Cricket 1912

M a e . 30, 1912. CEICKET : A W EEKLY EECOED OP THE GAME. 49 and played Ken Mowat’s XI., winning by 109 (P. B. Salmon 32) to 94 (Rev. C. D. Robinson 38). George Cox took 6 wickets. A Durban team—captained by T. R. Sulin of the Zingari, and including Herbert Taylor, J. Beningfield, L. R. Tuckett and Karl Siedle—has been on tour in the Free State, putting in a strenuous week’s cricket. They left the Central Station at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 3rd, had a match arranged for each day of the next week, and returned from Harrismith by the midnight mail on February 10th, reaching home on Sunday night. One match had to be abandoned, owing to rain ; four were won by the tourists, and one was drawn. Herbert Taylor made most runs, 171 in 6 innings, with 64 v. Harri^mith as his highest score. Beningfield scored the only century, 103. Brickhill headed the averages—151 in four completed innings—37’75. Tuckett (13) and Brickhill (11) took most wickets ; but eleven of the thirteen had a turn with the ball, and nine took a wicket or more. Sulin had 7 for 34. The scoring against the team ruled low. On February 24 Zingari beat Wanderers on the first innings by 41 runs. Claude Carter was again in rattling form —8 wickets for 62. Till Percy Whyte and Easterbrook got together, and added 49 for the eighth wicket, no one could anything with him. Scores: Zingari, 187 and 147 for 6 (V. Robbins 69), Wanderers, 146 (J. W. Easterbrook 45, P. Whyte 34). Queen’s Park beat Casuals by 10 wickets, scoring being small throughout; Chapman’s bowling (9 for 41 in the match) and two fine catches in the country by Herbert Taylor were the best features of the game. The “ Briton,” leaving Durban on March 20th, will carry the South African team, the Natal contigent boarding first, Hartigan being picked up at East London, and the Transvaal brigade joining at Cape Town. But it has been suggested that some of the latter might, by coming to Durban instead of Cape Town, be here to take part in Dave Nourse’s benefit match on the 16th. Failing their help, the match will be Natal Currie Cup team of 1911 (includ­ ing Cox, Samuelson, Taylor, Dudley Pearse, and Thomson) v. Rest of Natal (Nourse himself, Carter, who played for Transvaal in 1911, Ormerod Pearse, and others). With the Transvaalers in, the latter side could be called Rest of South Africa, perhaps, though the name would be a bit big for the facts. George Cox leaves for home by the “ Kenilworth Castle ” on the 14th, two days before the match. Australian Cricket Chronology and Memorabilia, Writing in the Sydney Sportsman of January 2nd, 1901, “ R e c o r d e r ,” the well-known critic of that paper, said :— “ Cricket in Australia dates from about the years 1803-4, when the grand old British national game was introduced by the officers of the regiments stationed here. This game, owing to the great heat experienced, did not make much progress, and matches were not played with any punctuality, regularity or in any particular locality. However, as time went on it progressed with slow but certain steps until the introduction of intercolonial and international cricket, since which time it has gone ahead with tremendous strides, until to-day it is played by thousands and it numbers its votaries by tens of thousands.” Among the most prominent of the early clubs in Sydney were the Military and Civilian, between which the rivalry was very keen. It was due perhaps to this keen feeling that the desire to play for money was particularly strong. A favourite rendez-vous of the players was a little public- house at the corner of Elizabeth and Park streets, kept by one Mountford Clarkson, himself an old cricketer. This house to a certain extent did duty as a pavilion. The matches were played on the north-west portion of Hyde Park, then known as the Bace-course, on wickets which to-day would be marked as unfit for play. It is said that in the early matches played on that ground the bats were made of cedar and the stumps of lance-wood. Be that as it may, one batsman is confidently reported to have hit a ball clean over a house in Elizabeth Street which lodged in a tree midway between that street and Castlereagh Street— a very big hit indeed. Over eighty years ago one of the strongest clubs in the Commonwealth was the Australian C.C., of Sydney, of whose eleven Mr. E. W. Gregory, the grandfather of “ S.E.,” was a member as far back as 1826. 1829— 1830. The earliest printed account of a match appeared in the Sydney Gazette and N .S.W , Advertiser. It stated that on New Year’s Day, 1830, upwards of 100 spectators gathered together on the Bace-course (now Hyde Park) to witness a game between Australian youths for a heavy stake. 1832-33. The first detailed account of a match published in an Australian paper. The game was played on the old Bace- course on October 17th, 1832, between the Marylebone C.C. (98 and 77) and the Australian C.C. (70 and 80), for a stake varying from £20 to £50. The men played barefooted or with tbeir socks on, owing to the slipperiness of the grass, the use of spikes for the boots being apparently unknown. The Hobart Town C.C. of Tasmania, was founded on October 27th, 1832. The earliest record of a match played on the old ground is dated January 1st, 1833, but it is believed the site was utilized for cricket even earlier. 1833-34. A t Sydney on April 2nd, 1834, a match was played between Australians (38 and 143) and Europeans (57 and 60) during which Australians had the term “ Cornstalk ” generally applied to them. 1838-39. So far as is known, it was about December, 1838, that the first wicket was pitched in Victoria, by Messrs. D. G. M‘Arthur and Isaac Hind at the foot of Batsman’s Hill. The stumps and bails were improvised for the occasion from the ti-ti tree, which grew so plentifully on the banks of the river in those times, but it has been recorded that there were really a genuine bat and ball, which were tenderly looked after during the summer season and greased and laid up in lavender during the winter, there not being others to be had in the State ! As the number of enthusiasts increased it was found necessary to obtain a supply of bats, balls and stumps from India and Hobart. In 1839 Mr. P. A. Powlett made 120 for Gentlemen of the District v. Tradesmen of the Town, in Melbourne— the first recorded hundred in Australia. 1842-43. On March 7th, 1843, great excitement was caused at Sydney in the match between the Australian and Victoria clubs owing to a player on the former side indulging in round-armed bowling. A report of the game stated :— “ The low scores obtained by the Victoria gentlemen were chiefly attributable to the unfair bowling of Mr. B. Still, who, in attempting the round-arm style, made a regular throw of it, which was very fast, and generally well-pitched balls, but the ground, being very rough and hard, made it quite dangerous to stand against, and many of the V.C.C. were crippled. The umpires, understanding very little of the game, omitted to call this unfair bowling until late in the game. It will not be allowed another time, but we hope fair round-arm bowling will be introduced into this colony.” [It is of interest to recall that as early as 1826 the Victoria C.C. possessed a round-arm bowler of their own named Young.] 1844-45. The present Melbourne C.C. was “ finally formed ” on January 17th, 1845. Their first ground was on the south side of the Yarra. The present ground has been occupied since 1854, and the Crown grant was issued in 1863. 1845-46. On May 11th, 1846, Perth played X I. Tradesmen and Mechanics of Perth— the first known recorded game in West Australia. It was stated that “ The playing appears to have been fair, and the Perth Club were declared the winners.” 1849-50. On April 20th, 1850, at Oatlands, the first match between the North and South of Tasmania was commenced. The North won by 12 runs. “ The fielding on both sides was excellent, and it was only after a severe contest that the Launceston club could claim the championship of Van Diemen’s Land.” « {To be continued.) R i c h a r d d a f t ’ s N o t t i n g h a m s h i r e m a r l . —Particulars apply Radcliffe*on*Trent, Notts.— (A dvt .)