Cricket 1892

DEO. 29, 189 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD fctf THE GAME* 497 BOW LING AVERAGES. Overs. Mdns. Rons. Wkts. Aver- Garrett ...365. ... 176 ... 477 ... 46 ... 10.17 H. F. Boyle ...461. ... 182 ... 656 ... 63 ... 10.26 F R. Spofforth. ..838.3 ...307 ...1399 ...123... 1• .46 F. E. A lla n ........ 441.2 ... 2 j 2 ... 656 ... 35 ... 18.26 J M.Blackham .. 3. ... 1 ... 4... 1 ... 4. W. Midwinter ... 65.2 ... 33 ... 58 ... 8 ... 7 2 W. L. Murdoch... 36. ... 8 ... 80 ... 5 ... 16. T. Horan .......... 52.3 ... 11 ... 137 ... 8 ... 17.1 G. H. Bailey ... 44. ... 15 ... 61 ... 2 ... 32. Spofforth bowled two no-balls. WICKET-KEEPING. Blackham stumred four and caught eleven ; Murdoch stumped eight and caught two, II.— T h e T eam o f 1880. The way was, in a manner, made smooth for the Second Australian Team. Gregory’s men had played so well, and had made so thorough a pecuniary success of the 1878 tour, that no reasonable doubt of another team’s being welcome in England could ba entertained. The 1880 venture, like its pre­ decessor, and, indeed, like all those which followed it with the single exception of that of 1886, was purely a private undertaking, neither of the great cricketing associations of Australia having any interest in its success or failure. One circumstanoe there was, however, which for a short time jeopardised the success of the tour, leading, as it did, to somewhat strained relations between the leading cricketers of England and those of Australia. This we will endeavour briefly to narrate. In the autumn of 1878 an English team had visited Australia, at the invitation of the Melbourne Club. Lord Harris was its cap­ tain, and in most respects the tour was a very successful one. But during a match against New South Wales a regrettable dis­ turbance took place. Murdoch was (rightly or wrongly) given out by one of the umpires ; and the crowd, indignant at the decision, swarmed on to the field of play, stopped the game, and even went so far as to strike some of the Englishmen, who refused to leave the fiald, lest the match should be claimed by their opponents. There is little doubt that the memory of this disgraceful scene rendered the welcome given to our visitors in 1830 less warm than it would otherwise have been. But after the match against England, in which Lord Harris played, prejudice seemed to have vanished and harmony to be restored; and, indeed, it is difficult to imagine in what way any member of the 1880 team could reasonably have been held responsible for the conduct of the Sydney mob. It was most probably in consequence of this incident that D. W. Gregory, the captain of the first team, did not repeat his visit. We do not mean to imply that he was in any way to be blamed for the disturbance ; but his conduct as captain of the New South Wales team on that occasion was certainly lacking in the firmness and judgment which might have gone far towards quelling it. W. L. Murdoch was chosen to fill his place as skipper, and a right plucky and worthy leader did he prove. His reputation as a batsman was now much higher than it had been, a fine innings of 153 against Eigh­ teen of Victoria in December, 1878, having very materially enhanced it. It was a pity that Charles Bannerman was not included in the team ; and Horan and Garrett were likewise far superior to some of those who came. Midwinter was in England, and played on one occasion against his old comrades. The team comprised W. L. Murdoch, F. R. Spofforth, and A. C. Bannerman of New South Waies; A. H Jarvis of South Aus­ tralia; and J. M. Blackham, H. F. Boyle, G. Alexander, G. J. Bonnor, T. U. Groube, W. H. Moule, J. Slight, G. E. Palmer, and P. S. M’Donnell of Victoria. The large proportion of Victorians is a noticeable feature; but we may say at once and without reservation that five of their number did very little to increase the reputation of Australian cricket. Bonnor did well in later tours; and perhaps Moule, Slight, Groube, and Alexander, given the same chances, might have proved themselves as good as he. As it is, their failure has gone far to prove that big scores made in ordinary club cricket in Australia do not necessarily mark a man out as capable of holding his own in English first-class cricket. The team landed in England during the second week in May, and, after a match against eighteen of the Southampton St. Luke’s Club (as before, we shall avoid detailed notices of matches against odds), gave Derby­ shire a beating by eight wickets. The ground was a very slow one ; but two of the new men displayed very promising form, M’Donnell making 2G for once out, Palmer scoring 23 and taking five wickets for 44. Spofforth took thirteen for 85. Five more exhibition games, and then Yorkshire was antagonised at Dewsbury. The scoring was low, M’Donnell’s 47 and Louis Hall’s 39 being by far the best innings. Ulyett was absent from the countv team, as he was also in the return. Spofforth and Palmer again bowled finely. The Colonists won by five wickets. Eight ma1ches against odds—in one of which that v. eighteen of Newcastle, Murdoch scored 117—were followed by a draw with Leicester­ shire. The Australians had now played them­ selves into thoroughly good form, and their all-round play in this, and the next eleven-a- side match, v. Yorkshire, was distinctly fine. Against Leicestershire the captain scored 29 and 73; while against Yorkshire, who fell for only 78, Groube played his one great innings of the tour, 61, Bannerman got 38, Spofforth 44, and Blackham 42 not out; 229 runs were scored for six wickets, and then rain put an end to the play. Gloucestershire was next beaten, by 68 runs, M’Donnell distinguishing himself on one side with 42 and 79, and K. M. Grace on the other with 65 and 41. Then for a month they played only matches against odds. It was not until August 21st that they sustained their first defeat, at the hands of eighteen of Scarborough. Up to that time they had won 18, and drawn 8 matches. On September 6th, 7th, and 8th was played, at the Oval, the great match of the tour. Those days had originally been set down for a game with Sussex; but that arrangement was amicably set aside, and a contest with a thoroughly representative England Eleven substituted. Lord Harris was captain, and had under his leadership the Hon. A. Lyttel­ ton, Messrs E. M., W. G. and G. F. Grace, A. G. Steel, F. Penn and A. P. Lucas, with Barnes, Shaw and Morley. Luck was dead against the Australians. Their great bowler, Spofforth, was injured and unable to play; and to make matters worse Lord Harris won the toss, and the full strength of England went m to bat on a perfect wicket. The scoring was heavy. First and foremost came W. G. Grace, with a grand 152. A. P. Lucas made 55, Lord Harris 52, A. G. Steel 42, E. M. Grace 36, Barnes 28, and Frank Penn 23; and the total amounted to 420. Against this the Colonists could only make 149, only Bannerman, Boyle and M’Donnell making any stand. They had, of course, to follow on. Then began the grandest innings CRICKETERS— B e s t G o o d s City Depot s b e a . r t h is M a r k . — A d v t G. G. BUSSEY & Co., 36, i ,o<50 V icto ria S treet, ^ear M ansion Housa ever played by perhaps the pluckiest batsman who ever did homage to King Willow. No cricketer that ever lived—not even the great W. G. himself—knew better how to play an uphill game than William Lloyd Murdoch in his prime. On this occasion the grand per­ formance of the English Achilles was sur­ passed by this latter-day Hector. With­ out a chance he made 153 runs, and carried out his bat at the end. A witness of the whole game once told us that he thought Murdoch could have played on for a week if anyone could have been found to stay with him. Of the other batsmen M’Donnell made a good 43, aud Bonnor and Blackham contri­ buted useful scores ; but it remained for the last two men, Alexander and Moule, neither of whom had previously done much, to give Murdoch the most efficient aid. Alexander and he put on 52 for the ninth wicket; and Moule helped to realise no fewer than 88 for the last, the total reaching 327. England lost five good wickets in knocking off the few runs required to win. And here we may remark that the earlier Australian teams almost invariably played best in their most important, matches. The game against M.C.C. in 1878 is a case in point. That was won by bowling and field­ ing little short of wonderful. The match just described was an instance of how well they could play an up-hill game, and other matches since played have time after time proved how thoroughly they could rise to the occasion. Sussex lost nothing by their generosity The Surrey County Club sent them a cheque for £100 as a small recognition of their kind­ ness ; and on the 13th of September, after a match against odds in Scotland, the Austra­ lians played them at Brighton. The most notable feature of the game was the batting of two Sussex amateurs—Mr. R. T. Ellis, who scored two grand not out innings of 50 and 58 respectively, and Mr. M. P. Lucas, who made 66 at bis seoond attempt. M’Donnell scored 43 for the other side. A somewhat uninteresting game against the Gentlemen of Scotland, af, Edinburgh, was next won by six wickets, Palmer taking ten wickets for 100 runs, and A. G. Steel (for the home side), Alexander, and Jarvis batting well. The next game was against Eleven Players, at Bradford, and owing to rain re­ sulted in a draw. The Australians played one man short. Boyle made the highest score he ever achieved in England, 69. A small scoring match v. Notts resulted in a win for the county by the narrow margin of one wicket, a result mainly attributable to Shaw’s fine bowling and the batting of Shrewsbury and Barnes. The Colonists were again handicapped by having to play only ten men, Bannerman, Spofforth, and Slight being all on the injured list. The last match of the tour was at the Crystal Palace, against an almost representa­ tive Eleven of Players, Ulyett being the one noticeable absentee. The Australians scored a victory by two wickets. Spofforth re­ appeared for them, but did not bowl, Boyle and Palmer being unchanged through both innings. The latter had eleven wickets for 89 runs. The tour had proved even more victorious than the previous one. Of the first-class matches five were won, two lost, and four drawn; against odds sixteen were won, two lost, and eight drawn. Murdoch, Blackham, and Bannerman had certainly enhanced their previous reputations, and Sjrofforth had batted surprisingly well. Of the new men, Palmer and M’Donnell had proved themselves good enough for any team ; but the other five were not generally successful. Boyle had bowled well, and batted better than before. Jarvis had made some useful scores, and had roved himself a very capable reserve wicket- eeper, some judges going so far as to declare him quite Blackham’s equal. The fielding was exoellent throughout.