Cricket 1899

“ Together joined In Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. so. 514 . v o l . x v i i i . THUESDAY, J U N E 2 9 , 1899. p b i c b ad. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD- MU . J. W O R R A L L . —When some years ago Mr. Worrall came to England with an Australian team he was not a great success, hut everybody who saw him bat felt that here was a good man if only he could once get going. 'After his return to Australia he got back his old form, and last season, on some of the worst wickets imaginable, he showed in the Intercolonial matches that he was able to make runs when nearly every­ body else failed. It at once became evident that here was the very man who was likely to be of the greatest use during a tour in England, where queer wickets are often a speciality of the country, and when he was choBen to accompany the team not a single dissentient voice was raised against him. A strained leg at the beginning of the tour seemed likely to greatly handicap him, hut he has come off with flying colours, and by his innings of 104 against York­ shire when his team was in a very bad position in the second innings, he marked himself out as a great batsman. In the Leicestershire match, on a very difficult wicket, he made another 100, and his reputation is now as firmly established as that of any Australian who has pre­ ceded him. He still holds the record for the highest score ever made in Australia—417 for Carlton v. University—though he must have begun to resign himself to the inevitable when Warne passed the 400 for the same club last year. Like all Australians, Mr. Worrall has pleasant recollec­ tions of his visits to Yorkshire, where the spectators attract attention by their great enthu­ siasm and by the waves of excitement which occasionally sweep over them. “ A very funny thing happened at Bradford,” he said, “ in the match against Yorkshire—at least we can see the humour of it now, although I ’m afraid it did not. dawn on us for a time. As long as J. T. Brown was in on the last day there was a chance that we should be beaten, for we had only made a small score in our first innings, and when a ball was hit to the boundary it was promptly thrown back to the wicket by one of the spectators. But after Brown had gone our prospects began to look brighter. Presently Wilson smacked a ball to the boundary far away from any of our fieldsmen. Our^fellows waited for the ball to be thrown back as usual, but a spectator picked it up and quietly dropped it in front of him, as much as to say ‘ come and get it.’ Of course, one of us had MB. J. WORRALL. (From a Photo by It. IV. Thomas , Cheapside , London.) to make a long run to bring it back. The crowd immensely enjoyed the incident, and after we had thought it over we rather enj oyed it also. In the same match I had to run for a ball nearly up to the boundary. Just as I had quickly turned and thrown it in to the wicket-keeper a spectator shouted, ‘ Hi ! turn round again and show us thy mug. We want to see i t ! ’ Of course, he called it ‘ moog,’ which reminds me that Laver and I lost our way while we were in Sheffield, and I assure you that we asked four people for the Wharn- cliffe Hotel before we were understood. The gentleman who at last gave u« the informa* tion was in doubt for a moment or two, when alight dawned upon him and he said, laughingly, ‘ Oh, I see, you mean t h e ...................’ (He said something which ended in ‘ cliffe,’ and though it didn’t sound like what we wanted, we felt that it was the name of our hotel).” As a boy, Mr. Worrall was, like nearly all Australian boys, wild to play cricket. He was a bowler with a leg break and an off break, but when he began to play on turf he found that bowling was not his forte, and he began to show signs of becoming a batsman, his style being that of Mr. Jessop. “ My first cricket in good matches,” he said, “ was played for the Ballarat club, but owing to changes of residence I have represented South Melbourne, East Melbourne, Eitzroy and, finally, Carlton. When I first came to England I was not class enough—at any rate, that is the only reason which I can give for my consistent failures.” “ Without asking you to make invidious comparisons, I should be glad if you would say whether you think English cricket has retrograded in any way since your first visit ? ’ ’ “ 1 think—I say this with all diffidence—that previous Aus­ tralian elevens have recognised the fact that they would have to compete in the representative matches with teams which on paper were better than them­ selves. Now, if I may be allowed to say so, Englishmen seem to agree that the hoot is on the other leg. For the last twenty years or so English cricket has been so remarkably good that I have always felt it could be no better. We, on the other hand, have always had to climb up, and men who have to climb up hope to gradually improve. If we were to be fortunate enough to beat you at home this year, you would have to begin to do a little climbing again, and I feel sure that it would put now life into the game. To my mind the defeat of your men in Australia, unpleasant as it must have been both to you at home and