CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 311, 11 January 1902, Page 3

CRICKET.

; ENGLAND V. STAWELL. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright Melbourne, Jan. 10. The match was drawn. Stawell made 180. Keenou (not out 34) was the best score. JBraund took seven wickets for 42, Gunn two for 8, Jones three for 81, Hobson one for 16. England in their second innings lost three wickets for 164; Gunn with GO and Hobson 74. SOUTH AUSTRALIA v. NEW SOUTH WALES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Adelaide, Jan. 10. In tho cricket match South Australia v. New South Wales the latter lost five wickets for 260 ; Trumpor 5, Duff 17, Iredale 83, Noble 0, Hopkins 0, S. Gregory (not out) 108, C. Gregory 48. SGregory and Iredale both struck old form, their partnership being productive of pretty aod effective cricket. ENGLAND Y. BALLARAT. By Telegraph—Press Association- Cupyrigh) Melbourne, Jan. 10. England lost five wickets against the Baliarat Cricket Club for 135 ; Jones 24, Hayward (not out) 44, Maclaren (not out)

(By “ Differ.”) A recent Australasian has a very inteitsling account by “ Observer ” of the pn-y in the first match of the Englioh team’s tour, with some notes on the style of the various members of the team. 1 make tire following extracts : Cricketers will be interested more

than anything else at the outset, perhaps in a field sketch of the Englishmen Maclaren they know. He is thinner than when we saw him last, but in first-rate health. Amongst tho amateurs new to Australia one notices first the prevalence of clean-shaven faces, so that for a moment ns might almost assume that he had .tr.ayed by mist.'l.e into the companionsnip of a visiting theatrical company, though fortunately this is the one respect in which it differs from the last team, the absence of the theatrical. A. O. Jones is much younger than one would expect to see the man who has captained Notts for many seasons—the man with a splendid gift for making runs at, a crisis or on had wickets which has so often pulled cis side out of trouble. He fields with fine dash, ■ and howls a hanging leg break, rue fiigiil of which always seemed to me much lower in practice than in the liiuJe we saw of it in the maten. M’Gahey. like Jones, is over the average height, and though he did not play m the match, was batting beautifuiiy in practice. He has keen over here before on a health trip, and once nearly played in a test match. Both these batsmen are of the type one likes to see going—commanding in style, and forcible in effect.

Everyone is looking to Jessop as the man of possible sensations, and I doubt, whether there has ever been harder hitting than that furnished by him ur company with Sam Y.'oods, just before the team left, in England. A hundred runs in 16 minutes—think of it—and 142 in 24 minutes. AJthougn Jessup has got well into the thirl hundred, he has never in any innings been two hours and a half at the wickets. How does that promise for pace ? He is under the average height, very powerfully built, and when he dashes for a ball at mid-off there is but one suggestion—a greyhound and a hare. He bowls faster

than anyone in the team, but as a howler is forbidden to let himself go. His walk is entirely his own, and every thing about him suggests briskness! The tired feeling of Australia would be something utterly foreign to him. Garnett looks like a big schoolboy out for a holiday—and exuberant with the novelty of everything. No

man in the team will make so many friends in Australia as the Hampshire captain, Robson, the second wicketkeeper Beaming with geniality, he looks and talks the true philosopher—who has come to enjoy the trip, and to make hosts of friends. He will ha.e no worried days or sleepless nights, however the test matches go. As with the amateurs, so with the professionals ; hut for that pleasantsounding, old English burr in the speech of one or two of them you would find it difficult to draw any distinction. Tom Hayward—quiet, courteous, gentlemanly Tom—is the father of the family by reason of past experience—an excellent guide for a new lot to follow. Lilley has more of solid resolution, more of typical English determination, in his face than his picture-': give him—a good honest brown face that is typical of the man. And what a wicket-keeper 1 His ease is matchless. He does not seem to go foi the ball ; it comes to him, so well judged are his anticipations. No frills or flounces upon his work at all ; just wicket-keeping as dead certain as wic-ket-keeping can be. The old hands will admire him, and the youngsters copy lr.m. As a bat they tell me he is miles ahead of his figuures, for he plays for his side instead of an average', and repeatedly throws his wicket away in forcing it against time. •* A neat little pair are Tyldesley and Quaife—the former short but robust, who has already given us ‘in his first game a foretaste of his quality as an out-fieldsman. Quaife is more of a light build, lithe-looking, with a fine eye, and a tinge of healthy yellow in h,s skin. As a fieldsman his dash is as quick as Jessop’s, as a batsman he plays what is sometimes called the coned game. He may exasperate a crowd at times with the invincible regularity or his method, but crowds or comments have no effect on him at ■ill

—like Alick Bannennan, he just goes ou with his winning game. He is not a mere awkward stoncwaller of the Scotton stamp—for his late cuts are the perfection of grace and ease ; this lie does with correct timing. Barnes is the tallest man in the team—tall, stiong. big-boned, just what a fast bowler should be. He moves off to bowl with two long strides, then a hop, the spasmodic hop of the walker wT.j is unconsciously trying to keep step with a companion. Braund, fairly tall, thin, spare, and sinewy of build, looks like a runner, and bowls every way. His most puzzling one appeals to be when the hand gets ahead of the ball, which seems to have slippe 1 out somewhere between the little

linger and the wrist, and is following up. The one that doesn’t escape that way comes along straight and fairly fast. “ I never heard of him as a Ixwler,” said Clem. Hill before the match, but for an hour he kept Clem, dancing hornpipes and taking standing jumps down the pitch in the most w'onderful-looking efforts to do something. Blythe does not look like an Englishman at all—not the typical Englishman bred in the Coimt’os—rather of the spare South Australian type. He is not, 1 fancy, too strong, and will need for a while to be carefully handled, especially as he is very young. Gunn, also under the average height, has that line solid figure that have admired in many an Engl'sti cricketer, a brisk way of coming up to the crease, and a delivery that in every detail recalls recollections of poo- Jack Ferris, who is at rest in the cemeterv above Durban. I agree with the verdict of a South Australian —• They're an all right lot—take it from me.’ ”