Cricket 1897

J a n . 28, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 9 Burbidgemade fourcatches in the innings, he could not have been much the worse for his mishap.” April 16, 17, 19, 20.—N.S.W. v. Queensland, at Brisbane. January 1, 2, 4.—Victoria y. South Australia, at Melbourne. doing than instantaneous photographs or artists ever give. O n Monday, January 18, Mrs. Phillips, the wife of the Middlesex^bowler, who is now in Australia, died after a long anl painful illness. I t is exceedingly pleasant to notice that the affairs of the Notts County C.C., which a year or two ago looked very unpromising, have vastly improved. All liabilities have been paid off, and a balance remains in hand of over £1,300. As usual, the Surrey match at Nottingham produced the most gate money. It i ■> interesting to find that the Sussex match, which, it may be remembered, onci seemed likely to be abandoned by Notts because it always resulted in a loss, pro­ duced a handsome profit and was third on the list, that against the Australians being second. N ew S outh W ales beat Victoria by nine wickets in the match which took place at the end of last year. The scores have not yet come to band. As will be seen from the report of a match between Lucknow and Cawnpore on page 13, Major F. F. Crawford, a brother of “ Parson” Crawford, scored 103 not out on December 29. Major Crawford was very successful as a bats­ man in Kent, and unless I am mistaken he played a good deal for the Royal Artillery. He is now the honorary secretary of the Lucknow C.C. T he presentation of the testimonial from Yorkshire cricketers to Lord Hawke has been postponed until his return from the West Indies. News has reached me that Lord Hawke’s team has arrived at Barbados. T h e interviewer has, in his own swnet way, been enjoying a good time of it with the members of the Australian team since their return home. T o see ourselves as others see us is a good thing at all time-i, and as some of the remarks which follow from Darling have special reference to our own cricket they are worth repro­ duction : “ ‘ Have we had a good time ? I should say we have. The Manager was perfect. We all got on splendidly together, and we did well on the field, so how could we help enjoying ourselves? We felt a b it‘ down’ when we lost the last test match, but we consoled ourselves by the reflection that we had the worst of the wicket. England won the match by batting for that hour and a half on the first afternoon when the wicket was easy.’ ” A good deal more he eaid in general terms about the play of the Eleven, but that is an old story now. Some of bis opinions of the individual merits of the players may, however, be interesting. AlTER a fitting reference to Giffen’s fine innings of eighty against England, at Manchester, and H ill’s 118 (not out) against Surrey, Darling lays a tribute to I t is intended to raise the North Mel­ bourne C.C. ground three feet all over, and for this purpose earth taken from the sewage works will be used. The ground will be be some 25 feet wider after the alterations. The work is to be done by the Town Council of North Melbourne. T he Old Etonians in Ceylon have issued a challenge to play a team representing any other school. It is thought that as Harrow, Cheltenham, Marlborough, Charterhouse and Sherborne are well represented in the island, the challenge will soon be taken up. I n Tasmania H. F. Boyle, the old Australian bowler, made 75 not out for Zeeham, of which club he is captain, against Montagu. I n a score of 68 made for I. Zingari against Queen’s Club at Durban, G. L. Dalton made no less than six sixes. In the course of his innings he scored 2, 6, 2, 6, 4, in five successive balls. T he Bulli soil which, as was mentioned in Cricket a short time ago, is now used as a top dressing at Sydney, instead of soil from Melbourne, still gives very satisfactory results. Rain two days before a match and on the first day of a match has had very little effect, but at present there has been no opportunity of seeing what would happen if a baking sun followed heavy rain the night before a match. O n the notice board of a cricket club in New Zealand, the captain pinned the following order :— “ Intending players are requested to never mind about their lunch, but hurry on to the ground and not keep the game waiting.” Some of our English captains must feel tempted to try the same experiment. Two Essex county crieketers, P. Perrin and F. G. Bull, started on a voyage to Australia on January 22 for the benefit of their health. It will be remembered that C. McGahey, another Essex cricketer, went to Australia some time ago with the same object in view. T h a t J. J. Lyons is in form this year is very evident, for he nearly always makes runs. One of his best innings was played for his club, Norwood (Adelaide), on December 5, when he made 71 out of 91 for the first wicket. He was only i'atting for 50 minutes. Somei of his drives are described as being enormous. In the first intercolonial match he also played splendidly. T h e dates for the intercolonial matches of the present Australian season are as follows:— December 19, 21, 22.—N.S.W . v. S.A., at Adelaide. December 26, 28, 29, 30.—N.S.W . v. Victoria, at Melbourne. January 8, 9, 11, 12.—N.S.W . v. S.A., at Sydney. January 23,25, 26,27 —N.S.W . v. Victoria, at Sydney. A Q ueensland team, comprising S. Jones, S. Donahoo, Dr. McDonald, R. Wilson, O. Cowley, D. Miller, W. Lewis, W. Bradley, W. McGlinchy, T. Byrnes, W. Hall and O. Hitchcock, left on Dec. 16th, for New Zealand, where they were to play a series of matches. I n an account of a match given in a local paper in Ceylon a batsman is des­ cribed as 1. b. w. and caught. An asterisk against his name refers the reader to the foot of the score, where it is found that the batsman was “ so given out by both umpires. ” T he following team was selected to play against New South Wales in the match commencing on 26th December:— W. Bruce, F. Laver, C. McLeod, H. Trumble, H. Trott, A. E. Trott, H. Graham, A. Johns, J. Harry, J. Carlton, J. Worrall. H. Stuckey was twelfth H endricks , the SouthAfrican coloured fast bowler, is in as good form as ever. His best performance this season is seven wickets for 19 runs in a match which the opposing side seemed certain to win. A c c o r d in g to the Australasian a bats­ man named Grant, for Kyneton B team against Taradale C, made 42, composed of nine 4’s and only one single. The single came from a hard hit to leg, stopped by the boundary. Grant’s figures are 4, 5,4, 1, 4, 4,4, 4, 4, 4, 4. T eams representing All Australia have only played twice at Hobart. The team of 1896 beat Tasmania by seven wickets, and that of 1880 by five wickets. In the 1880 match W. L. Murdoch scored 101 out of 221. In the same year the Australians also played at Launceston, and won by an innings and 222 runs, Boyle making the top score, 68. C ommenting upon a hit of Graham’s in the recent Hobart match, the Tas­ manian Mail say8 :—“ This calls to mind the match with Grace’s team in 1874, when the very first runs scored for Tasmania were from a hit by J. G. Davies off Lillywhite to leg over the fence for 6. W. H. Walker, too, got two 6’s off Grace in the same innings, and two consecutive 6’s off the same bowler in the second innii gs.” C. M a r t in , an old Australian ciicketer, is said to have recently been battiug for three hours for three runs. F or the benefit of the East Melbourne C.C. funds several well-known Austi alian cricketers posed as living pictures at the Bijou Theatre. J. M’Blackham attracted much attention by his life-like realization of a wicket keeper in action. Laver stood in the art of cutting. It would have been very interesting to see whether he man­ aged to give a better idea of what he was N E X T ISSUE, THURSDAY, F E B R U A R Y 25.