Cricket 1912

22 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 24, 1912. be tolerated for a moment in England— or words to that effect. Personally, we don’t agree with “ Wanderer.” The M.C.C. might object to the scheme ; the general public and, we fancy, most county committees would not care in the least. “ Long Leg ” in the Sporting Life says Mr. Clement Hill is against the Board. But surely Mr. Hill is a member of it ? He is among the minority, it is true, but he cannot be considered as disputing its authority. L e t u s not be thought to underrate the Board’s value. W e respect it, and its good intentions. But there is room for doubt as to its methods when it arouses a general feeling of antagonism in Australia—when accusations are made of its trying to ride roughshod over the players—when breach of faith is charged against it for its appointment of a secre­ tary, who is only a manager under another name— when one paper asks who are Messrs. Eoxton, Allen, McElhone, Sydney Smith, jun., Hobkirk, Bean and Bush that they should boss Australian cricket, and what do they know about first-class cricket anyway, and has more than one of them ever seen a game in England ? H a v e the discussions contributed to the comparatively poor form of the Australian Eleven in the last match or two ? They can hardly have helped the men to show their true mettle, one fancies. Not that we would be understood to depreciate the splendid victory at Adelaide of Mr. .John Douglas and the rest of the little band of heroes. Nothing much finer has ever been seen than the three successive wins of which that was the culmination— and remember that it was done by what many regarded as little better than a forlorn hope ! But that second innings of Australia, on a good wicket, with a highest score of under 30 and a paltry total, sets one thinking hard. I t is easy to make too much of the Hill-McAlister incident. Two men may punch each other’s head, yet neither of them be a scoundrel— perhaps neither be wholly in the wrong. “ There’s a lot of human nature in folks,” as a wise American once said. T h e valued correspondent who sends along this jeu d’esprit apologises to the shado of Campbell. For its insertion we apologise to Mr. Peter McAlister. But we do not think ho will mind, and we feel sure some of our readers will be amused. T h e F a l l o p M c A l i s t e r . (With apologies to .the shade of Campbell.) Oh, dreariest picture in the book of Time, Victoria fell, unwept, without a crime ; Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, Strength in his arms, nor mercy in his woe ! Dropped from his hold the fatal telegram ; Closed his bright eye, e’er he could utter “ —-—■*,” Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, And Iredale shrieked—as luckless Peter fe ll! ♦Certainly n ot! Our columns are closed to any such expressions. — E d ., Cricket, T h e West Australian Cricket Association having con­ sidered tho letter from the New South Wales Association re sending a team to Sydney next season, decided to ask tho New South Wales Association for a guarantee of £200 towards the expenses, and also to write to the Victorian and South Australian Associations suggesting that they should guarantee £150 and £100 respectively for matchos in Mel­ bourne and Adelaide. The expenses of the tour were estimated at about £400. A n unusual feat was performed in the match between the Gawler High School and the Hamley Bridge Boys’ Club at Adelaide on December 16th. R oy Carr, of Hamley Bridge, secured 0 wickets, and was instrumental in running out the tenth batsman, thus securing all the wickets for 34 runs out of 111 scored. Hamley Bridge scored 119. A curious incident occurred in Adelaide on December 23rd, which was described by tho Observer in the following words :—•“ When East Torrens had replied to Adelaide with 255 for 3 wickets, Capt. Hill decided to declare the innings closed, and endeavour to dismiss^Adelaide again. Torrens accomplished the task and scored a four-point win. The feature of the Easteners’ batting was the innings of Mayne. Just after he had reached the century, he was approached by his skipper and asked to retire. Hill was anxious to give J. T. Murray his first trial in A grade cricket. Mayne replied that he considered it tantamount to a direct insult to the opposing team for a player to leave the creases in such a way. Rather than do so, he apparently decided to sacrifice his wicket. A t 114 he hit a ball to mid- on. The catch was not accepted, but as Mayne had left the crease tho ball was thrown in and a run-out recorded. Tho general opinion was that Mayne, who had had ample time to get back, had intentionally given this opportunity for his dismissal. The incident caused considerable discussion. ’ ’ Mr. S. H il l , who has represented South Australia on several occasions, left Adelaide early in the new year for Sydney, where he had secured a position in one of the leading wholesale houses. H e will play for North Sydney. Mr. B. J. Kortlang, of Victoria, has also gone on to Sydney, but we believe that in his case there is a likelihood of an early return to his native State. T h e r e was some brisk run-getting in the match at Adelaide on January 20th between East Torrens and West Torrens, the former, in three hours and a-lialf, running up a total of 480. E. R. Mayne played, brilliantly for 183, J. N. Crawford made 70 and W . J. Whitty 61. I n a second-grade match on January 20th, South Mel­ bourne made 325 without the loss of a wicket against East Melbourne. Sykes scored 190 not out and Gray 104 not out. J u s t before the second Test match was begun in Mel­ bourne on December 30th, Sir John Fuller, the Governor of Victoria, performed the ceremony of opening the now grand-stand which has been erected on the ground. In a brief speech he said that the Melbourne Cricket Ground would rank with the finest in the world. The new structure would be known as “ The Wardill Stand,” in recognition of the long and valued services rendered to the Melbourne Cricket Club by Major Wardill. The Club now had a membership of over 5,000, but when Major Wardill took over the secretaryship there were but 500 enrolled. An hour after the opening the stand was filled to its utmost capacity. Mr. G e o r g e F a r m e r , of Ballarat, an old cricketer, decided to give four hams for competition among the players in the second Test match in Melbourne. The bowler securing the best average on the English side received a ham, as did also the bowler securing the best average on the Australian side. Then the highest scorer on each side received a ham, too. M a n y boys who have shown prominence in school cricket ask which is the best way to become a batsman. “ I discussed the question this week,” says a writer in the Melbourne Argus, “ with some of the leading batsmen in Australia, and nearly all of them express the same view. Tho first thing is to take every opportunity of watching a first-rate batsman. Note the character of ball bowled to him, and see how ho treats it. This is better done from behind a practice net than in a match ; first, because you get a closer view ; secondly, because in practice the bats­ man plays each ball as he thinks it ought to be played, and without regard to consequences. In a match he may overrate the risk and simply stop a ball that ought to be hit. To take a typical case, in that of Vernon Ransford. As a boy he was attracted by W. Bruce’s play, because both were left-handers. His impression now is that he learned all his strokes from watching Bruce in practice, and was able to strengthen his defence afterwards under the coaching of Carpenter, an Essex professional, who was several times ngaged by the M.C.C. One word of advice I would give to the boy batsman is— never bat in practice without pads. Otherwise, he will get into a habit of moving his legs out of the way of a ball, instead of turning the ball out of the way of his legs. Ranjitsinhji, the famous Indian batsman, found that fault so hard to correct that he used to fasten down his right foot to the ground, so that ho couldn’t lift it.”