FAREWELL TO THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3048, 21 November 1878, Page 2

FAREWELL TO THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKETERS.

A perfect psean of valedictory praise hat been sounded by the London Fnn on the departure ot our Australian visitors, who hare been teaching us how/to play cricket with such marvellous bucone. • And they fully deserve all the good that 1 is said of them. Not alone, by; iheilr '■ magnificent. play; the head-work id tk«' bowling of th« redoubtable;, Spo&rth, Bannerman's straignt-bftoked b^Uuig^tlui;; splendid wicket*keepinß of'Blaekhpia, who dispensed altogether with a, long stop^ and held Spofforth's tremeadou :pro» * jectiles with a single hand —bat by their uniform' cheennevs and good humour, their unfailing punctuality, their thorough • mAnliMfl^. tad^ their modesty, they hare won ft olden opintoai over here. Lovers of cricket in £ngjand

thank them also for giving a new impetus and a new interest to a game which ia essentially English in ,its character. A few jealous souta amongst us may be disposed to explain away Australian victories by declaring that the Australian Eleven was picked and we'll practised to play tQgpther, while the teams they opposed were often strange to one another. This may or may not be true, but whether or no the general feeling in" this country is one of genuine admiration of the achievements of our cousins. England takes its lesson from Australia much in

the spirit that a father accepts a ' beating at ohes« from his % own son. He may not exactly , like it, but he is intensely proud of the prowess of his own belongings. We in the same way may be a little sore at the defeat we have endured at the hands* of those orer whom, as representing a younger community, we might have expected an easy triumph. Yet we may console ourselves with the reflection that the victory is still all our own. It is the Anglo-Saxon germ which has taken root and prospered in "far off dimes, and if the Australians are now excelling us in the sports we deemed altogether our.own, it is because they are of Anglo-Saw stock, transplanted to regions especially suited to their further development. That it is so is proved by the preeminence which Australians generally attain in those sports in this country. At Eton and the Universities, those of Australian descent are stroke oars and captains of boats; it is the same in the elevens of crack corps. Australians do splendidly in the hunting field. Australian girls hare already established their preeminence in croquet and lawn tennis.