AUSTEALIAN CRICKETERS.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3679, 9 October 1880, Page 3

AUSTEALIAN CRICKETERS.

We clip the following from a Melbourne paper:—A correspondent writing to Messrs Boyle and Scott on the doings of the Australian Eleven in England, supplies the following gossip:—" The remarks I heard in some instances were very amusing. One of the crowd said to his neighbor that it was noi surprising the Australians fielded so well, as in Australia they got the natives to throw ihe ball at them, and to save themselves from beiug struck, cau«ht the ball. Another fellow said the Australians had been playing together this last two years, and had done nothing but practice all that time on purpose to defeat the Englishmen. They call Spoffortb the " demon emu,' and said that the reason he was such a good bowler was that he was an emu hunter, and made his living by catching emus, and his mode of operation bciDg to knock them over with balls made of wood, the same size as cricket balls; I enjoyed the couver sation of the yokels muchly, but made no remark. I may mention that the members of the Australian team are much stouter than when they )$t Victoria Bonnor now weighs I7|st. I met an old gentleman about 80 years of age, who told me that he had seen all the best players this last 50 years, and he never saw a fielding team like the Australians. The wicket-keeping of Blackham he considers marvellous. He said Pilling, the Lancashire man, was very good, (> but Blackham was more than his master.