James Lilllywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1880

T H EF I F T HE N G L I S HT E A MI N A U S T R A L I A . 1 9 Onthe 21st we commenced our 9th match v. eleven of Victoria , and made the great score of 325 ; Ulyett's being a particularly fine innings . Five wickets of Victoria downfor about 90 looked well enough for us, but somehowor other the remainder managed to get hold of the bowling , and though I should hardly call any individual innings a good one , except perhaps Blackham's , their com- bined efforts saved the follow . W ehad to go in in a very bad light the same evening , which lost us some wickets . Everyone thought 236 was more than the Victorian eleven could put together ; but our catching , or rather failure to catch , came to their aid , and wonthem the match . It was very exciting at the end ; and, but for one or two mistakes whenthe last few runs were wanted to win, would have resulted differently . I nde bosintrod W estarted for Sandhurst the same evening , and arrived there about 11 P.M. Sandhurst , or Bendigo , as it was called in the old gold -rush days , has been beautifully planted up, and is beginning to look very picturesque . The cricket ground is terribly rough ; certainly the worst , Bathurst excepted perhaps , we played on. To show how rough , although on other grounds he hardly ever made a miss , no eligible offer was here refused by Mr. Royle , but it ought to be mentioned that throughout our tour, though he had some 16 or 17, he only missed one catch and that a very difficult one. The Sandhurst twenty -two got 141 ; one of thenem, whose name I forget , but who looked quite a boy, playing a very steady innings . Our first wicket fell at 149 , Messrs . Hornby and Mackinnon treating all the bowling with great contempt . The twenty -two had to get 163 to save a single -innings defeat , but owing to the grossly unfair decisions of their umpire we were at the call of time robbed of a victory by two runs, they having one wicket to fall . W ewent on to Ballarat from Sandhurst by train , arriving there on Feb. 28th ; and after being welcomed , on the morning of March 1st , by the Mayor, commenced the eleventh match v. twenty -two of Ballarat . The ground here is a pretty little oval , with not a very good light , but perfect wickets and outfielding . W e won the toss and got 311 , the top scorers being Mr. Hornby, Mr. Webbe and the Captain . The innings of the twenty -two were remarkable for the batting of a boy of about 15 years of age , who successfully resisted all our bowling in both innings , playing with marvellous accuracy and judgment , and getting about 30 each time . Wewonin one innings by 48 runs , the twenty -two being minus two of their men in their second innings . Two gold-mines were descended by most of the party here . Arrived in Melbourne on March 3rd , 11.30 P.M. On the 5th a garden party at Mr. Clarke's claimed the attention of most of us ; on the 6th another race -meeting was held , and on the 7th we began the 12th and last match w. eleven of Victoria . Having wonthe toss , we went in, but commencedvery badly, losing Messrs . Hornby and Lucas almost directly . The Captain and Mr. Webbe, however , put on nearly a hundred ; they retired within a few runs of each other , and Emmett shortly followed . Mr. Royle and Ulyett put on another 100, and a steady 15 from Mr. Mackinnon brought our score up to 248. Palmer bowled excellently , putting a wonderful lot of break on the ball , considering that the ground was hard and true . The Victorians did not look dangerous until Blackham and Horan got together , but a Yorker from Mr. Schultz having dismissed the latter , the rest did not give us much trouble . give In their second innings everything was going swimmingly for us, when one of those untoward accidents happened which so often alter the aspect of a game of cricket : Emmett missed an easy catch given him by Alexander , and thanks to that and a very good innings by Mullagh , the aboriginal who played C 2