Cricket 1913

140 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A pril 26, 1913. The First=Class Season in Australia. SH E F F IE LD SH IE LD MATCHES. D e c e m b e r 20, 2 1, and 23.— S. A u st r a l ia (569) beat N.S.W . (276 and 240) b y an innings and 53 runs at Adelaide. D e c e m b e r 26, 27, and 28.— V ic t o r ia (181 and 137 for 4) beat N.S.W . (84 and 232) by 6 wickets at Melbourne. J a n u a r y i , 2, and 3.— S. A u st r a l ia (309 and 128) beat V ic to r ia (229 and 140) by 68 runs at Melbourne. J a n u a r y 10, 11, 13, an d 14.— N.S.W . (513 an d 314) b e a t S. A u s t r a l ia (331 and 412) b y 84 runs a t Sydney. J a n u a r y 24, 25, 27 and 28.— N.S.W . (,77 and 163 for 2) beat V i c t o r i a (274 and 365) by 8 wickets at Sydney. F e b r u a r y 28, M ar ch i , 3, an d 4.— S. A u st r a l ia (368 an d 222) beat V ic t o r ia (209 an d 215) b y 166 runs. O TH ER FIRST-CLASS MATCHES. O c t o b e r 25, 26, and 28.— S. A u s t r a l i a (270 and 410) beat W. A u st r a l ia (69 and 246) by 365 runs at Adelaide. N o v e m b e r i and 4 (one day blank through rain).— W. A u st r a l ia (154 and 72 for 2) drew with V i c t o r i a (359 for 6, dec.) at Melbourne. N o v e m b e r 9 and 11 (no play Nov. 8, owing to rain).— N.S.W . (95 and 348) drew with W. A u s t r a l i a (105 and 83 for 2) at Sydney. N o v e m b e r 15, 16, and 18. N.S.W. (305 and 375 for 8, dec.) beat W. A u st r a l ia (318 and 207) by 165 runs at Sydney. N o v e m b e r 20, 21 and 22. — V ic t o r ia (191 and 323 for 5) drew with W. A u s t r a l ia (183) at Melbourne. N o v e m b e r 23 and 25.— N.S.W. (123 and 137 for 2) beat Q u e e n s ­ l a n d (159 and 100) by 8 wickets at Brisbane. J a n u a r y 24, 25, 27 and 28.— T a s m a n ia (331 and 448) beat V i c ­ to r ia (475 and 250) by 54 runs at Melbourne. J a n u a r y 31, F e b r u a r y i and 3.— V i c t o r i a (256 and 223 for 4) beat Q u e e n s l a n d (330 and 144) by 6 wickets at Brisbane. F e b r u a r y 7, 8, 10 and 12 (no play Feb. 11 owing to rain).— N.S.W. (389 and 146 for 7) drew with R e s t o f A u s t r a l i a (358 and 265) at Sydney. F e b r u a r y 14, 15, and 16.— N.S.W . (483) beat Q u e e n s la n d (276 and 115) by an innings and 92 runs at Sydney. M a r c h i and 3. — N.S.W . (614 for 5, dec.) beat T a s m a n ia (139 and 186) by an innings and 289 runs at Hobart. S co r in g in S h e f f ie l d S h ie l d M a t c h e s . State. Runs for. Wkts. Aver. Runs agst. Wkts. Aver. N.S. W a le s ................ ... 1750 72 24-3 1983 72 27-5 S. Australia... ••• 2339 70 33-4 2136 78 27-3 Victoria ... 2299 72 3 i -9 2269 64 35-4 S c o r in g in A l l !F ir st -C lass M atch es . State or Side. Runs for. Wkts. Aver. Runs agst. Wkts. Aver. N.S. W a le s ................ ••• 5314 154 34*4 4580 175 26-1 Queensland 1124 60 18-7 1222 36 33’9 Rest of Australia ... 623 20 3 i* i 535 17 31-4 S. A ustralia................ ... 3019 90 33-5 2451 98 25-0 Tasmania ... 1104 39 28-3 1339 24 55-7 Victoria ... 3827 126 30-3 3645 134 27-2 W. Australia ••• 1437 74 1 9 4 2676 79 33-8 Totals ... ... 16,448 563 29*2 16,448 563 2Q*2 There were 17 matches, as against 24 in 1911-2 (when an English team was down under). Then 24,142 runs were totalled for 777 wickets, average 31 o ; thus, as the Englishmen averaged over 39 per wicket, Australian scoring was slightly higher in 1912-3 than in 1911-2, though of course Frank Foster and Barnes were not there to lower it. Including the 16 English players 130 men took part in the matches of 1911-2. In 1912-3 as many as 135 figured in the seventeen games— 35 each for N.S.W . and Victoria, 20 for South Australia, 18 for Queensland, 15 for Tasmania, and 12 for Western Australia. F ifty of these (16 for Victoria, 11 for N.S.W., 8 each for Queensland and Tasmania, 7 for South Australia) played in only one match. Only two N.S.W\ men, Collins and Massie, represented their state in all its matches. No Victorian had any chance of doing so, as two of the state’s games were in progress at once. Four South Australians (Campbell, Craw­ ford, Hill, and Moyes), and five Queenslanders (Downey, Fennelly, Rowe, Sheppard, and Thomson) played in all of their side’s matches ; seven Tasmanians played in both the matches of the island state, and eight of the twelve Westralians who went on tour did not miss a game. E xactly one-third (45) of the total number were men who had never played first-class cricket before, a proportion unequalled in any recent year, I should imagine. Of the 45 there were 12 Victorians, 10 N.S.W. men, 9 South Australians, 7 Queens­ landers, 4 Westralians, and 3 Tasmanians. Among these were several who made their marks very definitely— Ryder, for instance, whose all-round play was one of the features of the season, Moyes, Cody, C. Thompson, and Sheppard. Ninety of the 135 bowled; but of these 17 failed to take a wicket, and as many as 56 did not take 10 wickets, leaving only 17 who took 10 or more. Among these R. J. A. Massie, whose bowling was a big asset to N.S.W ., came easily first with 58 wickets, and the only others who took 20 or more were Ryder, Crawford, W hitty, Armstrong, Mailey, and Christian. There were some exceptionally high batting averages, even for Australia. Of those playing five or more innings Macartney averaged over 100, Trumpet over 80, Barbour and Mayne over 60, Thomson just 50, Armstrong, Bardsley, Collins, Hill, Mat­ thews, Moyes, and Ryder ovea? 40, 11 others over 30, 9 between 20 and 30, 6 between 15 and 20, 7 between 10 and 15, and only 10 (of 55) under double figures. Some of the remaining eighty had also high figures, of course. It cannot be said that many of the members of the returned Australian Team specially distinguished themselves. Gregory, Jennings, McLaren, Smith, and Webster did not play in a first- class match at all ; Hazlitt only played once ; Emery, Kelleway, and Minnett did little. There remain Bardsley, good, but not at the top of his form, Carkeek, probably a better wicket-keeper than ever before, Macartney, who performed prodigiously— his scores were 154,125, 96, 94, 91, 76*, and 10— Mayne, who showed a remarkable advance, Matthews who has also improved as a batsman, and W hitty, who bowled very well indeed. South Australia, with plenty of good young blood, did wonder­ fully well, losing only one match, and that after a great fight. New South Wales sent a comparatively weak team west, and paid the penalty, but is still tremendously strong when fully repre­ sented. Victoria has also an excellent team, with good colts coming on. Queensland lacked several of her best, and had a poor season, but there is promise in C. Thompson, Rowe, Sheppard, Downey, and one or two more of her new men. Tasmania, as usual, could not place full strength in the field either at home or away. Western Australia has some capital players ; but they need more frequent matches against strong opposition to develop the best that is in them. N.S.W ., usually well served behind the wicket, appears to have been rather let down in this department during the last season. As many as five wicket-keepers were played— Carter, McKew, Munn, Lane, and Prentice— and of these Carter is still beyond all doubt the best. Whereas only 172 extras were included in the N.S.W. scores, as many as 338 were registered to their opponents. While Victoria received 215 extras, the side gave away only 143, and 77 of these were registered in matches in which Carkeek was not playing. If it had been necessary to choose an Australian eleven, say in January, Macartney, Trumper, Hill, Mayne, Bardsley, and Armstrong as batsmen, the first and last-named useful with the ball also, W'hitty, Hordern, and Massie as bowlers, with Carkeek as wicket-keeper, and Ryder as an all-round man, would probably have been the selected side, though it is difficult to see how Barbour could have been left out, and Ransford, Gehrs, Moyes, Matthews, Baring, E. V. Carroll, and Christian would all have been worthy of consideration. A very good eleven not containing any man who has yet played in a test match, could have been selected from Barbour, Ryder, Massie, Baring, Campbell (wicket­ keeper), Moyes, E. V. Carroll, Hawrson, Scott (fast bowler), Christian, Thomson, Collins, Cody, and Mailey, though of course playing some of these would have been somewhat in the nature of a gamble. G E O R G E L EW I N A C o . , Club Colour S pecialists & A thletic C lo th in g M a n u fa c tu r e r s . OUTFITTERS BY APPO INTMENT TO The Royal Navy and Array, Cornwall, Kent, Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey Counties, and London Scottish, Irish and Welsh, Blackheath, Harlequins, Rich­ mond, Catford Rugby Football Clubs, and all the leading Clubs in the British Isles and abroad ; M.C.C. S. African Tour, 1909 , S. African Cricket Association 1910 , and Queen’s Club, Kensington, the M.C.C. Australian Team 1911-12, and the South African Association Cricket Team 1912. Established 1869 . W rite fo r Estim ates. Telephone : P.O. 607 C IT Y . Works at Camberwell. 8 , CROOKED LANE, MONUMENT , E.G.