CRICKET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 19 January 1912, Page 2

CRICKET.

ENGLISH CRICKET TEAM IN AUS- ;• /' TRALIA. January 19 and 20.-^-v. Ballarat, at Ballarat, ■-„,,, January 23', 24, aiid 25.i-TV...Launces-toh; at Launcestoh. January 26, 27, and 29.—v. Hohart,at Hobart. , February 2, 3, Oj and 6.^-v. Victoria, at Melbourne. . ' February 9, 10/ 12, and 13.—v. AUSTRALIA (fourth test), .at Melbourne. February 16, 17,' 19, and 20.—v: New South Wales, at Sydney. .. February 23,124, 26, and 27.—v.' AUSTRALIA (fifth test), at Sydney, March 1, 2, 3. and s.—v. South Australia, at Adelaide.

A remarkable and outstanding feature of the Test matches is the improvement iii the English bowling. In the second and third Barnes and Foster especially have shown great form, with quite a marvellous command over the ball. The swerve and work they have been able to get on have been deadly. Once more Kelleway, - Bardsley, and Hill have failed getting only 6 among them. For a team such as they have on paper to be out for 133 and on the perfect wickefc Adelaide is famed for, is a great tribute to the excellence of the -English bowling. • /■ The exclusion of Whitty was quite expected. He probably has'not recovered from his recent- illness. One would have liked to see a trial made of MacLaien, of Queensland. It is quite on the cards there may be, more changes before the Test matches are over. '■•■'■

The great score made by the Englishmen, - though not the . largest made in Test matches, stands as one of the best: Five hundred and eighty-six made by Australia at Sydney in 1894 holds the record. It is run close by the Englishment's scores of .577 at Sydney, 576 at' the Oval,' 551 at Sydney, and the Australians' 573 and 506 afc- Adelaide, 551 at the Oval, and 520 at Melbourne. The lea^of 368 on the first innings was a pretty big hurdle to; negotiate. The Cornstalks, however, set about it in their usual determined fashion. They were further handicapped by the fact that Trumper, who on many such occasions has come to light, was injured. Indeed, it has always been said that at such crises he bats better than at any other time. As the result of the fine batting of Hill. Carter, Bardsley, Minnett, Ransford, Armstrong, and Matthews, the final; total of 476 was. on the board before the last wicket fell. It was, a gallant struggle against big odds. They retrieved their extraordinary collapse of the first innings, and though it was hard to believe that they could win yet, they set their opponents over 100 to get. Hobbs, the outstanding figure in the first innings, in which, he gathered in the magnificent score of 187, unfortunately got his leg before to Hordern after scoring 2 only in the second. Rhodes and Gunn, who have both batted most consistently right through tho tour, came to light again, the former being unbeaten, and with Mead having the honor of scoring the winning stroke. It has been a great match. Australians will need to put forth their very best efforts in the next match on February 9, at Melbourne.

After three consecutive failures with the bat, one began to think that some of the crack bats would have to go out for the fourth Test. The recovery will set a problem for the selection committee to solve.

Hill, Avho, it was said, should go out because he was not in form either with the bat or, in the field, has shown by his form in both; respects that he is not yet a ba^ck number; He dismissed Gunn and Hearne with' two brilliant catches. Once more in Test matches he just missed his century.

The result of the third Test leaves the visitors in a strong position as regards the Ashes.' The interest of the public iia the fourth will be tremendously keen. If England wins the result will, of course, be decisive. Should Australia win the two teams will be all square two all, and one to "go. Then for a last Test of unprecedented excitement. Such a thing, so far as one remembers, has not-happened before. The financial aspect should not enter too much into the tour, but it would be helped tremendously by such a happening.

Test cricket is apt to become a struggle of endurance. The seriousness of the match tends to make players dogged rather than brilliant. As Felix, in the Australasian, puts it-: A stubborn battle for runs, with little that- is inspirational, in the play, apart from the importance of the issue. Batsmen for the most part have set their teeth hard, determined to wait for opportunities rather than to force them.

An interesting review of cricket during fifty years in an Australian paper ends thus: The story of those old cricketers has been told over and over again, yet with such a book as Andrew Lang's we go over it again, finding a fresh and loving interest —that trace of a personality which was not wanting in many of the English worthies who first came to. Australia, and in the international sense were the fathers of cricket. We might write of most of them now,, as Lang of his Hambledon men —

"And where is Lambert that would get The stumps with balls that broke astray? And Mann, whose ball would ricochet

In almost an unholy way ? (So do baseballers pitch to-day), George Lear that "seldom let a bye, And Richard Nyren grave and grey, Beneath the daisies, there they lie!" This Richard Nyren was perhaps the first historian of cricket, and set a precedent in collaboration, which many later cricketing writers have adopted. For while Nyren, the expert, told the story, it was Charles Cowden Clarke, a great Shakespearian, and author of the "Concordance," who held the pen.