Cricket 1890

Together joined in cricket’s manly toil .”—Eyrone N o . 2 3 8 . v o l . ix . THTTTCS'BAY M A Y 9 9 1RQ0 Registered for Transm ission Abroad. l l l U i l i j i / A l } A -C w , l O ^ U . P R I C E 2 d . M R . H U G H T R U M B L E . Th o ro u g h ly w ell know n to cricketers at the other end of the globe for the last few years, the name of T rum b le is , too, b y no means u n fa m ilia r to the follow ers of the game in the old co u n try. M r. J . W . T rum b le , the elder brother, played a fa r from unim portant p art g enerally, and frequently an im portant one, as a member of the team sent by the M elbourne C ricke t Club to En g lan d d uring the summ er of 1886. R ecen t experience, too, has shown th at the reputation of the fa m ily is not lik e ly to suffer in the person of the ju n io r T rum b le . Born at M elbourne, on M ay 12, 1867, the younger of the brothers reached h is tw e n ty-th ird b irth d ay nine days ago. So far as we can discover, h is earliest sign of any great prom ise w as w hile he w as in statu, pupillari at the H aw th o rn G ra m ­ m ar School in M elbourne. A t the tim e he firs t played in the eleven he w as sixteen years of age, and d uring tw o seasons he rem ained acting as cap tain he had the double d istinctio n of being at the head of the bow ling, as w ell as the batting, averages. Le avin g school, he joined the M elbourne Club, and it w as h is excellent perform ances for the M .C .C . of A u stra lia w h ich first brought h im into real prom inence. A s a bow ler he made h is m ark at once. H is rise, indeed, w as r e ­ m arkable, and h is opening season in connection w ith the M elbourne Club (1887) found h im numbered among the first bowlers of V icto ria . Though h is earliest tria l w as rath er a heavy one he came out w ith flyin g colours. T h e South M elbourne C lu b , at least, had reason to speak favourab ly of h is cap acity, for he took ten w ickets in the m atch at a cost of 59 ru n s. H is n ext appear­ ance w as even more successful. I t w as ag ainst the U n iv e rsity Club, and here, on an excellent p itch , he w as able to dism iss s ix batsm en for only 10 ru n s. A ll through the season, though, he w as equally successful, so m uch so, indeed, as to gain for h im the honour of the best average. H is w ickets cost but 6 runs apieoe, an excellent perform ance, con­ sidering th a t those credited to the great Spofforth w ere obtained at an average ex­ pense of 10 ru n s. T h e great prom ise he had so far show n thoroughly w arran ted h is selec­ tion to represent V icto ria against M r. V ernon’s E n g lish E le ve n . T h e w icket, on th is occa­ sion, w as a ll against the bow lers, but s till he kept up h is end m ost cred itab ly, and d uring a long innings of 296 got four batsm en at a cost of 80 ru n s. L u c k did not favo u r h im , how ever, in the retu rn , and he w as equally unfortunate in the m atch between a combined E le ve n of A u stra lia and M r. V ernon's team . H is first In ter-co lonial, on the other hand, w as a great success. T h e N ew South "Wales team indeed found to th e ir cost w h at an effective bowler he w as. T h e p itch ce rtain ly helped h im considerably, but, a ll the same, h is achievem ent in takin g seven w ickets in the first innings fo r 56 ru n s w as out of the common. T h e re tu rn m atch w as played under very different conditions. N ew South W ale s, on a batsm an’s w icket, scored 576, and, lik e the other V icto ria n bowlers, M r. T rum b le had a bad tim e of Lit . T h e w in te r of 1889 found h im once more at the head of the bowling averages of the M elbourne Club. P h illip s, who has ju s t qualified for M iddlesex, w as h is p rin cip al riv a l in the ru n ­ ning for M .C .C ., b ut the form er w as a long w ay behind w’hen the race for the first place was over. H is bow ling was only fa irly success­ fu l for the combined eleven of New South W ales and V icto ria against the S ix th A u stra lia n Team at Sydney. A s a batsm an, though, he made fu ll amends w ith a ve ry good score of 39 not out, and it was m a in ly through h is p lu cky batting at the close of the innings th at the V icto ria n Eleven were able to avoid a follow on. D u rin g the w in te r ju st over M r. Trum b le w as through­ out in exceptionally good form . H is bow ling for the Melbourne Club, in p articu la r, was attended w ith rem arkable results. Against F itz ro y he took nine w ickets for 39, against C arlton seven for 15, and against E a s t M elbourne the same num ber for 34. In the In te r­ colonial h is success w as even more pronounced. A g ainst South A u s­ tra lia at Adelaide in the first in ­ nings h is seven w ickets cost 89 ru n s, and in the second, w hen he took eight for 110 , h is figures were spoiled b y some severe h ittin g of M r. J . J . Ly o n s ju st at the fin ish . In both contests against N ew South W ales, too, he came off w ell. In the first, at Melbourne, on a good w icke t, he had a cap ital an alysis, show ing 186 b alls for 40 ru n s and s ix w ickets. T h is w as in the first innings ; in the second he delivered 310 b alls for 67 ru n s and four w ickets. In the retu rn at Sydney, too, though more expensive, he w as the m ost successful bow ler on the V icto ria n side. In im portant m atches altogether last w in te r he bowled 1,315 balls for 412 ru n s and th irty w ickets, w h ich gave h im an average of 13.22, an excellent p er­ form ance on the run-getting w ickets of A u stra lia . H is co nsistently good form d uring the w in te r m arked h im as, beyond a doubt, the best bow ler in V icto ria , and h is w as one of the earliest nam es m entioned in connection w ith the A u stralian team in course of collection for E n g la n d . So far here he has had little chance of proving h is ab ilities, and, indeed, he has only had one chanoe—last week against M r. La ve rto n ’s E le ve n —when