Cricket 1896

394 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S ept . 3, 1896. to the Kew C.C., arid as we lived close by the fide of the ground I had splendid opportunities of playing; I am afraid that I neglected my woik at school for 1he sake of playing cricket. We played on turf—very good turf, too. Jack Swift, a very correct old Melbourne batsman, used to take a lot of trouble in coaching me i nd my brothers. The want of coaching for youngsters is a great drawbaik to Australian cricket, for they can only learn by watching other batsmen, and if they invariably happened to choose a good model, this wouldn’t matter so much; but they generally don’t. I have often seen from 100 to 150 boys playing iu the same field, and among them there have been several who shewed lots of promise of making good cricketers, but it was neaily impossible that any of them should come into notice.” “ Don’t you think that some better way might be found of promoting men from junior or senior clubs than is cus­ tomary at present ? ” “ Most decidedly I do. At present, juniors prefer to keep on with their old club even whm they are forty years old. There is more excitement for them, and they get more enjoyment. Of course, if a man makes himself prominent in a j unior club the senior clubs hear of him and give him a trial. But as often as not, in fact neaily always, he comes off a matting or aspbulte wii ket, and is put <n to turf, wi h the result that he is utterly at tea. The chances are that he will never f,et another trial. He knows the probabilily of this; so that in ad­ dition to suffering from the strangeness of the wicket, he feels nervous for fear he should not come cff, and the mischief is dot e. You ctn’t make a cricketer in a day. I thi’ik that if the big clubs were to play matches with the colts, like Surrey and Yorkshire and nearly all the English counties do, a vast amouut of good would be the result. I hoi e to iiud this quite the usual thing before long. I should suggest that, in order to give the youngsters a really fair chance, matting should be put down on the turf of the senior club which is playing against them; theie c<uld be no difficulties in the way of doing this. But it is quite (learthat it is necessary to give a pre­ mising player several chances before discarding him as hi peless. There are lots of great cricketers now playing in Eugland who were tiied and tried by their counties until they at last came off.” “ How did you get promoted from a junior club ? ” ‘ The Melbourne Club had been told that I was pretty good, and they gave me a show in the first eleven against South Melbourne. I happened to be lucky enough to come off, taking five wickets for 25 and 6 for about 32, and making scores of 30 and 40. That per­ formance secured me a regular place in the first team. This was in 1886. 1 met Trott for the first time in this match, but 1 don't think he bowled me out. One of ihe best things in bowling that I ever saw him do was in an inter-colonial match at Sydney. He was chosen to come over here in 1888 entirely for his bowling, with the result that he came off as a bat.” “ What is the reason that so many Australians, with big reputations at home, fail to do themselves j ustice during their first English tour ? ” “ Well, partly because there is a feeling in Australia that if a man is a good player there he is sure to be a success here ; partly because he has not been used to play day after day continually; and partly because English bowling on E g ’ ish wickets is very diffeient from E iglish bowling (or Australian bowling f >r the matter of that) on Australian wickets. With your players there is no reason for failure in Australia, and therefore it is seldom that a man does not play up to his reputation. A man goes from good wickets to better ones. Besides this he has frequent opportunities of a long rest between the matches. It is surprising to me that Darling, Iredale, and Hill have done so well in Eugland. I kuow that when 1 first came over I felt any­ thing but comfortable on English wickets. Kenny Burn was in the team, and I remember him once pottering abc ut on the wicket at Lord’s for nearly an hour. When he cane back to the pavilion, he said, ‘ There’s Attewell been bowling to me for nearly an hour; my best stroke is on the leg side, and he’s never pitched me a single ball there from first to last.’ And iu ttiose dayR Attewel could have kept on for a week without giving him a leg ball. This is a very fair instance of the difficulty which most of us feel in getting luns the first time we come over.” “ Have you played much country ciicket ? ” “ I whs once playing at Hay, in New South Wales, against a team composed of squatters, one of whom had driven 60 miles to the ma<ch. It seems that he had made a bet with another of his &ide as to who should get the bigger score. To make matters sure, he came up to us, and, after finding out who was going to bowJ, told us that if we would let him break his duck, he would bring us a live emu, while if we let him get half a dozen, he would briug a live white kangaroo. We determined to let him get some runs just to see what sort of stcck he raised in his part of the w o ili; but the man with whom he had made the b^t was too sharp for him. He squared the umpire, and got one of our team to promise to appeal the first ball when his rival was in. We didn’ t know this, of course, and so the first ball was a short one, wide of the wicket. The batsman mi-sed it, there was a shout of ‘ How’s that.’ and the umpire promptly replied ‘ out ’ ! So we didn’t get our white kangaroo. In another country match in which I was playing, a couple of greyhounds ran across the pitch with a hare in front of them. Of course, we stopped the game to see the kill.” *' Do you think that the future of Australian ciicket is promising ” ? “ I think it is very hopeful, and that good players will continue to appear. Much more might be done with the Public Schools, most of which have turf wickets, bat, at present, there is no one to coach the boys, who get into all sorts of bad faults. At Melbourne, Charlie Lawrence has done a lot of good in the way of coaching ; he is very painstaking.” “ Have you arranged to have a short rest this year before you play the Philadelphians after landing in Americap” “ Yes. We had a warning in 1893, and have not forgotten it. We reached New Yoik at about ten o’clock at night, and they wouldn’t let us land until eight next morning ; we could get no rest for the noise. After a good deal of trouble with the Custom House officials we got our luggage through; we were taken by special car straight on to Philadelphia, where we were met by sjme of the committee of the Belmont Club, on whose ground the match was to be played; thence, without a pause, we were driven to the ground, and began to play as soon as we had changed. The committee often chaffed us about the clever way in which they had managed things for us. We were without Turner and M’Leod, while most of our boys had been ill on the voyage, and were altogether out of form. We lost the toss and missed a lot of catches, with the result that the Philadelphians made a total of 500 odd ; and as the wicket didn’t wear very well we were beateu in a hollow manner. There were some very good players iu the J’hiladel- phian Team, most of them batting after the style of English Uuiversity men. They had some good bowlers, especially King, and they fielded wondei fully well —us well as anything I have ever seen.” W- A. Bh XTKSWORTH. ADDISCOMBE y. NORTHBROOK.—Played at Lee on August 29. ADDI8COMBK. A. J. Trollope, c D. Goodall, b H. Good- all ........................17 J. Grant, b Roebuck... 26 E.Wiltshire,blioebuck 40 Peck, c Knowles, b Roebuck .................70 P. Allen, lbw, b Smith 14 The rest did not bat. • innings declared closed. N orthbrook . J. R. Coulthard, c Roebuck, b (Smith... 13 Rev. li. A. Series, not out ................. ... 0 Extras .......... 7 Total (6 wkts)*187 E. A. Pawle, c Green, b Peck .................35 D. Goodall. run out... ll C. His;ham, c Perrin, b Barker................. 0 H. Goodall, c Perrin, b Peck ................. 2 R. Burroughs,c Serres, b Peck .................12 J.W. Knowles, bGrant 1 W. Collins, b Grant... C. Disney Roebuck, not out ................. C. Dunlop, c Allen, b Peck........................ A. H. Smith, lbw, b Grant ................. Rye ................. C. Alberry cli1not bat. Total 68 ADDISCOMBE (2) v. NORTBBROOK (2).-Played at Addiscombe on August 29. N orth brook . A. Westley, c S. Wilt­ shire, b Clark ... 2 W. D. Butler, b S. Wiltshire... ..........20 A. H. Wo »lmer, c Pas­ call, b H. Moore ... 15 P. Westley, b M.Moore 23 E. Wright,lbw, b Clark 8 G. Wood, c Robert?, b Clark........................ 3 C. A. Hooper, b Clark 0 F. Foston, c S. Wilt­ shire, b M. Moore... 0 K. Warmington, st Roberts, b Clark ... 1 E. Loxley, not out .. 22 F. Mote, b M. Moore 12 Extras................. 6 Total .112 M. M. Moore, c Wood, b Wright................. D. M. Roberts, lbw, b Foston ................. A. Wiltshire, b Foston A. Pulford, b Wright 8. Wiltshire, b Foston C. Al. Paacall, c P. Westley, b Wiight A ddiscom br . E. G. B u s h e ll, c Woolmer, b Wood... 20 H.Clark,lbw,b Foston 1 II.P. Moore, b Wright 0 H. V. Green, run out 1 H. L. Jupp, not out.. 0 Extras................ 5 Total 46