Cricket 1899

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. so. B i7 . v o l . x v i i i . THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1899. p r ic e s «. A CHAT ABOUT ME . CLEMENT H ILL . So important a place has Clement H ill taken in the cricket world, and for so many years has he been one of the bats­ men most feared by Eaglish bowlers, that it is difficult to conceive of him being absolutely unheard of b y a single Englishman less than eight years ago. He came suddenly under our notice in May, 1892, in a way which was as remarkable as that of the young Clifton C jllege boy a few weeks ago, for it was in a school match that he made 360 not out—the record for Australia until it was beaten last year b y Mr. F. Warne, and later b y Mr. J. W orrell. The match was played at Easter, but in those days it was not customary to telegraph every important score to England. People liu ghed and said to them­ selves, “ another cricket p rod igy! ” and thought never to hear of the boy again. But from the time that H ill bngan his school career he steadily went on improving, and it w ill be admitted by everyone that he is improving even now. From the first he showed himself to be a bats­ man of that class which is so small— the batsman who can not only keep up his wicket in time of desperate need, but can make runs while he is doing it. H e seems never to have known what it was to be n ervous; he does not know it now. It was not long before he had a chance of showing his nerve in a good match, for while he was still at school he became a memberof the North Adelaide C.C., and in his very firstmatch had to go in when seven wickets were down and 100 runs still required to win. A situation o f this sortseems to have always been exactly the thing which] he liked, and in this match he showed his mettle. The runs were knocked off with­ out further loss, his share of them being 45. On another occasion, when he was only seventeen years old, he had to g o in when seven wickets were down for 45, Jones having carried everything before him. His innings of 41 not out attracted some attention, for it was noticed that he seemed to fn d no difficulty at all in the fast bow ling, whereas all the rest o f the team had shaped very badly against it. A t the end of the season (his second forthe club) he had an average of 39. As he was a very promising wicket keeper as well as a bat, it will be readily under­ stood that the authorities began to watch his doings. But although he showed much promise nobody anticipated that he would be chosen for an intercolonial match until he was some years older, but at the beginning of the follow ing season he did fairly well, and was chosen as twelfth man for South Australia against Mr. Stoddart’s team. This was in 1894. It was a fortu­ nate thing for his colony that one of the team had to stand down at the last moment, for H ill made his d6but in first-class cricket with such promising results that he was never left out of the team in the future matches. He had one innings, and scored 20, but he showed sufficiently good form to please the best judges in the team. After one or two moderate perfor­ mances his chance came to him. In the Victoria match at Melbourne, South Austra­ lia had lost seven wickets for 31, and with absolute cool­ ness he played all the bow ling on a most difficult wicket, scoring 33. Before the end of the season he played two innings which attracted the attention of all Englishmen to the ri«ing star. H e made 150 not out and 56 for his colony against Mr. Stoddart’ s team, playing the bow ling of Richardson, who was then feared even more than Jones is at the present day, with consummate skill, and show­ ing all-round form of a kind which marked him out even then as a great batsman. Of his first innings in the match, Cricket, of May 9th, 1895, said: “ From first to last the colt’s play lacked nothing essential — defence, vigour, judgment, and variety of strokes were all combined in a degree remarkable in one so young. Since the days of Grace’s minority no colt of eighteen has played such a fine innings.” So highly did the Englishmen speak of H ill when they returned, that, evenafterdue allowance had beenmadefor