Cricket 1909

82 CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME A pril 29, 1909 and coolness at the finish that gave Victoria a win by one wicket at Sydney. The match is pretty fully described in “ Some Chapters of Australian Cricket History,” and need not be written of in detail here. In 1901-2 he. played against English bowl­ ing for the first time in a big match. Vic­ toria did very poorly on a bad wicket in her first engagement with A. C. MacLaren’s team, and McAlister s modest aggregate of 27 for two innings was the third highest on the side. Less than a fortnight later he was seen to much greater advantage against South Australia. In the second innings of the Wheatfielders he held no fewer than five catches, and he followed this up by making 100 not out of the two hundred-odd Victoria needed for victory. He baited about three and a-half hours, but his innings was not quite chanceless. His 89, which was without flaw, against New South Wales in the Christ­ mas match at Melbourne, probably gave him much keener pleasure. Of a total of 300 he and Armstrong (137) were responsible for 226, and during their partnership for the fourth wicket they added 144. Armstrong had some luck; but he made the highest score, and it was he, not McAlister, who attained to Test match honours a few days later. Yet it may fairly be doubted whether at that time the older man was not the better bat of the two, though it must be admitted that he did little in the return matches with New South Wales and the English team to prove himself so, scoring only 28 in four innings therein. He had a pretty good season in 1902-3, when his four innings v. New South Wales produced 0, 37, 37, and 84, his four against South Australia 68, 4, 39, and 6, while he also scored 67 v. Queensland, and 28 and 20 v. Lord Hawke’s English team, on its way home from New Zealand. In all important matches of that Victorian season (pennant, &c., as well as the first-class games) his aggregate was 941, and his average only just under 50. For East Melbourne v. Fitzroy he and Laver put up 366 for the first wicket, then an Australian record, though now no longer so. Laver made 341, McAlister 173 on that occasion. It was in 1903-4, in his thirty-fourth year, that McAlister first secured recognition as a representative Australian player. The im­ mediate cause of this honour was an innings of 139 played for his State against the M.C.C.’s first team, in February, following closely upon 104 v. New South Wales, at Sydney, in January. Prior to that he had made 45 in the second innings of the first match between Victoria and the English team, he and Bruce sending up 88 before a wicket fell, 40 and 30 v. South Australia at Melbourne (there was no match between the teams at Adelaide that season), and 34 and 39 v. New South Wales on the same ground. For particulars concerning the century v. New South Wales I may again refer the reader to some “ Chapters of Australian Cricket History” ; as to the innings against the Englishmen it seems best to quote Mr. P. F. Warner’s “ How we recovered the Ashes.” “ McAlister played a splendid innings. . . . . He gave nothing like a chance, and always seemed to get the ball in the centre of the bat. His cricket was of the quiet rather than the forcible order; but there was a deal of certainty about every stroke, and though he hit but six 4’s his batting was always attractive. For two or three years past McAlister has been the best batsman in the Victorian eleven, and I am rather surprised that he has not yet appeared in this country, especially as he is a fine field at slip and in the country. In this long innings of his he gave nothing like a chance; indeed the only blemish in his display was that he once edged a ball from Rhodes between the wicket-keeper and slip.” After a performance worthy of such praise as this it was not to be wondered at that McAlister should have been found in the Australian eleven for the fourth Test match of the English tour, at Sydney, nearly tbree weeks later. He did nothing, scoring only three in his two innings; but Bosanquet, Rhodes, and Arnold were too much for the majority of his comrades on rather a queerish wicket, Syd Gregory scoring only two, Hugh Trumble acquiring a pair of them, and Trumper and Hopkins also failing. In the fifth match, at Mel­ bourne, he was second scorer with 36 in the first innings, and in the second scored 9 off an over from Rhodes, and was then caught at extra slip off Arnold. Only Trumper (88), Hopkins (57), and Noble (48) had a higher aggregate in the game than his 45. It is possible that McAlister’s anxiety to secure a place in the team for England-he has admitted that he has always cherished that ambition—helped to keep him from doing himself justice in 1904-5. He was certainly not at his best in that season, his only score of note being a good 59 in the last innings of the Melbourne match with New South Wales. But in 1905-6 he was at the very top of his form. The sensational per­ formances of Mackay for New South Wales somewhat overshadowed the really fine work he accomplished ; but the mere setting down of his scores in their chronological order will serve as some indication of his fine form. He made : — 157 v. South Australia at Adelaide; 40 and 3 v. New South Wales at Melbourne ; 13 and 56 v. South Australia at Melbourne; 53 and 128 v. New South Wales at Sydney ; and 19 and 141 v. Queensland at Brisbane: 610 runs in nine innings, average 67-77. At Adelaide Warne and he put on 146 for the second wicket, Armstrong and he 189 for the fourth. At Sydney he was top scorer in each innings, batting three and a quarter hours for his 128, with only one chance. Warne here again gave him good help, assisting in a partnership of 107 for the second wicket. At Brisbane the next highest score to his 141 was Collins’s 37. It was somewhat remarkable that he should have made only 112 in four innings on the home ground, while his five innings away realised 498. But he has always appeared to prefer the Sydney wicket to that at Melbourne. His performances in 1906-7 were by no means so sensational. His biggest innings — 168 v. Tasmania at Hobart—was in some respects a curious parallel to his 141 v. Queensland in the preceding season, for the next highest score to it was Vaughan’s 26, and it was made in the second innings after a very moderate effort in the first. He batted three hours and forty minutes, and was missed at 17 and again at 154. His four innings against South Australia realised only 75 runs; his four against New South Wales totalled 102, but included in this later aggregate was one score of more than ordinary merit. Victoria only made 194 in their first innings at Sydney; and Armstrong (111) and McAlister (51) scored between them 162 of the 179 runs from the bat, adding 128 for the third wicket together. McAlister was in one hundred and five minutes, and played sterling cricket. The season of 1907-8 was a busy one for him, as he played in no fewer than seven matches against the English team, besides three Sheffield Shield games, and a match v. Tasmania. His best batting against the men of the M.C.C. was done at Brisbane, where for an Eleven of Australia he played perfect cricket for 57 (in seventy-five minutes) and 51 not out (sixty five minutes). In the first Test match (second innings) he made 41 out of 90 in the course of eighty-five minutes at a critical time, his stand of 61 with Carter for the seventh wicket helping to pave the way for the Australian victory. In the second Test he was twice run out, for 10 and 15, sacrificing his wicket in the most f-portsmanlike fashion to save Armstrong’s in the second innings. He took ninety-five minutes to make 28 and forty-eight minutes to make 17 at Adelaide in the third game of the series ; and in adopting this dour stone­ wall style he can hardly have been doing the best thing for himself. Nor was he much more rapid in the fourth game, when his 37 took him one hundred and seven minutes; but he was hardly slower than his comrade*, for Noble batted one hundred and thirteen minutes for 48, and Armstrong actually one hundred and forty minutes for 32 ! He was left out of the last game of the series in favour of Hartigan, who, however only made 6 runs in his two innings. His other princif al scores of the season were 43 for Victoria v. M.C.C. (second innings of first game), an excellent 72 in the first innings v. NewSouth Wales at Melbourne, when no one else reached 25, 69 against the same side at Sydney, when he and McKenzie sent up 104 in eighty-one minutes for the first wicket of the match, and 73 (his top score of the season) v. Tasmania at Melbourne, McKenzie helping him to add 105 for the second wicket on this occasion. He batted one hundred and fifty-two minutes for the 72, one hundred and twenty-five for the 69, and one hundred and sixty for the 73. Altogether he seems to have adopted more cautious tactics in 1907-8 than before, rather a mis­ take, one is inclined to think, on the part of a batsman who possesses a considerab'e variety of strokes, and can hit when he chooses. But his total of 593 and average of 31, with a highest score of 73, indicate some very consistent cricket. McAlister was seen at his best in the two New South Wales matches of the season just ended. At Melbournehe made 79 in about two and a quarter hours, he and Ransford adding 80 for the fifth wicket, and he and Carroll 62 for the sixth; his 108 at Sydney in the record aggregate match was made in two hundred minutes and without a chance, 131 being put on in partnership with Ransford. Against South Australia at Melbourne, while at wickets with Ransford, he made 50 out of 79 in seventy-eight minutes. In the first of the two matches between the Australian Eleven and the Rest he and Gregory, the two doubtful men on the side of the Eleven, added 68 together in forty-five minutes for the fifth wicket after four had fallen for 55. McAlister’s score was 30. He was run out for a duck in the second innings, and only made two runs in the Melbourne match, when his early dismissal was made the occasion for a hostile demonstration, of which, it is hoped, the liabiiues of the Melbourne C.C.’s pavilion have the grace to feel sorry by this time. McAlister’s average season by season, and