The expected has happened and England has won the first, and in all probability the last, Triangular Tournament. This year the Mother Country has been strong in her young players and although not. producing such "stars," as a Jackson, a Maclaren, a Lockwood or a Ranjitsinhiji, yet as an all-round com-this team of 1912 suffers little in comparison with other years. From our point of view, nothing is more. satisfactory than the success of Woolley and Hearne. The Kent professional has rather outshone Hearne, but on the damaged wickets young Hearne has batted in most consistent form. Verily he has an old head on young shoulders. In a season of dry wickets he might well have challenged even the stolid Fry for pride of first place. On the bad wickets upon which all the test, matches in which England were concerned, it is more or less of a lottery as to who should be included. There are so many first-class bate-men who are as likely to get their' thirties or forti those selected in the it has always been the same. England suffers from having too wide a choice—if one can call it suffering. A touring team is narrowed down to certain limits, which is of some advantage.
From the first the Triangular Scheme did not receive a very hearty welcome. When the news arrived of the much: to-be-regretted dissent sion amongst the Australian players, the whole bottom dropped entirely out of it. Personally, I think that although people are rather apt to over-ride the Imperial side of cricket, yet such a scheme would prove of inestimable advantage to the game. But like most thin which are dinned into one's ears, like standard bread for instance, people get rather sick of it. It may be possibly a good thing to be fed up on Standard Bread, but to be fed up" on International Cricket, spells disaster.
Unless England had lost all that form which produced such satisfactory results in Aus the result of the series must have been a foregone conclusion. With an admittedly weak team it was hardly credible that Australia would prove top dog. It may be that no cricketer is thoroughly indispensable, but to find substitutes for such great and tried cricketers as Trumper, Hill, Armstrong, Cotter, Ransford and Carter, is rather a tall order. From the out: set Australia have been rather unwilling guests to the Triangular Fete and their Board of Control, when they took such drastic steps over the players' question, destroyed the whole interest of it. After
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.