Cricket 1891

“ T o g e th e r jo in ed in cr ick e t ’s m a n ly to i l.”— Byron. N o . 2 6 0 . VO L . X . Registered for Transmission Abroad. TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1 P R IC E 2d. DEATH OF WILLIAM MIDWINTEB. Pale death has lately removed a cricketer whose form was almost if not quite as well-known on English as on Aus­ tralian grounds. W. E. Midwinter was, in fact, the only player who had graduated and won for himself a high position both in England and in Australasia. He had proved himself to he an all-round cricketer very much above the average before he was tempted to try his luck in the old Country. The chief incidents of his career here will be fresh in the memory of C ricket readers. Coming to England originally on speculation, it was found that he was born in Gloucester­ shire—at least the writer was present on the occasion when he stated to Mr. W. G. Grace that his birthplace was a village near Cirencester. Gloucestershire at the time was not particularly rich in all­ round players, and Mr. Grace was too shrewd a judge to under-estimate the value of Mid.’s services. Overtures had, meanwhile, been made to him to form one of the first Australian team, which had just reached England, and he helped them in the first nine of their fixtures. Mr. Grace was, however, only awaiting the com­ mencement of the County season to put in his claim. His methods, too, were forcible enough. Midwinter was not inclined to de­ sert Gregory and his men,and he was ready in the pavilion to go in to the field with them at Lord’s, in the Middlesex match, when Messrs. W. G. Grace and J. A. Bush, as many will remember, who were playing for Gloucestershire on the same day at the Oval arrived, and carried him away with them in triumph to Kennington to oppose Surrey. _ That incident sealed Mid.’s connection with Gloucestershire, and for some years he was a regular member of the team, doing excellent work for them in every department of the game. He was also engaged on the staff of the ground bowlers at Lord’s in 1879, but the work was not altogether to his taste, and he never really settled down; he gave up his position with the M.C.C. rather unexpectedly in the middle of the season of 1882. In the autumn of that year he returned to Australia, and though he formed one of the Fourth Australian team which came to England in 1884, he never resumed his active connection with English Cricket. Fortune was kind to him, too,in some ways,and on his return to Victoria he became proprietor of a large and prosperous hotel in Mel­ bourne. Not very long since, however, a terrible bereavement befell him in the death of his wife and child, and this double loss preyed upon his mind so much that he lost his reason. About ten days before his death Mr. H. F. Boyle, with his partner Mr. David Scott, visited him in the Asylum, and strangely enough this was the only occasion on which he had been at all rational for some little time. He was full of Mr.W. G. Grace, and it gave him the greatest satisfaction to hear that Gloucestershire had beaten Notts twice. He talked, too, of Arthur Shrewsbury, and of Woof, whom he described as his pupil. During his later days he received every attention it was possible to give him, particularly from Mr. W. Trumble, father of the young Victorian bowler who was over here last summer. The funeral was very largely attended, and among those who attended was Mr. W. C. Tonge, an amateur who had played a few matches with Midwinter for Gloucestershire in 1880. “ Mid.” is the firstmember of any ofthe Australian teams to be taken away, and the news of his death will be received with universal regret by Cricketers at both extremes of the world. The following interesting sketch of his career, taken from the Standard of Mel­ bourne, will be read, we feel sure, with interest. As a genuine cricketer of the all-round school, William Evans Midwinter had attained to an eminence in Australia and in England almost unrivalled. In England he ranked almost next to the Graces, whose proUgi he was, and to whom he was in a measure in­ debted for a recognition of his powers in the cricket-field and his introduction to the higher circle of English cricket. Now that “ poor old Mid.” has passed away to a land, let us hope, where bowlers cease from troubling and batters are at rest, a few reminiscences of his career may be read with interest by the large circle of his admirers in Australia. He was a native of Gloucester, with which county he was subsequently identified in later years when playing as a professional at Home. He first came under our notice here in Aus­ tralia, where at the old mining town of Eagle- hawk he blossomed into a juvenile cricketer. Mr. Boyle (of Boyle and Scott), to whom we are indebted for these particulars, says ‘ ‘ Mid.” and he met when boys in the crioket-field. He was playing for Eaglehawk, and “ Mid.” for California Gully school. When about 14 or 15, young Boyle established a club at Sydney Flat, a couple of miles from Eagle­ hawk. “ Mid.,” whose father was a butoher, and employed his sou occasionally with the basket, used to go down to Sydney Flat to practice, and as a proof of his early ardour for the game he had to walk about ten miles for an innings. There were only thirteen in the club altogether, but eight out of that number, including snoh redoubtable batsmen as Mid­ winter, Boyle, Bayliss, Green, and Truesdale, found their way into the first eleven of the district. The only piece of ground available was a piece of bush land, and this they had to clear and level in for themselves; and for weeks the club toiled away in the moonlight to get theirpitch in order. 1 ‘ There was no feather bed cricket in those days,” says Mr. B oyle; and evidently so. From the Sydney Flat Club “ M id.” was drafted into the Bendigo United. This was in about 1864-5. The first big match he took part in was that played with C. Bannerman, Nat. Thompson, Ned. Sheridan, and Ned Gregory, of New South Wales. These four played six of the Bendigo United. It was a single wioket match, as may be in­ ferred from the numbers, and was played in 1872. The result was a surprise to everybody. Boyle, who was one of the seven, made 25 off his own bat; and though “ Mid.” went in with a bad thumb, he refused to be put out, and carried out his bat for 15. Bendigo, in their innings, lost five wickets for 42. The visitors from across the border were all men in their prime, with reputations, and the result of the match had the effect of attracting notice in Melbourne to the marvellous play of Boyle and his friend; and they were both invited to come down to town for practice. In 1873 Mid­ winter’ s name first appeared in connection with the Melbourne Club; but it was not until 1875 that he played his first intercolonial match. That was in Sydney, where he made 15 not out, and 8 in the second innings. In bowling, however, he was more conspicuous, for he took six wickets for 62 runs in the first innings, and two for 27 in the second innings. It was in ’76 and ’77 that he came so con­ spicuously to the front; and it was during the