Cricket 1907

54 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A pr il 11, 1907. matches would be :— (a) Matches in the first-class County Championship. • (6) The eleven - a - side matches in England of Australian, South African, Philadelphian, West Indian, Canadian, Indian and New Zealand sides, except those against admittedly minor counties. (c) Matches played by Oxford, Cam­ bridge and Dublin Universities, the M.C.C. and Ground, and Scotch, Irish and Welsh teams of representative character against first-class sides; and, of course, Gentlemen v. Players, South v. North, &c. ( d ) All inter-Statematches inAustralia, and all eleven-a side matches between English (or other) visiting teams and the various States. (e) All Currie Cup matches in South Africa, and all eleven-a-side matches against English (or other first-class) visiting sides. ( / ) All eleven-a-side matches between New Zealand provinces and English or Australian visiting teams (including of course the games played by All New Zealand), and the inter-provincial matches of Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Wellin gton,possibly alsoHawke’sBay and Southland, and other provinces when they begin to play regular matches against the leaders. (g) Matches between the United States and Canada; matches on even terms between Philadelphian and Canadian sides and visiting teams of first-class calibre; and (I think) matches on even terms between New York and such teams —in fact, all eleven-a-side games of English, Australian or South African sides in North America. ( h ) Some matches in India, which I do not profess to be able to decide. (i) S)me matches in the West Indies, as to which I may add the same remark as to (h). It will be noticed that the entities of the empire of cricket are as heterogeneous as'the constituent parts of the Great British Empire. Our real entity in England, for the major part of first-class cricket, is the County. In Australia it is the State. In New Zealand it is the Province. In the West Indies it is, mainly, the Island. In South Africa things are very mixed. The Transvaal OraDgia, Natal, Rhodesia, are colonies, of one sort or another; but Western Province, Eastern Province, the Border, Griqualand West and the South-Western District, all recognised entities for the purposes of the Currie Cup competition, all belong to Cape Colony. In India the Presidency might be considered the first- class entity; but this division would scarcely be satisfactory. In America the city (Philadelphia, New York) in the States, and perhaps the province (Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba) in Canada, would best meet the conditions; but where there is no real systematised competition it is almost impossible to indicate the lines of division. Probably not many who read this article will agree with all my conclusions. It has been hurriedly written in response to an urgent request for something to represent me in the issue of Gricket which commemorates the 25th year of the paper’s career. But the ideas I have ventured to set forward in it are not ideas conceived on the spur of the moment, for this question of classification has long fascinated me, and my con­ clusions thereupon are the result of many hours’ thinking, and a study of the development of colonial cricket closer I think than many people here in England have given. CR ICKET IN INDIA. H INDUS v. PRESIDENCY. Played at Bombay on February 28, March 1 and 2. The Hindus won by 238 runs. A fine innings by Pai and some good all­ round cricket by Baloo were the chief features of this match. The former, giving only one very difficult chance, when 81, made 107 out of 158 in one hundred and ten minutes, whilst Baloo, in addition to obtaining 13 wickets, scored 64 for once out. Score and analysis :— T he H indus . First innings. S. K. Divekar, bWigram... 29 P. K. Telang, b Hoare ... 5 M. D. Pai, b Faviell..........107 S.G.Mehandale, c Priestley, b Faviell ........................ 5 K. A. Date, c Wigrain, b Crump ........................15 C. V. Mehta, c Priestley, b Crump ........................ 3 Oghad Shunkar, c Faviell, b Crump ........................ 2 P. Baloo, not out ..........11 Shivram, b Faviell ......... 0 K. A. Seshachari, c Rutter, b Crump ........................ 9 P. Erasha, b Crump.......... 0 Extras ................. 8 Second innings, st Priestley, b Hoare ..........21 e Hoare, b Faviell 18 b Turner ..........44 lbw, b Wigram... 32 c Coombes, b b Hoare ..........13 lbw, b Turner b Turner ... b Crump ... b Hoare b Crump ... not out Extras Total .................194 T he P residency . Total......... 263 First innings. Capt. J. G. Greig, e Pai, b B aloo............................... 3 H. Cheetham, b Baloo ... 53 W. F. O. Faviell, lbw, b B aloo............................... 14 Major C. Wigram, c Mehta, b Baloo ........................ 17 J. O. Airey, b Erasha ... 10 Capt.Rutter, st Seshachari, b Baloo .. ................21 G.T.Turner, c and b Erasha 3 E. E. Coombs, b Erasha ... 0 E. Priestley, lbw, b Baloo.. 5 F. T. Crumb, b Baloo......... 4 H. J. Hoare, not out............ 1 Extras........................ 7 Second innings. b Baloo................. 0 c Shivram, b Baloo .......... 2 st Seshachari, b Baloo .......... 6 b Erasha .......... 3 st Sechachari, b Baloo .......... 7 b Baloo ... , b Mehandale c Mehandale, Erasha ... c Mehandale, Baloo b Erasha ... . notout ... , Extras Total Total T he H indus . First innings. O. M. R. W. Coombs ... ... 6 0 32 0 , Hoare ... 11 0 49 1 . Crump ... 153 3 30 Faviell ... 12 2 40 3 ] Cheetham ... 3 0 14 0 , Wigram ... ... 5 0 15 1 , Second innings. O. M. R. W. ... 7 0 19 0 ... 17 2 55 5 ... 15 3 54 0 ... 10 5 40 1 ... 3 0 10 0 ... 3 0 29 1 ♦Turner ... 9 3 11 3 ♦Turner bowled two no-balls. P residency . First innings. Second innings. „ , O. M.R. W. O. M. R. W. g alo« ................. 31-312 57 7 ........... 19 3 44 0 Erasha .......... 24 10 53 3 .......... 14-1 3 27 3 Mehandale ... 10 3 21 0 .......... i 3 2 1 C R I C K E T CHAMP IONS : No. 6. THE AUSTRALIANS. B y t h e R e v . H a k o l d A . T a t e . (Continued from page 38.) The writer well remembers the scare aroused by the performances of those old Australian teams of ’78, ’80 and ’82, having witnessed the first of the Test matches at the Oval in 1880, when W.G.’s great innings of 152 was just beaten by Murdoch’s 153 not out, and when England, with only 57 to win, lost five good wickets in obtaining the runs. That the Australian team of 1882 was by far the best that ever left Australia is unquestionable. Murdoch’s aggregate far exceeded, and his average was almost equal to that of the most successful English batsmen of that year. Then, too, T. Horan, about the best batsman Victoria ever produced, was in the team, and Massie, whose hitting, quite as much as the bowling of Spof- forth and Boyle, won the most sensational of all the Test matches. Such a quartette of bowleis asSpofforth, Palmer, Jtioyle and Garrett have never since been found on a side. Blackham, the first of all wicket-keepers to dispense regularly with a long-stop, was at his very best; A. C. Bannerman to stone­ wall; Bonnor, the giant, to h it; McDon­ nell and Sammy Jones, as fine bats and fieldsmen, and Giffen to help all round made up such a combination as has rarely or never been equalled, and certainly never excelled. After the 1882 team, the palm must ba accorded to that of 1884 as being the next best of all Australian Elevens, and had it not been for the accident to W. H. Cooper, the slow bowler with extraordinary twist, of whom much had been expected on English grounds, they would doubtless have done even better. The 1886 team was in no way repre­ sentative in the absence of Murdoch, Massie, Bannerman and McDonnell, but indifferent captaincy had much to do with their ill-success. Evans, who went in­ stead of Boyle, and who was certainly a little past his best, was hardly tried at all with the ball; Spofforth, through an accident, could not play in many of the best matches and when he did return was not able to get his pace, and Scott seemed to have no idea of doing other­ wise than ring the changes on Giffen, Garrett and Palmer, the last-named of whom had lost much of his skill with the ball in proportion as he had improved with the bat. The 1888 and 1890 teams, though the latter was led by Murdoch again, would have been even greater failures but for the wonderful bowling of Turner and Perris, and the record of the first-named during both these seasons was never beaten by Spofforth himself. Turner burst into fame all at once as a great bowler, though in the Bathurst district of N.S.W. he had been a noted club bowler for some seasons. It was he who dis­ missed Shrewsbury, when the latter was at his very best, for a pair of spectacles, and the writer remembers an occasion