CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3640, 28 September 1912, Page 9

CRICKET.

THE AUSTRALIANS TOUR

(By “Short-Slip.”)

The Australian team brought their English tour to a close on September 14, when they were defeated at Bray, Ireland, by C. B. Fry’s eleven by eight wickets. They thus began and ended the campaign with a reverse. A bad failure in the first innings against the howling of S. F. Barnes and A. E. Relf was partly retrieved in the second innings, but the leeway was to heavy/ and a severe defeat goes down on the records. The team has won 9 matches and lost 8 matches, a record similar to that of 1886. While inferior to the record of many teams, it is superior to those of 1888, 1890, and 1893.

In the wettest season on record this team, which started off needing all the luck that was going, lost the toss in 26 and won it in 11 matches. This tremendous handicap must have seriously affected the side. " It is strange that such a fate should have been in store for the captain on this tour, above all those which have been undertaken by Australian teams. In cricket tours, as in everything c-lse, luck will play its part, and now that this tour is finished, it will serve no good purpose to dwell on the wetness of the season and the loss of tho toss so often. These are “all in the game,” and while we may privately rail at the fates, it is but fair to the successful enemy to offer our sincere congratulations. England is first, Australia, second, and South Africa third in tho triangular contest.

In the Test matches the 1912 team performed quite as ably as a large majority of its predecessors, and in keeping with the prestige of Australian cricket. But in the county and other matches their cricket evidently sank to a very ordinary level, the continuous rain putting several'of the now batsmen out of their run-getting vein, and tho now bowlers, as a rule, failing to show any striking qualities. While the weather was fine in the early part of tho tour, the team performed with marked success, hut when the rain came day after day and week after week, the new men, with a. few exceptions, seemed to lose their cricket. The subjoined table of results of all teams in eleven aside matches provides matter for readers to make contrasts, and otherwise discuss the work of the team :

AUSTRALIAN TEAMS IN ENGLAND.

Warren Bardsley elosod the campaign with an aggregate of 2441 runs at an average of 51.93 per innings. With one exception (V. Trumper’s 2570) it is the highest aggregate on record, while the average per innings is the highest. There can bo no question that he is the most successful Australian batsmean that has over appeared on English wickets. Appended is a list of the 200 aggregates by Australians in England:—

C. G. Macartney’s is likewise a wonderful record. His improvement on English wickets must strike Englishmen as phenomenal. In 1909 ho scored only G3B runs at 19.33 per innings ; this year 2207 at 45.04. C. Kelleway’s batting, if a good deal below that of Bardsley and Macartney in collective excellence, has been one of the features of the campaign. His work in the Test matches has been be-

yond value, superior to Macartney’s and equal to Bardsley’s. S. E. Gregory and G. B. Jennings each scored over 100 runs, and performed very well, though in tho cricket of Jennings there have been far too many run-outs, implying, as it does, carelessness between wickets by either himself or his partners. , Tho batting of tho other players has been weak. It. B. Minnqtt is essentially a fast wicket batsman, though tho moist season has put him off his game more than one expected it would. Should he visit England again he" may ho able to show the form that is in him, as Macartney has done this year.

E. R. Mayne lias been patchy, and never quite the success his methodical batting in Australia presaged. Apparently the rain told on his form. J. Matthews and D. Smith as batsmen did little, though tho little fellow played a few highly useful innings. Smith’s one good innings at Kennington Oval must have shown Englishmen who saw it that he is a far more dangerous batsman than his achievements in England lately. As batsmen, little was expected from the others, so •there is not m u .>• disappear, ment.

Though Matthews, Whitty, Macartney and Hazlitt came out creditably as bowlers, the work generally is disappointing Evidently no one developed form to warrant his being considered the star bowler. It was a season for left-handers, yet save on rare occasions the left-handers accomplished but ordinary performances. There wer© too many bowlers had little to do, so that their form was not thoroughly worked up.

’Ten members of the Australian team left England for America to play a series of matches there in a private and not a representative Australian capacity. It is understood that the Board of Control has practically given its sanction to this slight deviation from the original programme. Tho players concerned are S. E. Gregory, C. Ivelleway, W. J. Whitty, J. T. Matthews, W. Carkeek, 11. Webster, S. H. Emery, J. W. McLaren, E. It. Mayne and D. Smith. They will leave A ancouver by the Marama on October 30 for Sydney, arriving there three weeks later.

A guarantee has been given them by the world-wide firm of A. G. Spalding and Co. There will bo only ten players in the ..arty, whose batting will be very’ weak—that is measured by the skill requisite in thoroughly' firstclass cricket.

The other players, AY. Bardelcy, C. G. Macartney, G. It. Hazlitt, It. B. Minnett and C. B. Jennings—together with the manager, Mr C. S. Crouch, will remain in the Old Country until October 12, when they will join the Marathon, and return to Australia via the Capo, reaching Sydney on November 25.

A arious satements as to the finances of Hie Australian team in England have been made. Despite tho phenomenal rainfall and its depressing effect on the attendances at all kinds of cricket, and the straits in • which several of the county' clubs are, the Australians, on the whole, have had what, in the circumstances, may he described as very satisfactory “gates.” In this direction they are far better off than the South Africans.

The total takings will probably exceed £7OOO, and in that case tho share per man will be £l9O odd, and in certain contingencies something in excess of £2OO, anything np to £225. The players are expecting the Board of Control to endeavor to make the position as easy as possible for them; and this, one has no.doubt, tho Board will do. Four members of the team agreed to accept £4OO in lieu of a share of the profits, and these men will come out of the venture better than their comrades, though with normal weather and luck this would probably have been reversed.

W. L. I>. Tl. 1878 ... '9 4 4 17 1880 5 2 4 11 1882 ... 28 4 12 37 1884 ... 18 7 .7 38 1880 ... 9 8 22 39 1888 ... 19 14 7 40 1890 ... 13 16 9 38 1893 ... 18 10 8 36 1896 ... 19 6 9 34 1899 ... 16 3 16 35 1902 ... 23 2 14 89 1905 ... 16 8 19 38 1909 ... 13 4 22 39 1912 ... 9 8 20 37

In.” N.O. TI.S. Es. Av. Trumper (1902) ... . 53 0 128 2570 48.49 Noble (1905) , 42 2 267 2084 44.34 Armstrong (1905) 48 7 303* 2002 48.82 Bardsley (1909) ... , 51 4 219 2180 46.39 Bardsley (1912) ... . 53 6 1E4 2441 51.93 Macartney (1912) 50- _ 1 208 2207 45.04