OUR CRICKETERS ON TOUR.

Evening Star, Issue 10872, 4 March 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR CRICKETERS ON TOUR.

AGAINST NEW SOUTH WALES. [From Our Own Reporter.] We reached Sydney at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 22, and on emerging from the railway carriages were cordially welcomed by Mr Bowden, on behalf of the New South Wales Cricketers' Association. Introductions over, we stepped into a four-in-hand ir. waiting, and were driven to Petty's Hotel in Wynyard square—our headquarters while in Sydney. In the afternoon we were taken to Moore Park, where a couple of hours' net practice was indulged in. The rest of the day was passed very quietly. Early on Friday morning our Selection Committee met, and decided that Sims and Ike Mills i should stand down. The latter has been ! batting and fielding so well that I felt quite sorry he was not to have an opportunity of giving the ivew South Welshmen a taste of his quality. The playing ground at Moore Park is smaller than at Melbourne, and the pitch is nothing like so fast. It is skirted by a pretty wide cycling track, the whiteness of which—l believe it was painted a kind of Chinese green quite recently, but the sun has burnt out of the asphalt all trace of that color—was trying, indeed, to our batsmen. A Board of Trustees, who are responsible to the Minister of Lands, control the ground, while the Cricket Association of New South Wales control the cricket played on it; but the two bodies do not work as harmoniously as the best interests of the game require. But one thing is very certain : the wants of the public have been closely studied. I doubt if there is any ground in Australasia where the average spectator has his comfort more studied than on Moore Park. The large and commodious ladies' gallery is, indeed, a thing of beauty and a jov for ever, and the view of the ground is complete wherever you take up a position. The New South Welshmen put in the field against us a team which, while comprising several promising "colts," was undeniably little below that which generally represents the colony in intercolonial or international contests. In bowling strength it could not be improved. Kelly is admittedly facile princeps as wicket-keeper, and Sid. Gregory a warrior of the first order. When

Cobcroft won the toss from Iredale, who had been chosen skipper of the home team, and decided to bat, he concluded that, with a wicket so perfect ali'd so much more to the liking of his men than those they had been playing on during the past three weeks, there was a reasonable prospect of the Melbourne first innings being equalled, if not exceeded. Confident in that hope, he sent in Baker and Reese to face the bowling of M'Kibbin and Noble. The left-hander took strike from M'Kibbin, and he went into the field accompanied by the fervent wishes of all our boys that he would emulate his Melbourne score. Such a lot depended on Reese's essay, as it was known that Mr Thomas Garrett, one of the selectors of the team to represent the Rest of Australia against the Australian Eleven was present in the pavilion taking mental stock of the young Midlander's capacity, and we bore in mind the eulogiums passed on him by Bruce and Worrall, no mean judges of the game. Whether the responsibility of the moment proved too much for " Danny" I cannot sav, but certainly he lost nerve from the jump. The second ball M"Kibbin sent down to him he snicked into the slips, into the waiting hands of P* r e at short-slip, but, fortunatelv for him, the umpire saw M'Kibbin draw just over the line, and called "' no ball." The respite, however, was only momentary, as, after contributing a single, Reese played Noble softly back to him, and with that stroke extinguished all hope of his services being needed against Australia. Lusk partnered Baker, and the play became painfully slow, relieved only by occasional quick running between the wickets. Then both batsmen livened up a bit, and the tens figured on the board, till, at 48, Iredale replaced M'Kibbin by Howell. Baker was never at his ease with the new bowler, who " yorked" him with the last ball of the over. Baker's was a serviceable innings, but there was an absence of any semblance of the free play he had exhibited in all his other innings during this tour. Cobcroft, the incomer, played Noble to mid-on, and a couple resulted from Iredale's bad return, but the next over proved disastrous to Lusk, who was clean bowled by Howell, the ball breaking ,and taking his stump. Howell at this stage was credited with two wickets for 4 runs in three overs, and two out of these four runs were due to laches on the part of the field. George Mills no sooner partnered his captain than he threw away his wicket, as he started late in answer to

Coboroft's call, and even Ami'could-hare saved himself had he grounded his bat. Gob* croft gave an easy chance to Eyers off: Pye, who had gone on at Noble's end, but thj wicket-keeper declined it. Downes kept his wicket up till the lunch adjournment, but on resuming play it was a piling up of disasters. Four wickets for 57 runs was the state of the board when hostilities were resumed. Downes, after cutting Howell for 4, had his timbers shattered by a ball that came back a good deal. Ashbolt fared no better. He snicked a couple, and immediately lifted Pye to the off, where Farquhar brought off a simple catch. Six for 68, Howell being credited with three of them at an expense of 13 runs. With Fisher's advent four successive maidens were sent down, and Carisbrook's representative was responsible for 70 appearing on the board by driving Pye to the off for 3, but in trying to glance Howell he missed him, and paid the penalty of placing his leg where his bat shbuld be, a pernicious habit that he has cultivated of late. Boxshall found the bowling too correct to be trifled with, but I he managed to secure a fourer by a late cut I off Pye. Then a brilliant piece of fielding i by Trumper was responsible for our wicketkeeper's downfall, the return being so strong j and true as to lower the set of stumps. With the score at 79 Howell broke through our skipper's defence, and with Upham associated with Frankish it seemed quite probable that another couple of overs would dissolve the partnership and terminate the inglorious innings, but to his own surprise, and the astonishment of his side, the Wellington man began to show hitting power. Too many of his strokes had a dangerous uppish tendency, but some of his hits were clean and hard. He had scarcely scored when he gave a chance to Pye in the slips off Howell, and before the century was reached Gregory ought to have held him, and Trumper, to the dismay of the spectators, dropped a "skier" that came right to his hands in the long-field. Both batsmen, emboldened by the mischances, went in for vigorous hitting, which was the means of raising the score to 140 before Noble bowled Frankish with a splendid ball, which would have beaten a more finished batsman. So the tail of our team were responsible for nearly half the score. The collapse of our batsmen was simply unaccountable. The wicket ought to have suited them, and none of them professed to have found the bowling deadly. New South Wales sent Pye and R. A.

I Duff to resist the attack of Upham and I Frankish. The latter opened to Duff, who t at once cut him uppishly to the slips, where s Ashbolt held it. With one wicket down i for nil the faces of our men brightened. , There was a gleam of hopefulness on every • one's face when, at 13, Frankish at short- ; slip took Pye in fine style off Upham. Far- ; quhar no sooner partnered Trumper than : they tried a very short run for a snick to : the off. Cobcroft returned promptly, but i Frankish, through over-anxiety, failed to 1 hold the ball, and so a great chance of breaking a partnership destined to cost us dearly i was thrown away. A few minutes later ■ Trumper gave a low catch to Frankish, who declined it, and a similar offer to the same , bowler was refused, but this one was really a very hot return. The scoring now became rapid, as well it might be after so many lets-off, and at 68 a double change of bowling—Fisher and Downes relieving Upham and Frankish—was tried. It ought to have come off, for almost at once Farquhar returned the ball to Downes, an easy chance, but it struck him across the second and third fingers, and flew awav from him. A little later Farquhar gave Downes a second chance, much easier than the first, but again the bowler was "not taking any." The batsmen now got going at a merry pace. For a short time Farquhar held the lead, but Trumper, with some highly effective strokes—his late cutting and his leg glances being particularly admired—soon equalised matters, and they ran almost a dead heat in scorinc during the better part of the afternoon. Our fielding was far below intercolonial form—at times it was wretched, while the returns were most erratic, and responsible for a fiver and a 4. Among our men there was a consensus of opinion that Trumper was fairly thrown out by Lusk at mid-on, but Charles Bannerman gave the batsman the benefit of the doubt. When stumps were drawn for the day the score stood at 151 for two wickets, Trumper being credited with 81 and Farquhar with 61. On Saturday we were again favored with delightful weather, the cool north-east breeze that blew across the ground, serving to temper the sun's rays. Our fast bowlers were tried, but neither made any impression on the batsmen, who made the pace strong from the start. At 12.40 Trumper got his century by a neat leg glance off Reese, who went on at the Paddington end, and bowled really well, being once within an ace of getting Trumper off his own bowjjng. It i

took.him just two hours arid a-quarter to compile his 100, which comprised thirteen boundary hits. Downes .went on in place of Frankish, and was successful in keeping the runs down, but could not break through the defence of either batsmen. A drive past cover brought the Parramatta player up to the century, after batting for two hours and nine minutes. He was just a shade faster in scoring than his comrade, and his score included one 5 (the outcome of a bad return from the field) and a dozen 4's. At 224 Fisher relieved Downes (no wickets for 50), and by cutting his first ball to the fence for 4 Trumper headed t'he score of Frank Iredale for the handsome silver shield given by one of the great whisky trusts to the highest individual aggregate in this season's intercolonial matches. Farquhar, now bent on overhauling his comrade, commenced to force the pace, and getting several boundary hits in succession, was rapidly coming in sight of his purpose, but at 237 he belted Reese, and was nicely taken at cover-point by Fisher. Save the two chances to Downes ' at the outset of his innings, the Parramatta representative played dashing cricket, his I cutting being perfect and his driving clean and determined. Noble partnered his club mate, and the pair of Paddingtonians gave the field plenty of work up to the luncheon adjournment, when the score stood at 270 (Trumper not out 135). On resuming the rungetting did not appreciably slacken, but at 338 Noble just snicked a fast one from Frankish, and Boxshall eagerly snapped it up, the retiring batsman having contributed 37 in excellent style.