TESTS AT ADELAIDE

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 January 1933, Page 8

TESTS AT ADELAIDE

OVER 1400 RUNS IN ONE GAME Winning margin only eleven FIRST GAME IN ISS4-85 SEASON Many year's ago a score of 300 runs or a team’s innings in Test cricket •would have been Considered a good one. In modern Tests a score under 300 on the Adelaide ground is reckoned a moderate one. In normal weather the wicket at Adelaide is easy-paced, giving spin-bowlers a litle turn but no extra pace from the pitch, and the. ban comes off it at a fairly uniform height. The average rate of scoring in modem Tests on it is round' about 390 runs an ' Hitherto, eleven Test between England and Australia have been playhd at Adelaide, and Australia has won seven of them, to England s four. Two of them, however, are among the most closely fought, in all the long his- ' tory of the Tests. .. ' In one of these two particularly famous matches a total of 146.7 waS scored by the two sides, and yet the margin of - victory was only 11 runs'. In the other, 1422 runs were scored, and the win was by 12 runs. Adelaide’s association with -test cricket started in the 1884-85 season--12 years after the first of all Tests was ulaved at Melbourne. England lost the first Test it played at Melbourne, and the first it played at- Sydney, but it won the first it played at Adelaide. lor the' only time in history, a Test series in Australia was started at Adelaide, on that occasion. Arthur Shrewsbury s team of English professionals got Australia out for 243 and 19Lyand scored 369 and 67 for two wickets, thus winning by eight wickets. OLD-TIME RECOLLECTIONS P. S.-McDonnell, a splendid cricketer, who died when he was only 36 years of age, played two glorious mixings for Australia, as an opening batsman in that game. It was of these two innings that George Giffen, himself a great cricketer, wrote in his recollections. An appropriate name for hun would have been Percy Greatheart McDonnell. for it was when things were gomg wrong that he was seen at his best. Maybe at times he would- let fly a dangerously desperate style, but if be stayed didn’t he just warm up the offtheory! I saw neither his 80-odd at Manchester on the slow wicket nor his great innings of 239 for Now South Wales against Victoria, but I did see him complete 124 and 83 in a match at Adelaide, and xf I live to be a hundred I shall not see more elegant graceful, and effective batting. That was the remarkable thing about Pefcy’ batting. If "hit” was the game he away like fury tat rf he wer.6 not under orders and the wicket were , good he would .settle down, and bat as prettily as a Palairet. At Adelaide, on the occasion I have mentioned his was the poetry of batting. Giffen played in -that first match at Adelaide, and made the second-best score, 47, in Australia’s second innings. In the first innings, however, there was, besides McDonnell’s,, only one score above 19, and that was 6A made by wicketkeeper J. MeC. Blackham, who died recently. W. Bates, good batsman and slow bowler, of Yorkshire, took five wickets for 31 runs in Australia s first innings; R. Peel, famous Yorkshire lefthand bowler, took five for 51 m the second. In England’s first innings G, E. Palmer, a splendid off-break bowler then—he is considered to have been, when at his best, probably the- finest bowler Australia ever had—took five The English teams of 1886-871 and 1887-88 .played their Test matches only in Sydney, and not until the 1891-92 season was there another match of this kind in Adelaide. There were three matches in that series, and Australia won the first and second, bowlers G. T. B. Turner, G. Giffen and R. McLeod playing a very prominent part in them. So when the Adelaide match came the rubber was already won and lost. The English team was that captained by w. G. Grace. The Englishmen, batting first, scored 499, A. E. ’Stoddart making 134 and Bobby Peel 83. “W.G.’s” contribution was 5&. A deluge of raiu spoiled Australia’s chances, and the home team' was out, for 100 and 169, England thus winning by an innings and 230 runs. On the ruined pitch Johnny Briggs, Lancashire’s medium-paced left-hand bowler, who has a niche of his own in cricket’s hall of fame,-was almost unplayable,. He got six wickets for 49 runs in Australia’s first innings and six for- 87 in the second. So England had won the first two Tests it had played at Adelaide. It lost the next five there. The first two games of the 1894-90 series were both won by England, by 30 rims and by 94. The Adelaide match turned the tide, Australia winning this by 382 runs, and also the fourth, at Sydney, by an innings and 147. runs. So the fifth, at Melbourne, decided 1 the rubber; England won it by six wickets.

ST ODD ART’S CAPTAINCY Stoddart captained that English team. He- lost the. toss at Adelaide, but Australia scored only 238 run's, fast bowler T. Richardson faking five for 75. England replied l ■with only 124. Australia made 411 in its second innings, F. A. Iredale Scoring 140. England was’ out again, for 143.

s Two prayers who later were associated with New Zealand cricket gave splendid service to Australia in this match. Each of them played in only three Tests against England. It was the third for S. T. Callaway, later of Canterbury, but the first for Albert Trott, who subsequently was coach to the Hawke's Bay Cricket Association. "Albert's elder brother, G.H.S., was also in the match. ' Albert Trott and Callaway were- the last two batsmen in Australia’s- first innings;" Trott scored 38 not out, Callaway'4l, " Then Callaway took, five, wicketse-'fb'r 37 runs in, England’s first innings/-”George Giffen took the other five, for 76; Albert Trott batted splen-

didly again, for 73 not out,. in Australia’s second innings. He finished the match in a blaze of glory, capturing eight wickets for 43 runs. Stoddart was. again England’s captain in defeat at Adelaide in the 189798 season, but he did not win the rubber this time, for Australia won all four matches after the first. -Two members of Australia’s wonderful sequence ot left-hand batsmen scored 259. of the 573 for their team’s first innings—Joe Darling 178, Clem Hill 81. Frank Iredale followed up Ms century of the previous Test at Adelaide by makitag 81. England scored 278 (G. H. Hirst 85) and 282 (A. C. MacLaren 124) and so Australia won by an innings and 13 runs In the Englishmen’s second innings M. A. Noble took five for 84 and C. McLeod five for 65.

Glem Hill had a .remarkable run of ‘ ‘near-centuries” in the Tests of 190102. In his second innings at Melbourne he was caught at 99. Then, at Adelaide, he made 98 (caught again)- and 97 (bowled). England, which batted first, led on the first innings at Adelaide, by 388 to 321, but, with Hugh Trumble taking six for 74, it was dismissed for 247 in its second innings, and Australia scoring 315 for six wickets, won by four wickets. Noble, who had taken 13 wickets for only 77 runs in “the preceding : Test, at Melbourne, was not available for the Adelaide game. < < plum” Warner, manager of the present team, was captain of the nextEnglish side to visit Australia.. England won the rubber then, taking the first, second, and fourth matches, to Australia’s third and fifth. The third was at Adelaide. Australia scored? 388 (Victor Trumper 113) and 351 (S. L. Gregory 112). England was out for 240 and 278, and so was beaten by 216 runs, Warner himself, as an opening batsman, made 48 and 79; George Hirst had the next-best batting double for- the side, 58 and 44. Five bowlers divided the English wickets.

A. O. JONES’ TEAM

\ O. Jones’ English team won only the second m'atch (at Melbourne) of the 1907-08 series. At Adelaide it was beaten by 245 runs, after leading by 78 on the first innings. The Australians, in first, scored 285 (C. G. Macartney 75). England made 363 (J. Gunn 65 J. N. Crawford 62, J. HardstafT 61). Then the Australians ran up 506. Clem Hill and Roger Hartigan put up a record of 243 runs for the eighth wicket in Test cricket. Hill made 160; Haitijjan was out when he had scored lib. Then J. A. O’Connor took five wickets for 40 runs; and J. V. 'Saunders five for 65, and England was out for 183. O'Connor was then of South Australia; previously he was of New South Wales. Saunders, a very tall Victorian, and excellent left-hand slow bowler, subsequently was coaching in Wellington for, a time, and playing in interprovincial matches in New Zealand. It was in 1911-12 that the. run of Australian victories at Adelaide was broken. Warner came out as captain of the English team, but fell ill, and J. W. H. T. Douglas had to: take over the captaincy. Each' side’won one of the first two matches, but England took the next three. F. R. Foster, whose fastish left-hand bowling has been alluded to in discussions of the legtheory bowling of the present English team, and S. F. Barnes were the dominating bowlers of this senes: Dr. H. V. Hordern, who recently published his cricket reminiscences —a delightful book —and who was a great googly bowler, was Australia’s mainstay in bowling, taking in the series 20 wieke'ts more than any other Australian 1 , and heading his side’s bowling averages, too. In the Adelaide match of this series Australia won the toss, but crashed for only 133 runs, Foster taking five for 36. J. B. Hobbs started the English batting properly, with. 187, and the total was 501. Australia made a S lant fight, scoring 476 in its second knock. Again did Hill just miss a-cen-tury, with 98. Barnes took five for 100 this time. England won by seven wickets with its 112 for three. Johnny Douglas did not win the rubber when next he visited Australia, though; lie had no Foster and Barnes in the first Test series after the'Great War. That was in the 1920-21 season. Australia won all five matches. There was big scoring in the Adelaide game. Australia, batting first, made 354 (H. E. Collins 162). England replied with 44/ (A. C. Russell 135 not out). In Australia’s second innings, though, three batsmen made eenturies —0. E. Ivelleway 147, W. W. Armstrong 121, and G. E. Fellow 104 —and the total was 582. England was out again for 370 (Hobbs 323), and Australia won by 119. runs. A \. Mailey took 10 wickets in the gamd—five for 160 and five for 142.

MATCH IN 1025. Now We ciwno to the very exciting match of January, 19.25, when’ Australia won -by only 11 runs, although. England 1 had fourth disc of the wicket. Australia won the toss, but lost three of its best batsmen for only 22 runs. Then both A. E. R. Gilligan, the English captain, and M. W. Tate had to leave the field, with injuries, and the Australians began to- pile on runs.. J. S. Ryder, seventh man in the batting order, Scored 201 not out, T. J. E. Andrews, who followed him to : the wickets, made 72, and W. A. Oldfield and Ivlfiiley gave good assistance. Australia’s score reached 489. England made 365 (Hobbs 119, E. Hendren 92) in its first innings. However, in Australia’s second innings P. E. Woolley and Roy Kilncr bowled sowell, especially after rain 'had fallen in the night, that the score was kept down to 250 (Ryder 88). The last seven wickets fell for 39 runs, on the rainaffected pitch. England had to make 375 to win,, and it made a great fight on a wicket that had rolled out fairly well. But the last wicket fell at 363; W. W. Why sa'll’s 71 was the-highest score. Kelleway and Mailcy took three wickets each.

Two centuries by W. It. Hammond, splendidly-accurate bowling by J. C. White (left-hand slow) and a magnificent innings by Archie Jackson, .making his first appearance in Test cricket, distinguished the next Test at Adelaide, four years ago. England turned the tables this time, winning by 12 runs. Percy Chapman, England’s captain, won the toss. Hobbs and Sutcliffe gave the side a good start, with 74 and 64 respectively, and Hammond-, followed But, apart from a 39 by Chapman, Hammond could not get enough assistance,-

and he was still not out, with 119, at the end of the innings, which closed at 334. O. V. Grimmett took five for 102. * W. M. Wood full, H. L. Henry, and A. F. Ivippax scored only six runs between them, but Jackson, who had opened with Woodfull. batted on and on, until he was out, l.b.w. to White, when he had made 164. Australia got a lead of 35 runs on the first innings. The scoring was progressive—334 for England, 369 for Australia, and then 383 for England. HammOnd made 177 in his second knock. R. K. Oxenkam took four for 67 in England’s second innings. But the progressive scoring was not maintained in the lash innings of the; match. Australia was out for 336 this White bowled too well for Australia, taking eight wickets for 126. runs this t; m .e. ° That gave him 13 wickets for "56 'runs, for the match. Only nine t. me-s in the 125 matches between England and Australia has a bowle'r taken more than 12 wickets in a match. Jackson,made 36-in Australia’s second innings, giving him just 200 runs for the game. It is -unfortunate that the effects of a Serious illness still prevent from playing in first-class cricket. 1 Jack I-fyder had quite a good ■ ‘ double” again this time—63 and 87, the -actor being the highest score of the innings.