Cricket 1897

470 CRICKET : A "WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. D ec . 30 , 1 8 9 7 . to be blamed for them, it is quite certain that his presence in the Australian team would be hai ed with 1he greatest satisfaction by cricketers all over the world. At present, it seems to be his fixed determination that he will not play against the Englishmen. George has had an eventful and interesting career. He was not one of the fortunate men who come to the front in a moment, but rather he had to struggle very hard indeed before he was recognised as a player who was at all anything cut of the common. It is probable that the visit of Alfred Shaw to Australia with one of the touring teams was the turning point in Giffen’s life as a cricketer, for it was not until he had seen Shaw bowl that he began to seriously aim at becoming a fast-class bowler. Few people in Australia can have expected that he would be chosen to accompany the Australians to England in 1882, and he has himself placed it on r icord that he was never more surprised in his life than when he was asked if he would care to go. From that time his name has been almost as familiar to Englishmen as that of Dr. Grace, and although the various captains of the teams may perhaps have sometimes thought that he had his eccentiicities, there can be no question of his popularity among the spectators. There is that about his walk to the wicket when he is about to bowl which at once attracts the attention of the spectators, and when once a man has begun to watch G.ffen he becomes fasci­ nated. However far away he may be in the fit Id from a spectator, his manner of walkirg at once distinguishes him from the remainder of the team, but it is when he is bowling that the walk is most attrac­ tive. He seems to be afraid that he may startle the batsman, and therefore steps with the utmost delicacy, until he seems to spring suddenly upon his victim. He is not quite the bowler or the b ttsman that he was, but he must always be a difficult bowler to meet on account of the peculiar way in wLi h the ball sometimes seems to come on a level with the batsman’s eye, without dropping until it is almost too late to know where it is, while as a bats­ man he is still likely to make a hundred on a good wicket against any bowling. Everybody knows that he is passionately fond of bowling, and that, when he is captain, he is apt to take a very long time to persuade himself that a change at his end wou!d be an advantage, and many are the stoiies which are told of this trait of his. But it must be remembered that most of his extraordinary feats of keeping himself on for hours have been performed during his matches for S ,uth Australia at a time when the bowling of the colony was terribly weak. He has lately written a book about his career which, already appearing by instalments in an A ustralian paper, will be published in England by Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co. It may safely be said that the sale will be very large, for although George Giffen bas many enemies he has multitudes of friends. W. A . B e t t e s w o r t h . The following leading article from the South Australian Register may be said to fairly represent South Australian opinion on the subject of Giffen’s retirement and reappearance: “ During the past two or three weeks thousandsof Australians have been saying, as Julia, a lady of Verona, said to her w'aiting - maid regarding Proteous, a gentleman of that city, ‘ I would I knew his mind.’ The champion cricketer recently exploded a bomb amongst the community of cricketers when he announced that he would not play in any first-class matches this season. Although he adhered to his determination to the extent that he did not play against Stoddart’s team, people could not bring themselves to believe that the great cricketer would be content to be an onlooker at all the important matches that were to come. The general im­ pression seemed to be that there must be some means that would influence him, if they could only be discovered. The S juth Australian Cricketing Association managed to work the oracle, for on Saturday when our representatives filed into the field to get rid of the Victorian batsmen Giffen was iu his old place at the head of them, and a hearty welcome he received. He bowled throughout the innings, and secured the fine analysis of five wickets for 69, which quite re­ established him in the good graces of the spectators. It has been stated that Giffen is still resolved not to play in test matches, or, to put it in another way, not to play for the promoters of the Englishmen's tour. If, however, he caps his bowling feat by making a score to-day, the public will probably insist, as far as they can, that not a stone shall be left unturned to secure the presence of the champion in Australia’s Eleven. As Stoddart in his speech at the Town Hall, remarked— ‘ Australia will not be Australia without Giffen.’ ” ABOU T AU S T R A L IA N BOWLERS. INTERESTING REMINISCENCES BY “ FELIX.” From the Australasian. Perhaps the best “ natural” bowler that ever bowled a ball was Frank Allan. In Sydney, in March, 1869, against New South Wales, he took 8 wickets for 20 runs, and in 1873-4 W. G. Grace, on the Melbourne ground, said that FraLk Allan was one of the very finest bowlers he had ever met. Three times in one ovtr he shaved the leviathan’s bails, and had indeed the hardest luck, one ball pitching in the block hole, and dropping just over the bails. In England, wi h the first Australian team in 1878, the climate told heavily upon him (it was a very wet season), and he kept longing all the time for another peep at his own blue sky and a bask in the sunshine of a true “ brickfielder.” Once, against Middlesex, when there was a touch of something like Australian sunshine, he showed true form, but as a rule the cold and clouds and wet so shrank him up that he could not bowl in anything like true form. I think I can see him now shivering on English fields, despite shirts, sweater, and coat. At his best he was indeed a beautiful bowler, varying his pace, breaking from either side, and sometimes curving the ball in the air to such an extent that once on the South Melbourne ground he hit a bats­ man on the thigh by an extraordinary full-toss curve, the batsman stepping out as if to cut the ball. A fine performance of Frank’s was in the farewell match of 1878 Australian team on the East Melbourne ground, when, against eighteen of Victoria on a batsman’s wicket, he got 11 wickets for 57 runs. Old “ Gibbie” stood umpire in that match, and frequently ejaculated “ Wonderful” as Allan floored man after man with perfect lengths, the ball breaking just enough to beat the bat. If you were to ask me, “ Who is the bestbowleryouhave ever batted against ?” what answer do you think I would make. If you meant by ‘ best,” the bowler who I felt would be most likely to get me, then my answer would be, not Hpi fforth, not Ted Evans, Frank Allan, Charlie Turner, Jack Ferris, George Giffen, Jack Conway, Harry Boyle, Tom Kendall, Sam Costick, Ben James, Alfred Shaw, J. Coates, Tom Emmett, Ulyett, Morley, Crossland, H. Trumble, Tom Garrett, A. E. Trott, Peate, nor any other of the celebrated bowlers I have met bar one That one is George Palmer. Of all the. famous bowlers I have met, he is the one who I felt would ba the most likely to get me, even when I got set; and for this reason, that I could not watch and gauge his break as I could that of other bowlers. The most perfect leg-break ball I ever saw, was that with which George Palmer bowled Yernon Royle on the Melbourne ground, when that capital Lancastrian batsman had got, I think, 7o on a pitch like a billiard-table. But, like most bowlers, George Palmer was erratic with his leg-breaks; his off-break, when he was in form, was the most difficult I ever had to negotiate, and his “ yorker” was one of the best ever sent down by any bowler. But though George Palmer troubled me more than any other bowler I have met, other batsmen would rather face him any time than face Spofforth. There is no doubt whatever that “ Spoff” created a greater scare amongst English batsmen than any other bowler that ever lived, and his splendid performances on English fields perhaps justify the high eulogium passed upon him by the Hon. B. H. Lyt­ telton, when he terms him the greatest bowler the world has ever seen. He could bowl fast, medium, and slow, with very deceptive action, when in his prime, and in addition to precision and break, he pos­ sessed pluck aud powers of endurance of quite an uncommon order. No faint­ heartedness about “ Old Spoff.” The more he was hit the more he would try, and from first to last of his bowling career he was what “ Old M id ” used to call a “ real grafter.” When he first played for New South Wales his bowling was nearly all very fast, and Nat Thomp­ son used to refer to him as the “ Wind­ N E X T ISSUE, THUR SDAY , J A N U A R Y 27.