17 FEBRUARY 1912, Page 3

On Tuesday the English eleven in Australia won the fourth

test match most handsomely by an innings and 225 runs. They have thus won the rubber as they had already won the second match by eight wickets and the third by seven wickets. The English score of 589 in the fourth match beat the "record" for any single innings in a test match, and it was also remarkable for the first wicket partnership of Hobbs and Rhodes, who put on 323 runs. Hobbs has performed the unique feat of making three centuries in three successive matches. The Australian bowling was lacking in resource, but on the English side Mr. Douglas, Mr. Foster, and Barnes all bowled at the top of their form. It is one of the most delightful ironies in the history of cricket that the English triumph should have oome after so much misgiving and such persistent criticism of the composition of the eleven. The chief point is that the English victory is a victory for youth. The youngest eleven which has ever visited Australia has audaciously laid low such cool old hands as Messrs. Hill, Trumper, Armstrong, and Bardsley. Mr. Douglas,' who took the place of Mr. Warner after the latter's unfortunate illness, is to be congratulated on his captaincy. The pencil of Turner, who at least once painted a cricket match, is needed to portray the M.C.C. eleven bringing back the ashes as a pendant to his thrice famous "Agrippina Returning with the Ashes of Germanious."