Cricket 1897

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron, so. 4 6 0 . v o l . x v i . THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1897. p r i c e 2 d. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. THE HON. J. S. UDAL. Since he was appointed Attorney-General of Fiji in 1889, Mr. Udal has given a great deal of attention to cricket in the Islands, and his experiences there will naturally be of great interest to English cricketers. The game was introduced to the natives by Mr. E. W. Wallington, the old Oxford Blue, but it was only in its infancy when Mr. Udal appeared on the scene, and infused a new and vigorous life into it. It was by no means as an inexperienced cricketer that the newly ap­ pointed Attorney-General went to Fiji, for in England he had played with success in first-class cricket, and but for the fact that he was born in Warwickshire, of Dorsetshire parentage, and so could get no first-class county cricket, he would have made a name for himself as a cricketer. As it was he played in many M. C. C. matches, generally making a good score, and also for Richmond, the Incogniti and the Free Foresters. He several times played on the same side as W .G ., and once had the satit-faction of scoring 72 on a day when the Doctor made 67. That the Doctor had a good opinion of Mr. Udal’s cricket abilities may be inferred from the fact of his being offered a place in the first t» am he took to Australia in 1873, but Mr. Udal was unable to accept it, owing to private reasons. After he went into the law he gave up first-class cricket, but still ap­ peared for the Bar against the Army. He has lately been in England on urgent private busi­ ness, but owing to the way in which his time has been occupied he has only been able to play in one match, in which he made over 20. Although he is W.G.’s junior by only six months, he still holds his own at cricket in the Fiji Islands, and last year made a score of 50 out of a total of 75—a fair innings for Fiji. He returns to take up his duties in the Islands the begin­ ning of this month, the new Governor of Fiji, Sir George O’ Brien, having preceded him by only a few weeks. In 1895 a team from Fiji, including half a dozen native cricketers, had a tour in New Zealand under the captaincy of Mr. Udal, winning four matches out of eight, against the chief New Zealand Associations, and drawing two—a remarkablerecord, considering the opportunities which New Zealanders have of playing good matches. “ We were received with the greatest kindness everywhere,” said Mr. Udal, “ and Mr. R. J. Seddon, the New Zealand Premier, was particularly obliging, among other thing* giving us reduced railway fares. Daring our tour in New Zealand the Mayor of Nelson invited us to a smoking con­ cert. After it was over he made a little speech, saying very nice things about us, and ended up with the remark : ‘ All I can say is, I hope I shall never see a worse lot of fellows.’ I don’t think that he understood why we all laughed so much at this, for it obviously did not occur to him that his wish might have been taken to mean something quite different from what he intended.” “ Did the natives attract much attention ? ” “ They were made much of everywhere, especially by the ladies, and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Although they had never been out of the Islands before, and had great temptations, they behaved most perfectly all through the tour, and not once was there the slightest trouble with them. We were very greatly amused by a letter written to one of the New Zealand papers. It was , announced beforehand, as an I additional attraction, that the ' natives would appear in their ordinary costume, which so exer­ cised the mind of the writer—he was perhaps the father of a family—that he said that really he hoped the police would attend on the ground to see that decency was observed ! But the native dress for cricket is a sulu , or short cloth which goes round the loins and comes down to the knee, and a cricket shirt, so that the costume was found to be sufficiently becoming. The natives did not make many runs in the New Zealand tour, finding the slow leg-break bowling too difficult for them; but some of them can bat very well indeed, and one, a chief in the employ of the Government, had the best average last year at Suva—over 20, which on our slow wicket is distinctly good. In bowling, however, the natives came off well. One of them was exceed­ ingly fast, with a natural break from the [off, and a very short run. He took over 50 wickets at an average of less than nine runs apiece—three-quarters of them clean bowled ! He was our greatest success, but we knew very little about him until shortly before we started on the tour.” “ How did you discover your fast bowler? ” “ Three weeks before the de­ parture of the team I had never heard his name mentioned, but it was rumoured that a good bowler would be found in the team which Mr. Allar- dyce, our Native Commissioner, was bringing against us. When the match came off, I went in first as I usually did, and had to take the ball from the new bowler. Turning to the wicket-keeper, a very big and powerful native, I asked ‘ Does he bowl fast or slow ? * The wicket-keeper smiled amicably, but said nothing, but seeing that the bowler was standing close to the umpire, a little" in front THE HON. J. S. UDAL. (From a Photo by Hanna, Queen Street, Auckland, N.Z.)