Lives in Cricket No 45 - Brief Candles 2

20 So close the First World War thus contained none of the eleven that had played in their last Sheffield Shield match a fortnight previously; indeed, six of the eleven were making their first-class debuts, three of whom played no further first-class cricket after this match. One of this last group was Rimington. He had turned 30 three weeks earlier, and had earned his chance with steady performances over a number of years in club cricket in Melbourne. He started in sub-district matches for Kew Baptists (the earliest scorecard I have traced that includes his name dates from the 1913/14 season), and had moved to Hawthorn by the 1915/16 season. In 1921/22 Hawthorn merged with the top-grade side East Melbourne, and this gave Rimington the opportunity to play at that level for the first time. His performances at district and sub-district level were consistent, if unexceptional. A score of 151 for Hawthorn against Footscray in March 1919 was, at the time, a record in the sub-district competition. He was also a regular, if not front-line, leg-spinner at club level, but his performances as reported in contemporary newspapers suggest that he was seen as a batsman-who-bowled, rather than a genuine all-rounder. His first season in top-grade cricket went well for him, and by early in 1922 the style and consistency of his right-handed batting for Hawthorn- East Melbourne were bringing him to wider attention. He ran into his best form at a particularly favourable time, with scores of 92 not out against Richmond over the Christmas-New Year period, 90 against Northcote in his next innings, and (to prove that he wasn’t just a ‘nearly man’) 101 not out, with 13 fours and two sixes, against St Kilda two matches later. This latter innings was played just a week before the scheduled match against Tasmania. Around this time The Australasian newspaper had some very favourable comments on him: “[He is] by no means a stylist, but an assured run-getter, with plenty of power and pluck” (28 January 1922); and “[He] has been coming steadily to the front of late. He has fine driving power, watches the ball exceptionally well, and is an adept in the art of placing” (18 February 1922, reporting his innings against St Kilda). With such praise to go alongside his recent sequence of high scores, one can see why Rimington was selected for the state’s (in effect) second eleven that made the trip to Launceston in mid-February. To pick up a phrase used by The Australian a little later (25 February 1922), he was seen - despite his 30 years - as ‘a batsman with a future’. The Launceston game was in some ways a strange match. Some 1183 runs were scored over the scheduled three days - 323 on the first day, 399 on the second and 461 on the third. The majority of both sides’ runs in their respective first innings were made by the lower order, with Victoria (who batted first) advancing from 177 for five and 256 for six to reach 550 all out, and Tasmania improving from 172 for eight to 358 all out. Victoria’s innings total remains one of the highest in all first-class cricket not to include a century partnership (the highest stand of the innings was 80 for the ninth wicket). Tasmania were obliged to follow on, and batted solidly