Cricket 1908

C R IC K E T : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. APRIL 9, 1908. “ Together joined in Cricket’s m an ly toil.”— Byron. N o. 7 7 3 . v o l . x x v i i . THURSDAY , A P R IL 9, 1908. o n e p e n n y . will have him as captain ; and it seems no A C H A T A B O U T M R . M . A . N O B L E . Warwick Armstrong’s has been an out­ standing- figure in the cricket fields of Australia, as well as on our home grounds in 1905 , during the past few seasons; James Mackay did wonderful things in 1905 - 6 ; Albert Hopkins and Austin Dia­ mond were bright particular stars in 1906 - 7 ; Clement Hill, though his keenness appears to be on the wane, has apparently suffered no appreciable diminution of skill since we saw him last ; Victor Trumper, in spite of gloomy forebodings, is still a very great batsman, if not quite the wonder of o!d ; Sydney Gregory has come to the front again in astonishing fashion ; and there are gocd men of a younger generation than most of these coming along, notably Vernon Rans­ ford and Roger Hartigan. But unquestionably the most prominent personality in the cricket world of Australia to-day is that of Montague Alfred Noble. It is a great thing to lead a side to victory in a rubber of Test matches. Joseph Darling has done this, ard Harry Trott, William (iilbert Grace and Francis Stanley Jackson, Andrew Ernest St< d- dart and Pelham 1-'rancis Warner. To these famous names has now to be addc d that of Noble. I hev have all been men good at need, mighty in II 11 - *ng a breach at a critical moment, ready to sink their own interests in those of their ^•de, as a good captain must be; and in these iespects the last addition to the laurelled company does not suffer by comparison with any of his predecessors. Noble will go >n first for those wretched few minutes at the fag-end of a days play; he will hold • ■nself back at any time when he thinks another man can do more than h e ; he 'Y 1 bowl only when it seems well he s ould bowl, is always game to keep on 1 necessary or to go off if advisable ; he never shirks hard work, and he never f ‘irs resPonsibility. It seems certain that W next team from Australia to visit us less certain that it could not have a better one. To succeed a captain like Darling— a man of iron will and great personal magnetism, whom everyone held in re­ spect, who would have in the ranks he led no man who did not put cricket first —is no light task. But Noble is equal to it. One supposes that Noble must now be reckoned as one of Australia’s veterans. But after all he is only thirty-five (he was born on January 28 th, 1873 ) 5 an(^ a man of his type is still in his prime at that age. ft is customary to reckon his public career from the date of his big score of 152 not out in 1894-5 f°r Eighteen Sydney Juniors against Mr. Stoddart’s First Team. But one doubts whether “ M .A.” had any good claim to be classed as a junior then—even as an Australian junior, which is a somewhat different thing from an English junior. For in the preceding season he had accom­ panied Mr. Coleman Davis’s New South Wales team to New Zealand ; and in my opinion this tour may fairly be counted the outset of his first-class career. 11 is figures there­ in, not only in the one match against New Zealand but in the games against the provinces, are included in the tables at the end of this article. Apart from this trip, his first appearance for New South Wales was in the Sydney game against Victoria, a few weeks after his century for the Eighteen Juniors He did 1 : 11 *e then, and was not tried for the Colony in 1895 - 6 . But in 1896-7 he stepped into the team as a regular member ; and no New South Wales eleven without him has ever been reckoned at full strength since. It was at Sydney, and against Victoria, the side which has suffered more than any other from his rowess since, that Noble did is first really big perform­ ance in great matches. In his side’s first innings he si'ored 71 of a total of 159 . and was the only batsman who played the fine bowling of Hugh Trumble ard Roche with confidence. In the second innings he made 153 not out—“ a grand, innings, the off drive and square-cut being executed with a force and precision in timing, extending through a long innings, to be hardly excelled and rarely equalled by any of the great masters,” to quote that sterling critic “ Not Out,” of the Sydney Referee With McKibbin, Howell, Turner and Coningham all available, Noble had practically no show with the ball in 1896 - 7 ; but the next season found him, with the single exception of Ernest Jones, the most successful of Australian bowlers. That was the year in which Stoddart’s Second Team lost four out of five Test matches. Noble did not play in the first of the five, that which Australia lost ; but he appeared in all the others, ar.d he has