R. E. FOSTER DEAD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 83, 14 May 1914, Page 8

R. E. FOSTER DEAD.

A FAMOUS CRICKETER. ONE OF ENGLAND'S BEST. By * Cable. —-Press Association. —Copyright. (Received May 14, 8.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 13. The death has occurred in London of R. E. Foster, the well-known cricketer. He was ill. for some time from consumption following on diabetes. MEMORABLE TEST PERFORMANCE. So passes one of England's greatest cricketers, most famous of a famous cricket family! Who that had the good fortune to be at the Sydney Cricket Ground on December 14, 1903, will ever forget a tall, lithe batsman, with wrists like steel, who kept punching ball after ball to the-boundary, until the very repetition of the fours became monotonous, while the best of Australia's bowlers and fielders toiled arid

. sweated in. a vain endeavour to stop the fours? In sweltering heat, and* on a perfect wicket, R. E. Foster was making, in his first test match, the greatest individual score known in the whole

series of test matches, and people . were applauding the brilliancy with .... which the young batsmen —he was not ; . 26 years old at the time—made the Aus- ! tralian bowling seem absolute rubbish. Eight bowlers were tried —the best of them were Lavef, Howell, Saunders, Noble, and Armstrong—but the fours piled up until, when he had brou.ght his score to 287, R. E. Foster, by this ' time thoroughly tired, skied a ball from , J. V. Saunders, and W. A. Noble, field.J ing at mid-on, took the catch. It was r < ; a magnificent innings indeed; his bat- ! ' ting was so easy that it seemed as if anyone could do it! v 1 AUSTRALIA'S GREAT EFFORT. ' That match between Australia and P.

;• F. "Warner's team in December, 1903, ,* was a great one in more "ways than one. 'Batting first, Australia made 285, of ' which M. A. Noble scored 133.

■ : • Foster's 287, Braund's 102, Tyldesley's 53, and Rhodes's 40 not out, enabled / England to score 577, eclipsing by one run the previous highest innings by an a English team in a test match. Although they were 292 runs behind on the first - .* innings, the Australians settled down 'to thiir task with splendid persever- : ance. Victor Trumper, who had been > dismissed for a single in the first innings—he was caught by Foster off - Arnold's bowling—-was in brilliant * form. Rhodes was bowling splendidly, 0 and Relf, Hirst, and Bosanquet had to ' be reckoned with, but Trumper treated them all alike, and he carried his bat , for a magnificently-played 185. R. A. !, .Duff got 84, Clem Hill 51—there was a r-hostile demonstration when Crockett ; frilled that Hill had been run out—Sid , Gregory 43, and Australia's second innings did not finish until 485 runs had - been scored. * " ' AN HOUR FOR ONE RUN. That left England to get 194 runs to win, against high-class bowlers who .were fighting for victory. How good the bowling was may be gauged by the fact that Foster, who had joined Hayward when two wickets were down for 39: runs, biatted for, an hour for one run, although he was playing most skilfully. Slowly the score was raised to . 81, and then Foster, who had made 19, went out to play a ball from Armstrong, missed it, and was stumped by Kelly. Braund was caught by Noble with only a run added to the score. Then Hirst went in—and hit a ball from Howell to Laver, at short-leg, and Laver dropped the catch! Hayward and Hirst put on - 99 runs after that, and then Bosanquet held up his end while Hirst, who finished 60 not out, won the match for England. Hayward had made 91. ■ A MALYERN PRODUCT. But let us return to R. E. Foster. Born on April 16, 1878, "R. E." was < -educated at Malvern and Oxford. His : consistent batting brought him into the Worcestershire —Fostershire, it is often - called —eleven at the .age of 21, and he —-. soon leaped into fame. Against Hampshire in July, 1899, he scored 134 and 101 not out—his eldest brother, Major *>■ W. L. Foster, made two centuries in that match, too., In the following year, when lie was captain of the Oxford ; team, he scored five centuries for the .university and aggregated 930 runs in ; 13 innings. In his first appearance for Gentlemen v. Players he scored 102 not . out and 136. Next season Foster scored over 2000 runs in first-class matches, in- ; eluding six centuries, and averaged 50.66. •In 1902 he did not appear so often, and | after his return to England from his ; Australian visit he was lost to first-class .! cricket for a season. In 1905 he played | only 15 innings—in three he was not i out —but he finished with an average *of 75.44. His highest score that year ! was 246 not out against Kent. In ! 1907 he captained England in the three : test matches against the South Africans, I but was unable to visit Australia with . .the M.C.C. team. Since then his appeari ances in cricket had been intermittent, j But lie put up a remarkable performS'ance in a good-class club match in 1909, | Scoring 262 not out in 75 minutes. !j. ALL-ROUND QUALITIES. . 1 j As a batsman, R. E. Foster was second only to K. S. Ranjitsinjhi and O. 'B. Fry. Possessed of sound defence, : caution when occasion demanded, a do- ; fiant brilliancy when opportunity came, ' and great hitting powers, he scored well ; in every direction all round the wicket ; by beautifully-timed strokes. He had a crisp late-cut, thanks to his steel-like wrists, a splendid off-drive, and he hooked and pulled equally as well as George Hirst. In the field he was one of the best slips in Ed gland.