Cricket 1903

468 CRIOKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Dec. 31, 1903. M.C.C. Hayward, b Laurie ... 59 Knight, c ----- , b M aguire................. 5 Tyldesley, c Asworth, b H o g u e.................101 R. E. Foster, 1 b w b m Ebsworth.................31 Hirst, c& b Maguire.. 7 Braund, c Hogue, b Maguire .......... M/uri 10 B. J.T.Bosanquet, wrt out ........................ 99 W est M aitland . First innings. Lilley, not out ...........102 Arnold, c Maguire, b Laurie ....................25 Strudwick, 1 b w, b Maguire ................. 0 Fielder, c Cameron, b Laurie .................. 5 E xtras.................. 9 Total ..453 Braund ... Arnold ... Hirst ... Bosanquet Hayward Fielder ... R. 73 45 88 55 21 39 W. 8 ........ 5 .......... 2 ....... 1 ........ 0 ........ 0 ........ Lilley ... Foster ... Knight.. Second innings. R. 41 22 19 68 22 35 18 2 W. 0 2 1 2 0 1 0 0 THE NEWCASTLE MATCH (XV.). ( s i x t h o f the t o u r .) Played at Newcastle (N.S.W.) on December 4 and 6. Drawn. For this match P. F. Warner again stood down, and 11. E. Foster for the second time undertook the duties of captain. There was a curious contrast in the batting of the Englishmen, Foster and Hayward knocking up a large score for the first wicket, the former making his runs much more quickly than his partner, while after lunch there was a decided breakdown, which was only stayed by some good play by Braund and Hayward. When stumps were drawn Newcastle had made 74 for six wickets, and were thus quite out of the running. On the Monday when the game was resumed the local batting was better, and the Englishmen went in again, with the result that they made a heap of runs. M.C.C. R.E.Foster,cCowen,b Dent 105 b Clayton .......... 47 Hayward, b Fraser .......... 87 not out................... 27 Tyldesley,c Scott, b Dent... 5 c Scott, b Fraser 127 Knight, c Scott, b Dent ... 5 lbw, b Fraser ... 9 Hirst, c Dent, b Bipon ... 4 c Clements, b Hogue .......... 51 B.J.T .Bosanquet,cClements, b Dent.............................. 1 c Scott, bWhiting 8 Rhodes, c Clements, b Dent 0 b Fraser .......... 9 Relf, c Donald, b Fraser ... 10 lbw, b Hogue ... 6 Braund, not o u t ................. 42 not o u t.................. €4 Fielder, ht. wkt., b Hogue 0 c Bourke,b Ripon 5 Strudwick,cFraser,bMorley 29 Extras ................. ... 18 Extras .......... 28 Total........................ 306 Total (8 wkts) 381 F ifteen of N ewcastle . Hogue,cRhodes,bHirst 31 Ripon, c Strudwick, b H irst........................25 Clements, b Keif ... 4 McGlinchy, b Relf ... 0 Donald, b Hirst.......... 0 Waddy, b Relf ........ 1 Cowen, lbw, b Hirst... 10 Dent, st Strudwick, b Bosanquet ..........26 Whiting, c Strudwick, b Relf Scott, b Hirst ... Bouike, b Fielder Clayton, b Fielder Morley, b Rhodes Fraser, not out ... Lott, b Fielder ... Extras........ Total .......... N ew castle . R. W. 5 ... 30 I Rhodes 4 ... 46 Bosanquet 3 ... 42 W . Hirst ... Relf ... Fielder... !: THE f i r s t t e s t m a t c h . y ’1^ , (SEVENTH 01’ THE TOUR.) Played at Sydney, on Deo. 11,12,14, 15, 16, and 17. England won by 5 wickets. Full of exciting incidents, interesting from the first ball almost to the last, and prolonged to the sixth day, the first test match played by the M.C.C. team will for ever be counted as one of the most remarkable of a long series of wonderful matches. Not the least notioaable point about it is the fact that although no fewer than 1,541 runs were scored, a good deal of rain fell while the game was in progress, and at times at any rate, the wicket was very soft, while at others the ball bumped every now and then. The only inference which can be drawn from this is that the bowling on neither side was as good as it has been in many former matches, and indeed one has only to remember that the Australian bowlers who played had all won their spurs many years ago, and that there is no Trumble or Jones on the side. But there are many other noticeable points. In the first innings of the Australians, at the commencement of the match, the three greatest batsmen on the side—Trumper, Duff, and Clement H ill—were all out for twelve, and it was only a determined stand by Noble and Armstrong which prevented the venture from being a mere procession. Again heavy rain fell, and yet the Englishmen made nearly the highest score ever registered in a test match. Then there was the magnificent display in the Australians’ second innings by Trumper, who, if he had found some­ one to stay with him, as Belf and Rhodes stayed with Foster, might have pulled the match out of the fire. There was the inexplicable breakdown of the first four Englishmen in thefinalinnings—almost as noticeable a collapse as had been seen in the first innings by Australia. Last, butnot least, there was the very effective bowling of Bhodes, who by nearly all his critics, including Yorkshiremen (judging by his performances on hard wickets in England) was looked upon as most unlikely to do himself justics in Australia, except when the wickets were dead. Altogether it was a remarkable match, in which the bowling was far inferior to the batting. The Trumbles, Spofforths, Palmers, and Turners of old were no longer seen on the Australian side, and the men who had to do the brunt of the work were men who had topped their high-water mark years ago. The fielding also seems to have been on both sides below the standard of that usually seen in test matches. Apparently no rain had fallen im­ mediately beforethe match, and the wicket was described as perfect when the Austra­ lians began the first innings. But some­ thing was wrong. Trumper, more feared than any other Australian batsman of the present day, was out for 1, splendidly caught with one hand at short slip by Foster, who in making the catch, fell on his shoulder; Duff, who has deservedly gained the place of the second batsman in Australia, was taken at the wicket for 3, and Hill, who, although he has not quite come up to the very great expecta­ tions formed of him, holds the third place, also fell to Lilley’s skill when he had only made 4. Thus the three greatest batsmen in Australia were all out for 12 runs. There was now practically no one left, except Noble, likely to make a score big enough to retrieve the fortunes of the game, but he proved equal to the occasion. With Armstrong as a partner, he laid himself out to wear down the bowling, only scoring 10 in the first three-quarters of an hour. But he held on, and gradually the two men put a very much better appearance on the game, so that when Armstrong was at last disposed of, things did not look so very bad, for the total was 118 for four wickets, the partner­ ship having produced 106 runs. Too much praise can hardly be given to Armstrong for his stubborn play at this crisis. Hopkins carried on the good work, and helped Noble to put on nearly another hundred runs, while at the end of the day Gregory made a very useful 23. Meanwhile Noble had been going steadily on, hardly making a mistake, taking no risks, and showing himself master of the situation. When stumps were drawn with the score at 259 for seven wickets, he was not out 132. Bain had been falling steadily for 30me time, although not sufficiently heavily to stop the game, but in the night there was a severe storm and it was thought not unlikely that the Australians had made quite enough runs to win. But although on the next day the wicket was slow, and the English bowlers soon finished off the Australian innings, the visitors vastly distinguished them­ selves with the bat. By the end of the day they had scored 243 for four wickets, and were thus only 43 runs behind, with a fair prospect of enjoying a much faster wicket on the following Monday. There was nothing very remarkable about the batting, although Tyldesley and Arnold played fine cricket at a critical time, while towards the end of the day B. E. Foster, and Braund obtained nearly a mastery over the bowling by consistently careful cricket. When stumps were drawn the former was not out 73, and the latter was not out 67. The third day’s play was sensational in the extreme. Braund remained with Foster until the total during the partnership had been increased by 192 ; he was then bowled by Howell for a splendid innings of 102, entirely worthy of his great reputation. It did not seem likely that anything out of the ordinary was going to happen after this, for Hirst, Bosanquet, and Lilley were dismissed in a few minutes for 6 runs between them. But then Relf came to the assistance of Foster, and remained with him while 115 runs were put on, his own share of this being 31, made by the steadiest of cricket. It was decidedly the right game to play, for meanwhile Foster was increasing his total by leaps and bounds. When the partnership was broken only Bhodes remained. He once more showed what a fine batsman he is by helping Foster to put on yet another 130 runs, and after all his partner was the first to go, having played, the innings of his career, and by far the highest iu a test match. He was batting for nearly seven hours, and Australian critics have nothing but praise to say about his brilliant effort. Before stumps were drawn, Gregory and Kelly put on 16 runs without loss for the Australians. England with a lead of 276 were now in a commanding position, although with such men as Trumper, Duff, Hill, and Noble arrayed against them, it was early —very early—to speak about victory. As a matter of fact, the Australians made a fine fight, and perhaps if luck had not been against them, they would even have