Cricket 1911

M arch 30, 19 it. CR ICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Test matches would go in en bloc. With another wicket-keeper, probably Carkeek, another bowler, say John Scott or J. W. McLaren, both fast, and a batsman, for whom one need not look further than B. J. Kortlang, they would form a grand side. Frank Laver as manager-player, of course ! A l i n e to himself for Charles George Macartney, one of the pluckiest little players who ever representedAustralia! He had had seven innings against the South Africans, and had totalled forty- two runs in them. Was he down­ hearted ? Well, as to that one imagines that being left out of the fourth Test did not exactly please him. But Macartney believes in himself. He got a fresh chance when the tourists met New South Wales, and he grasped it with both hands. A double century feat after such a run of ill-luck was in the nature of a phenomenon. But he did not stop there. Difficult though it must have been to make room for him, he could not be left out of the team for the last Test. He went in first on a wicket recovering from rain, and he made yet another century ! Evidently Hill had visions of a fourth for him. He was given his chance, taking Trumper’s place at the wicket when the last innings began. He did not waste time, either, for he made 56 of the 74 which the first wicket pro­ duced. Perhaps he forced the pace too much. Anyway, he gave Nourse, fielding on the boundary, a chance, and those big, sure hands made no mistake about it. But it was a worthy end to a dashing innings. Bravo, the Governor- General ! E a r l i e r in the season Warren Bardsley made three successive cen­ turies in big matches— 191* v. South Australia at Sydney, 132 in the first Test, and 124 v. Victoria at Melbourne. Until this season no Australian bats­ man had performed this fea t; though A. C. MacLaren has done it for an English team in Australia. T h e return between the South Africans and New South Wales was in every way a remarkable match. In the course of it 1,744 runs were made, which puts it only second in the record list to New South Wales v. Victoria on the same ground in 1908-9, and just ahead of New South Wales v. England, also at Sydney, in 1897-8. The respective aggregates in these two games were 1,911 and 1,739. But in one way the latest match must be unique. Surely it has never happened before that all four innings have reached 400 ? Between the highest and lowest total of the four there was a difference of only 50 runs, New South Wales making 436 and 458 to South Africa’s 408 and 442. In the record aggregate match New South Wales scored 815 and 141 for four wickets, Victoria 468 and 487 : and in the match in 1897-8 New South Wales made 415 and 574, England 387 and 363. The more recent game is only less symmetrical in appearance on the score-sheet than that because in 1897-8 there was one three-figure contribution in each innings of the four, whereas in 1910-11 the two centuries for South Africa were made in the same innings. N o u r s e and Faulkner, in adding 318 for the third wicket, made a splendid fight for victory, and but for rain the Afrikanders would probably have pvdled off the match. They had to play without Llewellyn, Sherwell and Zulch, all rested on account of injuries or in view of the Test match ; but on the other hand the Sydneysiders dis­ pensed with the help of Hordern, Carter, Cotter and Barbour. In the course of the game there were four centuries, ten individual innings of between 50 and 100, six between 20 and 50, and eight of double figures under 20. Macartney aggregated 245 runs, Nourse 241, Faulkner 146, Emery 138, Strieker 100, Kelleway 98, McElhone 96, Collins 85, Bardsley 82, Sinclair 69, Pearse 63 and Schwarz 58. In the N.S.W. v. Victoria match of 1908-9, already referred to, Ransford scored 292, Noble 282, Bardsley 216, S. E Gregory 193, Armstrong 191 ; McAlister made over 100, and T. Horan (the younger), Hazlit (one has learned lately that his name should be spelt with one “ t ” only), and Emery over 50. In the N.S.W. v. England match of 1897-8 A. C. MacLareu aggregated 201, S. E. Gregory 196, Alec Mackenzie 182, “ B ill” Howell 143, Tom Hay­ ward 125, Norman Druce 120, Edward Wainwright 114, Leslie Pve 111, Harry Donnan 100 ; K. S. Ranjitsinhji, Andrew Newell and T. R. McKibbin all scored over 50. P e r c y S h e r w e l l has the courage of his convictions. Winning the toss again in the fifth match, he sent Aus­ tralia in to bat, as in the fourth. On the face of it, those who disapprove may say that the move did not pay. Perhaps not. Yet one believes that Sherwell was right. It does not follow that, because Slacartney, Hordern (a much better bat than most Australians have„yet realised) and Bardsley made a lot of runs on the wet wicket, the South African batsmen would have done so ; and it was not Sherwell’s fault that his bowlers failed to take advantage of whatever difficulties the pitch may have presented. T h e match was a curious one. On the second day, when the wicket was stated to be quite good, Schwarz had the Australian cracks practically helpless, and no one but Faulkner did much in the South African’s first. Hill made the tourists follow-on, and on the third day they scored 335 for five wickets, thanks largely to a stand of 143 by Zulch and Faulkner. On the last morning—which one hardly expected to be the last morning—the Afrikanders were 164 on with four wickets to fall. Sibley Snooke was not out, and Sinclair, Llewellyn, Pearse, and Schwarz were still to bat. There seemed no particular reason why those last four wickets should not add at least 150. One had visions of a good stand between Snooke, with his workmanlike style and plenitude of strokes, and the hard-hitting “ Jimmy,” of Llewellyn coming in and staying and making runs fast, and of the dashing Pearse and Reginald Schwarz flogging tired bowling to the chains. Nothing of the sort happened. Only 33 more runs were put on, Whitty taking three of the wickets. When Australia went in to make less than 200 , the match was practically over, bar shouting. T h e r e was nothing very remarkable about the final important match of the tour, though a second victory over South Australia, led by Clem Hill, the doughty Australian skipper, must have been gratifying to the tourists. Pegler had a good bowling analysis ; but he owed it to getting among the rabbits, for John Crawford’s wicket was the only one he captured that counts for much. Snooke played a nice innings, and Llewellyn and Sherwell did some fierce hitting for the last wicket— a nice last wicket pair, those two ! On the home side Crawford and Whitty alone did themselves justice. B e f o r e these lines appear the South Africans will be on their way home, as they sailed by the Ascanitts, of the Holt Line, on the 19th inst. The talked-of match with West Aus­ tralia fell through, and the invitation to visit New Zealand had to be declined. This seems a pity, for the tourists would have had a very hearty welcome in Maoriland. Each of the prin­ cipal Associations—Canterbury, Otago, Auckland, Wellington—had guaran­ teed £175 for a match ; and matches with them would have been much better worth playing than odds games at Broken Hill, Ballarat, Hamilton, and Newcastle. One hopes that in future both English and South African teams will be able to put in five or six weeks in New Zealand at the end of their tours in Australia. A rearrange­ ment of fixtures should make this possible. Odds matches should be ruthlessly eliminated ; and the itin­ erary might be on some such lines as those suggested in the next paragraph, allowing roughly a week for each match. S t a r t at Perth, v. West Australia ; then Adelaide, v. South Australia; Melbourne, v. Victoria ; Sydney, v. New South Wales ; Brisbane, v. Queensland and possibly v. Eleven of Australia ; Sydney, first Test; Ade­ laide, return with South Australia; Melbourne, second Test and return with Victoria ; Adelaide, third T est; Melbourne, fourth Test ; Sydney, return with New South Wales and fifth Test; then to Tasmania, with two games v. the Island State, or one such game and another with Eleven of Aus­ tralia ; and from Hobart to New Zealand, which might be reached at the end of February or beginning of March. It would be far better, surely, to meet South Australia at Christmas, while New South Wales and Victoria met at Melbourne, than to play exhibi­ tion games at Ballarat or Bendigo.