Cricket 1890

J U L Y 24, 1890, CRICKET: A WEEKLY EECORD OF THE GAME. 2 8 1 S. P. K inneir , a member of the Cor- sham (Wilts) O.O., has played the follow­ ing innings for his Club this season up to date. He is a left handed bat with any amount of patience, and is now only 19 years of age. May 3—v. Widcombe ..........run out 3 May 10—v. Bath Association.............. 56* May 17—v. Melksham............................ 12 May 24—v. Lansdown ...................... 82* May 26—v. Bohemians ...................... 64 6* May 28—v. Box ...................................... 79 June 7—v. Bath Association................. 18 14 June 14—v. Chippenham ........................ 12 June 18—v. Prior Park College .......... 24 June 21—v. Bohemians ........................103* July 4—v. Box ...................................... 60* July 11—v. Lansdown ........................ 65* This gives a total of 678 for eight completed innings, or an average of 72.2 per innings. A ll past and present members of the Kensington Park Club will have learned with regret that their old president—in fact, the only president the club has had— Doctor Alfred Waddilove, D.C.L., died last week at the advanced age of 85. For the past 32 years, during which time Dr. Waddilove occupied the Presidential Chair, he was, until quite lately, always at the service of the club, and his kind­ ness, his enthusiasm in the good cause of cricket, and his liberality, will ever be remembered by the members with affec­ tionate respect. He was over sixty when he played his last match, and the bat he used on that occasion has been presented to the club by Mrs. Waddilove as a memento of the friend it has lost. The annual dinner atwhichDr. Waddilove entertained the committee was one of the red-lettered days of his life, and he never failed to sing the well-known cricket song which he had himself com­ posed. The Doctor was a sportsman of the good old English type, and he used to relate with delight how he rode from Oxford to London and back in his under­ graduate days to see the Derby. His well-known face and figure will be missed from the Athenscum Club and the Pavilion at Lord’s. T he following letter represents the views of a large section of the public interested in the great Public School match of the year : Sra,—Fifteen years ago (as an old Oxford blue, as well as a member of former Sussex and Hampshire Elevens), I wrote to Dr. Butler, then head-master of Harrow, an earnest protest against the silly and selfish habit of fixing the Eton and Harrow match on a Friday, without giving at least to the playing Elevens a ohance of playing it out on the following Monday, should the match happen to be drawn from either weather or long scoring. His only defence was that parents did not like it, and an extra day could not be spared, and that in his experience, as master, of 16 years only two matches had been drawn. How different is the record now! Between 1878 and 1890 five or six have been drawn. While as to parents not liking it, they have not been polled or canvassed on the subject, and it was only Dr. Butler’s own conjecture chat they would not. A few hours not to be spared from studies, once and away when needed, for an oocasion for which the poor boys have been working up all the year to this summit of their am­ bition, and are doomed to disappointment! A more ridioulous excuse could hardly be invented. Look again at the selfishness of the habit, or in other words the little regard it evinces for the expensive machinery got up and brought together for the occasion. I will only give one instance of a thousand. A family ticket for five in the grand stand at £1 a-head all thrown away. I say “ thrown away,” for everyone knows that Lord’s in a thunderstorm is one of the most dismal places on earth, and that to have a match played out is the essence of the game. I at the same time wrote to Dr. Hornby, then head-master of Eton. His reply, though less blandly couched, was to the same effeot. Now will you step in, on behalf of the publio, and try and put a stop to a recurrence of this nuisance, indicating, I think, on the part of those who alone can prevent it, very little knowledge of the world and life’s ways. Can they not see that Englishmen are setting their hearts more than ever on tbe “ noble game,” and that it is cruel injustice to the boys themselves to pit the elevens against each other, and yet withdraw them at the moment of victory. Yours faithfully, C h a r le s F rancis T r o w e k , E ton seems likely to be compensated next year for its ill-luck in the matter of old choices this summer, if the inform­ ation I have received from the very best souroe prove to be correct, of which there i li tle doubt. Cooper and A. E. Hoare, who played at Lord’s against Harrow, go up to Cambridge. Dickenson, though, is the only other one of the eleven likely to leave before next season, so that Eton should have at least eight of their team f 1889 available for 1890. On the other h , I learn that Harrow will lose McLaren, Napier, Matthews, Peebles and Gowans by next spring. Of the five, Matthews and Gowans are bound for Cambridge. None of this year’s Harrow tea , I understand, goes up to Oxford for 1890. T he following statistics represent the positions of the eight leading Counties in first-class Inter-County matches up to date. Played. Won. Lost. Dwn. Points. Aver. S rrey ... 7 ... 5 ... 1 ... 1 ... 4 ... 0.571 Notts ... 8 ... 4 ... 1 .. 3 ... 3 ... 0.375 Kent ... 10 ... 5 ... 2 ... 3 ... 3 ... 0.300 Lancashire 8 ... 4 ... 2 ... 2 ... 2 ... 0.250 Yorkshire 8 ... 4 ... 2 ... 2 ... 2 ... 0.250 Middlesex 8 ... 3 ... 5 ... 0 ... -2 ... 0.400 Sussex ... 8 ... 1 ... 7 ... 0 ... -6 ... 0.750 Gloucester­ shire ... 7 ... 0 ... 6 ... 1 ... - 6 ... 0.852 According to the system approved by the Cricket Council drawn games are not counted, and the losses are deducted from the wins. Among the many amusing stories which have appeared in the more recent of the weekly sketches contributed by W . G. to some of the principal news­ papers, provincial and Colonial, under the title of “ Forty Years of Cricket,” the following may be numbered among the best. That the Grand Old Man is carry­ ing his own Forty years lightly is shown by his brilliant performance against the Australians at Lord’s yesterday, aperform­ ance which will give universal gratifica­ tion to his admirers all over the world. By-the-way, W. G. celebrated his forty- second [birthday last Friday. “ More power to his elbow. For the United South Eleven, principally against Twenty-two’s, I scored 816 runs for eight innings: average 39.4. I also played for Twenty-tffo of Melton Mowbray against the All-England Eleven, and for Sixteen of Grantham v. The United North Eleven. My brother Fred and James Lillywhite played for Melton Mowbray in the same matoh, and we caught Carpenter napping when he was batting for the Eleven. Lillywhite was bowling and I was wicket-keeping, and Fred, I believe, was fielding at long-leg; anyhow, Carpenter hit one to leg, for which he ran two. Immediately he turned for the third run I ran out about ten yards to meet the ball, and caught it first bound; and while he was trot­ ting quietly up the pitch in fancied seourity, with his back to me, I let fly at his wicket. I could throw in those days, and was not surprised when the middle Btump went flying out of the ground. The surprise was on Carpenter’s side, the laugh on ours. “ Well, well! there’s no fool like an old fool,” said Carpenter. “ To think I should have played oricket all these years, and get out in that way!” D r . B arrett ’ s performance in the second innings of the Australian team against England, in the match finished at Lord’s, deserves more than ordinary no­ tice, for two reasons. In the first place, it was a great achievement for a batsman who had never seen au English ground till about ten weeks since, as well as for a first appearance in a match which is followed with such absorbing interest in Greater as well as Great Britain. Se­ condly, I believe it is the only occa­ sion in which one of the Australians has seen the whole of the side out in the match against England since it was first played on the Surrey ground ten years ago. Toujows W. G. Mr. J. A. Bush, the Gloucestershire wicket-keeper, is the subject of the following extract from “ Forty Years of Cricket.” In a matoh at Kadina, South Australia, he was bowled first ball; but he quietly put on the bail again, and said, “ he never could play a ‘ trial ball,’ and wished the cricket authorities would put their foot down and expunge it from the rules.” He gained his point, and resumed batting. But on another occasion, at Castlemaine, the laugh went against him. We had only a few runs to get to win, and I sent him in first on a bumpy wicket. He insisted on having the first ball, and told his partner he was going to run everything. The first ball was a shooter, and just grazed the leg stump, the bail falling quietly down. His partner, not noticing it, yelled “ Come on, Frizzy 1 ’ But afte they had run three, the wicket-keeper and bowler,to his disgust, pointed to the wicket and asked “ if it was a running match.” In the same matoh he kept wioket splendidly; but t e umpire, not quite sympathising with his display, declined to give a man out, on the ground that the tip of his nose was just over the wicket , and that it was an infringement of the law. _______ . _______ PRINCIPAL MATCHES FOR NEXT WEEK. T hursday , J uly 24—Lord’s, M.C.C. and G. v. Yorkshire; Oval, Surrey v. Derbyshire; Man­ chester, Lancashire v. (Gloucestershire; Brighton, Australians v. Sussex ; Nottingham, Notts y . Middlesex; Leyton,Essex v. Leicester­ shire.