Cricket 1902

CRICKET, MAY 22 , 1902. “ Together joined in Cricket’s m an ly to il .” — Byron. n o . 599 . T o il. x x i . THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1902. p r i c e ad. New South Wales is enervating for about five months of the year, whereas it is bracing in Tasmania. About a dozen of us; made two trips every year, coming home for the midsummer and winter holidays. My school was the Hutchins School at Hobart, named after the Yen. Archdeacon Hutchins, and a grand old school it was, very much after the English pattern of a public school. But we had absolutely no coaching except what we might receive from the mas­ ters, and there was little of that. It is just the same now in Australia ; there are never any professionals at schools. To this I attribute the fact that Australian boys learn to develop their own particular styles instead of all running in the same groove; this is noticeable both in batting and bowl­ ing.” “ How did you get on at cricket in Tasmania ? ” “ I was rather fortunate. For bowling I never cared, perhaps because I could not bowl, try how I would. But as a batsman I was picked for the second eleven when Twas twelve years old, and in my first match made 68 and about 20 in the second innings. In the next season I was in the first eleven, and made top score in our princi­ pal match—against the High School. While I was at school I sometimes played for the Break-o’ -Day Club, for which C. J. Eady recently made his score of 566, and because I happened to make a score of 63 for the club against Wellington I was picked to practise for the match between Eighteen of Tasmania and the 1880Australian eleven,but the steamer for Sydney \fras due before the match came off, so that I do not know whether I should have been chosen in the team. As a member of the Break-o’ -Day club, I had a little practice once a week from Tom Kendall, the professional, and from him I learned a good deal. He was chosen style, and he used greatly to enjoy bowling us out in our own paddock, where the ball would shoot and do all sorts of curious things. He was always chaffing us about the superiority of the veterans over the rising generation. From about nine years to twelve I went to a pre­ paratory school, where I used to make a good many runs for a small boy, so that I did not so much mind the accusations which were levelled against me by my schoolfellows that I was nothing but a lucky blind slogger. After that I was sent to school in Tasmania.” “ Why to Tasmania ? ” “ It was quite a common thing for parents to send their children from Sydney to Tasmania, for the climate of MB. It. J. POPE. (From a photo by Falk Studios, Sydney , Australia.) CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD. MR. E. J. POPE. Very few first-class cricketers have had such a varied and interesting career as Mr. Pope, of Sydney, Australia, who is now taking a holiday in England. To Englishmen he is chiefly known as a cricketer who has often acted as substitute for mem­ bers of the Australian team in their various tours, and as a member of the M.C.C., who has made a great many runs in first-class as well as minor matches; in 1891 he was second in the M.C.C. first-class averages. But in Australia he is even better known as an ophthalmic specialist, and it is partly in connection with his profession that he is now in England, for it is his purpose to study what is being done in the hospitals in England, Scotland, Paris and Vienna before he re­ turns to Australia. He is one of the honorary ophthal­ mic staff to the Sydney Hospital, and as his duties there take up three or four afternoons a week in addition to his private practice, which is extensive, he has to work very hard. He is an M.D. and F.R.C.S. of Edinburgh University. Of late years his duties have prevented him from playing much cricket, but only last year he found time to go on tour with I Zingari, Australia, and made scores of 38, 36 not out and 76 not out, an average for the tour of 150. He looks back upon his cricket career as the most enjoyable period of his life, but for the last nine years he has had very little time to give to anything except his profession. Of his early cricket Mr. Pope said, “ I began the game as a youngster of six or seven. My father was a good underhand bowler of the old-fashioned