THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET MATCH.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 460, 30 January 1864, Page 3

THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET MATCH.

(Prom the Correspondent of the Colonist.) Melbourne, January 6th, 1864. The great International Cricket Match is over— • and perhaps a more successful four days' match was never played in the world. Fancy 20,000 people congregated at one spot to watch a game at cricket, — fancy one of the finest daj's of our Victorian summer, and add to this a splendid field and the best cricketers of Great Britain, and surely the elements of a successful day's entertainment are before you. "We have experienced all these things to perfection ; and, having experienced a four days' repetition of unalloyed success, we are now almost surfeited and can willingly part with the All England Eleven for their country trip. To be more minute with my account of the game, I must begin at the beginning, as I suppose nothing less than this will satisfy your readers, seeing that so much enterprise has been shown on the part of a Dunedin resident to secure the cricketers for the enjoyment of Otago and New Zealand generally. Before the " Grand Game " commenced, the appetite of the cricketing public was whetted by the International Match, played between eleven from the Albert Club of Sydney, and eleven of our Victorian cricketers. The Sydney Eleven have been beaten so frequently by our players, that this time the universal hope was that the Sydney players might win. And they did win — won by excellent playing, and won cleverly. Every one who witnessed their improved skill in the game put it down at once to the judicious act of the Sydney cricketers in retaining Lawrence from amongst the last All England Eleven, as an instructor. The advantage is apparent in every respect, and in nothing better was it shown than in the way the Albert Eleven beat the Victorians this season. Such a defeat on one side, and such success on the other, has plainly shewn to our Melbourne Cricket Club what ought to be their course, now that they have another All England Eleven amongst them. Already are the members of our leading club in treaty with Hayward, and it is not improbable that he or some other of the Eleven may be induced to remain with us. But to the Great Match. FIRST DAY— FRIDAT, IST JANUARY. A splendid morning broke upon us— all the city of Melbourne looked a mass of living souls — the shops were closed without exception — church bells were ringing, and every of circumstance that could conduce to make the cricket match a success, combined upon thisoccasion, and brought forth fruit natural to conditions so promising. From an early hour in the forenoon, the people began to gather in numbers, the trains on the Melbourne Kailway bringing fresh instalments at brief intervals, while the cars on the RicbniondToad — plying, it might be also said, in lines — brought heavy loads until far in the afternoon. So early as half -past eleven o'clock there might have been some 2000 or 3000 on the ground, and in the stand and pavilion ; and by half past three or four o'clock that number had risen up to something like 14000 or 15000 in all parts of the ground. When the attendance -was as its fullest, the whole scene presented was one of the gayest and

most animated description. The Grand Stand, with its 3000 occupants, and its brilliant display, of flags, looked especially well. No accident -■ occurred td mar the proceedings of the day, nor was there any disturbance. Nothing could have been more delightful than the whole affair, and the success was therefore complete. The Englishmen were— Messrs. Parr (captain), Grace, Catfyn, Caesar, Jackson, Carpenter, Hayward, Tarrant, Tinley, Anderson, Lockyer, and Clarke ; while the Victorians were — Butterworth (captain), Bryant, Conway, Cosstick, Elliot, Fraser, Greaves, Hewitt, Huddlestone, Hopkinson, Kelly, Mortimer, Marshall, O'Brien, Smith Jas., Simmonds, Sweeney, Tait, Wray, Watson, Wardell, 8., and Wilkie. For the latter, Mr. C. F. Cameron acted as umpire; and for the English team, the umpire was the twelfth man, Clarke. The Victorian team played in white flannel shirts edged with blue, and the English, team in buff-coloured shirts, with spots— each man, however, wearing a distinguishing ribbon round his hat or cap. Towards one o'clock in the day, the match commenced. Butterwortb, the Victorian captain, having won the toss for choice, elected to send his men in, and the Englishmen lost no time in taking the field. When they appeared, the people in the Grand Stand comm need to applaud, aud soon the air seemed rent with a loud noise of shouts and clapping of hands. Then all was quiet. Marshall and Daniel Sweeney, a Ballarat man, took the first bats ; and, except to say that Lockyer was, of course, the wicket-keeper, that Tarrant was at first the long-stop, Carpenter the point, and Parr himself himself short-slip, the disposition of the field calls for no special comment, particularly as there were several changes in it in course of the day. Jackson took up the bowling at the higher end, while Hayward did duty at the lower. The game began with a ball from Jackson. At the close of their first innings the Victoria twenty two scored 146. The fielding of the Eleven was deemed beyond criticism — but especially was the marvellous wicket keeping of Lockyer applauded to the very echo. Look at the score, Sweeney stumped, Tait stumped, Watson caught, O'Brien caught, Conway stumped, Wilkie caught, Fraser stumped, and these seven disposed of by Lockyer 1 " Alone he did it." Oue of the chroniclers of the day's proceedings says : — " From the cricketing records of the mother country, we know that Lockyer is the wicket keeper of England ; and certainly it has never been the fortuue of the colonists to see before such wicket-keeping as was witnessed yesterday. The lightning-like rapidity with which balls of all kinds, no matter how rapid — and certainly the bowling of Jackson and Tarrant were fast enough in all conscience — was simply amazing. It would be difficult to conceive anything more rapid and certain than his movements, and he appears not so much to be behind the wickets, as all over and round about them at one and the same time." An interval of twenty minutes elapsed before the Eleven commenced their innings. Caasar and Tarrant went first to the wickets. Our bowlers were Costick and Bryant, and, contrary to expectation, the former bowled out Caesar almost immediately for two. At six o'clock the stumps were withdrawn, when the score stood at eight with the loss of one wicket. SECOND DAY, SATURDAY, 2ND JANUARY. Another glorious day. People pouring into the cricket ground by hundreds, and all things giving token of success. At one time there were estimated to be about 15,000 persons present. The Grand Stand had about 3000 people in it, and was as gay and brilliant a sight as need be. The band of Kifles attended, as on the first day. Play commenced punctually at 12 at noon ; Tinley and Tarrant taking the wickets, and both getting disposed of quickly. Tarrant with a total score of 9, and Tinley being caught by Greaves, having failed to score one. Then went in Hayward and Carpenter. With these two players nothing appeared more easy than for them to remain at the wickets until Doomsday. They went in about one o'clock p.m., and Carpenter remained in until the wickets were drawn at six p.m. — Hayward having been bowled out just before that hour for a score of 61. Caffyn succeeded him. At the close of the day the Eleven had lost 4 wickets and scored 141. The game looked very bad for the Victorians. Whether Carpenter would ever be got out was a difficult problem to solve, and many left the field that night confident of seeing him in for another day or two, and very much wearied, as may be expected, from so much sameness in the day's proceedings. During the day, through the hardness of the ground, both Carpenter and Hayward were hit repeatedly, and O'Brien, one of the fcwenty-two, had the third finger of his right hand broken. It was known to-day that Lawrence had been successful in his endeavours to secure a visit of the Eleven to Sydney. They will visit that city after they have played in New Zealand. THIRD DAY, MONDAY, 4TH JANUARY. The luck of the Eleven, in point of weather, has been remarkable. Yesterday (Sunday) the heat of the day was intense, a violent north wind blowing, and every one " out of sorts." To-day, all is changed. A cool south breeze tempers the atmosphere, and the day, upon which so much depends, is one lovely enough for any one's enjoyment. Whether the hot wind had done its work or not, I cannot say, but certain it is that the Eleven were this day amazingly easily disposed of. Carpenter added nothing to his score, but was caught out by Greaves early in the day. Caffyn met the same fate when he bad scored 8. Grace, from whom so much was expected, also scored 8. He has been suffering from a whitlow in his right hand for some time, and thia.naturally prevented him from doiug his best. Parr scored one only, being finely bowled out by Bryant. At the close of the score, All-England Eleven, first innings, stood at 176. The Twenty-two had plenty of time to enter the lists again, and commenced their second innings about 3 o'clock p.m. Marshall and Sweeney again took to the wickets, and with precisely similar fortune as at first—Marshall making a score of 8, and Sweney leaving with a cypher to his name. This day's proceedings were most remarkable for a wonderful catch, made by Tarrant. The account of it is thus given in the Argus. ; — "The

ne getting slows of Tinley had been for some tv • while, more and more treacherous and fatal > n'&nt knowing the effect of them, Parr and Tv -mi were watching the batsmen keenly, both of tu. i almost close to the higher wicket. Wardill wa^. tempted to hit one of the slows in what appeared to be a' safe enough way ; but Tarrant sprang at the ball with the rapidity of lightning, and secured it, rolling over and over, however, in the effort. The catch was almost exactly similar to the famous one of Iddison towards the close of the first international match, two years ago. A loud and hearty cheer rewarded Tarrant for his dexterity." Your players may judge from this feat what kind of men they have to watch. What with. Lockyer's wicket- keeping. Tarrant's fielding, and the slow and fast bowling of two or three of the Eleven, a batsman has his work cut out to preserve his wicket, or to keep himself clear of a catch. At the close of the day, the second innings of the Victorians stood at 90, with sixteen wickets down. POUKTH DAT — TUESDAY, STH JANUARY. Another glorious day, and a good assemblage. The Twenty-two played out their second innings, finishing about 2 o'clock, and stood at 143. . Thus it will he seen,°that various as was the fortune of the game, the Victorians made by no means a bad stand. The Eleven now went in, but from the fact of insufficient time being allowed for finishing the game, it is a drawn battle in name, although a victory of the Eleven in fact. "With a score of 105, they had only 8 runs to get to win the game, and only four wickets down. The splendid success of the whole proceedings, Marshall will, lam sure, fully admit. How many thousands of pounds have been taken on the ground, I cannot of course say ; although Marshall says that 45,000 people paid for admission/Tealising an amount quite sufficient of itself to reimburse all the outlay of the speculation, and to leave Marshall and the Eleven with an excellent prospect before them of realising a handsome sum. of money, and of enjoying their wanderings through the Australian Colonies.