Cricket 1895

A p r i l 11, 1895. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. 57 V ie w o f S t. K it t s . T h e E n g lis h A m ateu rs in t h e W e s t In d ie s , w it h P o r t r a it s op Two Team s. ^ a b t l t o i t © r o g g t p . The abstract and brief chronicle of the time.— Hamlet. safe. Below in round figures, that is, ignoring quarters and eighths of years, are the ages of the players in the match referred t o : T h e mail just to hand from New Zealand shows that Mr. J. S. Udal and his team from Fiji were then carrying on the tour with a certain amount of success. Of three matches played during the week ending February 21, two, those against Nelson and Hawkes Bay, were won, the latter by an innings and 43 runs. The third, against Wellington, was saved by the Fijians, thanks to a plucky stand by the last two batsmen, Tui Vanua and Scott, who remained together for ten minutes and so robbed Wellington of an apparently certain victory. INCOGS, will be glad to hear that J. S. U. himself was very much to the fore in this last match. R. T., in particular, will be interested to know that his score of fifty included no less than nine fours. By the way, there was another Incog performing in the Nelson match, but on the other side. The score shows that Holdship was the second highest con­ tributor in Wellington’s second innings. This, I take it, must be A. R. of that name, whose all-round cricket was of such excellent service to Surbiton, the Incogs., and other well-known Clubs. A F a c t . —Mr. Stoddart’s Eleven v. South Australia, 2nd April, 1895.— Husband arriving home with result of victory :— England won by ten wickets ! Hurrah ! But then (to wife of bosom), perhaps you don’t quite know what that means?” — “ Oh! yes, dear, of course I do—knocking down the wicket ten times more than the others.” — -Tableau, with explanations. I n f o r m a t io n has reached me that at a recent meeting of captains of county ■elevens, it was unanimously resolved to recommend an increase in the fee paid to umpires who act in inter-county matches, from five pounds to six. The umpire’s lot, like that of Policeman X in the Pirates o f Penzance, is not a happy one. I f can never be so, in fact, with the con­ tinuous strain of a close attention to the many intricate points which require a decision, but most of all a prompt and unequivocal decision. Even under the revised scale, few will venture, I fancy, to urge that a capable umpire would be over paid. Aye, there’s the rub ! But, after all, umpires are fallible like other mortals. And on the whole they do their spiriting very gently. A n Australian critic gives a very interesting comparison of the ages of the twenty-two cricketers who took part in the last test match between England and Australia. According to him, George Giffen and Peel are the only men who played in a test match before 1885—ten years ago—and the former the solitary ■one who figured In the seven- runs victory at Kennington Oval in 1882. With such players as Brown, Bichardson, M'Laren, Gregory, Darling, Graham, McKibbin, and Albert Trott, it would certainly f * ® as if the immediate future of both English and Australian cricket is fairly E n g lan d . A u str a lia . R. Peel ................. 38 G. Giffen ......... 36 J. Briggs ................. 33 A . H. Ja rv is......... 34 A . E . Stoddart 32 J. J. Lyons .......... 32 A . W ard ................. 30 W . Bruce................. 31 H. H. Humphreys.. 29b G. H. S. Trott .. 28.y W . Brockw ell......... 29“ F. A . Iredale......... 27f F. G. J. F o r d ......... 28 S. E . Gregory......... 25 W . H. Lockwood .. 27 J. Darling ......... 24 J. T. Brown ......... 25.] H. Granam ......... 24 T. Richardson......... * 4 T. R McKibbin .. 24 A. C. M ‘Laren 23 A . E . Trott ......... 22 Average ......... 29 Average ......... 28 C r ic k e t readers who had any personal acquaintance with the members of the earlier Australian teams—and there must be plenty of them—will be pleased to learn that T. W. Garrett is able to do some “ gentle tapping ” yet. Even if his bowling is not quite so effective he is still able to score at times with the best. In proof of this a reference is only needed to the score of the match between Victoria and South Australia at Sydney as late as the end of February. Garrett’s 82 was the top score in the first innings of New South Wales. In the match altogether he was a worthy third to Gregory, who scored 119 for once out, and Iredale, who made 26 and 91, with an aggregate of 109. I was almost going to dub T. W. G. a veteran, only a friend of mine who has a remarkable memory for cricket facts reminds me that T. W. has yet three months to complete hi< thirty-seventh year.