Cricket 1898

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.” — Byron. n o . 4 7 4 vox., x v xi. THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1898. p r ic e aa. W . HOW ELL . Until the winter which ought to have left us long before April, Howell was chiefly known to Englishmen as a keeper of bees, who, having a certain aptitude for ciicket, had been thought good enough to play for his colony, New South Wales. Prom time to time, however, remarks by celebrated Australian players reached England to the effect that the bee-keeper was a bowler of the highest class, who m ight be expected in the uncertain future to do something of moment. But at last Howell seemed to have settled down to his tiue place in the cricket world. He was considered to be a useful bowler to have on a Colonial side, and that was about all. When the unfortunate team which is now on its way home from Australia left England in the autumn surrounded with a halo of glory packed away among its impedimenta, none of its members can have thought that in the matches against Aus­ tral iahe was likely to find Howell as an antagonist. Indeed it seems to have occurred to no­ body while the first t wo of these matches was in progress the New South Wales bowler was worthy of a place, or that, even if he were, his services would ever be required, and it was a vast surprise to the cricket world when he was chosen for the third match. For, with one exception, he had done absolutely nothing that sea'on in big matches. In New South Wales against Mr. Stoddart’s team, in the middle of Novem­ ber, no less than 57 runs were hit off him and he did not take a w icket; he did not play in New South Wales v. V ictoria; but in the first match between his colony and South Australia, at the beginning of January, he and Noble considerably astonished the natives. Howell took eight wickets for 110 and Noble eight for 95 in the two innings. On the strength of this one performance, and strongly against the advice of most of the critics, he was an hour, hitting the bowlers about in a way to which they were quite unaccus­ tomed. He was at once pitchforked into the colonial team in its next match, which was against Mr. Stoddart’s team of 1894. In this match he made useful scores, but was not thought of as a bowler by his captsin, who was not even aware that the recruit plumed himself upon his skill with the ball. There came a time during the match when it seemed a sheer impossibility to separate Brown and Ward. Howell, not wishing to hide his light under a bushel, approached his captain at this interesting period of the game, stating that he was under the impression that he could dispose of both batsmen. As a forlorn hope, his captain allowed him to see what he could do, and not only did he dispose of the two Eng­ lish professionals, but in addi­ tion took three other wickets, the whole five only costing 45 runs. From this day he was a bowler, and though on occasions he made a few runs, his batting was not taken seriously. It was therefore regarded almost as a good joke, when in the first inn- iugs of the New South Wales return match he ki ocked up 48 44 minutes, but when in the second innings he began to show signs of repeating the perfor­ mance, the matter becime serious for the Englishmen. When he went to the wickets in the second innings, Newell was at the other end, with 55 to his credit. When Newell was at 61, Howell was at 68 ! The bowlers were powerless against him. His hitting was very hard and safe, and when he had been in for nearly an hour, it began to be a question whether, when the hour was up, his score would not be a hundred. But with his total at 95, and three minutes still wanting to the hour, he was at last disposed of. During his innings he only received 69 balls, of w h i c h he scored from 33. It goes with­ out saying that the Australian news­ papers were enthusiastic when they referred to this innings, but the Arrow But all Howell’s bow ling feats pale before the wonderful innings which astonished everybody in the return match between New South Wales and the Englishmen. In his early days he had been a batsman pure and simple, and in fact he was chosen to play in his first match for his colony on the strength of his batting alone. He had been playing for a country team against the colony, and had made a score of 51 in less than chosen by the selection committee to represent Australia in the third match. It was a bold move, which if it had not been justified by success would have been the cause of accusations of insanity against the committee. But Howell took four wickets in the first innings for 70. In the remaining two matches his place was assured, although he did very little towards helping his side win the matches.