James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1886

1 0 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. immediately begun, and on October 31st the rather formidable task of playing fifteen of South Australia commenced. Although most of the team were all abroad both with bat and ball , after an interesting struggle , which lasted four days, the Englishmen scored a victory by three wickets . This was mainly due to four of the team-Ulyett , who scored 100 in the first innings ; Shrewsbury, 52; Barnes, 37 and 28 ; and Briggs , 31, not out. Briggs' score was made at a verycritical time, at the close of the g a m e, and undoubtedlyw o nthe matchfor his side . The attendance was very poor . A second match was played against eighteen , which included several youngsters , assisted by the best players in the colony . It ended in a draw greatly in favour of England. Thematchwas played on a newground about three miles from the centre of Adelaide , but no interest whatever was taken in it, and not five hundred persons witnessed the g a m eduringthe three days. On November8th the team left by steamer for Melbourne, arriving there on the morning of the 10th , after a very rough, disagreeable passage . On Friday, November 14th , a match against eleven of Victoria was com- menced. Themembers of Murdoch's team, just returned from England, would not, however, play against us, and no sensible reason has ever been given for their action . A fairly strong team had, however, been got together , but bad weather interfered with the play throughout , and the game ended in an easy victory for England , after four days' play. Barnes and Shrewsbury did most of the scoring in this match, each of them getting over 100 runs in the two innings ; while Flowers , too , did a smart thing in bowling by taking eight wickets for 31 runs in the second innings of Victoria , on a good hard wicket. Theattendance was very poor, owing no doubt to the unfavourable weather . From Melbourne to Sydney was the next cry , and here a hearty welcome awaited us, the N e wSouth Wales cricketers joining the members of the Association in wishing us a pleasant and profitable time of it in the colony of N e wSouth Wales. O n November21st the first match against a picked eleven of N e wSouth Wales was commenced. Here, again , the membersof Murdoch's team refused to play, but as only two, Murdochhimself and Bannermanhailed fromthe colony , the game was fairly interesting . Spofforth had not yet arrived fromEngland . Winning the toss , after Massie had been dismissed by a fine catch in the long field , Jones and Moses defied all the English bowling for a long time . The pair put on no less than 120 runs before the second wicket fell , and when a heavy thunderstorm stopped the game for the day, 154 runs had been scored for the loss of five wickets . On Saturday the game was resumed under quite a different aspect , the heavy rain having made the ground very dead and treacherous . The N e w South Wales innings quickly closed , and seven of the English wickets had fallen for 43 runs , when Bates, by some good hitting , assisted by a useful stand by Attewell and Peel , just managed to save the follow on, the innings closing for 110. Threebatsmenof N e wSouthWaleswered o w nfor 27 runsbefore play ceased for the day, eighteen wickets having fallen for 167 runs during the afternoon . 16,000 persons witnessed the day's play . On Monday, though the ground was again dry, the Colonial batsmen collapsed in an extraordinary manner, and the whole of the remaining wickets fell for 17 runs , Barnes taking four wickets for a single . This, with the advantage gained on the first innings , left the Englishmen a fair score to get before victory was secured ; and, thanks again to Bates, whohit finely at a very anxious time, they wonby four wickets . About30,000 persons visited the ground during the three days, and were highly interested in the g a m ethroughout. The next match was played at Windsor, a towu distant between 30 and40 miles by rail from Sydney. T h e game, against twenty-two of the district , was played on a concrete wicket , so hard, that two pieces of cocoa. matting were stretched over it , to prevent the ball rising in a very dangerous manner. TheEnglish team had everything their own way, and stayed so long at the wickets that the match, limited to two days, could not be finished .