Cricket 1891

DEC. 31,1891 CRICKET; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. -189 A W INTER CEICKET SONG. Sing hey for the frost is coming, boys, The glory of winter time, Sing hey for our English Christmas joys And the New Year bells that chime, Sing hey for the hounds and the old Hunt ball, But whatever the charms may be, The summer methinks is the best of all, A Cricketer’s 'life for me. Sing hey for the men and the women, too, Who glory in this or that, Sing hey for the boys who are always true To an old and faithful b a t; For though huntsmen bold have sport untold, And the skater’s roving free, Sing hey for the game of young ana old, A Cricketer’s life for me. For the old man living so far apart From the youth—in a different world, Can be young again in his cricket heart W ith the same old banner unfurled, And he talks of the goad old cricket kings, And longs a youth to be, For the joy it brings he lives and sings, A Cricketer’s life for me. Sing hey to the wintry winds that blow, Sing hey to the rolling sea. Sing hey to the hail and frost and snow Whether old or young you be, For I see in the distance many a fight On the cricket-fields 80 free, Sing hey for the game I toast to-night, A Cricketer’s life for me. G.W.H. I h a v e more than once, in the course of these notes, had occasion to revert to the brilliant cricket of George Giffen for his colony, South Australia. His extraor­ dinary batting and excellent bowling in the inter-colonial match, South Australia v. Victoria, at Melbourne, in January last, will be well within the memory of C ricket readers. On that occasion he was in while 407 runs were scored, of which number he contributed no fewer than 237, and with only one real chance. As, in addition, Giffen took twelve Victorian wickets in the match at a cost of 192 runs, it will be perceived that he fairly won the match for his Colony. H e has since, however, eclipsed the above, as his remarkable play in the same match at Adelaide, last mouth,will testify. In both batting and bowling did Giffen exceed bis previous feat, amassing the huge score of 271, and securing as many as sixteen wickets for 166 runs, Eight bowlers were tried by the Victorian captain. Of these, the most successful, though he was terribly expensive, was Phillips, who, it is interesting to note, did assist his colony after all. Lyons made a long stand with his captain for the second wicket, while the younger Giffen, after making Go, was hit so badly by a return of his brother’s that ho had to retire. These three bats­ men contributed between them 440 runs out of South Australia’s huge total of 562. F rom the score which appears in another page of this paper, it will be seen that although Walters and Bowman made a splendid start for Victoria, this was not followed up, so that in the result South Australia won by no less than an innings and 164 runs. When passing through Ceylon, on his way to the Colonies, recently, Lohmann informed Mr. H. H. Capper that, apart from matches against tho fuli strength of Australia, tho most formidable opponents of Lord Sheffield’s team.would be the South Australians. On their form in inter-colonial fixtures, the latter have certainly confirmed Loh- mann’s good opinion. I may add that in these two great matches Giffen’s record is as follows— Moat in Total Inns. an Inns. Kuns. Avtr. 2 ... 271 ... 503 ... 254.0 Overs. Mdns. Runs. Wkts. Aver. 1G73 ... 42 ... 258 ... 27 ... 9.5 T he Victorian team have indeed good reason to speak feelingly 'of George Gillen’s exceptional capacity as an all­ round cricketer. His record for South Australia in this particular Inter-Colonial has been in every sense phenomenal. In the last five years his scores have been : 1887—166 1889-84 and 9 1888—135 and 19 1890—237 1891—271 These give an aggregate of 921 runs, and an average of 131.57 per innings. Every fresh achievement of his only serves to accentuate the feeling of regret universal here, that circumstances have prevented him visiting England with the later Australian teams. I n no section of the community will the news of the gun accident which has unhappily deprived Prince Christian of an eye be received with deeper regret than in cricket circles. Eor popular as he is among all classes, the Prince’s enthusiastic love of the king of games has specially endeared him to cricketers. As most of those who frequent Lord’s and the Oval are well aware, hardly an important match takes place in London without the presence of his Eoyal Highness, that is to say, when he is within anything like easy distance of the metropolis. His devotion to cricket, too, has been inherited by his sons, Prince Christian Victor and Prince Albert, both of whom are not only active players themselves, but particularly keen followers of the game. L ong before this Mr. Victor Cohen, the Treasurer of the New South Wales Associ­ ation—who was to have personally con­ ducted an Australian team, had one visited England in 1892, and will surely conduct the next that comes—will have learned by cablegram the views of the leading counties on the subject of the interval which, in their opinion, ought to divido the visits of Australian cricketers. The decision of the counties as expressed by then- representatives at the meeting of Secretaries held at Lord’s early this month has practically placed a veto on another trip till the summer of 1894. It is of little use going back, and I do not propose to refer in any way to the past in this particular connection. The feeling of the majority of the leading counties at Lord’s undoubtedly was that it would be better for the Australians not to come as afterwards suggested in 1893, but to postpone their trip till a year later. It goes without saying, too, that it would be better for a team to come with a certainty of a hearty welcome from all the chief clubs here. Of this, it is hardly necessary for me to add, Mr. Cohen can be assured. The resolution passed at Lord’s, in fact, conveyed an actual invitation for another combination to visit England in 1894. The good offices of the M.C.C. and the clubs interested in an Australian pro­ gramme as well as of English cricketers generally will thus be guaranteed for such a trip. T he Adelaide Evening Journal ( I November 21st contains a very fair like­ ness as well as an interesting sketch of our Grand Old Man of Cricket. W.G., whose achievement in the second match of the tour at Melbourne, when he defied the Victorian bowling and carried his bat through the innings, will have given unmixed pleasure to Englishmen every­ where, by-the-way, seemed at the time that the last mail left Adelaide to be dividing the interest of the South Aus­ tralian public with another master of a different type. At least, his portrait shares the distinction of a conspicuous place in the Evening Journal with that of General Booth. I n his very interesting contribution to Blachwood’sMagazine for January, under the title of “ Cricket and Cricketers,” the writer takes occasion to introduce a few incidents which come under the category of curiosities of cricket. One of them will suffice as a sample of the stylo : M r . H u n k y T i; lib, whose name is ahousehold word among cricketers in the Bicester neigh­ bourhood, has in his possession the stuffed body of a swift, which was killed by a cricket ball, hit by a young farmer in a local match. The ball then bounded from the bird into the hands of one of the field, who held it. The batsman was naturally furious. “ I’d ha’ fetched it out of the ground,” he said to Mr. Tubb, ‘ 'i f it hadn’t been for that ’ ere bloomin’ swaller.” “ W ie d e n ’ s A lm a n a c k ” f o r 1892.—This popular Annual, which has now reached its twenty-ninth edition, is as interesting and “ up to date ” as ever In addition to its usual attractions, tho book contains interesting articles by the Hon. li. H. Lyttelton and Mr. A. J. Gaston, on “ The Development of Cricket,” and “ The Bibliography of Cricket’’ respectively. The frontispiece is formed by remarkably good likenesses of five great professional bowlers, viz., J. T. Hearne, F. Martin, W . Attewell, A . Mold, and J . W . Sharpe. These photographs, being by Messrs. E . Hawkins & Co. of Brighton, are necessarily excellent. In every way the new edition of “ Wisden’s ” is worth the modest shilling charged for it. NEXT ISSUE JANUARY 28