100 Years Ago: 19 November 1924

Victoria's late victory, Natal's early struggles

We are always on the lookout for engaging and insightful articles to feature in our quarterly journal The Cricket Statistician. If you have an article you’d like to submit—you need not necessarily be a member—please send it as a Word document to editor@acscricket.com. The deadline for Journal 209 is fast approaching, but don’t let that deter you!

Day 5

Melbourne: Victoria v M.C.C.

Victoria Win in Last Over

M.C.C. 240 and 241. VICTORIA 229 and 253/4 (E R Mayne 87, W M Woodfull 61, A E V Hartkopf 56*, H S T L Hendry 36*; A E R Gilligan 4/89). Victoria won by six wickets. Overnight score was: Victoria (2) 111/1 (Mayne 55*, Woodfull 54*).

This extra morning’s play provided Victoria with a fine and well-deserved victory over M.C.C. and at the same time further increased the popularity of this M.C.C. team in Australia.  Victoria had two hours to score another 142 runs for victory with nine wickets in hand.  Edgar Mayne continued to play a fine innings and lead the way, although his hasty running between wickets nearly got him run out on three occasions.  Bill Woodfull soon went for 61, followed by Arthur Liddicut for 7.  When Mayne was caught in the slips off Arthur Gilligan, Hunter Hendry came in to join Albert Hartkopf with 82 more runs needed in 63 minutes, and then 53 in the last half-hour.  They succeeded with just three balls to spare, the last over being bowled by Gilligan himself.  The English team bowled and fielded superbly, and never resorted to delaying tactics that could have saved the match for them.  They were handicapped by injuries to Jack Hearne and Frank Woolley, whose bowling would have been useful to them.  They were given a great ovation as they left the field and their sporting attitude won them widespread credit and popularity.

Day 1

Pietermaritzburg: Natal v S B Joel’s XI

Another Batting Failure

S B JOEL’S XI 179 (L H Tennyson 21, A S Kennedy 44, G Geary 31, C W L Parker 33*; M E Billing 4/63, D P Conyngham 5/90). NATAL 122/6 (H W Taylor 58*, A W Nourse 26, M E Billing 0; A S Kennedy 4 wkts).

A rather ridiculous itinerary has caused two first-class matches against Natal to be squeezed into five days, the first at Pietermaritzburg being scheduled for only two.  Solly Joel’s team again proved fallible at the top of their order, with their first three batsmen out for 15 and six for 54.  MacGregor Billing and Dalton Conyngham bowled fast and well to cause the damage.  It needed the three later batsmen who rescued the side against Western Province — Alec Kennedy, George Geary and Charlie Parker — to come to the rescue again, although Geary had to retire hurt for a while after suffering a nasty blow on the elbow.  Kennedy batted very doggedly and was dropped twice, but Parker hit out boldly.

Most of the early Natal batsmen were in difficulty, especially against the bowling of Kennedy.  The two Test men, Herby Taylor and Dave Nourse, were the exceptions, and they put on 70 for the third wicket before Nourse was out.  Taylor stayed until the close, playing in his best form, and his continued presence at the wicket makes the match situation fairly even at present.

If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please either respond to the email in which you received it, or leave a comment below.