Cricket 1911

R U G B Y F O O T B A L L AN D C R IC K E T .— D e c e m b e r 9 th, 1911. “ Together joined in CricKet’s manly toil.”— Byron, No. 8 8 9 . VOL. XXX. DECEMBER, 1911. PRICE 2d . Cricket in Australia. B y P. R. LE COUTEUR. NFORTUNATELY the match against New South Wales, which promised per­ haps to be the most interesting game outside the Test matches, had to be abandoned on Tuesday owing to rain, only one innings apiece during three playing days having been possible. The break-up of a spell of fine weather, such as the Sydney people had enjoyed for some time previously, is always fatal to cricket in Australia, and sometimes prevents a ball being bowled for a week. The abandonment Was not premature, as some may think. Although the succeeding match against Queensland, at Brisbane, did not begin until Friday, it was necessary for the team to leave Sydney by the Wednesday evening train at the latest. They then would reach the northern capital on Thursday, and would have Thursday night in which to rest after the tiring journey. If their departure were delayed any longer they must go straight from the station at Brisbane to the cricket ground. Perhaps wonder may still be expressed at so early an abandonment, for two whole days, Tuesday and Wednesday, yet remained, during which quite possibly the match might have been finished. No cricketer who knows Austra­ lian conditions, however, will be surprised. Australian grounds, without exception, are extremely slow in recover­ ing from rain. Often a single shower in the morning is enough to make play impossible during the whole day. This fact is due to the nature of the turf and to the method of its preparation, the latter of course depending upon the former (and upon the climate) and being adapted to it. The turf is not the natural turf of the playing ground. It is conveyed to it by rail and cart from certain well- known districts, which, in the cases of Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, lie fairly convenient to the city. Although these three grounds use different turfs their wickets are practically the same ; differences exist between them, but they are "slight and not sufficient to put a visiting side from another State at a disadvantage. The turf is much less porous than average turf in England, containing more clay. A few weeks before the beginning of the season grounds are returfed. The turf is not cut out in regular pieces and removed with its original grass to the cricket ground to be relaid. The soil is taken without grass, sifted, sprinkled over the ground to the required depth—two, three, or more inches—and sown with grass seed. When the grass has grown sufficiently the usual processes of rolling and so on follow. A match wicket is prepared by flooding the chosen piece some two or three days before (the grass having pre­ viously been cut short), and by rolling it continuously as it dries with heavy and light rollers. Drying turf under the heavy roller behaves like dough under a rolling-pin. The result, given good warm weather, is a bleached and polished strip. A wicket thus prepared has in addition to its shiny surface a very solid and compact foundation. Its possession of these two characteristics, a consolidated foundation and a polished surface, together with the fact that the material of which it is composed is not naturally very porous, is sufficient to explain why an Australian wicket is so sensitive to rain. Its absorbent powers are extra­ ordinary little as compared with an English wicket. After fairly heavy rain it goes through three stages. These are clearly distinguished from one another, as clearly perhaps as the seasons in England. As with the seasons, while there is continuity in the passage from one to the other, this passage is so short in comparison with the length of each stage, that one has no hesitation in making a division between the stages. Sometimes between the first and second there is an intermediate stage. When the wicket is first fit for play the surface is extremely slippery, the water having difficulty in perco­ lating through the top layer. In this period the ball comes at lightning pace from the pitch, always without break and without bump. It is the time when fast-footed clean- cutting batsmen have the bowlers at their mercy, for the latter cannot keep a footing. Neither can they make the ball break, for even if they are able to twist it it will not bite. It is doubtful whether there is anything exactly corresponding to this in England. One finds English wickets on which the ball behaves somewhat similarly, but in these cases the general conditions are dissimilar. For example, the nearest English parallel to this stage of the Australian wicket is afforded by those wickets thickly covered with short grass which has been wet by a light shower, while the soil beneath remains dry and hard. In such cases the pace is much the same as that of the Austra­ lian wicket, though the ball rises higher. When the general conditions are similar one usually finds in England a slow and heavy wicket capable of yards of break. The turf is more deeply and generally saturated than it would be in Australia in an equal time. The second stage is the “ sticky ” stage. To produce this in all its devilment a warm sun must follow the rain, conditions almost always realised in an Australian summer. The transition from the first to the second stage is often startlingly sudden, lasting sometimes no more than twenty minutes. At other times there is a fairly long intermediate stage during which the pitch plays in the dull dead manner of a heavy wet English wicket. In England the word “ sticky ” is sometimes applied to this, but in Australia it is reserved for the very definite second stage with charac­ teristics all its own. The behaviour of the ball on a “ glue- pot,” as it is called during this period, is difficult to describe. For it is absolutely irregular. A batsman goes to the wicket knowing that one ball may shoot along the ground while another of the same length may jump high over his