Cricket 1908

S e p t . io , 1908. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 405 SOME CHAPTERS OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKET HISTORY. B y J . N . P E N T E LO W . C h a p te r II. NEW SOUTH W ALES v. VICTORIA. [Continued from page 398.) Compared with those of the games hitherto dealt with, the score of the eleventh match (Melbourne, Christmas, 1867) has quite a modern look. Though the visitors made as many as 331 runs in their two innings (Thompson 35 and GO, Caffyn 24 and 38), Victoria won by seven wickets. R. W. War- dill, with 110 and 45 not out, set up au indi­ vidual aggregate record for the series which stood for over 14 years. Wardill died com­ paratively young, and 'in regrettable cir­ cumstances, about six years later; had he lived longer he might have made a big name. G. P. Robertson scored 55 for once out. Wi.ls took nine wickets for 149, Frank Allan, “ the bowler of a century,” making his first appearance for his colony, eight for 102. E . Sheridan represented New South Wales for the ii'st time in this match. The twelfth game was mainly decided by the prowess of au English visitor, a ’Varsity undergraduate, on a six weeks’ visit to Australia for the benefit of his health. Yorkshiremen, at least, will not have for­ gotten the Rev. E . S. Carter. He was top scorer in fach innings of Victoria (at Sydney, March, 1869) with 16 and 63. Gibson made 29 and Cosstick 27 in the visitors’ second. Allan took ei^ht wickets for i’0 in New South Wales’ first, Wills six for 44, and Cosstick four for 23 in their second, in which Sheridan made 37. Joseph Coates, a Sydney school­ master and a bowler of great ability, made his debut for the home side, and took four wickets for 19 in Victoria’s first. David Gregory had five for 44 iu ihe matsh, R. C. Hewitt five for 43. Victoria’s margin was 78 runs. At Melbourne, in February, 1870, another bird of passage helped largely to give Victoria a win. Lieutenant Gordon played most bril­ liantly for 22 and 12 1. R. W. Wardill made 24 and 55 ; T. J . D. Kelly 53 and 17 ; G. P. Robertson 32 and 28; Donald Campbell, afterwards of Oxford fame, th*n only eighteen, 4 and 49; and Joseph Phillips 14 not out and 22. The second inning-* realised 337, the first time the third hundred had been reached in the series ; the aggregate of the two inning* was 518, a record which was never even approached until twelve years later New South Wales made 775 in a single innings. New South Wales, only 17 behind on the first innings (Ned Gregory 64, Sheridan 43), made no more than 89 in the last (Lawrence 24, S. Jones 20, Sheridan 18), and lost by 265 runs. Co?stick had ten wickets for 77. Dave Gregory took five for 55 in Victoria’s big second innings—all clean bowled. The mother-colony went down again in the fourteenth game (Sydney, March, 1871), though by the much narrower margin of 32 runs. A great name appears for the first time in this match —that of Charles Banner­ man, elder brother of the clever Alec. The reign of Charles was comparatively short; but there is no doubt that for eight or ten years he was by far the finest bat Australia had ; and some of the old-timers still say that at his best he was as goo 1 as Murdoch or Trumper. To bis side’s first innings of 200 he contributed 32; but R. C. Hewitt, with 60, and David Gregory, with 5 1, were ahead of him. M. Faithful was top sawyer in the second innings (the last of the match) with 24. Victoria’s totals of 198 and 134 were made up by some very level batting. W. Campbell (26 and 37), Wills 39 net out and 11), A. Lougbnan (36 and 11), O. C. Williams (19 and 20), B. B . Cooper (11 and 27) and Sam Cosstick (30 and 4) all con­ tributed usefully. Cosstick had eleven wickets for 64 (eight for 21 iu the second); for the losers Coates took seven for 46 and George Moore five for 86 . A thiid Gregory brother, Charles of that ilk, appeared for New South W ales; and B . B. Cooper (Kent aud Middlesex), freshly out from the old country. A. Loughnan, O. C. Williams and E. D. Heather (who did more for the game iu the council chamber than on the field) all played their first game for Victoria. This match was played on the Albert Park ground a!; Redfern, the preceding games having taken place on the Domain. Another victory for the smaller State in the fifteenth match. Allan (thirteen for 60) and Cosstick (five for 61) were altogether too much for the Sydneysiders, who only made 135 runs in their two innings (Thompson 31 and 15, Ned Gregory 16 and 17). Victoria’s one innings amounted to 16 1 (G. Gibson 41, H. F. Boyle 27, T. J. D. Kelly 25, G. P. Robertson 23) “ Old George” Moore had six wickets of Victoria for 56. Young C. G. Macartney is the grandson of this veteran, who was an excellent medium-pace bowler. He was fifty years of age when playing in this match. Harry Boyle’s name now occurs for the first time in the series; it is good and yet Fad to see it, remembering that whole­ hearted cricketer’s sad death so short a time ago. His is a memory that deserves to be kept green. The sixteenth match (Sydney, end of February, 1873) pave Victoria her sixth successive win, though by as narrow a margin as 24 runs. It was a match of small scores, in which the bowlers deserve first mention. Cosstick had the splendid figures of eleven for 5 1 ; C. G. Allee accounted for five for 38; for the losers Coates, the dodgy left-hander, took nine for 59 ; W. J . Pocock (another relative of the Grace family) had three for 10 in the first, and old George Moore three for 17 iu the second. George Gibson (32 and 15 not out) and B. B. Cooper (30 and 16) were the highest scorers in each innings of the winners; Theodore Powell’s 29 iti the second was the only notable innings for New South Wales This was Powell’s first appearance. The weather during this match caused so many interrup­ tions that the scoring of a little over 300 runs took more than a week ! With the seventeenth match (Melbourne, Christmas, 1874) came the turn of the tide. New South Wales won by six wickets, and ihe succeeding half-dozen matches all fell to her. The splendid play of Charles Banner­ man was the main factor in this win. He scored 81 and 32 not out. Nat Thompson helped with 17 and 35, Edward Sheridan with 25 and 18, E. Tindall was twice not out for an aggregate of 32, and Ned Gregory scored 24 not out in the second innings. T. J. D. Kelly (14 and 86 ) was Victoria’s best man by far ; B. B . Cooper made 45, William Campbell (“ the colonial Ju p p ” ) 25, and J. M. Blackham 22 in the first; Cosstick 33 and Tom Horan 22 in the second. Coates had seven wickets for 103 for the winners, Spofforth six for 123. Boyle took five for 63 in the first innings of New South Wales. Note the great names here! Harry Boyle has now been joined by Thomas Horan, Frederick Robert Spofforth, and John Mc­ Carthy Blackham. The pioneer tour of the First Australian Team lies only a little way ahead now. Already the warriors are gather­ ing—Dave Gregory, Allan, Boyle, Charles Bannerman, Horan, Blackham, Spoffortb— a great septet, for the first named two were far better players than their English record in ’78 made them out. There were other new men in this match, too ; but the only one who calls for mention here is James Slight, who was such a disappointment on the ’80 tour. Like Kenneth Burn, Frank Walters, Charles Eady and others, he must not be judged by his English form, however. This season (1874-5) was the first in which home-and-home matches were played. The return was at Sydney in March, when New South Wales won a game in which the scoring ruled low generally by 77 runs. Ned Grfgory made 65 not out in the home side’s first, and Edwin Evans 3 1 not out in the second. This was Evans’s first inter-colonial, and with 42 for once out and six wickets for 25 he made a fine start. William Peter Howell is the nephew of this veteran. Almost as well, for the other side, did William Evans Midwinter, the “ Bendigo Infant,” another new man, who scored 23 for once out and took eight for 122. Coates had eight for 57 for the winners, Cosstick seveu for 61 for the losers. Tom Horan finished off the first innings of New South Wales by taking three wickets for a single run. No indi­ vidual score on the beaten side reached 20. George Gilbert, close on 50, aud John Conway, only 32, played their last game for their respective sides. The nineteenth match (at Melbourne, Christmas, 1875) fell to New South Wales by an innings and a run. Charles Bannerman scored 83 of 163 from the bat, and Tod Powell made 29. For the losers Kelly, “ the Little Wonder,” made 71 and B. B . Cooper 36 of the first innings total of 136, the remaining nine batsmen (including George Alexander, making his first appearance, and scoring 8 not out) aggregating 26 among them. All were out for 34 at their second attempt, Alexander’s 1 1 being the only double-figure score. Evans had eleven for 66 (seven for 16 second innings), Coates five for 4 1 ; Frank Allan took six for 66 for the losers. William Lloyd Murdoch played for New South Wales for the first time, going in seventh wicket down, and scoring 6 . At Sydney in March of that season three innings (New South Wales’s first, and the two of Victoria) produced only 99, 37 and 95 respectively ; but the home side’s second reached 228—Dave Gregory 74, Evaus 46, Ned Gregory 40, Powell 31. As David Gregory made 36 in the first innings, this may fairly rank as his best achievement in big cricket. Alexander’s 23 in the second was the only score for the losers worth noting. Evans (ten for 52) and Spofforth (nine for 72) bowled unchanged through both innings. Allan had eight for 52 for Victoria. Wills played his last game for his colony, and had 65 runs scored off him without taking a wicket. This was very unlike his old style; there was a good deal of controversy as to the fairness of his bowling, but its effectiveness no one had ever denied. Owing to the presence of an English team in Australia in 1876-7 the matches were dropped for that season. This was the time when the great Test series was inaugurated. It is interesting to note that three of the men who played for Au tralia in loth games—T. Kendall and J. Hodges of Victoria, and T. W.