Finally, the men were ready; a somewhat motley crowd--not more than
seven or eight in flannels, while the remainder were in ordinary dress,
with occasionally riding breeches and leggings to be seen, and not a
few football jerseys. The Mulgoa men, on being mustered, were found to
be a man short, while Cunjee had one to the good. So Murty O'Toole, to
his intense disgust, was solemnly handed over to Mulgoa. Then Dr.
Anderson, who captained Cunjee, won the toss, and Murty took the field
along with his new allies, amid heartless jeers from Mr. Boone, smoking
comfortably under a tree, who desired to know should he fetch Mr.
O'Toole an umbrella?
The story in detail of a cricket match is generally of particular
interest to those who have been there; and as, unfortunately, the
number of spectators of the famous battle between Cunjee and Mulgoa was
limited, little would be served by an exhaustive description of each
over bowled on that day of relentless heat. Cunjee shaped badly from
the start. Their two most noted batsmen, a young blacksmith and the
post-master, fell victims, without getting into double figures, to the
crafty bowling of the Mulgoa captain, Dan Billings--who drove a coach in
his spare moments, and had as nice an understanding of how to make a
ball break on a fast wicket as of flicking the off leader on the ear
with the cracker of his four-in-hand whip.
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