"NOT DONE WITH YET."

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14238, 29 December 1911, Page 9

"NOT DONE WITH YET."

ENGLAND AND THE TESTS

THE FIRST DESPERATE TRIAL

(SPECIAI, TO "THE PRESS.")

| SYDNEY, December 22. The tired, dull, dolorous, obstinate, dogged, unpicturesque, and nervy business they call a test match, is over, and Sydney sporting life, with uplifted hands over the vanquished, in unison | cries aloudin its gladness. The dullest ; depths that plummet ever sounded have been reached in this game- Such anl other and wo shall have the cricketing ! public declaring like so many Falstaffs l "No more of that, Hal, and thou lovest j mc." Strangely over 80,000 people I witnessed it; Australia won because of the steadiness of its batsmen, in the first innings especially, and because Hordcrn, who dispenses "googlies" with remarkable ''freedom, achieved a sensational success with the ball. Twelve wickets ior 175 is a terrible factor of destruction for a test game, although it has been beaten," a Surrey player, Martin, having sent a dozen Australians to tho .right, about for only 102 runs in IS7O in England. Still the Australians did not win as easily as tlie margin of runs in their favour would indicate. There was a time when Australia did look a little serious, England was slowly crawling up. lacing its terrible task in its own dogged way, but Mead, with a ■reckless,, inexperienced, unjustifiable piece of folly,* restored the smile to Australia, and let in a disastrous flood which overwhelmed his side. With (!unn. who was playiug srvnully. although still handicapped by his-injured hand, the left-hander, plodding along, ill at ease to Horderu, but gradually i doing better, had helped to add 72 runs j —the total was 2 lor 111—when he [ ridiculously ran himself cut. Disaster brings disaster, and in a few mui'-ltos 5 were down for 14S. There were periods of indiscretion on both hides, but none to equal Mead's. Generally the judgment of the Fnglishmen m running between tho wickets was I faulty. It was once said in the days ol England's brightness in cricket, lvhen there wero brilliant, dashing, rungetters in place of stodgily pationt ones, that if all else was equal, England would beat Australia bc-causo its players ■showed moro judgment in running between tho wickets. It is not so now. The element of luck is a tremendous factor in the decision of these test matches, and while it is certain that the ! gods havo looked with no friendly eye on tho Englishmen, it would be unfair to the splendid gamo tho Australians as a whole played all through, and to the demoniacal work of the wicked "wrong-'uns" that Hordern sent along, tho soundness of the batting of Trumper, tho clipping innings played by Minnctt, the consistent excellence of Hill, just to mention a few shining individual records, to say that tney owed their victory to good fortune alone. The English sido of this phase of the gamo is that from the moment Hill came back from tho field with Douglas, and was able to say with his best smilo in answer to an anxious question: "Who won tho toss? —"1 did, easily," the Englishmen had tho heavy .end of tho argumont. Even if Douglas had guessed right, thero would probably have been tho samo rosult provided Hordern had bowled as well, and the Englishmon had adopted tho samo methods in playing him, if they had had to bat first without the heavy responsibiliy of facing such a big scoro as tho Australians put up. There was a strange compensation in all this, generally speaking, batting gloom of tho six days, and peculiarly enough it camo from tho English side*. Tho brightest cricket of tho week—it is .the. correct • form- to talk about test matches in" weeks, not days—was given by Three young Englishmen, to wit, Woolley, aged 24; Foster, aged 22; and Hearno aged 20. These lads put on lie run ™. m less tlian an hoiir an d a half. The reverse side of the picture. Iwo days later, Kinneir, Gunn, and j" e : a « scored 49 runs in tho same timo. liii.s little ray of sunshine was all the more refreshing and creditable to tho English boys because it came at a critical period. Wliat youth and brightness supplied mollis instance a master batsman might havo provided in another, and altered the whole aspect for England * For sheer merit, however, there was nothing better on tho English sido than Gunn's brave effort. He scored his 62 under great difficulties as his hand is still troubling him! Douglas played stubbornly for his 32, but lio does not strike ! the oyo as a class batsman. The real surprise about tho English captain is his bowling. Regarded by the critics as almost" comrnonplaco, ho has dono wonders with tho ball. Twenty-three wickets at an average of 16 runs against Australian batsmen is a fine performance. Tho English side needs a master batsman: A Fry, a Tyldesley, w Hayward, jerhaps, even a Warner. There is plenty of quality and variety in tho batting, but it still needs a great batsman to "stiffen" 'the side. If England had a Faulkner what' a fine sido this would be. But to mako the best of whatthev havo got the English will have to alter their methods a little, or they will overwhelm themselves with their There is a medium in most things, and the experiment of trying to bo # a little more enterprising in future, should not do either the reputations of the individuals or their, prospects as a sido. any harm. Tho Englishmen aro quite pleased with their treatment by the Sydney crowd, and they are eager for the next tussle. All tilings considered they are satisfied with their showing, although they regret the failure ■ of several of their, batting mainstays. In Melbourne Gunn's hand should havo recovered, and they will havo the assistance of Hitch, who, aoart from anything else, will be a brilliant substitute in the field for Kinneir. Besides, they say with a chuckle, "Wo havo learned a bit more." And this cryptic uttorhnce means that human interest will be well catered for in the problem Hordern v. England. Meantime, say tho Englishmen, "We're not done with yet."