THE GLOBE. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1880. THE AUSTRALIAN ELEVEN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2111, 29 November 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1880. THE AUSTRALIAN ELEVEN.

All lovers of cricket will be glad to see, by the telegram published in this issue, that the Australian Eleven propose to pay our Colony a visit, and to try conclusions with the various cricketers in the centres of population. Canterbury cricketers, in particular, are interested in the event, because they had the good fortune, when last they met the redoubtable Australians in the field, to come off victorious, and they will naturally be very anxious to see how far they will be able to sustain the reputation they acquired on that occasion. It may point a moral as to the vanity of all human forecasts to call to remembrance the prophetic utterances of numbers of cricketers on the occasion of the match alluded to. The victory of Canterbury led them to prophecy that the Australians would fall like grass before the scythe when once they came inte contact with the flower of English cricket. The Australian style was cramped, their bowling was not overkilling, and their fielding was but respectable. But since 1878, when the Canterbury fifteen passed Spofforth, Bannerman and Co. under the ploughshare with six wickets to spare, the two Australian elevens have proved that their cricketing calibre is of the highest, and that the Canterbury prophets were altogether out in their reckoning. From the day—May 27th, 1878—on which they first electrified the English cricketing world by their victory over the Marylebone Club and ground by nine wickets up to their last and most sensational performance against the All England team, their career has been an extraordinary one. The performances of the first team, good as they were, have been eclipsed by those of the second, until English cricketers at one time almost

feared that the leading place in the game had been taken out of their hands, and | that the offspring had developed such muscle and keen eyesight as to prove more than a match for the parent. And seeing the age of the Australian colonies, seeing that John Pascoe Fawkner, who founded Melbourne, lived to be presented to the Duke of Edinburgh, and that Port Phillip was unknown when this century came in, sportsmen in the old country have marvelled at the exceptional growth of the game in the antipodes. They have hardly been able to comprehend how the comparatively small population of Australia has been able to send over the water a team capable of competing with the cricketers chosen out of the enormous number of cricketers in England. We are not aware that the problem has been attempted to be solved in any exhaustive manner, though we cannot help noticing that the English papers are rather too hard on the climate of Australia as a climate suitable for athletic exercises. Experience proves that it is not unfavorable for every sort of game requiring activity and muscle, and the greater length of time during the year that can be given to cricket is evidently in favor of the Australian player. The Canterbury team will enter into the coming contest with a full knowledge of the difficult task they are undertaking. We wish them all success. Of one thing we feel sure, that, if they are beaten, they will, like the proverbial cat, die hard.