Cricket 1907

D ec . 19, 1907. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 471 T h e Sydney Sportsman records some fast run-getting in the match between Cullan Park and the Commercial Bank on September 28th. The Bank, with an hour left for batting and a total of 176 to go in against, f cored 195 in the time r amed, W. S. Duff carrying cut his bat for ICO and J.P. Meaney making 56. G O IN G ia first for Prahran against Essendon, at Melbourne on October 19th, J. Horan (152) and G. Healy (146 not out) made 248 together for the open­ ing partnership. At the end of the day the score was 346 for three wickets, and on the following Saturday Healy had no opportunity of adding to his runs, as the innings was declared closed first thing. Easendon scored 89 and 115 for six wickets. D. R. A. G e h r s , who visited England as a member of the Australian team of 1905, plajed a fine innings on October 26th for P^rt Adelaide against Sturt. Going in first, he hit two 6’s and twenty- one 4’s whilst scoring 181 in 140minutes. In partnership with R. W. Waters he made 261 for the first wicket. Port Adelaide declared their innings closed with three wickets down for 396, and won easily by 268 runs, O’Connor taking eight Sturt wickets—one man was absent — for 49 runs. O n October 19th Alick Duff (203) and Guy Hobart (111) scored 203 for the first wicket of Clyde against Berwick, at Cranbourne (Victoria). Duff hit three 5’s and twenty-six 4’s, and Hobart, a left-hander, a 5 and fourteen 4’s. F r o m the Sydney Beferee : The position in West Australia, as one understands it, is peculiar, as there is both a Cricket Association and a Cricket Council bearing the name of the State. The former controls the leading ground at Perth. The Council controls no ground, but embraces clubs of all grades and standing. It is the Council which has sought representation on the Board of Control. 'Ihere is some little “ rift in the lute ” in W. A. cricket govern­ ment. * * * * W. Kneeshaw, playing for St. James’ against Iolanthe at Rushcutters’ Park on Saturday, October 19th, drove a ball into the sewer canal, and before a fieldsman could recover it the batsman had run 14. F. M. writes:—“ I think this is an instance where ‘ lost ball ’ could not be called, the ball being in sight all the time.” Tne law provides that if a ball “ cannot be found or recovered, any fieldsman may call ‘ lost ball,’ etc.” In this case a fieldsman would have been justified in calling “ lost ball ” if the ball was floating in the water there. * * * * Some months back Mr. F. A. Iredale, in some notes on Australian cricket in the Lon­ don Sportsman, expressed certain opinions on the weakness of Australian bowling, viz., to the effect that Cotter and Armstrong were the only bowlers on whom Australia could rely, since some of the younger ones were not yet tried out, that Noble was a back number, and Hopkins only a change. The matter was brought before the Association on Mon­ day by Mr. R. Shute. In explanation, Mr. Iredale admitted the authorship, and said that at the time he was not a member of the Selection Committee, and that it was indis­ creet on his part. I t will come as a surprise and disap­ pointment to the majority of cricket followers over here to learn that G. L. Garnsey, whose all-round cricket was cf great service to New South Wales during the last few seasons, has definitely retired from first-class cricket. His collection of Australian cricket literature was probably unequalled, and “ Recorder” of th^s Sydney Sportsman is correct in faying:— The Association Eecured a wonderful bar­ gain when they acquired the uniquo cricket library of George Garnsey for the low price of £45 13s. 6d. Some of the volumes are quite unobtainable, and it is doubtful if there is a collection of the rare books eqnal to it in the hands of anyone. Mr. Garnsey’s portrait wa9 published in Cricket of February last. O. R o g e r s took four wickets with consecutive balls when playing for Albert v. Federal in a Druids’ Associa­ tion match in Adelaide on October 26th. A week later, also in Adelaide, C. For­ rester performed a precisely similar feat for Hawthorn against Glen Osmond. J. P. O ’ H a l l o r a n , the Victorian cricketer who was for a few seasons a member of the ground-staff at Lord’s, has been engaged as coach by the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association. On his first appearance in an inter-State match—for Victoria against South Aus­ tralia, at Melbourne, in January, 1897— he played a not out innings of 128 and in partnership with A. E. Johns (57) added 136 for the tenth wicket. P l a y i n g for Australia’s Pride v. Homely Retreat, on the Queenstown ground on October 26th, T. Williams scored 207 not out in 110 minutes. A l t h o u g h the match between North Sydney and University, at North Sydney on October 19th and 26th, was finished, the result was in doubt and was to be decided by the Association. The University book showed a win for North Sydney by 1 run ; the North Sydney book a win for the University by the same margin. The discrepancy was in the score of A. A . Lillyman, one book making it 70 and the other 72. The umpires impounded the books and handed them over to the Association. T h e Annual Report of the Melbourne C.C. shows that during J906-7 the re­ ceipts of the Club were £10,368 19s. 8d., or £3,054 Is. Id. less than the previous year, when £3,282 6s. was received for entrance fees by the extension of the limit of Town members from 2,500 to 3,500, as against £639 9s. for that item in 1906-7. The batting averages of the Senior Eleven were headed by Warwick Armstrong, whose figures were 75 for eleven completed innings, whilst Hugh Trumble, who took 35 wickets for 6 94, was first among the bowlers. L. J. T a n c r e d , who was unable to do himself justice in England last season owing to ill-health, played an innings of 150 at Johannesburg on November 9th for the Wanderers against Piratts A. The Wanderers scored 524 for six wickets, the chief contributors, apart from T a n - cred, being H. J. G. Bennet (111 notout), G. J. Bruntin (71), and R. W. Stanton (62). V i c t o r i a ’ s total of 699 against South Australia at Melbourne is the largest ever made by the State, and therefore de­ serving of “ bold advertisement” in Gossip. It has, in faot, been exceeded only eight times in the whole history of first-class cricket in Australia, which is no small distinction when one remembers the many huge scores made by New South Wales in recent years. Score. Season. 918, N.S.W. v. South Australia, at Sydney 1900-01 839, N.S.W. v. Tasmania, at Sydney......... 1898-99 807, N.S.W. v. South Australia, at Adelaide 1899-00 805, N.S.W. v. Victoria, at Melbourne ... 1905-06 f803, Non-Smokers v. Smokers, at East Melbourne ...................................... 1886-87 775, N.S.W. v. Victoria, at Sydney ......... 1881-S2 769, England v. N.S.W., at Sydney ......... 1901-02 763, N.S.W. v. Queensland, at Brisbane ... 1906-07 699, Victoria v. South Australia, at Mel­ bourne ............................................. 1907-08 691, N.S.W. v. Queensland, at Brisbane ... 1905-06 686, N S.W. v. Queensland, at Sydney ... 1904-05 681, N S.W. v. South Australia, at Sydney 1903-04 4:660, England v. S. Australia, at Adelaide... 19C7-08 640, N.S.W. v. Queensland, at Sydney ... 1899-C0 624, England v. Victoria, at Melbourne ... 1887 88 624, N.S.W. v. South Australia, at Adelaide 1903-04 619, Australian Team v. Rett of Australia, at Melbourne....................... .......... 1883-84 609, England v. S. Australia, at Adelaide... 1891-95 602, Victoria v. New Zealand, at Melbourne 1898-9g t For nine wickets. J For eight wickets. I have purposely omitted the 742 by East Melbourne against Tasmania, at Mel­ bourne, in December, 1879, not deeming it quite worthy of inclusion. The match was limited to a couple of days, and Tasmania had no innings. T. Horan, who batted very sedately for about ten hours, carried out his bat for 250. T h r e e or more centuries in an innings of a first-class match in Australia have now been made on ten occasions, as fol­ lows :— (а ).—-F iv e C en turies . 168, S. E. Gregory \ 153, M. A. Noble INew South Wales v. South *140, L. O. S. Poidevin V Australia, at 119, R. A. Duff Sydney, 1900-1. 118, F. A. Iredale J (б).— F o u r C e n tu rie s . 160, L. C. Braund . „ , , „ 135: J. Hardstaff England v. South 119, A. O. Jones i n t o * * * 114, J. N. Crawford ) Adelaide, 1907-8. (c).—T hree C enturies . W. L. Murdoch T. W. Garrett S. P. Jones A. Shrewsbury W. Gunn W. Bruce A. Ward F. G. J. Ford J. T. Brown 321, 163, 109, 236, 150, 131, 219, 105, 101 , 134, H. Stuckey 116, J. Giller 104, J. Worrall ! New South Wales v. Victoria, at Sydney, 1881-2. ! Non-Smokers v. Smokers, at East Melbourne, 1886-7. | England v. South Aus- * tralia, at Adelaide, I 1894-5. ) Victoria v. South Aus- } tralia, at Adelaide, J 1898-9.