Cricket 1911

R U G B Y F O O T B A LL AND C R IC K E T .— O ctober 7th , 1911. n o . 8 8 7 . v o l . xxx. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1911. p r i c e 2 d . A Chat with fl[r. J. S. Hutcheon. readers of Cricket the name of Mr. John Silvester Huteheon will be familiar as that of one of the most promising of the younger generation of Australian cricketers. He was born at Warwick, in Queensland, on April 5th, 1882, and practically all his cricket has been played in _ his native State. Of him it is safe to say that if he had been identified with Sydney cricket, and had been able to devote all his time and energy to the game, he would have developed into one of the greatest bats­ men of the day. But, living in Brisbane, his opportunities of meeting first-class bowling were naturally limited, and, although his undoubted skill and promise were recognised in Queensland it was really only by repute that he was known to the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. He is a free and vigorous batsman, obtaining most of his runs in front of the wicket, and, when thoroughly set, scores at a rare pace. For some years Mr. Hutcheon has been in the service of the Queensland Government, and during the past season arrived in London for a few years’ stay in England. Hitherto his engagements have prevented him from playing over here, but next season Fortune may be kinder in this respect. If he can spare the time it is probable that he will play occasionally for the Wanderers. Concerning his early cricket Mr. Hutcheon sa id :— “ My first really serious cricket was played at Toowoomba Gram­ mar School, where we had matches regularly on Wednes­ days and Saturdays. It was Mr. J. S, not cricket of a very high class it is true, but I was naturally much pleased when, in my last year there—1900, I made over a thousand runs in all games with an average of about 42. At the end of 1900 I entered the Government office at Brisbane and in local matches—for the B. and first elevens of North Brisbane— made a few decent scores without doing anything special until 1905-6, when I got into the Queensland team. I remember that I had a good season in 1906-7, when I headed the North Brisbane averages with about 38.” “ W ill you tell me something relating to Grade cricket in Brisbane? ” “ The great difficulty concerns the grounds, for the chief players have such limited opportuni­ ties of playing on good pitches that when they meet New South Wales they are at sea on account of the wicket, which is naturally much faster than any to be found on the outside grounds. Except on the Brisbane and Exhibition grounds, there are really no facilities for first-Grade cricket. But, this notwithstanding, Queensland cricket has im ­ proved considerably of late, and now we can put up a good fight with any of the other States. The employment of coaches has been a move in the right direction, and the engagement of Kedgrave, who is a player as well as a coach, has had an immense influence on the game generally.” ‘ 1When was your first Inter­ national m atch ?” “ In 1907-8, when an Eng­ lish team was out there. I remember that I managed to obtain the top score in the first innings with a modest 19. The match was over in a couple of days and Queensland were beaten by an innings and 44 runs. But my best season was 1908-9 when, under Q. C. A. rules, I made 1,539 runs in all matches with an average of 67, getting records for the highest aggregate for a season in Queensland, in local competi­ tion matches (911) and for the Q.C.A. in representative games HUTCHEON. (628). I also managed to obtain the highest .score made by a Queenslander to date.” The large innings referred to was one of 259 not out for Brisbane against Richmond River. Mr. Hutcheon made his runs out of 426 ob­ tained during the 169 minutes he was in, and so fast did he score that Brisbane’s last 328 were hit in 126 minutes. The side totalled 828 in 350 minutes. Mr. Roger Hartigan scored 200 in the same innings and Mr. Hutcheon made 26 runs (4,6,4,4,4,4) off an over from F. Edwards.