Lord Hawke's cricket team in North America in 1894

Hillyard, McAlpine and Wright had been part of Lord Hawke's previous team to North America in 1891–92. ==The tour==

Hawke's team left London on 8 September 1894, sailing from Southampton that day. At the time of the departure, the team was expected to be playing matches in "New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston" and to be returning home by 1 October. The tour was in fact extended by a couple of weeks with a visit to Canada, but a report in England indicates that it was not entirely a success: "The English cricketers in America are losing their power to attract, there is a decrease in the number of spectators at their matches with their Yankee opponents, their doings appear to excite less interest, and their victories are not so much taken to heart as they used to be," said a note in the Cheltenham Chronicle newspaper. "Cricket is losing its hold upon the American public, who having gone wild over the short and exciting game of baseball, are losing all taste for our prosaic natural [sic] pastime." Not all the team came back together: newspapers record the arrival of eight members of the team in Southampton on 17 October 1894. ==First-class matches==

Two first-class matches were played on the tour, both of them against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia side. McAlpine was omitted from the team for both of these matches. ---- ==Other games==

There were three other matches, each of two days' duration, scheduled on the tour, none of them first-class. The team began with a 12-a-side match against an "All New York" team at the Staten Island Cricket Club ground: Hawke's side batted for the whole of the first day and the second was lost entirely to rain. The first-class matches in Philadelphia came next, after which the side headed for Toronto and a two-day game against a "Gentlemen of Canada" side which was drawn. In what was intended to be the final game of the tour, the team played a Massachusetts side, with Hawke's team 12-strong and the Americans 15; the numbers did not help and the touring team triumphed by an innings inside a single day. A "fill-up" single innings match was arranged for the vacant second day, but this match appears not to have been completed, and the scorecard does not give full detail of the home side. ==References==