GREAT CRICKETER WHO PLAYED IN EXCITING TESTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17835, 1 May 1926, Page 11

GREAT CRICKETER WHO PLAYED IN EXCITING TESTS.

FRANK IREDALE WAS NERVOUS AT OPENING.

By the death of Mr Frank A. Iredale, which occurred at North Sydney last week, a notable figure of nearly forty years’ standing was removed from the world of cricket. Thirty years ago his name was a household word in Australia and England. He was in turn an international batsman of the highest order, a cricket legislator, for whom the game is all the better through his association with it, an administrator during his thirteen years as secretary of the New South Wales Cricket Association, and a voluminous writer on his favourite pastime. Many of the late Mr Iredale’s friends who saw him at the Sydney Cricket Ground towards the end of last year became alarmed at the state of his health. lie was unable to follow his •ordinary duties at the time of the visits of the Queensland and New Zealand elevens just after Christmas, and he never returned to his duties as secretary of the New South Wales Cricket Association.

SUCCESS IN TESTS. Frank Iredale reached the high-water mark of his cricket career when he was chosen to play in the three test matches in Australia against the English Eleven led by the late A. E. Stoddart. He made a brilliant start in his first test game in December, 1894, in Sydney, by scoring 81. In the same game S. E. Gregory made 201, and George Giffen 161. Despite these big scores England won a sensational game by ten runs.

A little over a month later Iredale scored a brilliant 140 in the third test match, at Adelaide. Pie was one of the first players chosen for the 1896 Austi-alian Eleven, the selection of which caused heated discussion all over Australia, principally on account of the non-selection of Albert Trott. Exception was even taken to the inclusion of PI. Trumble in the team, although he had taken 123 wickets in the 1893 tour. Public opinion was decidedly on the wrong track so far as Trumble was concerned, as he finished the 1896 tour by taking the greatest number of wickets —148. Iredale made his first appearance on English wickets against Dr Grace’s XI. at Sheffield Park on May 11, 1896. The great Ranjitsinhji played against the Australians for the first time in the same game. “ Ranji ” scored 79 and 42, but Iredale failed badly. The critics said that his play was cramped and characterised by nervousness. In the match against M.C.C. and Ground Iredale made a pair of specs, being clean bowled by J. T. Ilearne in each innings. This was the famous game in which the Australians were dismissed for 18, Pougher taking five for 0, and Hearne lour for 4. Eight of the Australians made “ ducks,” Graham 4, Trott 6, and Kelly S, were the only run-getters. Having failed in six matches running, Iredale was oznitted from the first test at Lord’s. Thereafter Harry Trott, the Australian captain, decided to send Iredale in first, and his luck changed completely- Against Notts he made 94 not out, in the next match against Yorkshire 114, against North of England 40, then 106 against Hampshire, and a brilliant and chanceless 171 against the Players of England. In this match he batted the whole of the first day for 154. He was at the wickets for exactly five hours. His remarkable run of success got him into the second test match, at Manchester, and he was again in a run-getting vein, as he scored 108. By so doing Frank Iredale created a record which is generally unknown, by making a century in his first test match in England, a feat which is much more difficult there than in Australia. The merit of this performance can be gauged by the fact that he was opposed to such great bowlers as Richardson, Ilearne, and Briggs. Australia finished up by win-" ning the match by three wickets. Iredale, after a moderate beginning, had made four centuries in a little over a month, and had created a fresh record, as no previous Australian batsman, not excepting W. L. Murdoch, had notched more than two centuries on a tour. I redale’s record at the end of the tour was: 51 innings, highest score 171, 3 not outs, aggregate 1338, for 27.66 runs per innings. Frank Iredale was also a member of the tenth Australian XI. in 1899. He was unfortunate in being stricken down with measles, which kept him out of the game from June 12 till July 3. His . play afterwards suffered, as he never fully recovered his physical condition. He, however, made 115 against W. G. Grace’s XI., and scored 111 in the fourth test. He batted 38 times during the tour, totalling 1039 runs for an average of 29.68. Plis highest score was 115. FINE FIGURES. Frank Iredale played in fourteen test matches in England and Australia, batting 23 times for 807 runs, highest score 140, average 36.68. Against Victoria lie played in 23

matches, batting 44 times for 1278 runs, average 30.42. His highest score -was 101 in Melbourne in 1892. Against South Australia he played in 21 games, batting 33 times for 1407 runs, highest score 187 at Sydney in 1896, average 43.96. He also made 118 against South Australia in Sydney in January, 1901. Although he made so many fine scores Iredale was a bad and for a few overs a chance in the slips from his bat always seemed irrftninent. Perhaps this was due to his fondness for the cut stroke, which he would try to execute before he got his eye in. Still as an exponent of the cut stroke he has never been excelled. In all his lectures last year M. A. Noble instanced Iredale’s execution of the cut as the best he could recall. Once he had settled down Iredale was difficult to dislodge, and, moreover, he played delightful cricket, driving on the off and cutting in a way which is seldom seen nowadays. It was the memory of Iredale's fine innings after shaky starts that many good judges of the game to grieve that the brilliant Kippax was left out of the present Australian XI. As a fieldsman Iredale excelled. He was dashing in the outfield, and was practically never known to miss a catch. He had a way all his own of locking his thumbs while waiting for the catch, then turning his palms to the ball instead of waiting, as most fieldsmen do, to let the ball fall into their cradled hands.