Cricket 1907

Nov. 28, 1°QT. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF IHE GAME. 453 did good work in all the other N.S.W. matches, making 87 v. S.A. at Sydney, and 74 at Adelaide, 60 and 27 v. Victoria at Sydney, 45 in the first innings of the return with the English team, and 30 and 19 v. Queensland at Brisbane. In 1902-3 he was but moderately success­ ful, scoring 30 and over five times, but nevtr reaching 40. In the following season he scored 97 v. S.A. at Adelaide and 44 v. Victoria at Sydney. But thus far he had scarcely redeemed his early promise; and 1901-5 saw him playing in only one big match. Then came a distinct move forward. With 102 v. Queensland at Brisbane, 54 v. S.A. at Adelaide, and 73 v. Victoria at Melbourne, he did fairly in all the out matches in 1905-6. Yet the only homo game in which he got a place was that against the Australian tiam for Kelly’s benefit. And last season, after a mammoth 383 at Brisbane, he was again left out. One does not understand it; but perhaps that is the effect of distance. On the face of it, Gregory hardly appears to have had fair play. Perhaps his turn will yet come. A man of his size (he is little bigger than his brother Syd.) with the stamina and endurance necessary for an innings of close on 400 must be a fine cricketer, even if one grants that the Queensland bowling against which the score was made is not great. The career of Austin Diamond has been far different from this. The selection committee has treated him to greater encouragement, and during the last two seasons his place in the team has been assured. But he was for some time on the skirts of the eleven without actually getting a place. First appearing in 1899-1900, v. Tasmania at Hobart, he scored 46 not out and 15. For two seasons after that his one game was against Queenslmd, and in this he nut with no success. In 1902-3 he played in both games against the northern state, making 54 not out in the second inn­ ings of the Sydney match, and in 1903-4 he scored 21 and 39 in the corresponding game. The following season still found him practi­ cally a second eleven man, but scores of 64 v. Queensland at Sydney and 46 at Brisbane in that campaign clinched the good opinion that his fine play in electorate or district cricket had aroused ; and in 1905-6 he took his place in the team for the Sheffield Shield matches, and at bis first appearance scored 164 v. S.A. at Adelaide, and then had to retire owing to the sudden death of a brother. (This inn­ ings, to my mind, should be reckoned as “ not out,” just as it would have been had he retired hurt.) Later on his 97 against the Australian Team in Kelly’s benefit match s.‘.owed that this was no mere flash in the pan; for that matter, the solidity of his defence had been too marked to allow anyone to think it so. Last season he was quite one ot’ the best bats in Australia, making a splendid 210 not out v. Victoria, and 138 v. S.A. on the Sydney ground, besides being top scorer with 62 in the second innings on a q-ieer wicket v. Victoria at Melbourne. Perhaps no man in Australia, with the single »xception of Mackay, is as likely to win test ma.cti honours on his batting form alone as Diamond, who is a left-hand:d bat, and by Lirlh a Yorkshireman. C. G. MacCartney’s claim, on the other hand, is that of an all-round player. Two seasons in the N.S.W. team are all that this clever little player has had; yet already many critics mark him a certainty for the next English tour. His best performances with the bat have been 56 v. Queensland at Brisbane and 70 not out v. S.A. at Adelaide i.i 1905-6, 122 v. Queensland at Sydney, and 72 v. Victoria at Sydney in 1906-7. His bowling in the earlier season was steady and reliable, but marked by no brilliant feats; but his 5 for 18 in S.A.’s first innings at Adelaide, and 4 for 6 in Victoria’s second at Sydney in 1906-7, showed that he could be deadly when the wicket suited him at all. Australia needs new bowlers, and will not object to their being fine batsmen and fields­ men as well; hence MacCartney’s chances are of the rosiest. 1 see that he commenced the present season with an innings of 144 in a first-grade match in Sydney. Scarcely such an all-roundtr, but a fine bowler and a useful ba*-, George Leonard Garnsey may possibly take higher honours this season than have fallen to his lot before. Garnsey h*s had only three seasons of big cricket. In 1901-5 he showed distinct promise, though there were not wanting critics to assert that his action was too laboured for him ever to become really first- class. His performances in 1905-6 must have given some of those gentlemen rather a shock. In two matches v. S.A. he had 14 wickets for 220 runs, in two v. Victoria 10 for 233, and in one v. Queensland 11 for 172. Last season his chief successes, 8 for 158 and 12 for 106, were v. Queensland; but he bowled steadily and well, though without marked success, in the Sheffield Shield games. He is a bowler of the leg-break persuasion, though his repertoire is not confined to the leg-break. As a batsmin he has not yet done anything big for N.S.W., but has several times hit up useful thirties. He is, or has been, one of the mist prominent Australian collectors of cricket literature. The Rev. E. F. Waddy, iamiliarly known as “ Mick,” who was in such fine form in 1904-5 that many tipped him for a place in the Twelfth Australian Team, had an un­ fortunate season in 1906-7, when his five inn­ ings for N.S.W. produced only 46 runs. But this can hardly have been more than a temporary eclipse, for his form of the preced­ ing two seasons was of the best. In 1904-5 and 1905-6 he scored for N.S.W. 761 runs in sixteen completed innings, including 129 not out, 57 and 43 not out, and 65 v. S.A., 62, 35, 50 and 82 v. Victoria, 43 v. Queensland, and 95 v. the Australian Team. E. L. Waddy appeared as fir back as 1896-7, in the same match (v. Queensland at Brisbane) as witnessed the debut of A. J. Hopkins and L. W. Pye. He scored only a single then, and did not represent N.S.W. again until the m itch for Kelly’s benefit at the end of the season 1905-6, when he sur­ prised most people by the form he exhibited in scoring 60 and 75. Last season saw him a regular member of the team, and in thirteen innings he scored 495 runs, including 129 v. the Rest of Australia, 100 v. Queensland at Brisbane, 63 v. S.A., 51 v. Victoria, and 35 and 33 v. Western Australia. F. B. Johnson, whose name appeared in the list of those selected to practise for the match with the M.C.C. team, will doubtless have played before this article appears, since he is a bowler, and the team needs bowling. He is not a new man, as some whose me nories are short may think, howevi r. He played in both matches v. S.A. and in the Queensland game at Brisbane in 1903-4, bowling fairly well, but with no great success. In the following season he was a regular player, and bis name was mentioned in connection with the team for England. Against Victoria at Melbourne he took 7 wickets for 134 ; but his 20 wickets of the first-class season cost a3 much as 24 runs each. In 1905-6 he played in only one match, that against the Aus­ tralian team ; and last season his only games were the two against Western Australia. He did well in those, however, taking 10 wickets in all for 149; and he may yet turn out a valuable member of the team. He bowls slow right-hand, and breaks chiefly from leg, but by way of variety bowls an occasional fast ball which comes in from the off. He keeps a fine length, and when the ball does not break the spin causes it to rise quickly from the pitch. R. N. Hickson, M. II. Blaxland and W. Bardsley all did well in 1906-7, and are undoubtedly a very promising trio of bats­ men. The last-named, who is something of a stonewaller, has scarcely the same chance of securing his place as either of the other.-*, one is inclined to think, though. Hickson’s first appearance was in 1902-3, when he ran up 39 and 50 v. Queensland at Sydney. A little later in the same season a splendid innings of 8J not out from his bat helped Noble (103 not out) to winthe Sydney game against Victoria. The fair promise thus given has hardly been fully maintained ; but his chances have not been very many. Fifty v. Queensland at Sydney in 1903-4, 42 in the corresponding match of the next season, and 48 against the same side at Brisbane in 1906-7 have been his highest contributions since. But he has the makings of a very fine batsman; and it is said that Duff, among others, thought him a certainty for an English trip before long when he first came out. Blaxland, then a scho >lboy, attracted Mr. P. F. Warner’s notice four yeais ngo, but it was only in 1906-7 that he made his prowess felt in first-class cricket. Scores of 94 and 93 in two matches v. Queensland, 75 v. S.A. at Sydney, and 4 5 v. the Rest of Australia then g tve good earnest of more to come. Bardsley appeared for N.S.W. once in 190 5-4, and twice in 1905-(6, when he scured 64 v. Queensland at Sydney. He played a good inning* of 107 v. Western Australia at Fremantle at the end of last season. A. J. Bowden is an older man than these, a really gcod all-round player, who would un­ doubtedly have found a regular place in any other state team. In 1899-1900, when he first appeared for the state, he made 45 not out v. Queendand at Sydney. He was not se.n in the N.S.W. ranks again until 1902-3, when, against the same side, he scored 24 and 20, and took five wickets for 176 in a heavy-scoring game. Tue corresponding match of the next season s iw him run up a first innings score of 57, and take nine wickets for 108. Against Victoria at Sydney he had six for 121, but he was heavily punished by the English batsmen a littm later. In 1904-5 he had six for 87 v. Queensland at Sydney. Last season he scored 34 for N.S.W. v. the Rest of Australia. In these notes little has been said as to any man who is well-known here as a member of Australian teams. But it seems likely enough that many have forgotten little Hanson Carter, the reserve stumper of 1902, and if he fills Kelly’s old place as first wicket-keeper in 190J—as it seems likely he may—he will come almost as a new man. He first played for N.S.W., in Kelly’s absence, as far back as 1897-8, but he did not appear again until 1901-2, the season in wiiicii he was chosen to come to England. Since his visit here he.has m ide strides both as wicket-keeper and bat, though in the former capacity he was very good then. Iu 1901-5 he rattled up 149 v. Queensland at Sydney. In the following s ason he made 67 v. Vic'oria at Melbourne and 40 v. S.A. at Sydney, and list season he scored two not-out innings of 63 aiid 32 against the Rest of Australia in the Gregory