William Hammersley

“ Wills, is the estimate I have formed of his cricketing abilities, and if he is really going away to Queensland, and has finally quitted a stage on which he has played so conspicuous a part, I am sure the best wishes of his friends and enemies, if he has any, will follow him, and it will be a long time I imagine, take him all in all, before Victoria will look upon another all round cricketer such as "Tommy Wills." ”

“ Sixty-seven wickets gives an average of eight per match with three over, which is, undoubtedly, a first-class degree in bowling honours. Mr. Wills did not take part in any of the matches which the first England eleven played, as he was at Queensland during the time, but when Parr's eleven came out he arrived here from Queensland just in time, not to play, but to field as substitute in the first match. In the remaining matches he took a conspicuous part. He became quite a peripatetic cricketer, playing for any place that would accept his service. ”

“ Or if Bucolics delight, as they will doubtless profit thee more, may the increase of thy flocks and herds be as numerous as thy runs (cricket, not quatting) , and tend as much to triumph in the battle of life as they have heretofore done in the mimic encounters of the bat and ball. ”

“ Wills's career that nothing became him so well as the close of it. In the position he filled, undoubtedly, he committed a very grave error in his refusal to play, except as captain, in the late Intercolonial Match. As a gentleman in England, a man can do this kind of thing; and he can, moreover, walk off the field if he likes, and no one can question his acts, although they may his good taste ”

“ He tried underhand, no doubt a veritable Sydney grubber, but was told that style would not do for Rugby, so at once assumed a roundhand delivery. He bowled his man down the first ball, and from that moment, writes Tommy Wills, "I felt I was a bowler." He was quickly chosen in the eleven, and in the first innings he got five wickets in five successive balls. His first match of any note was at Vincent-square, Westminster, against that public school, and amongst his opponents was another boy, afterwards a renowned cricketer, and now a reverend divine not far from Toorak. ”

“ As a field, he was good anywhere, especially at short slip, but you could never put him out, and if he lately grew a trifle stiff in picking up, his fingers never lost their "holding" powers, and he was always a dangerous one to try with a chance. ”

“ MR THOMAS W. WILLS—A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
The Australasian., 8 May, 1869. "The man I speak of cannot in the world (colony) be simply counterpoised; He proved best man in the field, and for his meed was brow-bound with the oak." - SHAKESPEARE. As the above-named celebrated cricketer has, in a characteristic letter addressed to a contemporary, signified his intention to give up the game, it is due to the readers of The Australasian that he should not be permitted to do so without a sketch or resume of his career being presented to them. ”