CRICKET.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 225, 13 September 1878, Page 3

CRICKET.

(From the Brighton Times.) From a letter of Boyle's to his brother in Sandhurst, which found its way into the Bendigo Advertiser, we extract a few sentences, as he appears to view things in a much fairer and more cricketlike spirit than some of his confreres who are writing accounts of the tour in the Melbourue and Sydney papers. He says :—" Our trip across America was a very tire.ome journey ; we had seven days and seven nights in the train, and it is not like riding on our lines. All American lines are very lightly made and the lines not being properly ballasted they cause the cars to rock about very much indeed. We arrived in New York all, very much knocked up with the trip.: From New York we started on Saturday, May 4, and landed at Liverpool on the 13th. We went straight' on to Nottingham. At Notts we had. a. grand, reception, some seven or eight thousand people turning out to receive us. Before you get this you will know the result of of our first match. I did not play on account of a boil on my neck, although I was in good form, both with the bat and ball. The wicket was in a very bad state, and it rained nearly all the time our fellows were in the field. Gregory was very foolish to play 1 in such weather. Since we have been in England I have not seen one fine day. I will now give you a few particulars about the M.C.C match. We had a. little practice on, the. Saturday afternoon, but the ground was so bad that not much notice was taken of it. On Monday morning it rained until about 11 o'clock, when it cleared up, but we thought then that it was not all over. The wicket, looked and was a good deal better than we thought it would be. Ridley was captain •of the M.C.C. (it being a rule that the senior member of committee so act). • When we were lowering the wickets in the second innings the crowd could be heard nearly at any distance, and when we were coming to the pavilion Spofforth and I were heartily cheered and could hardly get through the crowd, which had rushed into the ground and followed us up to the gate of the pavilion. There is no mistake about it, but England is the place for fair play. We could not have a more impartial crowd anywhere than we have had both at : Notts and Lords. If our men do anything good, they get just as much praise as their own do. Yesterday we were shown all over the Tower of London also Buckingham Palace. I won't attempt to describe them. In the evening we dined at Lords being the guests of the M.C.C. I forgot to mention that we finished the match in one day, and would not play a return match next day, as wanted, thinking that our victory would do us more good throughout England than a return match would.' J Writing two days later of the Yorkshire match, Boyle described Lockwood as " the most perfect batsman that I have yet seen. His style is not at all of the dashing order, but he rarely lets off a loose ball. But. what surprised me most was his timing of the ball; he is without doubt the best timer I have yet seen, bar none. I bowled all through the innings at him a#l he only put one ball up, and that was only about four feet off the ground.". Further on he writes " our fielding was said to be the best ever seen on the ground, and Lilly white says no one ever saw better, no matter where, or by whom. We had another confounded dinner to-night, making the fourth in eight days. June s—l have barely time to add a few lines ; we beat Yorkshire by six wickets and to fill in the time we played another one innings match, and won that also by six wickets; Yorkshire made 61. Yesterday we finished our Surrey match winning it by five wickets. We had 20,000 on the first day, and about 12,000 the second. To-day we went to see the Derby ; It was a grand sight to see the people, but I would never go again ; we only got home at 11 o'clock, and we leave by the 12 train for Elland where we play to-morrow.'