AN EXCITING CRICKET MATCH.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1456, 13 October 1884, Page 2

AN EXCITING CRICKET MATCH.

# The Irish Times of a recent date has the following ghaphic description of th<* return match between the Australian cricketers and the Gentleman of England, played at the Oval on June 26 27 and 28 :— The state of play when stumps were drown on Friday gave assurance of a goodly morrow, and we enthusiasts of the game had spread ourselves at least ten thousand strong round the historic circuit of the Oval. England had knocked up the fine total of 261 in the first innings, and so we were well ahead of the Larrikins with 229. Friday evening found the invaders with six wickets down for 150, being only 118 runs on. With almost any outer eleven this condition would have been considered hopless ; but there is no tail to a colonial team. Excited by the certainty of a grand straggle, we besieged all entrances for hours before the hour of play, and in truth, while the gladiators contended in tho arena the spectators who witnessed them were a more remarkable sight. But th« chronicle commences irregu- | larly. Play opened punctually, and I the reverberation was not unlike the working of all the policemen's rattles ever used throughout the world as we gave the athletes the greeting of our hand. Midwinter and Blackham, the not-onts, faced the bowling of Graco and Steel. Not to dwell on the least noteworthy feature of the day, Blackham raised his score to 21, when his near bail was neatlj lifted by Steel, and Spofforth followed, but struck a ball from Grace with the simple motion of a Girton girl, and dropped it gently into Mr Studd's hands at short slip. With only one wicket to go down we declared the conflict as good as decided ; but Boyle the last man in, held his wicket and stole up 11 runs, while his partner, Midwinter, slashed aiiout him freely. The result was that when Boyle was taken by Studd off Steel the four Australian wickets had added 69 to the 150 the opening score stood at, and left the Gentlemen of England 188 to win. Here then from being a moral certainty for the motherland it had become anybody's. Now our sporting instinct asserted itself, and forthwith betting burst and circulated like aa epidemic throught our multitude. How we made the welkin ring, when' after an interval, the Australians, entered the field ; after them, side by side, Grace and Studd. The Leviathan, limped badly, for he has had many wonndsin wars of the wicket during the* present campaign and got a bad hurt in the foot at Lord's last week. But he had 107 on Thursday, and he knew that upon his broad shoulders mainly rested the English hope of victory. Spofforth and Boyle opened the ball, but the batsmen appeared so much at home with the howling that it looked as th ough they would knock up the runs between them. When 30 went up on the telegraph Murdoch called a council with Blackham and Boyle, while the field was changing over. This betokened a consciousness that the prospect was already thought R erioua The result was an exhibition of the bowling which has earned for Spofforth the title of " demon." Blackham standing six or eight yards from the wicket, with Bondor almost in a line behind him at a similar distance, prepared to receive the artillery which . was now shot at . him. Spofforth; tak- ; ing long runs, and almost bending to i the ground as he delivered, shot the ball at such a pace that it is strict truth to say Backham appeared to stop and catch it at the same instant of time at which it left the speedy right had of the demon. No batsmen could be comfortable in face of such a cannonade, and Mr Studd seemed rather to protect his body than to punish the ball But Grace, keeping a warry bat against a possible stroke, slipped and cut, and chopped with a coolness and judgment admirable to behold. The least contact with the l-at sent the ball flying as if it had beta hsavily hit, and it

flew by Blaokham and Bonnor half a flozen times. It. was a magnificent bat costly exhibition ; and after a while Spofforth abated himself from a Mangonel to a man, and hovrled at his ordinary pace, which is as fast as that of the fastest bowler in England. - It seemed to some of us at this stage that the Colonial fielding was less brilliant than we had seen it. Bonnor especially muffed half a dozen "balls. As the missile approached he would stoop from his hight of six feet and a half to take it, but as though the solution of the Egyptian 'difficulty had just been flashed into his brain, lie would pause half way in profound reflection and by tho time he had adjourned the further consideration of the problem and resumed his downward course, the leather had passed like an express nine pounder on its way to the boundary. When sixty Bhowed white on the board, and all up, it looked most decided odds against the Antipodeans, who liold council at every ''over," and were plainly anxious about the issue. .Blackham again retired from the ' wicket Spofforth put on the demon pace. His first ball Studd received on his bat with a crash ; the next he had to -ward off as it rose furiously to his face, and the missel flew off the edge of his bat into the hands of Scott, at point. The exultation of the Australians wa3 amusing to behold. Blackham "bounded about like a schoolboy, Spofforth threw off his cap, and even ths lofty and somewhat saturnine Bonnor gloomily turned head-over heels on the turf. Evidently the Colonials deemed that they had broken the charm •of the British play, and so it seemed, for in the next over but one, and before the score was raised, Grace was taken by Spofforth exactly as Studd ibad been. Then, indeed, did our Southern cousins most extravagantly demonstrate, while an apprehension thrilled our thousands through. But though Head, who succeeded Grace, was clean bowled by Spolforth at 79, yet when Mr Steel followed, and the three figures .•speedly showed on the board, we took heart again, and assured ourselves that seven of the first bats i i Britain were .guarantee for the necessary margin. Alas ! too soon we shuddered to behold the bails fly off Lucas' wicket — a feat Boyle was especially put on and commissioned to do. This was ■serious, but there was no ground for panic. But when Lord Harris, partnering hteel, the crack Cambridge bat, was caught and bowled by Spofforth at 118, we began to bold our breath, and our j interest in the upshot grew, 1 might say, fierce. But the end was nearer, i .and the collapse more complete than | we had any notion of. Mr Ridley succeeded Steele, and Spofforth com-pletely-attering his bowling, delivered slow full pitches in imitation of Boyle •who was his vis a vis. The Australian fielding was now superb, and informed us how little chance any but the best of the best players can have against such an «leven also playing at its best. Not a ball could get outside the circle Murdoch placed round the wickets, and the cat like quickness of the fielding seemed to embarrass and cow the batsmen. The honor o£ the close fell to Blackham who stumped Lord Harris, Mr Roller and Mr Christopherson, in a style declared by all who were present to be quite unequalled by anything they had ever witnessed at the wicket. At a quarter past 4 o'clock the prospect still favored the English eleven. At ten minutes to five they were all out for 141, the enemy winning by 46 rnns. It was a splendid victory thoroughly •earned, and suggests to us, critical ■cricketers, that our visitors when in full form arts about as good as anything we can put against them. Blackham «nd Spofforth shared the laurels of the triumph with Midwinter, whose double not out innings of 107 obtained against the English bowling is, I think, by a long way the most brilliant bit of batsmanship hitherto recorded in the chronicles of the season's cricket. It is computed that the Australian team will pocket £150 a man over the three ■days battle m the Oval.