captain, in particular has spoken in very favourable terms of his all­ round ability. In the field he is regarded as without a superior in Australia. At cover point he is especially brilliant, and in proof of his exceptional skill it is generally con­ ceded by the Australian critics that he it better than was even Alick Bannerman as