VISIT OF THE FIRST ENGLISH CRICKETERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 250, 19 October 1904, Page 10

VISIT OF THE FIRST ENGLISH CRICKETERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In reference to Mr G. Harper's letter re the first visit of an English cricket team to Australia in your issue of the 2Sth ult., and Mr Caine's endorsement of it in yours of 12th inst., I may perhaps point out that personal recollections are not always to he depended on. W. W. Read, in his ''Annals of Cricket,"' published in lS9»,'says, on page 141: "The first team of cricketers that, had gone out from England to Australia in the autumn of this year" (1861) "played their initial match at Melbourne against eighteen of Victoria on January Ist, 2nd and 3rd, 1862, and the result was as follows: The English Eleven —first innings 305, second innings —. The Victorian Eighteen—first innings 118. second innings 91; the English Eleven winning by one innings and 96 runs." —I am, etc., P. H. WILSON. Marine Square, Devonport.