A FORGOTTEN TEAM

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 8, 2 October 1937, Page 18

A FORGOTTEN TEAM

1912 australian xi tour of the old country ' SOJDS BIG PLAYERS INCLUDED. How many cricket 'enthusiasts ean recall the Australian cricket team of 1912? The previous side captained by Nobie in 1909, is still remembered, while Armstrong's invincibles of 1921 are never likely to be forgotten, but the 1912 tourists, who played the last Test series before the war, ceem to have dropped so completely out of mind that nxany cricketers cannot even recall the names of the members of the team. Possibly the outbreak of war two years later has blotted out recollections of the tour, although it was undertaken under circumstances unusual enough to fix it in memory. In those days the then newly constituted Board of Control was just beginning to make its presence felt, greatly to the annoyance of the senior players of the time. Their early cricket having been played under the looser conditions of the past, when the players ran the game much as they pleased, and the public took little interest in its politics, men like Warwick Armstrong, Victor Trumper, Clem Hill, Albert Cotter, Sep. Carter, Vernon Ransford, Frank Laver and other stars of tlxe period, resented the dictation of the board.

Friction With Board. For several years - there was eonsiderable friction, culminating in a complete break when ,at the end of the 1911-12 season, the team was chcsen to tour England. A number ef players refused to accept the corxditicns laid down by the board. It was expected that the controlling body would climb down, but the authoritie=, none too secure in the saddle, and just as unpopular with a- section of the public as with the older players, feit that it was now or never. Instead of yielding to pressure, the board's selectors calmly ignored the men who rejected Jhe conditions, an'd selected a team from those definitely available. It comprised S. E. Gregory captain), S. H. Emery, W. B'ardsley, C. G. Macartney, C. Kelleway, from N.S.W. ; D. Smith, T. J. Matthews, W. Carkeek, G. R. Hazlitt, from Victoria; E. R. Mayne, H. Webster. W. J. Witty, from South Australia; C. B. Jennings and J. W- Maclaren, from Queensland.A number of these men, star performers in their day, have somer.ow dropped right out of the public mind. Who recalls batsman Dave Smith, fcr instance; Hazlitt, the all-rounder; wicketkeeper Webster; , Jimmy M-ic-lr.ren, the Brisbare fast bowler; Enxery, the N.S.W. trundler, or Jennings, the Queenslander, who used to open the Australian innings with Kelleway? Bowling Record.

One member of that team holds a record that is likely to stand. That is Jimmy Matthews, the Victorian, who, playing against South Africa g.t Birmingham, performed the hat-trick in each innings. The tour, not unnaturally, was a financial failure. Sir Abe Bailey, the South African millionaire sportsman, believed that the Springboks could field a team equal to either Australia or England, and had at last succeeded in persuading the Marylebone authorities and the Australian Board of Control to try out a Triangular Tournament. A number of factors rumed it. In the first place, the weather was deplorable, and match after match was spoiled by rain. In -yie second, the English public showed little deslre to see their men playing an Australian team which did not include Trumper, Armstrong, Ransford, Cotter, "Carter, Hill, Hordern and Minnett, while the matches between. the Sprixxghoks aiul the Aussies attracted po interest at all. Springbok Form. The Africans showed lamentable form on the wet wickets. England, under the captaincy of C.'B. 'Fry, artd represented by such men : as Hobbs, Rhodes, Barnes,' Jessop; Foster, Douglas. Dean, Spoorier, Warner, Tyldesley and Woolley, crushed all / opposition, The Triangular Tournament was a big idea, but circumstan'ces were against it, and it is not likely to be tried again. -One first-class touring team at a time is all even the. mpst exjthusiastic cricket country can. stan.d,