Cricket 1892

“ T oge th er joined in cricket’ s m an ly toil.”— Byron . No. 3 d v o l . xi. TTTTTTJSDA Y TTTNF! Q 1RQ2 Registered for Transmission Abroad. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 / 0 . 1 , tl U IN H j U j L O o A . P R IC E 2d» MR . R. W . M cLEOD . T h e keener C r ic k e t readers hardly need to be reminded that the name of R. W. McLeod was conspicuous among those of the younger candidates for a place in the Australian team which visited England in 1890. At the time the claims of business were too heavy to admit of such a long leave of absence, so that he was unable to accept the invitation given him to “ come home.” The three years that have passed have, as was only to be ex­ pected, witnessed a marked develop­ ment in his all-round cricket. His early promise has been amply ful­ filled, so much so, indeed, that he takes rank as quite one of the best cricketers in Australia. The MoLeods are, as C r ic k e t has pointed out more than once, a dis­ tinguished brotherhood of players to Victoria what the Walkers, the Lytteltons, the Studds, the Fords and others have been to English cricket. Their father, Mr. Norman McLeod, of Port Melbourne, is a very old colonist, the owner of a large fleet of steamships. Born in Melbourne, to Victoria belongs the credit of their cricket education as well. The fourth of the brothers, Robert, was born at Port Mel­ bourne in 1868 on the 19th of Jan­ uary. His first success was as a schoolboy attending St. James* Grammar School. Though only fifteen years old he was not without experience, at least he had suffi­ cient to secure his first hundred in the shape of a score of 144 not out, for his School against King’s Col­ lege. At the same time he was assisting West Sandridge in the contests for Messrs. Boyle and Scott’s trophy. Here, too, though the club itself was not fortunate, his individual merit was proved by his receipt of the prize for all-round play. Joining Port Melbourne in 1882, he made his debut in senior cricket. The result was another step on the road to fame, and, in­ deed, the value of his all-round cricket was shown by the fact that he had a bowling average of five runs a wicket as well as a batting average of 34. Leaving St. James’ Grammar School for the Scotch College, he did good service with bat and ball during the three years he was there. The brotherhood has, indeed, farmed the cricket prize of the College ever since, securing it every season up to date. Port Melbourne, too, found R.W.M. a great acquisition. As a bowler he was very successful, and one of the best of his early records was against a strong team of South Melbourne including Slight, Walters, Trott, and other well-known players, when he took six wickets for twelve runs on a perfect pitch. Transferring his services to South Melbourne the next season, he had two years with them with only a fair amount of success, though he received a special prize at the end of his first season, for excellence of all-round play. An engagement in a mercantile firm where the game was not held in favour reduced his cricket to a minimum during the next two or three years. Still a change of employment presently gave him greater facilities, and in 1889, when he was twenty, he had blossomed into an Inter-colonial player. Though not a great success with the bat he was of use as a bowler against South Australia and in both matches against New South Wales. His best performance was in the second innings of N.S.W. in the return match, when he took five wickets for thirty runs. Though he opened for the Melbourne Club in 1890 with some good bowling in the first two matches* he went off altogether, so much so that he was not chosen for the return match with N.S.W. at Sydney, and had to look on as twelfth man. After all, though, he came out well, and a fine score of 135 not out in the final match for the Pennant given by the Victorian Association, enabled him to gain the top average for M.C.C., 51 runs for seven innings. Last season found Mr. McLeod in the forefront ofAustralian crioket. Onlymoderately successful for Victoria against South Australia, he was not chosen to represent his colony against Lord Sheffield’s team. A fortnight later* though, he came off well for the Melbourne Club against them, and this he followed up with a good S erformance for Victoria against Tew South Wales, taking seven wickets in the two innings besides scoring 87 and6 not out. This record was sufficient to secure him a place in the Australian eleven for the first of the three matches against Lord Sheffield’s team. In addition to useful scores of 13 and 31, he bowled with considerable success in the first innings of the Englishmen. Five wickets for 51 was his record* and three of his wickets—those of Mr. Grace, Abel, and Mr. Stoddart— were got in five balls, the two first named, too, clean bowled. Though his one wicket in the second innings cost 59 runs, still it seemed as if he had had quite enough cricket at the time, and, indeed, nine succes­ sive days in very warm weather were rather a severe test. In the second test match, although he had batted twice, the news of his brother’s death compelled him to leave Sydney before the second innings of the Englishmen. In the last of the three representative contests at Adelaide the Austra­ lians had to bat on very difficult wickets. Still he was seen to ad­ vantage each time, and his scores of 20 and 33, the second highest in each innings, were very creditable performances under the circum­ stances. His later records were quite out'’ of the common. Not content with a big score of 324 for Melbourne against Essendon for the Pennant, in the two next matches he added 98 and 207 against South Melbourne and Williamstown respec­ tively. These gave an aggregate of 629 for three successive innings, and enabled him at the same time to reach an average of nearly 90 runs for M.C.C. In all matches, Inter­ colonial and Club, his batting showed about 55 runs per innings. Robert McLeod is cer-