Cricket 1905

C R IC K E T , A W E E K LY RECO RD OP T H B GAM E. JU LY 27, 1905. £ i = l e— >«©Sc 3= H © H h - . . . j 9 I “ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. Vo 698 . vol.. xxiv., THUESDAY, JULY 27, 1905. p r i c e ad- THE AUSTRALIAN WICKET­ KEEPER. Cricketers to whom Blackham, the greatest wicket-keeper ever produced by Australia, seems to belong to the pre­ historic ages, must find it difficult to realise that J. J. Kelly, the wicket­ keeper of the present Australian team, was his immediate successor. Blackham’s last appearance in England was with the team of 1893; Kelly’s first appearance was with the team of 1896. Like Black­ ham, Kelly is a Victorian, but he migrated to New South Wales when he began to be known as a wicket­ keeper, and thus had oppor­ tunities of distinguishing himself, which would cer­ tainly have been denied to him if he had remained in Victoria where Blackham was pre-eminent. It cannot be said that Kelly modelled his style on that of Black­ ham, but the simplicity which characterised Black­ ham’s methods is to be seen when Kelly is behind the stumps. No two men ever played less to the gallery. To have to succeed Black­ ham was a tremendous ordeal for a young cricketer, and it was not a little remarkable that Kelly came out of it with so much credit to him­ self, He did not attract a great deal of attention, except among experts, for he was not graceful in his movements, and did nothing by his manner or style to cause the crowd to wonder at his cleverness. The ball came so easily and so natur­ ally into his hands that there seemed no earthly reason why it should not remain there. But it is very seldom that a good wicket-keeper is vastly admired by the crowd unless he has a particularly taking style which cannot be passed over. Even Blackham, quiet and businesslike in his methods, would perhaps have escaped general notice if his successes had not been so numerous, and if so many bats­ men had not been so obviously afraid of him. But Kelly came to stay, and there seems no particular reason why he should not visit England with the next team, for it cannot be said that as a rule his occasional substitutes have greatly dis­ tinguished themselves. His side has often suffered when he has been injured, which has not been very often, for like nearly all great wicket-keepers he has managed to avoid injury to his hands in the most astonishing way, even when he has had to deal with the fastest of bowlers. Naturally his hands are not ladylike, for no wicket-keeper playing almost every day for several seasons can avoid getting a few excrescences on his fingers. There is perhaps no well-known Aus­ tralian about whom less has been written than Kelly. He does not figure in Dr. Grace’ s second book, written in 1899, among “ Some of my contemporaries.” Even Wisden, in its lucid summing up of the Australian tours, passes him over with a mere reference in each year after a tour. Thus in 1897 all that is said about him is that “ Kelly, though a highly competent wicket- keeper, i d not come within measurable distance of Blackham.” Again, in 1900, “ It was said that he missed a good many catches when standing back to Jones’s bowling, but con­ sidering the enormous amount of work he had to do he kept wicket wonder­ fully well.” And in 1903, “ Owing to Kelly being in particularly fine form all the summer, Carter’s oppor­ tunities were somewhat re­ stricted.” Yet, after all, this is very high praise for a man who had to follow immediately after Blackham. It may be stated that in the tour of 1896 Kelly caught 37 men and stumped 22; in 1899 he caught 37 and stumped 3; in 1902 he caught 23 and stumped 12. As a batsman Kelly is more useful than ornamental. He is not quite as useful ashis predecessor, who, with an equally unattractive style, was a man of whom it was most difficult to dispose when he set his mind to staying at the wickets. But Kelly has some of the dogged determination which made Blackham so dangerous, and this was never better shown than in the Test match at Manchester in 1896 when Kelly, although he only made 8 runs, defended his wicket with deter­ mination until he and Trumble pulled the match out of the fire. It will be remembered that Tom Richardson was bowling gplendidlyduring thepartnership, as he had done all through the innings.