100 Years Ago: 15 November 1924
More rain-impacted cricket
Day 2
Melbourne: Victoria v M.C.C.
Douglas Holds M.C.C. Together
M.C.C. 240 (F E Woolley 45, E H Hendren 20, R Kilner 20, J W H T Douglas 59*; A E Liddicut 2/62, J Ryder 4/33, F A Tarrant 2/44). VICTORIA 44/2 (H S T L Hendry 24*, J L Ellis 0*). Overnight score was: M.C.C. (1) 113/3 (Woolley 40*, Hendren 16*).
The ground was in rather a poor state after so much rain, while the pitch had been damaged and cut up whenever the ball pitched on it, making batting for M.C.C. increasingly difficult. The overnight batsmen did not last long, and the only batsman able to thrive on it was Johnny Douglas, who played one of his finest innings. He played much more positively than he often does and was unbeaten with 59 after batting for just under 1½ hours. Arthur Liddicut and Frank Tarrant were the bowlers who caused the batsmen the most trouble, although Jack Ryder finished off the tail.
The rolling of the pitch before Victoria’s innings made it considerably easier, but the home batsmen were determined to play it safe, annoying their own crowd as they played out last 1¾ hours of the day for just 44 runs and two wickets; it took 40 minutes for the score to reach double figures. M.C.C. should certainly have dismissed Hunter Hendry, who survived three chances in the field. There was a huge crowd of about 35,000.
Cape Town: Western Province v S B Joel’s XI
Kennedy and Parker Almost Bring Tourists Victory
S B JOEL’S XI 252/9 dec (A S Kennedy 67*, C W L Parker 51*; J L Bolton 6/81, N Blanckenberg 2/33). WESTERN PROVINCE 118 (K C M Hands 28; A S Kennedy 5/42, C W L Parker 4/27) and (following on) 82/8 (S S L Steyn 28; G Geary 2/16, E H Bowley 3/18, T O Jameson 2/25). Match drawn. Overnight score was: S B Joel’s XI (1) 166/8 (Kennedy 37*, Bartley 8*).
The tourists lost the wicket of Edward Bartley without a run added this morning, but then Charlie Parker joined Alec Kennedy in an excellent last-wicket partnership that eventually added 86 runs before Lionel Tennyson declared, both batsmen passing their fifties to give their team a respectable score. Then their bowlers did a fine job on a lifeless pitch as Western Province lost their wickets at a steady rate and failed to escape the follow-on, 100 runs behind in a two-day match. Kennedy and Parker also did most of the damage here too, and Parker at one stage took three middle-order wickets in four balls. So Western Province had to bat again 118 runs behind, and looked to be heading towards defeat as the eighth wicket went down with a quarter of an hour still to play. But the ninth-wicket pair showed great determination and succeeded in batting out time to secure a draw. Another feature of the play was the excellent wicket-keeping of Bartley.
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