Cricket 1909

CR IC K E T : a w e e k l y r e c o r d o f t h e game. APRIL 29, 1909. “ Together joined in CricKet’s manly toil.”— Byron. No. 805 . v o l . x x v i i i . THURSDAY, APEIL 29, 1909. o n e p e n n y . A CHAT ABOUT Mr. PETER McALISTER. For the past ten years the subject of this Chat has been quite in the forefront of Australian cricket; and the fact that he is making his first trip to England when close upon 40 years of age might as reasonably be reckoned as a reproach against the selectors of previous com­ binations as against tthe selectors (of whom he was one) of the Thirteenth Team. It is scarcely worth while to say much here about the out­ bursts of spleen that disfigured the pages of some of the Aus­ tralian papers when McAlister’s selectionwasannounced. Some of them owed their origin to the disappointment felt at the omission of other candi­ dates. One would have liked to see Gehrs in England again, and possibly he will be seen here at’ some future date ; and Hazlitt, Mayne, Parker, Simp­ son, and others, all had claims to consideration. But'looking back over what McAlister has done, one is not disposed to rate him as the inferior of any of these ; and it is certain that at least a third of the men who have visited England with Australian teams have come with credentials far short of his in value. But Peter McAlister has been a consistent supporter of the Board of Control; and in that, doubtless, lies the true head and front of his offending. Personally, while on several grounds my sympathies have been rather with the players than the Board, I respect Mr. McAlister for the firm stand he has made. It proves that he possesses backbone, at least; and even those who have constituted themselves his enemies have to admit that he is a good sportsman, with nothing that can be said against him personally. As it seems tolerably evident that if anything could have been said against him it would have been said, this is a testimonial of which Mr. McAlister may justly be proud. McAlister was born in Melbourne on the 11th July, 1869, and for twenty-one seasons he has been amember of the East Melbourne club. He played for Williamstown at first; it was Tom Horan who suggested that his cricket advancement would be better served by his throwing in his lot with “ the Joli- monters,” of whose team the veteran was himself a prominent member in those days. Photo by] M r . P. A . M c A lister . [ ToJma, Melbourne. But advancement did not come to McAlister very quickly. It has puzzled me often why he did not earlier gain a place in the Vic­ torian eleven. In the season of 1895-6, for instance, he averaged 67 per innings for East Melbourne; and form like that looks worthy of recognition ; but the highest honour he attained to until three seasons thereafter was the somewhat empty one of being reserve man in a match or two, for one can hardly take seriously his being given a place in the Victorian eleven against a Country Fifteen in 1897-8, seeing that most of the other members of the Eleven were not by any means seasoned players for the Colony. His average for East Melbourne that season was 39. Meanwhile McMi­ chael, his club-mate but never his equal as a cricketer, had attained to a regular place in the Victorian team; and men like Peryman, Donahoo, Bush, O’Halloran, Warne and Giller had had trials. The latter two, like McMichael, were really worth a place; but neither of them was the equal of McAlis­ ter as a batsman. It was in the season of 1898-9 that McAlister got his first chance in the Victorian team. He played in the first match of the season—v. South Australia at Adelaide-going in tenth, and scoring 21 and 0. In the first innings he helped Stuckey to add 63 for the ninth wicket. He did not get a show in another Sheffield Shield match; but against the New Zealand team in February he played an innings of 224. My information as to this match is, unhappily, practically con­ fined to the score-sheet; but it would appear that McAlister’s form was satisfactory, for he has been a regular member of the Victorian team ever since. He did well in both matches v. South Australia in the season of 1899-1900, scoring 52 and 18 at Adelaide, 63 and 14 at Melbourne; but his four in­ nings v. New South Wales only realised 37 runs. In 1900-1 he made 62 in the first innings v. South Australia at Adelaide, he and Harry Graham putting on 92 for the second wicket, and 74 in the second innings at Melbourne, when Armstrong, with whom he has since enjoyed several long partnerships, and he added 99 for the third. Against New South Wales he could only make 8, 2, 0 and 29 not out; but that last score was perhaps more valuable than either of the bigger innings referred to above, for it was largely McAlister’s pluck