CRICKET "INCIDENTS"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 630, 5 April 1929, Page 7

CRICKET "INCIDENTS"

; RUMPUS OF 50 YEARS AGO SYDNEY MOB OUT OF HAND j Hostile demonstrations such as ■ marked the recent tour of the English 1 cricketers in Australia are fortunately j comparatively rare in the history of 1 big cricket, but from tfme to time incidents have occurred, two of them of an ugly nature. The worst was in 1878-79, when Lord Harris's English team was playing New South Wales. It nearly j i sounded the death-knell of Anglo- ; i Australian cricket. The cause of all the trouble wa» an i lbw decision against W. L. Murdoch, ! the idol of the Australian crowds. Murdoch did not think he was out—what batsman ever does?—but he accepted the decision without demur, and started to walk back to the stand. CROWD MOBS PLAYERS A section of the crowd, not one of whom was in a position to judge, was not so easliy satisfied. An angry uproar arose, and before anyone realised what was happening a mob of larrikins had jumped over the fence, and swarmed round the English players with menacing intent. An irrespon- j sible barracker struck Lord Harris i with a stick, but ran for his life when j one of the English pros., a sturdy I Yorkshireman, pulled out a couple of j stump", and stood between the Eng- i lish captain and his assailant, inviting ; the latter to “come aht like a man.” | The match was held up for a con- ! siderable time, and when play was j resumed a new umpire was sent on to ! the field in place of the one who had i j given the decision. When the Australian team went to | England in the following year, it was coldly received, and some of the Eng- i iisli players who had taken part in the j notorious Sydney game at first refused to play against the Australians. Eventually, however, as a result of ; the efforts of Lord Harris, who took up the sporting attitude that bygones should be bygones, the hatchet was buried, and the famous English sports- • man himself captained an English side in the first test match ever played between the two countries. In this game. | which England won by five wickets, W. G. Grace made 152 for England, and Murdoch, whose dismissal caused the ■ 1 row in Svdney, went one better by i scoring 153 not out for Australia. 4