With Bat and Ball. By George Giffen. (Ward, Lock, and
Co.) —" Five and Twenty Years' Reminiscences of Australian and Anglo-Australian Cricket" is the sub-title of this volume. Mr. Giffen is still under forty, so that his quarter of a century takes him back to a very early beginning. When, much to his delight, he was permitted to send down some practice balls to " W. G." himself, he was about fifteen. (This was when the "Champion" took an eleven to Australia.) At sixteen he was promoted to the first eleven of the Norwood Club, and seven years later he came for the first time with an Australian team to the Old Country. This he has done five times in all, his batting average being close upon 25 and his bowling average 191. This is useful cricket. He has made four "centuries" in England and one in Australia against an English team. It must not be supposed, however, that Mr. Giffen makes much of his own deeds. He tells the story of inter-Colonial and Anglo-Australian cricket with com- plete fairness, and his book, the first on the subject, unless we are mistaken, will be welcomed by a large public. For, as some one said, "these are the things that Englishmen really car.' about," as distinguished from politica, literature, &c.
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