Cricket 1912

88 CKICKET: A WEEKLY ltECORD OF THE GAME. A p r i l 27, 1912. Bruce, most graceful of left-handers, still shows good ^ ^ K! nets, though he never plays in matches now. He linds net practice helps to keep him in good health, lie says. Like Truinble, he is a busy solicitor and a keen golfer. They say that good old Ted Evans, who was a veteran even in ’86, still plays the game up-country in ,\.S.\V.. where he has a big farm. Poor Johnny Ferris died in Durban after the war, and another member of the ’88 team, John Dunlop Edwards, has also gone to his last home. Jack Worrall, after having a rough time of it in many ways, has settled down as the \ .C.A’s coach, and is doing great work among the young­ sters. .Jack has attained aldermanic proportions now, and does not count himself among active players. Charley 'turner is in a Sydney bank ; he plays now and then, but is not as keen as one might expect so great, and famous a bowler to be. Jack Lyons is doing well in Adelaide. \ on will remember that Bob Thoms described him as the best fast-footed hitter he ever saw. Jack says he should be playing still if it were not for his troublesome “ understandings.” He is a heavy man— always was, for that matter— and his feet really won’t bear his weight on the hard grounds. So he has taken to bowls, and is quite an expert at that fascinating pastime. I suppose I come in here, for I made my first trip i1 ’88— and a wet, water-logged season it was, too ! I am still in the game, I am happy to say, and doing as well as an old ’un can expect. My employment is in the G.P.O., and nly principal interest in life, apart from work, is and will always be the grand old game. Of the ’90 team Dr. John E. Barrett is in charge of a hospital on the west coast of Tasmania, and never plays the game nowadays. Pereie Charlton is still in Sydney, lull he, too, has given up cricket. Kenny Burn— taken home as second-wicket keeper, though he had never in his life acted in that capacity !— is in Government Railway employ. He has lately retired finally from cricket; after one retirement he came back and scored better than any o f his younger comrades ; he is still interested in the management of the game, and everybody in Tasmania who cares about its good hopes Kenny will keep up his interest in it. I.ike Jack Lyons, he plays bowls. Hugh Trumble Iras a capital billet— secretary to the Melbourne C.C. at £ 5(10 a year ; and no one who knows Hughie will grudge him his good luck. One of the best fellows who ever stepped is he, and to my mind he was only slightly, if at all, the Demon’s inferior as a bowler. I am not sure that he is not somewhere near the best bowler in Australia to-day, though he does little at it except in the nets. Syd Gregory, the baby of that team, is now a veteran on his eighth visit to the old country, captain after all these years, with men under him who were children when his fame was made, yet as active as the best o f them. Syd has a Government job, I believe. Two of the new men of ’93 are no longer with us. Bob McLeod died a t the early age of 39, after only a few hours’ illness ; Harry Graham, “ the little dasher,” passed away, after months of lingering, in New Zealand last year. Of the ’90 team Joe Darling is the owner of a big sheep-run in Tasmania, plays cricket no more, but looks to me as young as ever. Frank Iredale is one of the best club cricketers in Sydney, but has not played for the State these ten years past. He is a journalist, as of course you all know, and an adherent of the Board of Control. Clem Hill is on the Adelaide Stock Exchange ; it is a pity Ihat you should not be seeing him this year at home, for he is still a great bat, though more slapdash and careless in his methods than of old- Charley Eady is another solicitor, like the elder Trumble and Bruce ; like Kenny Burn he retired, but is now back again in harness, though he won’t play for the State. He was nominated President of the Board of Control last year, but would not take on the job. He does his share of the Tasmanian C.A.’swork, however, and stands high in the regard of the islanders— with us on the mainland, too, for that matter. He ought to have had another chance in England. Jim Kelly is in the employ of the Sydney Municipal Council, and, looks lit and happy. Krnie Jones, the fast bowler, has a, post in a West Australian brewery. He has put on a lot of weight, and has lost some of his pace, bid still bowls a bit, and hits hard as of old. Tom McKibbin, who was to have been a barrister, chucked that, and now travels all over Aus­ tralia repairing shearing-machines. Only a little while ago I met him in Melbourne, swag on shoulder, taking the home trail for N.S.W. The nomadic life suits him, but he has done with cricket ; he never cared to play much after they left him out of the ’99 team. It is a pleasure to me to think over old times and call up to memory’s vision the old familiar faces. They are grown older when I see them now, my old comrades, and so have I. But they have m y goodwill, one and all of them, and I hope and believe I have theirs. Yon may hear of Australian squabbles, and it is only human nature that in a tour of half-a-year there should be tiffs; bid you can take it from me that we Australian cricketers liave stood shoulder to shoulder pretty well on the whole and there have not been many lifelong feuds among us. Cricket in Natal. D u r b a n , March 30, 1912. The cricket season ended this afternoon, when all the matches in the two Senior Leagues, begun last Saturday, were finished. Nourse’s club, Greyville, with 10 points, heads the Durban League, followed by the Wanderers and Zingari, 13 each, Queen’s Park, with 10, Casuals, with 0, and Escombes, «with 5. The Maritzburg C.C. heads the city League, with 05.00 per cent., followed by Standard, 45.71, Zingari, 31'42, and College, 20.00. The different methods of point-scoring were explained in a previous letter. The four Durban members of the team for England only took part in the lirst Saturday’s play ; they were on the sea to-day, when substitutes were allowed for them. As it happened, three of them showed- excellent form, fo r Greyville, Joe Cox bowled exceptionally well, and batted well too, going in first with Dave Nourse— an unusual place for Joe. If he took his batting more seriously, he might make plenty of runs. Nourse himself did only moderately, but Herbert Taylor was top scorer for his side, and Claude Carter not only top-scored for his, but took 6 for 52 in addition. This all promises well. Greyville beat Queen’s Park handsomely, thanks to a really tine innings by A. C. King and a useful, if fluky, one by Holmes. Wanderers hoped to force Escombes to follow on, but the elder Siedle saved his side from that, and, the game was decided on the first innings. Zingari and Casuals played a very close game indeed. Match results :■— G r e y v il l e v. Q u e e n ’ s P a r k . — The former won by 129 runs on first innings. Q.P., 137 (H. W . Taylor 70, H. W. Chapman 28) ; Greyville, 2f>(> (F. W. Holmes 78, A. C. King 08 not out, .). L. Cox 27). .Joe Cox 6 wickets for 43 for Greyville, J. W. Howden 5 for 88 for Q.P. W a n d e r e r s v . E s c o m b e s .— The former won by 51 runs on first innings. Wanderers, 173 for 8, declared (H. A. Hawkins 58) and 90 for 5 (M. Hawkins 34) ; Escombes 119 (K. O. Siedle 43). For Eseombes V. Jackson had 4 for 30 in the Wanderer’s first; for Wanderers C. Smith had 4 for 27, G. H. Whyte 3 for 15. Z in g a r i v . C a s u a l s . — The former won by 10 runs on lirst innings. Casuals, f73 (C . C. Acutt 52, A. .J ohnstone 37) and 118 for 8 (P. Beninglield 39, .J. Beningfield 27) ; Zingari, 189 (C. P. Carter 50, V. C. Robbins 31, H. Rach­ mann 25). In Casuals first Carter had 0 wickets for 52, in their second L. D. Dalton had 0 for 48. R. Randles, for Wanderers, had 4 for 50. A t Maritzburg Dudley Pearse ran up over a hundred for Maritzburg v. Zingari. He is the only batsman who has scored two centuries in either league this season. The Pearse brotherhood was to the fore in this match, as the score synopsis will show. M a r it z b u r g v . Z in g a r i . — The former won by 140 runs on first innings. Zingari, 137 (J. Forder 39, G. McMul­ len 29, R. H. Blake 24), and 50 for 3 (S. V. Samuelson 31) ; Maritzburg, 277 for 6, declared (D. K. Pearse 113 not out, C. O. C. Pearse 57, A. Hair 35, E. Saville 32). V. Pearse had 7 wickets for 25 for the winners. M a r it z b u u g O o li.k g k v. S ta n o a i!i> . —The latter WO 11 by 8 wickets and runs to spare, the match apparently being continued after it was over, so to speak—a practice