THE FIRST ENGLISH CRICKET TEAM.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11501, 6 February 1903, Page 7

THE FIRST ENGLISH CRICKET TEAM.

A MEMBER'S REMINISCENCES,

On the ere of the visit of Lord Hftwke's team to New Zealand, an account of the Vint of the firet team to Dunedin. and Christcimrcb will no doubt be found interesting. The team visited this colony in 1864, and was composed of the following playera:—G. Parr (captain), Jackson, Tinley, and A. Clarke (Nottinghamshire), Hayward, Carpenter, and Tarrant (Cambridgeshire), G. Anderson (Yorkshire), Dr. Grooa (Gloucestershire), Julius Ceear, Lockyer, and W. CaSyn (Surrey). The following account of the trip to this colony is extracted from a< book entitled "71 Not Out," recently published by W. Caffyn, a member of the team: — "Our next move was to New Zealand, we being due to play against, twenty-two of Otago at Dunedin, on February 2nd. We started on our journey on the 25th of January in a email steamer called the Alhambra. Several of our team began to be ill as soon as we were out of smooth water, poor George Anderson, as usual, being one of the first to succumb to eeasicknees. My berth was just below hie, and I had my head out enquiring how he was getting on, when, to mv alarm, he came tumbling out of his berth, bringing a large basin with him, which fell on my head, cutting me over the top of my forehead (where I bear the mark to this day). Poor 'George,' too, was rather badly hurt by iiis fall, knocking a large piece of skin off one of his legs, and hurting his shoulder. "On the 31et of January we arrived at Port Chalmers, and anchored close to the town. We landed in order to take the opportunity of inspecting a Maori settlement of about forty or fifty natives. We had some rare fun here with George Parr, whom we presented to the Maori chief as ; 'our king.' The natives were delighted with our captain's appearance, the chief taking»a special fancy to him. He kept following George anout wherever he went. "Don't leave me, for goodness , cake! 'George' said in a low voice to several of us. 'I don't half like the look of this fellow I' 'George' was presented with a piece of matting, which was the highest honour the Maoris could confer upon him, and constituted/ him a 'chief.' Our captain, in return, presented the native chieftain with his travelling rug. 'George' then had to go through the ceremony of kissing the women; He seemed glad when this was over, thinking, as he said afterwards, that some of the native gentlemen might 'turn awkward' about it! We returned to the Alhambra in a*email boat, and the sea being rather rough, oome of us did not feel at all comfortable. Poor George Parr was terribly nervous, I remember. 'Once let me get on board the steamer,' he kept saying, 'and nothing shall induce me to leave it again on such fools' errands as we've been on to-day!' However, we all got wifely on board, and slept comfortably all night.

I "TJie next day we again went on shore at Port Chalmers. The sea wae much smoother than oh the previous night, or I 1 am quite certain our captain would hare rkept iis word, and never ihave left the steamer. We formed oine of a procession of boats, whioh. had! been arranged, we bringing up the rear m a boa* decked out with flags. Guns were fired, bands were playing, and altogether a great demonstration was "made. We went to the chief hotel, where an address was presented to us, and a splendid hmoheon provided, to wihioh we did ample justice. Afterwards we started for Dunedin on a coaoh-and-eix, driven by a famous coachman called! 'Cab-bage-tree Ned,' accompanied by a large number of carriages and horsemen by way of escort. Tie road was across the monn-

tains, and hadj been newly made. The scenery was grand. We Lad a tremendous reception when we arrived. The people seemed to have fairly gore mad with excitement. We commenced our match on the following day. The wicket was a very rough one. The twenty-two scored 71 and 85. Wβ made 99 and 58 for one wicket,, thus obtaining a victory by nine wicketa. Tom Hayward secured fifteen wickete in the first innings of the twentytwo, and mine in the second A second match was got iip at the conclusion ol tibia first one, against a combined twentytwo of Canterbury and Otago. This wa* drawn, the twenty-two scoring 91 and 66, and Oμ English Eleven 73 in their only innings, Dr. Grace Bunking 42 and Tom Lockyer Jbeing the only other double-figure ecofer with 10. "We left by steamer that evening for Canterbury. Wβ reached Port Lyttelton the next niKjht, and went ashore to sleep. The next day being Sunday, we spent it on shore. A mosit pleasant day we had, too, the scenery being very lovely. On the following morning we drove over to Ohristohuroh, where we were due u> piay the same day. We "were made very welcome on our arrival, and were entertained at a grand luncheon in the Town Hall before proceeding to the ground to begin the maitah. We once again, o&tained a one-innings victory, scoring 137 ourselves, and getting the twenty-two out for 30 in the first innings and 105 in the second. They were quite at sea with Cris. Tinley'e loos. When the matob was over, two sides were chosen, by George -Parr and George Anderson. Tairont. Claxke, Hayvrard, Tiinley. and myself were on Parr's side, wiule Dr. Grace, Carpenter, Ctesar, Lockyer, and Jackson played for Anderson, the eidee being completed from the local playm. The scoring was very small in all four innings, Parr's side eventually winning by 7 runs only. Mr Tenaant who bad played a good innings of 23 against us for the twenty-two, scored well in both innings of the scratch matoh for ParrY side, making 21 end 33 run out. On tie evening after this game was concluded we were all invited to a Jarge dinner at the Town Hall

"On the following morning we left for Port Lytitelton, most, of us deciding to walk ; across taie hills tihe.ie. It was on!v ■« distance of a Jew miles, but wo found it very hard 'going. , Wβ went by boat to Dunedm next day, and arrived there on the 14th. of February. Once more we added a. single-innings victory to our liet In tbw match, against twenty-two of Otago. Jackson and Tinley bowled throughout., disposing of the twenty-two for 98 and 49. The Eleven scored 198, of which I was top scorer with 43 and Tom Hayward next with <tu. itere at DunedL-n Dr. Grace and Tarrant played an eleven composed of loca.l players at single wicket, llie two English players scored 8 and 16. The eleven only had one innings, in which they made 7 tubs, Tarrant bowline them all out.

"On the second day of tiie cricket match the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the inhibition buildings took place. A large procession wae formed on the cricket ground, and marohed from there to the site of the building. Before leaving Dunedm w« each planted a memorial tree on the encket ground, am in the case of the finrt Eogbsh team at .Melbourne two year* before. ~ '

'•Wβ left Dunedin on the 20th of February, ia a email river steamer, which took us to Port Chalmers, where we went on board & vessel which was to take us to Melbourne."