Cricket 1907

Feb. 28, 1907. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 27 out against Lancashire 2nd X I., at Sunderland. I n the last issue of Cricket I had occasion to chronicle a good batting per­ formance on the part of Lieut. Rollo in a match played at Secunderabad for the Ministers’ Cricket Cup. On January 26th and 28th, in the final game of the Competition, between the Royal Fusiliers and a combined team of the 96th Behar Infantry and 76th Punjabis, the same batsman, who assisted the latter, went in first wicket down and cariied out his bat for 99. The total of the side was 183. In his second innings he scored only 19, and the Fusiliers had no difficulty in winning by ten wickets. T h e following comments, concerning the constitution of the coming South African team, are by “ Umpire,” the well-known critic cf the Natal Mercury: The team selected has caused much dis­ cussion, and it is almost certain that there will he some changes. Louis Tancred is picked entirely on reputation, of course, and he has yet to completely recover before he can be reckoned as a certain starter. Then Shalders suffers from a strained leg, and he is chosen conditionally upon passing the doctor. Anyhow, Shalders cannot be reckoned as the cricketer he was. Halliwell should not have been chosen on present form, and it is mooted that his official position as starter to the Johannesburg Turf Club will be jeopardised if he accepts his place. At any rate, it is not known yet that he will be able to ob'ain leave. Sinclair, too, has not at all decided upon making the tour. He is attached now, and is considering whether it would be wise to absent himself from business. It is quite possible then that Sinclair, Halliwell, Shalders and Tancred may not leave South Africa. The general public favour Robinson, Carter, and S. 1). Snooke, and it is freely expressed that those three should have been in the team instead of Halliwell, Floquet, and Smith respectively. What will happen remains to be seen. In any case, the writer, who followed much of the cricket against the Australians and against the M .C.C., is of opinion that the side is a great one, but not as great as it was against the M .C.C., and not much better than against the Australians. I n a private letter recently received from one who can certainly speak with authority, it was stated that “ Notwith­ standing reports from South Africa, you will probably find Mackay in the S.A. team to yisit England.” The rumour may, or may not, prove correct, and I give it, without comment, in exactly the form in which it reached me. As the French say, we shall see. A t a meeting of the Committee of the South African Cricket Association, held at Johannesburg on January 17th, it was mentioned that the guarantee for the English visit was still short by some £1,100. The suggestion that the team should play in the coastal towns prior to departure, with a view to augmenting the fund, was held over for further consideration. With reference to the Currie Cup Tournament, it was announced that the total gate-money, after paying for gate-keepers, etc., amounted to £656> while the total expenses at Johannesburg amounted to £350, leaving a balance of £300 odd to go to the various bodies. The Transvaal Uuion wrote, foregoing their share of 20 per cent, and the Chair­ man gave notice that at the next meeting he would move that the Association also forego its share of 20 per cent. M r . J. R. M ason has, unfortunately, found it impossible to accept the invita­ tion he received to take a Kent team to America in the autumn. It is probable, however, that a visit from the South Africans on the conclusion of their Eng­ lish tour will be arranged, as a letter has been received by the Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadelphia from Mr. G. Allsop, manager of the South Africans, suggest­ ing that the trip be made. C a p t a in W y n y a r d , who was obliged to return from New Zealand owing to the severe accident he met with whilst playing at Wellington on Boxing Day, arrived in London on the 19th inst. He expressed himself hopeful of being able to play again next season. F or the first time in the history of the game a team representing North Queens­ land has visited Brisbane. The visitors, who were not at full strength, fared badly in their match against the Metro­ polis on December 31st and January 1st, for Brisbane scored 608 for nine wicketB and won by an innings and 389 runs, Guy Brown making 123 and W. J. Lewis 116. North Queensland were disposed of for 119 and 100. T h e Sydney Mail publishes the follow­ ing interesting remarks concerning Donald M’Rae, who made his debut for South Australia this season at the age of 32 :— M ’ Rae comes from Aldinga, 32 miles out- Bide Adelaide, where he played for twelve or thirteen years. At that place the wickets are made of slabs of slate about 3 in. thick set on sand, and matting is laid thereon. As might be inferred, these wickets are remark­ ably fast, and, like concrete pitches, the ball rises high, necessitating a good deal of back play. M ’ Rae had thus to unlearn his slate wicket style, and educate himself to turf. That he was a ready pupil is shown by the fact that when he got a chance on the fast pitches at Adelaide he obtained such scores as a0 and 83. The failure of two or three men in the November engagement against Victoria at Adelaide caused the selectors to look for others. The policy of the New South Wales selectors is to discard players who are beyond a certain age. The South Australian selectors gave M ’Rae a chance, and he justified their j udgment. He proved so apt a pupil on the fast pitches that in his first appearance, on a good wicket against Victoria, he got 49 and 70. He appeared earlier against N ew South Wales, and struck a wet patch. The drive and the square cut are b is best strokes. The only chance M ’ Rae has of playing is in the Saturday afternoon matches, and to get to Adelaide he has to drive 32 miles, and traverse the same distance to get home again. Prior to getting into Adelaide cricket M ’Rae played with Sellick’s Hill, a district club, for which he never had an average of less than 75 runs per innings, and his highest was 132. The latter average he secured three years ago. He headed the batting list on ten occasions, and the bowling on five. He sends down a slow to medium ball with a turn from each side, and occasionally whips in a fast one. His places in the field are in the country and in the vicinity of third man. O n e of the most promising left-handed batsmen in Australia at the present time appears to be Marcus H. Blaxland, of Sydney. His scores in his first three inter-State matches have been 94, v. Queensland, at Brisbane; 93, v. Queens­ land, at Sydney; and 75, v. South Aus­ tralia, also at Sydney. A few seasons ago, when he captained the Sydney Grammar School Eleven, he played several very large innings. O tjr old friend, or perhaps I should say our friend of long standing, “ Felix,” of the Australasian, has the following concerning two well-known members of the pioneer team of 1878 in a recent article entitle! “ Round the Ground” :— The veteran, H . F. Boyle, when 19 years of age, was told by a doctor that if he played cricket he would not be alive in six months. It seems that through some over-exertion he burst a blood-vessel. However, instead of following the medical advice, he went to the cricket ground in a day or two, and he has been playing ever since, and he was 59 years of age on the 10th of December, 1906. In his younger days, in Bendigo, he and others, including his friend, Mr. Wood, now in Melbourne, used to spend their Sunday afternoons and many moonlight nights in clearing timber off the spot at Sydney flat that they had selected for a cricket ground. And the late W . Midwinter was so keen on cricket that as a youth he used to steal away from the mine wnere he was working for his father, and get to the cricket ground by hook or by crook. When he got home he invari­ ably got “ larruped” by the old man, but Mid. didn’t mind the “ score ” on his back so long as he got a “ score ” on the field or took wickets. These two old Bendigonians were types of cricketers that you never meet nowa­ days. Boyle especially so. Midwinter is dead quite a long time, but if you look at last week’s cricket illustrations in The Austra­ lasian you will see that Boyle is very much alive, as smart looking as when he paced the deck of the fast-fleeting steamer and polished off four Welsh rarebits for supper more than twenty golden years ago. T h e suggestion that a match be played in Sydney, after the return with Victoria, between New South Wales and the Rist of Australia, for the benefit of S. E. Gregory, was cordially approved. N6W South Wales were defeated by eight wickets, Gregory, who assisted the Rest, himself scoring 94. The proceeds amounted to £788. Gregory played his first match for New South Wales iu 1888, and visited England on six occasions. In Test matches his record i s :— 41 matches, 73 innings, 6 times not out, highest score 201, total 1,738, average 25 94. A t the meeting of the Victorian Cricket Association on January 14th the report from the executive oommittee on the