Cricket 1895

CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. .T an . 31, 1895. M ’Donnell, Coningham, and Bradley, the last-named a most successful batsman— should be chosen to represent Australia in the forthcoming; test matches. The issue of the match was therefore watched with interest in other cities of the Island Continent. Stoddart decided to give Gay a rest, in view of the forthcoming match with Australia, and he also left out Humphreys. The match wasplayed on the E xhibition Ground, a rather small enclosure with a perfect wicket, Stoddart having won the toss. Ward and Lockwood were deputed to begin the innings, and Coningham and Carlton respectively opened with a maiden. Minor hits gradually brought up 10 , and then each batsman got a fourer off Carlton. Then twice Lockwood back cut, 0 iningh- 1,111 to the boundary, but in tryiug to send the last ball of the same over he made a miss-hit, and was caught at slip. A sharp shower fell as Stoddart went in, and play was adjourned for ten minutes. When play was con­ tinued both batsmen, and particularly Stoddart, got on to Coningham, who gave way to Pierce, a right-arm, puzzling lob bowler. M’Glinchy and Coningham were both tried again before lunch with­ out parting the batsmen, who altogether between them had made 60 runs—not a great rate of scoring. There is no need to describe in detail the events which happened after lunch. Ward did not bustle, and was sati^-fied to play beautiful, correct and stylish cricket, but his cap­ tain, after a little preliminary skirmish­ ing, scored at a terrific rate, hitting the ball all over the place and twice over the heads of the spectators. In this way he soon reacbed70. Then a couple of singles preceded a terrific burst of hitting, 4, 4, 5, 4, and 6 coming one after the other, the last—a fixer—being a grand on-hit off Coningham, which landed the ball clean out of the ground. A brace, two singles, and then another two, and the captain registered his first century of the tour. Just hereabouts, when his score was 65, Ward was badly missed at square- leg by M ’Donald. Directly he had reached his hundred Stoddart spread full sail again, and added 48 while Ward was making 20. At last, with the board showing 274, Stoddart ran down the crease to hit a ball from M ’Glinchy, but made a miss-hit and was caug;ht at slip. Stoddart was batting exactly 140 minutes. So that it will be seen he scored at the rate of more than a run a minute. His hits were a six, three fives, and nineteen fours. Notwithstanding the terrific pace at which he scored not a glimmer of a chance could be reckoned against him. Ward and he put on 249 runs, while together. As so often happens after a long partnership, Ward did not long sur­ vive, while only 13 runs were made, and then he was given out leg-before. His innings, which las'ed three hours and five minutes, was spoilt by three chances: one at a very hard one to M'Glinchy, when he had made 38, and the other already men­ tioned, when he was 65. He hit one 5 and eight 4’s. Brockwell joined Brown, and s 6 me steady scientific play was seen. Brockwell, who is trying very hard to make a big score, batted with great care, and took no liberties, while Brown place1! the bowling; beautifully all round. At length, with 336 up, the Tyke cut under an olf-ball, and was taken by Percy Mar 1 at slip. (4 —34—336). Brockwell and M‘Laren stayed together till time was called, when the Surrey man was 31 and the Lancastrian 14, with the total at 364. S e c o n d D a y — S a t u r d a y , D e c e m b e r 8. As the weather was again lovely on Saturday, the attendance increased from the 5,000 of Friday to over 10,000. Con­ ingham and M'Glinchy resumed the bowling;, and the former, with the third ball of his second over, be it Brockwell, who tried to make a leg stroke. (Five for 368.) In quick succession Peel, Ford, and Briggs were disposed of by Coning- ham. Peel was out to a leg-before decision, with which be was not greatly enamoured. Ford played a ball on to his wicket, and a beauty beat Briggs. (Eight for 392.) It is remarkable that in nearly every big innings played the Englishmen, after making a big start one day, have fallen to pieces the next. Always, how­ ever, someone comes along to save the tail from absolute collapse. On this occasion it was Pnilipson, who started with amazing confidence, and sent the ball flying in all directions. First 400 appeared, and then came 10 after 10 , until at lunch time 480 was in sight, the stumper having made 50 out of 88 . The end soon came when play was resumed, Pierce disposing; of both Philipson and Richardson. There were eight 4’s in Philipson’s score, and ten in M ‘Laren’s. The latter played excellently, not giving anything approaching a chance. The score is the largest the Englishmen have yet made. The Queenslander's batting was very disappointing to their admirers. M'Don- nel and Coningham made a fair start with 49 for the first wicket, which was the record, when M'Donnell, who had batted as well as ever, was beaten by a good length ball from Richardson. Bradley, who is reputed to be the best batsman in Queensland, was yorked first ball. Mac­ donald batted neatly, and McGlinchy stonewalled, but Coningham played the best cricket of the day. He hit seven 4’s, and once lifted Peel out of the ground. Richardson and Peel bowled unchanged, although it did seem that Bobby was kept on too long. The “ Surrey Cata- pault ” secured the fine average of 8 for 52, which will go a long way towards pulling up his general averages, which were knocked all to pieces at Adelaide and Melbourne. All his wickets but one were clean bowled. The Queenslanders went to the wickets with forty minutes to play, and this time Stoddart gave two others of his leading howlers—Lockwood and Briggs—a turn, and they secured a wicket each ’ere time was called, Carton being caught at mid- off and M ‘Donnell on the boundary. T h ir d D a y — M o n d a y , D e c e m b e r 10. The Banana-landers cut up very badly on the third day. Macdonald and Con­ ingham again batted nicely, but no one else reached double figures. Coningham hit a 5 and a 6 off Briggs, who retired in favour of Richardson, which gave the fast bowler the opportunity to improve his average again with three for 11 , makiug eleven for 63 in the match—won­ derful figures on a perfect pitch. The Englishman won the match with an inn­ ings and 274 runs to spare. Sc.ire:— E ngland . A. Ward, 1 b w, b . M’Gliuchy ............107 W . H. Lockwood, c Carlton, b Coning­ ham ..............................14 Mr. A. E. Stoddart, c Pierce, b M’Glinchy 149 J. T. Brown, c M ’ Uon- nell, b M’Glinchy ... 34 W . Brockwell, b Con­ ingham ..................... 33 Mr. A. C. Maclarennot out .............................74 3 R. Peel, lb w , b Con­ ingham .................. Mr. F. G. J. Ford, hit wkt, bConingham 1 J. Briggs, b Coning­ ham ........................... 5 Mr. H. Philipson, c M’ Donnell, b Pierce 59 T. Richardson, c and b Pierce ................ 0 Byes, &c................15 Total ..491 Q ueensland . P. S. M’Donnell, b Richard­ son .................................. 21 A. Coningham, b Peel ... 43 W . Bradley, b Richardson 0 R. Macdonald, b Richard­ son ................................. 18 W . W . McGlinchy b Richardson..........................15 H. Freeman, b Richardson 8 J. 8. Drape, b Peel ........... 0 W . Hoare, 1b w, b Richard­ son .................................. 0 J. Carlton, b Richardson ... 13 G. W . Pierce, b Richardson 0 O. 0 . Hitchcock, notout ... 1 Byes, &c........................ 2 c Ward, b Lock­ wood.................. 22 b Lockwood ... 19 b Lockwood ... 0 b Richardson c and b Briggs run out ... , b Ric hardson b Richardson c Stoddart, Briggs ... not out.......... b Lockwood Byes, &c. , 20 5 7 2 Total ...................121 Total BOW LING AN ALYSIS. E ngland .— First Innings. 0 . M. R. W . Carlton ... 25 6 86 0 Hoare... 14 3 35 0 O. M. R .W . Coningham 51 11 152 5 M’Glinchy 36 11 97 3 Pierce ... 24.4 1 109 2 Q ueensland . First Innings. Second Innings. O. M. R. W.* 0. M.R. W . Richardson 18.1 5 52 8 .................. 8 2 11 3 P e e l........... 19 5 67 2 Briggs ... 17 8 26 2 Lockwood 25 7 51 1 EIGHTH MATCH—v. AUSTRAL IA F ir s t D a y — F r i d a y , D e c e m b e r 14. The fine scoring of the Englishmen during the last month had aroused intense interest throughout Australia, and the first of the great matches was looked forward to from all corners of Australia as very few previous matches in these Colonies have been. The selection of the Australian eleven devolved upon George Giffen, Jack Blackham, and Charley Turner, who in their respective Colonies were looked upon as certainties for the team. They selected twelve men to practise—the eleven who were ultimately chosen and Graham. Trumble was asked, but could not play, and no attempt was mode to persuade Moses, Bruce, or Bannerman, who are firm in their decision not to play first-class cricket. At the last moment it was decided to leave out Graham, who has not, for an unfortunate reason, done justice to the cricket which is in him. The Australians practised together on the Sydney ground for four days before the match, while the Britishers got down from Brisbane in time to have a day at the nets. The NEXT ISSUE FEBRUARY 28.