Cricket 1887

SEPT. 8 , 1887. CRICKET A WEEKLY EECOED OP THE GAME. 898 I t will be of interest to many English C r i c k e t readers to whom the name of Mr. Cyril Wilson—some years atjo actively identified with the Somersetshire, Mary­ lebone and Surrey Clubs—is still familiar, to know that he is arranging for a party of American cricketers to visit the West Indies during the coming winter* Mr. Wilson, who has been settled in New York for some time, and been Captain of the Staten Island Club for several years, will command the team on the forth­ coming tour; According to present plans they will leave New York on December 12, and will visit Demerara, St. Kitts, Martinique, Barbadoes, St. Lucia, Trini­ dad and Jamaica, though it is only pro­ posed to play matches in Trinidad, Bar­ badoes, Jamaica and Demerara. I t is expected that the trip, which is a return for the visit paid by the West Indian team to the States and Canada last year, will occupy about two months. It may interest cricketers in the West Indies in connection with this matter to know that Mr. Wilson has lately been scoring in a way suggestive of the success which used to characterise his hitting here some years ago. On August 8, in a match against the New Haven Club, at Livingston, Staten Island made 267 runs—the largest score in New York this season —in two hours, and to this number Mr. Wilson was chief contributor with 61. Three days later the Islanders were credited with 219 against Newark on the same ground, and on this occasion their Captain was even more successful, claim­ ing 97 out of 209 from the bat. A n o ld c o r re s p o n d e n t, t o w h o m I w a s in d e b te d la st y e a r fo r ta b le s g iv in g th e a v e ra g e s o f th e c h ie f b a ts m e n a n d b o w le r s in fir s t-c la s s m a tc h e s , h a s b e e n g o o d e n o u g h t o se n d m e a s im ila r c o m p ila tio n g iv in g th e sa m e fig u re s fo r th e s u m m e r ju s t c o m in g to a n e n d . T h o u g h , a t th e tim e o f w ritin g , t w o fix tu re s h a v e y e t to b e d e c id e d b e fo r e w h a t I m a y c a ll th e le g itim a te se a so n c a n b e co n s id e r e d t o be o v e r , a fe w lin e s g iv in g th e r e c o rd s o f th e fe w o f th e m o s t s u c c e s s fu l sco re rs u p to S a tu r d a y la st as sen t m e b y M r . E. B. A b b o tt w ill, n o d o u b t, b e o f in te re st. Tim es Most In Inns, not out. Runs, an Inns. Aver Shrewsbury ... 23 ...2 ... 1653 ... 267 ... 78.15 Grace, W . O. ... 44 ...8 ... 2 '54 ... 183* ... 57.2 Bead, W .W . ,..3 4 ... 2 ...1570 ...247 ... 49.2 W ebbe, A. J. ... 31 ...5 ...1244 ...243 ... 47.22 Key, K. J ................. 40 ... 4 ... 1548 „ . 281 ... 43 U lyett...................... 36 ...2 ... 1410 ... 199* ... 41.16 H all .........................31 ...3 ... 1108 ... 160 ... 39.16 I h a v e o n ly in c lu d e d th o s e b a ts m e n w h o h a v e a n a g g re g a te o f o v e r o n e th o u s a n d ru n s. A c c o r d i n g to the bowling tables which I have also received from Mr. Abbott, Lohmann, Briggs, Wootton, and Watson are the only bowlers who have taken over a hundred wickets in, be it under­ stood, first-class matches. Watson has the better average, as will be seen, and the others follow in the order as given above. Overs. Mans. Runs. Wilts. Aver. Watson ...........1532.2 ... 937 ... 1482 ... 100 ... 14.82 Lohman........ 1507.3 ... 681 ... 2195 ... 139 ... 15.11 Briggs ... ... 1592.8 ... £37 ... 2018 ... 114 ... 17.80 W ootton ... 1378.1 ... 603 ... 1892 ... 100 ... 18.97 As far as I can learn, Mr, Rashleigh will, in all probability, be captain of the Oxford University eleven next year. Messrs. Brain, Key, Whitby, Ricketts, Cochrane and Buckland have completed their residential term of four years, and Mr. Rashleigh will have to depend on Messrs. Gresson, Nepean, Forster, Philip­ son and Lord George Scott as the nucleus of his team for 1887. He will, it is hardly necessary to add, find it a very difficult matter to fill the places of the six mem­ bers who are retiring this year. E v e r y o n e who can appreciate the diffi­ culties against which they have had to contend will earnestly wish the promoters of the Hastings Cricket Week, which commences to-day, the success they so thoroughly deserve. The preparations for a gathering of such importance in­ volve not only great responsibility, but entail an immensity of labour, and, under any circumstances, to bring a meeting of this kind to a satisfactory issue demands great tact as well as energy. Of my own knowledge, too, I can testify to the thoroughness with which every detail in connection with this first venture of the good folk of Hastings has been managed, as well as to the liberal spirit in which the arrangements have been carried out in every way. Nothing, indeed, has been spared to make the first cricket week at Hastings a triumphant success, and fine weather ought to be the only thing re­ quired to produce such a result. T h e ' elevens for the opening match, to occupy; the last three days of this week, will bo.found below— N o r th . —Mr. H. B. Daft, Mr. J. A. Dixon, W. Barnes, W. Flowers, M. Sherwin of Notts, T. Emmett, L. Hall, W. Bates, B. Peel, G. Ulyett and Preston of Yorkshire. S outh . —Messrs. W. W. Bead and K. J. Key, B. Abel, T. Bowley, G. Lohmann, M. Bead (Surrey), Mr.H. Pigg (Herts), F. Hearne (Kent), Mr. A. M. Sutthery, Jesse Hide and H. Phillips of Sussex. The second fixture will be between Gen­ tlemen of Surrey and Gentlemen of Sussex on Monday and Tuesday, and the last on Wednesday and Thursday between Gentlemen and Players of Sussex. I am given to understand that the ar­ ticles on Cricket to be contributed by Mr. W. G. Graoe and his Boswell, Mr. W. Methven Brownlee, to Outing, will, after all, be 'original in character, and not deal with the history of the game, which has really been overdone, as was at first intended. The series, I believe, will be commenced in the October number of the magazine named. The following lines appeared in Punch of yesterday. FIRST IN THE FIELD. A Song of the Cricket Championship. T hb Graces are hers, but the Parcse have tost her Of late, so the Championship won’t go to Gloucester; Despite brave Lord Harris, and efforts well- meant, That honour won’t fall to the bold Men of Kent. ’Twould have charmed not afew of the “ better forwus” sex, Had luck smiled (not she!) on their sweethearts of Sussex; And though it is famed as the pluck and hard- work shire, The .top of the tree is not reached yet by Yorkshire. Dame Fortune, that Sphinx of the riddle-cum- diddle sex, Crowns not with success the crack Batsmen of Middlesex. Spite of Shrewsbury, Gunn, and such cricket­ ing pots, Her Song for this season is "No,notfor Notts !” And although “ runner-up ” (if likegreyhounds one rank a shire) She’s just missed first place, has stout Hornby- led Lancashire. Thanks—-in chief—to young Lohmann, whom fate cannot flurry, The Championship onoe more comes South. Bravo, Surrey I A C o r r e s p o n d e n t , who has played a n important part as a chronicler of cricket, writes complaining fairly of the loose way in which even scores worthy of permanent record are often allowed to see the light of print. Only recently a match appeared in some of the papers described as between St. Giles and Edmondsham, the result of which was a tie when the four innings were completed. There is nothing, though, to show which of the many St. Giles’s en­ joyed the distinction of an event certainly very uncommon in cricket. How many places there may be of the same name I cannot say, but there must be plenty of them. It would be an assistance to the cricket recorders of the future, if in cases where there is likely to be a doubt, a little more information were given. The match in question, I may add, was played at St. Giles on August 19th, and Edmondsham scored 62 and 73 against 71 and 64 of the local club. A n o t h e r once well-known Cricketer, unless the announcement of the death on September 1 of the Rev. George Sydney Raynor, M.A., late head master of Ken­ sington Foundation School, refers to some other person, which is very unlikely, has passed over to the majority. Mr. Raynor first came into prominence at Winchester College, and Mr. J. B. Moyle and he did the bulk of the bowling for Winchester in 1871. They were, ind«ed, considered two of the very best school bowlers of the year, and their performance was a very noteworthy one, as they were credited with as many as 109 of the 119 wickets obtained by the Winchester Eleven that season. Mr. Raynor subsequently got his blue at Cambridge, but his one match (in 1872) against Oxford was not a for­ tunate one, and he did not play again for his University.