Cricket 1888

AUG. 9, 1888. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECOEI) OF THE GAME. 329 A c o r r e s p o n d k n s lx\ Sydney has been good enough to send me particulars of some excellent all-rocnd cricket shown by Mr. Albert Goldman, of the Ormonde Cricket Club, during the Austra­ lian season just o vet. H is principal scores will be found below, as well as his best bowling performances. H is club’s bowling record shows 163 wickets for an average of 6.1. For. Ormonde Stingaree Stingaree Tamworth Stingaree Stingaree Dulw ich For. Ormonde Ormonde Dulw ich Ormonde Ormonde Stingaree BATTIHG. Against. Scores. Newtown G9 Belview College 95* Gladesvell 89* Commercials 69 Blandford 195 Mr. Bell’s Office 132* Free Foresters 112 ♦Not out. B o w lin g . Against. Newtown 9 wickets, 40 runs. Invincible 7 wickets, 4 runs. FreeForst’rs 8 wickets, 39 runs. Invincible 7 wickets, 12 runs. W entworth 5 wickets, 6 runs. Bell’s Office 7 wickets, 3 runs. M e . F o r b e s , whose efforts to improve the internal economy of the Goodwood Week seem to have elicited the warm approval of the racing critics w ith hardly an exception, is none other— it may be news to some C ricks '? readers to know— than the Eton captain of 1876. Mr. W . F. Forbes, who has been for the last year or two steward to the Duke of Richmond, was one of the best all-round athletes Eton College has produced. In the Eton and Harrow match of 1876, as many will remember, he scored 113 out of 150 by some of the finest hitting ever shown by a schoolboy. Another of his perform­ ances, too, stands out as among the most noteworthy in athletic records. In the Eton College Athletio Sports held in March, 1876, when he was only eighteen years of age, he threw the cricket ball 132 yards, one of the very best feats of the kind. He also did another good throw at the same meeting, hurling the hammer (14 lbs.) 78 feet. For several years he scored heavily for the Yorkshire Gentle­ men, but latterly has not figured in any matches of importance, and, indeed, has for a long time retired practically from the better class of cricket. T h e extraordinary performance of the Surrey Eleven at Manchester on Thurs­ day last is even tlje more noteworthy from the fact that it is, unless I am in error, the only occasion on which an inter-county match has been completed in a day. There have, indeed, been only six other instances of the kind in important fixtures, within the memory of the present generation of cricketers, at least, and of these six no less than four have been recorded at Lord’s. For the purposes of reference it will be best, perhaps, if I give the seven cases which have occurred, and in the order of date:— 1872. May 14. Lord’s. M.C.C. & G. v. Surrey. 1877. May 24. Oxford. M.C.C. & G. v. Oxford Univ. 1878. May 27. Lord’s. M..C.C. & G. v. Australians. 1884. May 26. Birm ingham . An England Eleven v. Australians. 1886. May 18. Lord’s. M.C.C, & G. v. Lancashire. 18^7. M ay 30. Lord’s. North v. South. 1888. Aug. 2. Manchester. Lancashire v. Surrey. T he first match is one of the most remarkable of all for many reasons. Surrey succeeded in dismissing the eleven of M.C.C. and Ground, which included Mr. W . G. Grace, John Smith, of Cam­ bridge, and Alfred Shaw, for sixteen in their first innings. The first seven wickets were got without a run. T he remarkable piece of bowling with which Tate, the Sussex professional, finished off the match between his county and Kent at Tonbridge last week, has naturally given rise to considerable com­ ment. Five wickets for one run is an extraordinary record in all truth, and the merit of the performance is enhanced by the fact that all the five batsmen were clean bowled. One of the best instances of a parallel character that I can re­ member within m y own time was in the match between the Gentlemen and Players at the Oval in 1875, when Mr. George Strachan, the Surrey captain, took the last five wickets of the Players on the second morning in thirty-five balls with­ out a run being scored off him . I t may be of interest to some to know that this same match was the first occasion on which a shilling was charged for admis­ sion to the Oval. T h e eleven to do duty for England in the second of the three representative matches against the Australian team, which is to commence at the Oval on Monday next, w ill be selected from the following twelve:— Mr. W . G. Grace (Gloucestershire),Mr.W .W .R ead (Surrey), Mr. J . Shuter (Surrey), R . Abel (Surrey), W . Barnes (Notts), R . Briggs (Lancashire), W . Gunn (Notts), G. A. Lohmann (Surrey), R . Peel (Yorkshire), F. H . Sugg (Lanca­ shire), G. Ulyett (Yorkshire), H . Wood (Surrey). Mr. A. G. Steel was asked to play, but could not accept the invitation of the Surrey Committee. I should not be surprised myself to see the eleven com­ posed of Messrs. Grace, Read and Shuter, with Abel, Barnes, Briggs, Lohmann, Peel, Sugg, Ulyett, and Wood, and personally I cannot see how it well could be improved. Should the weather of the last two days continue, as it is to be hoped it will, the wicket is sure to be in the best condition, and there should be plenty of good and interesting cricket. A m o n g the many peculiar and not al­ together pleasant recollections of a de­ pressing season there is hardly likely to be a greater curiosity than was fur­ nished by the experience at Lord’s last week. Had the turf been ordinarily favourable there ought to have been three matches played, M.C.C. and Ground v. Leicestershire, Rugby v. Marlborough, and M.C.C. and G. v. Scarborough. The ground, though, was in such a sodden state that not a ball was bowled in the six days until Saturday, so that the first two fixtures were not even begun. To emphasise the extraordinary character of the week’s cricket, too, the third match was completed in a day, and four innings were actually played out on Saturday. 1 do not suppose that anyone can produce a parallel to rival the unique record of last week at Lord’s. T he penalty of sending an eleven weak at every point to oppose a rising county like Warwickshire was experience.! by the Marylebone Club in the decisive defeat its representatives suffered at Birm ingham on Tuesday. The Maryle­ bone team only scored 23 and 60 against Warwickshire’s one total of 270, and tho three bowlers tried by the county had quite a holiday. Pallett, who proved so successful against Somersetshire recently, took fifteen wickets for 46 runs, and Shilton in M .C.C.’s first innings bowled twenty-two overs, of which twenty were maidens, for three runs and a wicket. The latter’s first seventeen overs, it is worthy of remark, were all maidens— remarkable figures even in a bowlers’ year. Though the first fixture only just lasted over Tuesday, and the third day was in consequence practically a blank, everyone interested in one of the oldest as well as the most popular of our cricket gatherings will be glad to hear that the Canterbury Week of 1888 bids fair to rival, even if it does not eclipse, the most successful of its forty -six predecessors. On the Bank Holiday the receipts showed that 5,270 persons had paid for admission, against 3,082 in 1887, and on Tuesday, as was only to be expected from the delightful change in the weather, the numbers were much larger, as many as 7,159 passing the turnstiles. The “ Old Stagers ” provided, too, good entertainment, as they havo done for nearly half a century, in the theatre, so that altogether the Canterbury Week is maintaining its character as in its par­ ticular style the cricket function of the year. The programme arranged by the “ Old Stagers ” consists of Joseph Der­ rick’s farcical comedy of Confusion and the farce Sent to the Tower , which form the bill for Monday and Thursday even­ ings, with H . J . Byron’s drama, Dearer than Life, and the laughable farce oi the Area Belle,, which are announced for Tuesday and Friday, in addition to the customary epilogue which rings down the curtain at the close of the theatrical entertainments on Friday evening. The “ Old Stagers ” are having the valuable assistance of Miss Annie Hughes, Miss Lizzie Henderson, Miss Adela Houston, and Miss Laura Linden, whose names are sufficiently well-known to require no eulogy from me. I had omitted to say that the usual balls are to be held in the Music H all in Saint Margaret Street on Wednesday and Friday nights. A c o r r e s p o n d e n t has been kind enough to send me a quaint advertisement of a cricket match, taken from a newspaper of the year 1749, which will be found re-