Cricket 1893

20 CRICKET: the first time against them, and was top scorer for the County with two not-out innings, 43 and 8, besides taking seven wiokets for 62 runs. The Australians showed for the first time that they had alittle batting on their side, Giffen making 54, not out, Blackham 43, and Bonnor 34. Then the M.C.C. match had to be entirely abandoned, owing to rain, and, on a sodden wicket at Oxford, the Australians achieved their first victory, the University having to suocumb by 25 runs. Spofforth and Garrett bowled unchanged throughout both innings, the Demon taking 15 wickets for 36. The other bowling analyses of the match were, like Spofforth’s, too good to be true. A similar match at Manchester, against the North of England, resulted in a draw. Play as only possible on one day, and ought not to have been attempted then, for so bad was the wicket that Scott’ s team were out for aggregates of 45 and 43, and the North could only score 34 and 15 for one wicket. Only four bowlers were utilised, and their records are a curiosity.—Peate, 12 wickets for 50 runs; Spofforth, 7 for 20 ; Watson, 7 for 34; and Palmer, 4 for 21. The highest score made was Jones’ 15! An improvement in the all-round play was manifest in the next game, against a strong team of the Gentlemen of England, at Lord’s. No big scores were made, but Blackham, Jones, Scott, and Bonnor all batted well, and the Amateurs were defeated by 7 wickets. In this match an accident occurred to Spofforth. He dislocated one of the fingers of his right hand, and was unable to play for the next three weeks. After that, and until the end of the tour, he never bowled in quite his old form, which, to our thinking, he has, indeed, never wholly recovered yet. A victory over Derbyshire by 6 wickets now put the wins ahead of the losses. Jones, who was now running into fine form, made 41 and 13, while in the first innings Bonnor made 46 a id M 'llwraith 39. Giffen took no fewer than hixteen wickets. The match with Cambridge University which followed was, though it ended in a draw, so far satisfactory that it proved Scott’s Team to be a stronger batting side than their early bad displays would have lad one to suppose. Batting first, they made 222, Bruce scoring 54, and Trumble 47. ’ihe University replied with 143, a total chiefly due to the efforts of C. W. Rock and F . Mar- chant, who together played a game somewhat resembling tbat of M‘Donnell and Banner­ man, and increased the score to about three times what it had been when they came to­ gether. Batting again, the Colonists per­ formed in a manner almost worthy of Mur­ doch’ s Second Team at its best. A. H. Jarvis nearly achieved a century, his score at the call of time being 96, not out; Scott made 67, Trumble not out 56, Bonnor 36, Bruce 34, Jones 30, and the total was 326 for five wickets. This display was the more gratify­ ing from the fact that Bruce, Trumble, and Jarvis, three batsmen who had hitherto done little to justify their reputations, were promi­ nent figures in it. Against Lancashire, at Manchester, Jones scored on a bad ground a good, though not faultless, innings of 54 ; and the county was beaten by an innings and 12 runs, the other scores on both sides being small. The next two matches, though both drawn* reflected, perhaps, more credit upon the Australians than anything else they did dur­ ing the tour. The first was at the Oval, against a very strong team of the Gentlemen, who, winning the toss, scored 471. Grace made 148, G. M. Kemp (the Cambridge University crack) 83, W. E. Roller 63, the Hon. M. B. Hawke (now Lord Hawke) 56, W. H. Patterson 44, and W . W Read 34. The Australians sent to the wickets Jones snd M'llwraith. The new man was soon dismissed, but Scott stayed some time, and Jarvis, the next comer, who m ide71, helped Jones to put on 120. The last named batsman’s score reached 151, a A WEEKLY RECOED OF THE really grand innings; and Garrett making 49, not out, Bonnor 47, and Bruce 46, the total came to a figure 17 in advance of that of the Englishmen, who, going in again, were dismissed for 105, F. M. Lucas and \V. E. Roller absent, hurt. Time, however, did not allow of the Australians attempting to get the runs required to win. The next game was against the Players» at Nottingham, Lohmann being the only notable absentee from the English side. The pros , batting first, scored 334, a result almost entirely due to the efforts of Barlow and Flowers, who made 172 for the ninth wicket while together, and scored re­ spectively 113 and 93. Scott’s team replied with 205 (Giffen 72), and, following on, ran up 236 for six wickets—Giffen 78, Jones 49, Bonnor 47—so having certainly not much the worst of the draw. At Lord’s, Middlesex was then defeated by ore wicket. Though the scoring was somewhat large, it was almost wholly done by seven batsmen of the twenty- two engaged. In the first innings of Middle­ sex, Spillman scored 87 and J. G. Walker 67, in their second S. W. Scott 68 and A. J. Webbe 61. For the Australians Scott played a grand innings of 123, Jones scored 76 and Giffen 77 in the first innings; while in the second Giffen was the only big scorer with 52. The Colonists just managed to pull through by one wicket, Blackham—who was in with R. J. Pope, a young Australian medical student, who played several times for tha team—behaving with the utmost coolness at the critical moment. A scratch team under the title of Lord March’s Eleven was met at Chichester, and defeated by eight wickets, Garrett scoring 49, aud Giffen taking ten wickets for 43 runs. At Chiswick Park a similar team, under the captaincy of Mr. C. I. Thornton, managed to make a draw, though only time prevented the Australians winning. Bruce, for once, batted in something like the form that had been expected of him, and scored 106 ; and Giffen, by making 59, brought his total for his last six innings (once not out) to no fewer than 363 runs ! Bonnor also made 49 and Trumble 38. The first of the three matches v. England, at Manchester, was next on the programme. The Old Country—in whcse team, as originally selected, Mr. Hornby and Barnes had places, though neither being able to play, Barlow and Briggs were utilised instead—was represented by Messrs. W. G. Grace, W . W. Read and A. G. Steel, with Barlow, Briggs, Lohmann, Peate, Pilling, Scotton, Shrews­ bury and Ulyett. The Australians, from whose team M’llwraith and Evans stood down, won the toss and scored 205. Jones played a magnificent innings of 87, and Jarvis hit well for 45. England topped this score by eighteen: W. W. Read 51, Barlow (not out) 38, Lohmann 32, Shrewsbury 31. '1hen the Colonists, who found Barlow’s bowling more than usually difficult, were all out for 123, Scott doing best with 47. The runs required to win were hit off by the Englishmen, but with only four wickets to spare ; and the game was one that reflected almost as much credit on the vanquished as on the victors. The next game, v. Notts, was drawn much in favour of the Australians, for whom Palmer, who had hitherto batted but poorly, scored 59 in the first innings, towards the total of which Scott contributed 37, and Giffen 34. In the second innings Jones made 40, Scott 35 and Giffen 24 (not out). Shrewsbury made exactly 100 in his two innings, and Scotton’s second score of 45 was more than three hours and a half in the making. Yorkshire was then beaten at Sheffield by six wickets, Palmer scoring 94 and 15 for one side, Bates 57 and 44 for the other. A weak team of Liverpool and District—for whom A. G. Steel made 55 and E. C. Hornby 46—then had all the best of a draw. Scott made 80 in his second innings. The next match was that generally con­ sidered the principal match of the tour, the fixture.v.England at Lord’s. Peateand Pilling GAME. FEB. 23, 1893 stood down for Barnes and Mr. E. F. S. Tyle­ cote, changes which undoubtedly strengthened the batting, while Evans was played this time in preference to Bruce. England batting first, scored 353, Shrewsbury, in his own safe and practically inimitable style, compiling 164, and A. G. Steel making 58. Then the Austra­ lians, who cut up very badly, were all out for 121,and again for 126, and retired defeated by an innings and 106 runs. Palmer, with 20 and 48, batted with some pluck, but no one elee on the side seemed able to contend against the bowling of Briggs,who, on a good hard ground, took eleven wickets for 74. This was the inauguration of a disas­ trous period of drawn games, faint hearts, and big scores made by opposing sides. Now aEd again would come faint gleams of the dogged, tenacious pluck which had been the chief characteristic of Austra­ lian cricket during the past; but such gleams were few and far bet ween,and, soon dying out, left the degenerate successors of the great Murdoch and the mighty Massie to play a weary, monotonous round of exhibition matches, in which the attainment of a definite end seemed to be the last object aimed at An unfavourable draw with Yorkshire was followed by a match with a scratch team, at Stoke, which the Australians would have won had time permitted. There was no longer a Massie or a M’Donnell to force the game, and Bonnor was but a shadow of the Bonnor of old time, most reckless of batsmen now grown stale and tame. Blackham scored 71, Giffen 53 and Bruce 43 in this last match. Then Surrey beat them by an innings and 209, only Giffen, with 59 and 39, batting well for them. For the County Maurice Read made 186, Abel 144, and Mr. W . W. Read 80. A ten wickets’ defeat from Kent followed, G. G. Hearne top scorer with 53(not out). An un­ fortunate draw with Gloucestershire, marked by heavy scoring on the part of both teams, was next. W. G. Grace scored innings of 9 and 110, while, each in two innings, J.H. Brain made 180, S. P. Jones 76, H. J. H. Scott 75, G. Giffen 73, H. V . Page 66, J. M. Blackham and W . O. Moberley 62 each, F. Townsend 52, and E. M. Grace 47. A draw with the newly- formed County Club of Warwickshire came next, only one day’ s play being possible. The third match with England— the greatest disaster of the tour—followed at the Oval. The Old Country put in tbe field the same team that had played at L ord’s : in the Colonists’ eleven M ’llwraith displaced Jarvis. England scored 434, the Australians 68 and 149 ! W.G. played a grand innings of 170, and Scotton, Who went in first with him and stonewalled while he hit, scored 44, though at one time he was sixty-seven minutes at the wickets without making a run. W . W. Read made 94, Briggs 53, and Shrewsbury 34. Palmer and Giffen batted pluckily in the second innings of the losing side, but found little support. Now, when the darkness was most intense, it really seemed as though dawn were nigh, for the next two matches, against Gloucester­ shire and Mr. G. N. Wyatt’s Eleven at Ports­ mouth, were both won, by 26 runs and seven wiokets respectively. In the latter match, Blackham scored 61, Bruce 56, and Scott 17 and 66, not out. But then the weary list of draws was again added to, and high scoring prevented any of the next seven matches being brought to a definite conclusion. There marches we give, with the chief seeres made in each,but there is nothing in them that causes us to feel inclined to linger, except to remark that, for once in a way, Palmer and Jones really played the old grand uphill game in the second innings against Lord Londesborough’s eleven. Cambridge University, Past and Present.— at Leyton—Giffen scored an innings of 119. Evans 74 not out, Jones 52, C. W . Rock 75 and 23, A. G. Steel 46 and 10, F. M. Lucas 30 and 29, G. B. Studd 10 and 48 (not out), C. D. Buxton 57. Sussex—at Brighton.—Mr. G. B ann 104, Mr. F. M. Lucas (not out) 93, Mr. W. Newham