Cricket 1883

MAY 31, 1833. CRICKKT ; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 137 -^cP/IYIM0N---GeSgIP-!^ The abstract and brief chro licle of the time.— Hamlet. I t is an event of so rare an occurrence for a prince of the blood royal to take part in a cricket match that it deserves recognition. It is sixteen years since the Prince of Wales played for the I Zingari, and now Prince Christian Victor, eldest son of Prince and Princess Christian, promises to be a useful member of the Wellington College Eleven. Iu two matches already played, he has an average of 10-1, and took two wickets against Keble College, Oxford. W hat a time batsmen have been having of it just lately! Within a week such totals as 650, 513 and 506, for six wickets, and 462 forJfourwickets ! May only just completed, and one innings over 600, two over 500, and more than one ex­ ceeding 400 ! The season practically a little more than a fortnight old, and two batsmen already credited with scores of over two hundred runs. Prodigious ! I t is not in any way an exaggeration to describe the scoring in the match between Surrey and Hampshire, at the Oval last week, as altogether without a precedent in a contest of the same importance. The highest score as yet recorded in what are termed first class matches, is the 775 of New South Wales v. Victoria in Feb., 1882, when Murdoch, the Captain of the two last Australian teams, made his memorable score of 321. The best pre­ vious register in England up to this season was the Australians’. 643 against Sussex, in May of last year, but Friday last saw this beaten by Surrey, and the Oval can claim the distinction of the biggest innings, 650, as yet made in an im­ portant match in England. A f e w scraps with reference to long scores of the kind from memory may not be uninteresting. The previous best in a match between two counties is, if I mis­ take not, Gloucestershire’s 528, against Yorkshire at Cheltenham in 1876, and the highest in a purely county match at the Oval, the 501 of Notts last year against Surrey. The largest innings on the Surrey Ground, previous to this exploit, was the 553 obtained by the Gentlemen of the South against the Players of the South in 1869, the occasion on which Messrs. W . G. Grace and B. B. Cooper scored 283 for the first wicket of the Gentlemen. A few of the biggest innings are given for reference. 528 Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire, Cheltenham, 1876. 553 Gentlemen v. Playera 6f South, Oral, 1869. 812 OxfordUniversityv.Middlesex,Prince’s, 1876. 557 M.C.C. v. Kent, Canterbury, 1876. 521 England v, Surrey, Oval, 1866. 513 Gentlemen v. Players, Oval, 1S70. 503 England v. Surrey, Oval, 1862. 501 Notts v. Surrey, Oval, 1882. 546 M.C.C. & G. v. Leicestershire, Lord’s, 1882. 775 New South Wales v. Victoria, 1882. 650 Surrey v. Hampshire, Oval, 1883. 643 Australians v. Sussex, Brighton, 1882. 501 Australians v. United So , Chichester, 1882. ut.h 524 England v. Yorkshire, Shejgeld, 1865, S ome instances of big innings occur to me as I write. In the match to which I have already referred between Middlesex and Oxford University at Prince’s on June 19, 20 and 21, 1876, 1,217 runs were scored for twenty-four wickets. In the match between Players of South and Gentlemen of South at the Oval in 1871,1,139 were made for four completed innings. In the same match in 1869 twenty-one wickets produced 1,136 runs ; in Surrey and Cambridge Univer­ sity at Oval in 1864, 1,104 runs were got for thirty-five wickets,and in 1870 the match at Beeston between Gentlemen of South and Gentlemen of North realised 1,114 runs for thirty-one wickets. The best of all, though, is the historic match between Victoria and New South Wales, at Sydney on February 10,1882, in which 1,412 runs were scored for thirty wickets. I n the match between Surrey and Hampshire last week 977 runs were scored for twenty-one wickets, and the continuous rate of scoring on Friday was quite equal to anything that has ever been done in a match of importance. At one time,while Mr. W . W . Read and Abel were in, 120 runs were got in the hour, and three successive hours realised 310. A curious feature of the day was that 513 runs were got without a catch missed, and only One of the Surrey team, Barratt to wit, was bowled, Bead and Abel both playing on. Most of the papers were unwarrantably severe on the Hampshire fielding, which was, barring the wicket- keeping,good. Considering the long score, Hampshire fielded up very well, and in one case, that of Mr. Bencraft, the fielding was brilliant throughout. I h e a b that Mr. C. A. Smith, the Cam­ bridge University bowler, strained him­ self so badly in a scratch game on the completion of the match between Sussex and Hants at Brighton, that there is little or no chance of his being able to help the Cambridge eleven in the Inter-University match at Lord’s, even if he is able to play again this year. If the accident should really prove to be as severe as I have been informed, on good authority, his absence will prove to be a serious loss to Cambridge, not over rich apparently in bowling this season, as well as to Sussex, for which shire he lias done good service, M a n y cricketers have heard the story of Fuller Pilch’s refusal to give “ The Doctor ” out on his first appearance at Canterbury, naively adding when ex­ postulation was offered as his reason, that he “ wanted to see if this ere Muster Grace could bat.” A correspondent whose veracity I have every reason to guarantee, sends me an account of an amusing little episode in umpiring which occurred last week in a village match on the borders of Surrey and Kent. Ap­ pealed to for leg-before-wicket the very first ball of the match, the umpire gave vent to the following remarkable utter­ ance— “ Well he’s out, but he hasn’t had a knock. Let ’un finish the over.” “ ’Tis true, ’tis pity,” &c. I t was hard lines for Mr. A. H. Studd to be run out after getting within five runs of three figures the other day in an Eton College match through the ball glancing off the bowler’s hand from a hot return while he was off his ground. To be run out in this way is, I know, not unusual, but to see it twice in a week is much out of the ordinary run, and I saw Beaumont out in a precisely similar way in the match between Surrey Club and Putney at the Oval on Monday week. Talking of runs out, too, Mr. C. W. Wright was run out by Harrison, the new Yorkshire fast bowler at Cambridge, last Thursday through over zeal in back­ ing up. The last time that I saw this done was when Lord, then the Hon. G. Harris, got one of the Harrow Eleven in the Eton and Harrow match out in the same way. A m o n g the manyjournals showing from the first kindly appreciation of C r i c k e t , the most sportsmanlike, if I may use the phrase, has been the American Cricketer, a well conducted little journal devoted to the interest of the game on the other side of the big drink. I have to thank the Cricketer for another friendly notice in its issue of May 17. As it is now the official organ of the American Cricketers’ Association, the value of its opinions is of even greater weight. May its shadow never grow less. “ C ricket ; a weekly record of the game,” published at 17, Paternoster Square, London, is one of the most useful and interesting of cricket journals, and is an ever-welcome visitor. At this season of the year, when the game at home has scarcely gotten under weigh, we are under special obligations to C r ic k e t , as it enables us to furnish our readers with reliable accounts of the latest sayings and doings in the foreign cricket world, which are always in­ teresting, and particularly so in the bright and wadfthle columns of C r ick e t .