THE VISIT OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS TO ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2448, 9 February 1882, Page 4

THE VISIT OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS TO ENGLAND.

A sporting correspondent, writing from England, to the " Argus," under date of December 16th, says:—Cricketers have just been placed in possession of the list of fixtures for the ensuing season. The number of matohes is greater than has ever been before known, and already first-class cricketers have engagements booked right through the season. Of course the leading feature of the list is the great number of firstolass matohes arranged between the colonial team and our best elevens. The list whioh I send herewith will show the quality of the oontests which have been arranged, and will also show that if the Australians are to uphold their prestige sgainst the oldoouutry folk in 1882, they will require their very best team. Yorkshire will spare no pains to pull oil her matohes with the team, and as four contests have been arranged with the shire which claims for its mainstays such talented performers as George TJljett and E. Peate, doubtless its representatives will show hard fight for the supremacy. Nottinghamshire has a couple of games booked, and as a breach whioh greatly affected the team last year has been healed, and the Notts men are stronger than ever in batting and bowling, and not a wit less self reliant, it is not off the oards that the lace county will make the visiting eleven take second place. Lancashire always plays a Btrong game, and her representatives feel certain, as they were last season the premier oounty, that in 1882 they will beat all comers. The oounty of the Graces has a couple of contests arranged, but the western shire is dependent to too great an extent on individual performers for the visitors to dread the meeting. Sussex will also twioe tackle the colonists, but here again the Englishmen are certain of defeat; and the same remark will apply to the Derbyshire men, who have only about a oouple of reliable players in the whole county. Surrey, Kent, Leicestershire, and Middlesex have each one matoh booked, but with the exoeption of the latter oounty, whioh has always been famous for its batting talent, none of these opponents are now formidable. Oxford University will doubtless have a strong team, as will also the rival seat of learning, Cambridge, whilst the matohes arranged between the Colonists and the Gentlemen of England, the Players of England, and the Combined Eleven of England, are certain to result in enoounters in whioh every nerve will have to be strained to secure a victory. It will be seen that no fewer than twenty-two eleven a side oontests have been arranged, and as this number will be increased by supplementary matches, the visit of colonial orioketers to the mother country in 1882 will be even more successful from a peouniary point of view than any of its predecessors. At a meeting just held, whioh was attended by Mr Henry Perkins (representing the Australians), Mr O. W. Aloock (Surrey), Cantain Holden (Nottß), J. B. Wostinholm (Yorkshire), A. N. Hornby and E. B. Bowley (Lancashire). S. Biohardson (Darbyshire), W. G. Grace (Gloucestershire), G. Goldsmith (Sussex), V. E. Walker, A. J. Webbe, E. E. Vernon (Middlesex), Hon. Ivo Bligh (Kent), Mr B. Benoraft (Hampshire), and others, it was decided to allow the Australians half the gross takings at all matches. This overcomes the difficulty which threatened to arise, the proposal on the part of the Englishmen being that the colonists should take half the net gate only. The Lord's authorities (Marylebono Club), however, stand out against these terms, and the only terms upon whioh Lord's ground will be at the disposal of the visitors will be that the latter accept a fixed sum, £2OO a matoh. We have over a hundred first-class matches on our cards already, so that orioketors at the antipodes will imagine we are certain of a brilliant season, providing the weather be at all favorable. General satisfaction is expressed at the fact that the Australian engagements are, without exoeption, against elevens, there being little probability of a repetition of the previous enoounters with flimsy eighteens or twenty - twos, the same rarely being bona fide matohes.