Cricket 1895

A pril 11, 1895. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 55 before time Eichardson and Ford went cn, but Darling knocked two 4’s and a triplet off Ford, thus making him top scorer of the day. When play ceased the total was 282 for four wickets, of which Darling in an hour and fifty-five minutes, had made 72, while Gregory in two hours and ten minutes had put together 70. S econd D a y .— S a tu r d a y , M arch 2 n d . The attendance was again very large, and those who paid for admission num­ bered 21,717, and the gate, including what was paid extra by those who went into the grand stand, amounted to £1,334. Never before has such a vast assemblage watched a cricket match in Australia, but the attendance would have been larger by nearly 10,000 if there had not been one great counter-attraction. The Autumn Meeting of the Victoria Eacing Club, the leading racing institu­ tion of Australia was being held a few miles out of Melbourne, and as one of the classic races of the year was being run, over 12,000 people, most of whom would otherwise have gone to the cricket ground, went to Flemington. Peel resumed the attack to Darling, who off the third ball scored 2 , one of them resulting from an overthrow by Peel, who had run down the pitch as a run was being stolen. Darling jumped to hit the next ball, but did not meet it with the full face of the bat, and Ford at short slip, dashing down his left hand, made a very fine catch. Lyons went in, but off Eichardson’s fourth ball Gregory was caught at short slip without having added to his score. Gregory’s innings occupied two hours and a quarter, and Darling’s fifteen minutes less. Each only gave the one chance, and their stand, when things were none too bright for Australia, was a very praiseworthy one. Lyons, who before he had scored spooned up one of Peel’s just out of reach of the bowler and mid-off, soon settled down to hit, but Graham, after making one nice leg- glance off Eichardson, was beaten by a beautiful six-inch break-back, and seven wickets were down for 304. Albert Trott made 10 in fair time, but Lyons, who was banging Eichardson about with fine on- hits and square-leg strokes, went at double the pace, and when Trott was taken by Lockwood at cover the board indicated 335. The end did not seem far oft now, with only Jarvis and M'Kibbin to bat, as Jarvis has shown no form lately, and M'Kibbin is not supposed to be anything of a bat. Jarvis, however, was in run-getting vein. Lyons con­ tinued to go, and when he banged 10 off one of Eichardson’s overs the Surrey ex­ press gave way to Lockwood. The big hitter at once cut a fourer, but only snicked the next ball, and was snapped up by Philipson. Lyons, who hit seven ourers, was batting for just five minutes under the hour, and thoroughly con­ founded those critics who thought a mistake had been made in putting him into the team. The last wicket gave more trouble than was anticipated. M'Kibbin showed capital style, making several fine ott-dnves, and with the score at 384 the smen were unparted at lunch time. Soon 'after play was resumed the fourth century was put up. Eichardson had relieved Lockwood ineffectually, but Briggs, on going on instead of Peel, got M'Kibbin caught at extra mid-off with his fourth ball with the total 414. Peel and Eichardson both bowled very finely, the latter especially so on the perfect wicket, the two balls with which he bowled wickets being regular trimmers. At ten minutes past three the English­ men began their innings with Ward and Brockwell. Ward got a single off Giffen, who began the bowling, and from the same over Brockwell made two nice back cuts for a brace and triplet. Harry Trott bowled from the other end, and Brockwell lunging forward at the first ball, over balanced, and gave Jarvis a chance to distinguish himself, which he did. Stod­ dart joined Ward, and now came a splendid stand. While Ward batted with stoical patience, and in forty minutes only made seven, Stoddart, using rare judgment, put on 20 , chiefly by on hits. It was not until the innings was three- quarters of an hour old that the captain with a dangerous late cut off Giffen scored the first fourer. Then he began to go by banging a loose one from Giffen to square leg for 4. The Australianchampion’slength wasnotup to his usualstandard, and Stod­ dart took advantage of it. As he was also punishing Trott, Albert Trott was brought on to bowl, and M’Kibbin changed places with Giffen. This change steadied the rate of scoring. Ward was in great trouble with M’Kibbin’s breaks. The first nearly bowled him, and the fifth he cut over Trott’s head at point, no more than an inch out of reach. M’Kibbin’s first half-dozen overs puzzled both bats­ men, but they scored with a certain amount of freedom off Trott. Stoddart was the first to drop down to the peculi­ arities of the new man’s bowling, and made several pretty leg glances and one or two good square leg hits, while he got on to Trott in the same way. Ward made up his mind to treat M ’Kibbin in a different way, and playing at the pitch, affected three finer cover hits, which travelled to the boundary like lightning. At 95 Harry Trott came on again instead of his brother, and was promptly banged by Stoddart for 4, M ’Kibbin also suffering at the hands of the English captain. Trott’s third over was, however fatal to Stoddart, who jumped out, and missing a leg break, was smartly stumped. He was at the wickets an hour and a half, and hit seven fourers. He opened slowly, but when he became set played with much greater brilliancy, and more like his true self than in any of the other big matches of the tour. Two for 110 looked well, but with two runs added a breakback from M ’Kibbin beat Ward, who had been batting a couple of hours all but five minutes. M’Laren joined Brown and immediately set to work to score, Brown keeping pace with him. The latter was not at home to M ’Kibbin for the first over or two, and Bruce nearly snapped him up at silly mid-on, but the Halifax professional, when he got his eye in, watched the breaks splendidly, and scored off them, too, by neat cuts and leg hits. The amateur made some charming leg; hits off Trott. At 141 Albert Trott relieved his brother, and at 156 Giffen took M’Kibbin’s end. The former did the trick by clean bowling Brown. (3—30—166.) The two young English batsman added 54 runs in forty minutes. Peel now went in and played out time, although Giffen tried M ’Kibbin again instead of Trott at 186. The final total was 200, of which M ’Laren, who played the most stylish cricket of the day, had made 40 and Peel 18. T h ir d D a y .— M o n d ay , M arch 4 Scorching hot Australian weather was provided yesterday for the continuation of the great cricket match, and the players found it very inconvenient. The public, however, though most of them had to sit or stand in the blazing sun all day, rolled up in myriads until there were over 20,000 there. Albert Trott resumed the play by bowling to M’Laren, who scored a single. M’Kibbin went on at the other end, and opened with a maiden. Off Trott’s second over M ’Laren got a lovely cut for 4, and then he hit M’Kibbin to leg for 4. Peel back-cut Trott for 4, and then proceeded to lay about him in rare fashion at the expense of both bowlers, and seemed likely to catch the young Lancashire captain, who was playing beautiful stylish, but defen­ sive rather than vigorous cricket, the left-hander knocked M ’Kibbin, who could not get a length to leg for 4, so Giffen took charge of M’Kibbin’s end. The next incident was a wide by Albert Trott, which went to the fence, and, therefore, counted 4. The scoring now steadied, Giffen, who was bowling better than on Saturday, sending down seven overs for 7 runs, while Trott also commanded the utmost respect for a while. At last Peel began to clout Giffen. First of all he sent the ball to square-leg for 4, and then, with his score at 48, he lifted one to long-on, which Iredale, usually safest of long fields, got to but could not hold. Bruce relieved Trott at 267, and Giffen had himself to blame for not getting a wicket with the first ball of his next over. McLaren (his score then standing at 69) put a bull back, which Giffen, owing to an injury to one of the fingers on his right hand, was unable to hold. Pro­ ceeding in the even tenour of their way the batsmen had put all thoughts of following on beyond question before the luncheon hour, when the total was 295, of which M’Laren’s share was 77, and Peel’s 66 . Giffen and M’Kibbin bowled after luncheon, and whilst the former kept the runs down the latter was treated as a luxury by M’Laren, who very soon got to 98. At 322 A. E. Trott took the the ball from M ’Kibbin, and a lovely cover hit off his first over gave M ’Laren his coveted century. No sooner, how­ ever, had the applause subsided that Peel broke the partnership, which had put on 162 runs, by driving a ball into the hands of Gregory at mid-off. It was a curious coincidence that the big stand of the Australians’ innings was made for Continued onpage 59.