Cricket 1909

CR ICKET: a w e e k l y r e c o r d o f t h e game. JULY 22, 1909. Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.1’— B yron . No 817. VOL. XXVIII. THUKSDAY, JULY 22, 1909. IO ne P enny . A GHAT ABOUT MR. ROGER HARTIGAN. It was not until the visit of the last English team to Australia, under the leader­ ship of Mr. A. 0. Jones in 1907-8, that Mr. Hartigan’s name became at all familiar to cricketers in this country. He then came into note by scoring 2 and 59 for Queensland at Brisbane and 16 and 55 not out for an Eleven of Australia on the same ground immediately afterwards. Such innings stamped him as a player of far more than average merit and when, in the match at Sydney against New South Wales, he made 104 and 17 his form was considered so good that he was chosen for the Test match at Adelaide. His selection, as most will recall, proved a suc­ cess and caused history to be written. The match is of so recent a date that there is no necessity to dwell upon its chief incidents at any length: suffice it to say that he scored 48 in his first innings and 116 in his second, when, in partner­ ship with Glem Hill, who made made 160, he put on no less than 243 runs for the eighth wicket — the most productive partnership to date in Test match history. His success was most popular and the en­ thusiasm to which it gave rise throughout the length and breadth of Australia was remarkable. In the four other innings he played in first-class cricket that season he made only 74 runs, but he had done enough to show tbat a new player had appeared who was capable of great things in the highest class of cricket. As one would naturally expect of a cricketer who could do so well on his first appearance in a Test match, he has proved a prolific run- getter in local games in Brisbane. His scoring, too, has been not- only heavy but attractive, for he is one of those players who seem able to take the measure of the bowling from the start. Mr. Hartigan was born in Sydney on December 12th, 1879, and so, even now, is only in his thirtieth year. He learnt the game in his native place, and, after playing for several years in Junior cricket, accepted a place in the North Sydney District Second XI. In his first season with that club he had two matches with the First Eleven, which included Duff, Hopkins and other notable players, but in neither did he MR. ROGER JOSEPH HARTIGAN. Photo by] [Talma, Melbourne. can be no doubt that if he had continued to play regularly with the club he would have made a name for himself some time before he did. For three years, however, he played purely holiday cricket with the Willoughby District Club, after which he was invited to assist (he North Sydney A team, for which District he was qualified by residence. That season the side consisted of Hopkins, Duff, Hickson, Far- quhar, Iredale, Deane, Red­ grave, Dr. Clarke, Johnson, Hartigan and a wicket-keeper, W. Coltmau—truly a formid­ able array of players for a local side, seeing that all save the last-named and Haitigan himself had at one time or another appeared for either Australia or New South Wales. And before the season closed — in March to be exact —- Hartigan had turned out for the State in the match with Queensland at Brisbane: it was a low-scoring game and his two efforts, one of which was unfinished, aggregated only 13. That, as it happened, was the only occasion on which he played for New South Wales, for he was not chosen in the following season and in 1905 he was transferred to Brisbane—an event in his life which he has never re­ gretted, and one, moreover, which has proved very bene­ ficial to the game there. In his first match for Queensland —against New South Wales at Brisbane in 1905-6 — he scored 10 and 98, since when his innings for the State have been 65 and 12, 50 and 61, 68 and 13, 2 and 59, 104 and 17, 58 and 10, 37. and 29, and 26 and 43. His doings in first - class cricket prior to his arrival in Eng­ land may be summarised have the good fortune to bat. One game was entirely ruined by rain and in the other the innings was declared closed with four wickets down for 449, after which the oppo­ sition had the bad taste to keep them in the field for the whole of the following Saturday afternoon. His average that season for the Second Eleven was as high as 38, and there Season. thus :— Not Inns. Out. Most. Total. Aver. 1903-4 . 2 1 9 13 13 00 1905-6 . 4 0 98 185 46-25 1906-7 . . 6 1 68 203 40-60 1907-8 . . 12 1 116 491 44-63 1908-9 . 4 0 43 135 33-75 Total 1,027 41-08 Since he has been in England Mr. Hartigan