The English Cricketers.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2565, 27 March 1877, Page 3

The English Cricketers.

(by shoet sup.)

To those who have read, the two former articles which have appeared under this heading it will be unnecessay to say that in the first we endeavored to comment fairly on .the English Eleven as a whole— their play and general behaviour, and in ' the second dealt with those matches they | played in Australia. * In Australia they met with no success commensurate with their defeats; in New Zealand they were uniformly successful, such matches as were drawn being drawn so much in their favour as to_inake their success almost a certainty had' the matches been played out, and the draws being in one instance caused by. the badness of the weather, and in the. other by the Eleven taking things too easily when they saw they had. the^jnaatch in hand. After the first innwajp of the first match, when we imagine they thought they had got the measure of ■ their opponents, such as they' guessed they would be, in New ' "Zealand they appear to have played very carelessly. In' fact they did as many ..cricketers do who imagine that they .have got. "a line" of their opponents' capabilities and are tolerably ■afe. ; - Thus they knew that."Auckland had beaten all the other provinces, and though they were" not fools enough to thfnk that because she had done it once she' could always do it, yet they considered that, ' probably; as compared • with themselves the "Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, and Wellington teams were all pretty much of a muchness, and that if they could beat the first in one innings they need not. put on much extra power to beat.the others also, and the othir teams: they, would have to encounter were, they ~."ki{eW} weaker than, these. In- ■ cricket "nothing is more likely to deceive than this taking, a line of one eleven or twenty-two by comparing it with another. One instance is enough to give, though hundreds could be adduced. In 1868 Cambridge beat Oxford by a large ma-'"jorityj'-in the same year, a week before, Marylebone had beaten Cambridge, and Surrey had beaten Marylebone. Oxford had then to play Surrey, and judging by what had been done it appeared as if they would "suffer an easy defeat, instead of • tKjs'they won the" match in one innings* and. many runs to spare. This over confidence then caused the Englishmen to hav.&one, if not two'matches drawn which they ought to have recorded as wins, and in another v. Christehurch they had not soimuch in hand,, bnt that defeat at one time seemed not improbable. In New Zealand they played eight matches of which they won six and two were drawn, and as a rule they won pretty easily. In fact this the first visit of an English Eleven through th.c whole of New Zealand has many points of resemblance to the first visit of an English Pleven to Australia, the different behaviour of the two- Elevens being the chief points of difference. The cricketers of New Zealand appearing to be, on*"a par with those, whom H. H. Stephenson had to meet then, it is - to be hoped that in ten or a=dozen years they will be as good as the Australians are now. In noticing the New Zealand matches we must -be brief, not so much from inclination as from necessity, for not being present at most of them ourselves" we cannot speak from experience, and the. accounts given of them seem for the most part to have been written by men whose acquaintance with cricket is bounded by knowing one side of the bat from the other arid the places an eleven usually take-in the field, as may, be gathered irprn. the diagrams published : in the Cricketers'! Companion. • This would seem.to be the case when we read that a batsman in one case, cut, in another drovea ball to leg, and that a bowler bowled over a maiden, Ac."--The-'first match v. Auckland, has been already commented on fully "in-'our issues of January 30th and ': 31s(j i' -England winning by an innings- and-22 runs,* though the Auckland men made the largest aggregate as well/as . the:-largest individual score of any in New. Zealand, Yates scoring 31 and the totals "being 109 and 94.. The decisive defeat-of Auckland is mainly due to their execrable fielding and their inability to catch. Had the very easy catches been taken, England-would. . have been out for 140, perhaps less, a. score they were about worth, .and Auck-; land might have had the satisfaction—if, it be any—of making a draw' of it;:asthey need not .in that'case have-followed on: From.Auckland the Eleven went to Wel- , lington and defeated. the Wellingtonians in one innings and 130 runs. The ground was very wet and the Eleven, who won the toss,. sent their opponents in : first. They were all disposed of for 31. The Eleven made' 199, and- then got all the Wellington men who showed up out.for 38._ At Taranaki the scores were small, ■ owing to the ground, which seems to have bee?>very bad, as though the Englishmen on^made 80, they won-in one innings by one run. At Nelson where the Eleven next went the scoring was very ; different, England going id, first and scoring 258. -. Against 'this large total Nelsoncould "only muster 56 and 39, and suffered the most decisive defeat of any team in the colony, viz., an innings and 163 runs. -Jupp played in this match, and scored 34 after an innings which must have been a very patient one. At Greymouth the first drawn 1 match was played, the Englishmen scoring 119 and 99 for four wickets, Greymouth made, 50, thus saving the follow, on by one' run and probable defeat. -The Eleven then proceeded to Canterbury and had their.first hard fight, though Canterbury only played 18 against them ; they eventually won by 23 runs, scoring 70 and 104 against their opponents' 65 and 84. The Eleven owe their ; victory m a great measure to Hill, as, riot only did he score well, getting his runs in the first innings when nine wickets were down for a little over.3o runß, but in the,second,,when Shaw was hors de comldt, he got 12 wickets out of .the 17 wilh his.bowling, clean bowling no less than 10 of them. The match at Dunedin was drawn, much in favor, of the eleven, who scored 164 against 76 and 107 of their opponents; the batting of Nicholls, -.who made 21, mainly averting defeat. The last match v. Invercargill was an easy win for England, who scored 168 against.47 and 46, .miming by an innings

and 65 runs. The following are the results of the malehes in Zew Zealand : — V AUCKLAND. England won by 1 innings and 22 runs. WKIiTiIXGTON. England won by 1 innings nifd 130 runs. TARAXAKI. England won by 1 innings and 1 run. NKLSOX. England won by 1 innings and 103 runs. aiISi'MODTH. England, Ist innings, 119 ; Greymouth, Ist innings" CO; "England, 2i d im/njjs, 99 for four wickets, the match was drawn. CANTERBURY. • England won by 23 runs. OTAGO. Match drawn, England having 20 to make in 2nd innings. IXVEItC.AKCILL. England won by.l innings and 65 runs. In these eight matches England scored 1465 runs for the loss of 94 wickets, giving as near as may be an average of 14£ per wicket, and their opponents 921 for 275 wickets- (only 17 fell in the Wellington 2nd innings), being an average of 3J runs per wicket. The highest score made by the Eleven was the 258 made v. Nelson ; the lowest 70, made v. Canterbury. The highest score made against them was 109, made in the first i innings of Auckland; the lowest, 31, made by Wellington. The bowling of the Eleven seems to have been good throughout, and their fielding at times bril'iant. With these remarks we take leave of Lillywhite's Eleven. We should like to see another English Eleven over here, but under different conditions, the principal being those we have already recommended. It may be as well to suggest that pedestrian matches with a view to make money are not necessarily a part of a cricket trip, and sometimes lead to bad feeling. If an English Eleven is to combine proficiency in various amusements with cricket, it might be as well' to offer inducements to Roberts to play billiards, or iWace to box. No doubt both- would draw money, though perhaps they would not add to the strength of the Eleven.