THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 21, 2 March 1914, Page 2

THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO.

INTERESTING REMINISCENCES. - •■;■'.'. " ■' i .■■■y.-i BONNOR'S THROW; \ ■> '. ■ ' ''•■■' ..-. ♦. ■■ .- ~~ 7 ~ '.• '■- ' \ Nearly every touring cricket team col- < lects some good stories, but there are not many that meet with such varied inci- j dents as the Australian team which $ visited England in 1882 ran across. Here 1 are some of the reminiscences of Mr C. s W. Beal, manager of that team: — ' '' One of the best episodes in connec- % tion with the 1882 team occurred soon \ after leaving Malta. An army officer was \ talking about "throwing the cricket ball i 100 yards. Bonnor, in his usual gran- ( diloquent way, safct,; "On?- hundred •« yards! One hundred' yards! Why, I , could jerk it|' a "And so he could. After or little ", talk it culminated in a wager of £IOO i that Bonnor would not throw 115 yards j > or more with the first throw and on thev .first day he landed on English shores. I : remember Bonnor coming down on board ship and telling me he had made the. wager. Old Caleb Peacock, of Adelaide, was stakeholder. ; "We got to Plymouthj and it was a fine day, so Bonnor, Murdoch, Tom Garret, and myself'got off the boat, the . . others going on. We tried to get a 51pz.... ball, but could not get any lighter than sJoz. Before finally to the ground, we went'to several placed including The Hoe, but that was down; hill—all right for it did-aiotssuit the other party. ; - THE COOLNESS OP BONNOR. '' Then we went to the racecourse, but that was slippery, and, of did not" ' suit us, so at last we arrived the ; Barracks in Plymouth. *As it was gravel and there was no wind, all agreed that '■ the conditions were fair. We got hold ; of the quartermaster—rhe happened to* have a record inr the army, had < thrown 107 yards,-I think. When we told ■ him what the event was he became deeply interested!'* Borindr got' the quartermaster to put a pile of : newspapers down as a target, about 2ft high* at a distance of 120 yards. He_was going to throw with- ■ .put taking his waistcoat off. It'showed J" pu, £he ,epol belief he,, had in hisTvpowers. < insisted on : his stripping to* the9singlet> . though hedjdn't like the idea. -He was, ■ toying with v the ball. 'A matitf of my . inches foot' ,bein|j "able -to. throw this .' little'thing''Tls"-yards I x '-'' vi '" :Z I ■'■ "Well, he threw 119 yds 7in, and won the wager. I remember the old quartermaster begged for the ball,' and we gave it to him. He never dreamt that-anyone could throw so far, and he wanted that , ball as a souvenir. "You ought to have seen 'Bon.,' the ' centre of, admiration at Plymouth Bar-' \ racks iafter-the .throw.. It was a pretty s good effort, seeing that he had-been six - weeks oji the sea. «? , "Another little incident worth narrating occurred aboard'the ship when going sto England. It is one George Giffen is r not likely to forget. Giffen had two e beautiful diamond rings—they were cricket presenlations.? He was playing with i a little babyVpretending to' : throw him t overboard, and, strange thing, he threw t both rings off into the sea —it was about » 60 guineas' worth." A MATCH OF MATCHES. 1 "The test match at Kenn&gton Oval 1 in 1882, won by Australia by seven runs, was the most remarkable match I ever Saw, or am likely to see. Spofforth'S bowling was marvellous.' Old ' Boiley,' at the other end, kept pegging away, so - that runs were not to .be got. Jack, s Blackham behind the wickets, too, was s wonderful beyond words -that day. In o Spofforth's last 12 overs 'the Demon" i- got four wickets for two runs. - His bowlf ing; Massie's inning's of 55, and Blacke ham's wicket-keeping,.stood out as the s great, factors, in Australia's sucsees.e ' '-One unfortunate fellow who was 8: scoring as the match went on dropped Q dead with the pencil and 'se»ring card h gripped firmly in his hand—-the.tension ir was too much for him. w I saw ;J £l6o to £1 a laid on England,'and taken,and, won ; by . a Sydney man who was present.: ':"" d ; "In that match-G.-T.-Studil, who had 0 previously got two. separate centuries !r against us, and was one of' the best h cricketers in the world at the time, did s > not have a ball bowled at him in the 58 second innings. He was down to go in,;; * e about fourth wicket, but he was jaervous a —well, .he went in last. The .English T ' people thought that there Wei-e other Y members of the English team who suf- . fered from lack of nerve. ■f 1 "At one period there were 19 runs to r get with seven men to get them, and Lyt- .? telton and Lucas at the wickets. But they got only 12. Jack Blackham got s ' the ball that bowled the last wicket — , c " Peate's—in that match. An Englishman l° in the pavilion wanted to buy it from r him, but Blackham would not part with it. The Englishman them'had it mounted for him. ■ - *2 ' ' In going away in the train atfer jthe 50 match, at every stopping place the people flattened their noses against the windows, n asking which was Spofforth, and-which es Murdoch. In the words ,'of MArdpch, . s 'we were like a travelling menagerie.' ,y Oh, yes, erieket is good to-day; but thlpse of were the days of the game; champagne, too."