Cricket 1892

JUNE 9, 1892 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 19 1 cricketer, and all this is within the reach of an ordinary and not particularly brilliant player.” T h e Surrey oaptain is responsible for the authenticity of the following incident. In a match at Abbey Wood, on Saturday week, a batsman in making a run managed to drop his hat between the wickets. Unmindful of the proverb that he who hesitates is lost, he stopped to recover his property the while his wicket was lost by a run out. This is another and new rendering of the hat trick. Still one more curiosity, also authenticated by a Surrey cricketer—which is proof positive that it is unimpeachable—was told to me last week. In a match between Horton Kirby and an eleven from Woolwich, on May 27, a bats­ man hit the ball hard and straight against point’s leg just below the knee. Thence it re­ bounded direct to the wicket-keeper, by whom it was caught, and as it had never touched the ground the striker was out. The story, true enough no doubt, seems incomplete. No in­ formation has been furnished about the fate of the fieldsman. “ Subsequent proceedings interest him no more,” perhaps. W it h tbe recollections of Lord Hawke’s rapid scoring at Lord’s last week for M.C.C. v. Royal Artillery fresh before me, there would appear to be some risk in describing any other performance of the kind as the best of the season. Yet all things considered, L. C. R. Thring’s record for Bedfordshire against Surrey at the Oval on Monday was of the greater merit. O f the first hundred and ten runs four were extras, and of the remaining hundred and six all but twenty were from the bat of L. C. R. Thriug. His eighty -six, too, made in fifty- seven minutes, were the result of rattling good cricket. Though for a short time at Upping­ ham, under the headmasfcership of his uncle, Thring was educated at Marlborough College and Cambridge University. He got his colours in the Marlborough Eleven in 1S80. A year or two ago he accepted the headmaster- ship of the Grammar School Dunstable, where he still remains. He i3 now hon. sec. of the Beds County C.C. Though not directly associated with cricket in any active sense, the member for the Nor­ wood Division of Lambeth, whose sudden death cast such a gloom over the ceremonial of opening Brockwell Park on Monday, was a keen and liberal suppoiter of the game- More than one of the younger Bristowes, his sons and nephews, placed an important part in public school cricket in their ti me, and “ Tom Bristowe,” as he was familiarly called on the Stock Exchange, did his best to stimulate their interest in the best of Bports. In South London he was a power in a way. And what is more, he was always a power for good. Mr. F. W a in w r ig h t , of 92, Bramcote Road, South Bermondsey, S.E., sends me the following incident—iare enough, as most C r ic k e t readers know, to be worthy of re­ production :— “ On Saturday last I played in the match Bermondsey Gasworks v. Barclay Perkins. On a ball being delivered it either struck my bat or my pad (L am uncertain which) and shot upwards, finally lodging in the top of my pad, i.e., the knee-joint. I did not, how­ ever, observe it had settled here, and was somewhat surprised when the wicket-keeper darted forward, and, taking the ball from my pad, appealed to the umpire, and I was adjudged out, i.e., caught out. As such an incident is of the rarest occurrence, it gave rise to a good deal of discussion, and I thought perhaps you could inform me in the subject. My own contention is that if the ball first struok the bat I was legally out, but not if it merely hit my pad and lodged where I have described.” Mr. Wainwright, I may say, is quite right in his contention. If the ball hit the bat he was out. This calls to my mind a peculiar case some twenty years ago in a match between Sussex and Kent, in which Farmer Bennett played a ball into his pad. The difference in this instance was that to pre­ vent James Phillips, the wicket-keeper, secur­ ing the ball, Bennett removed it himself, and was given out for handling the ball. J. W. T r u m b l e , the elder of the two brothers who have visited England as members of Australian teams, played for the Lyric Club against Richmond on Saturday. He is over here with a view to the recovery of his health after a severe attack of illness, and hopes to have plenty of cricket during his stay. Though his side was not successful, he contributed his fair share to the Lyric account, scoring 26, and taking six wickets. In the same match A. S. Bull did a fiue per­ formance for Richmond. Going in first he carried out his bat for 101 out of a total of 206. There are good judges who think Bull might have had a trial in the Middlesex eleven before this. C. I. T h o r n t o n , who has charge of the Lyric matches, was again at his post on Saturday, though bis individual contribution for once did not get beyond single figures. “ Buns,” asC.I.T. is best known to his intimate friends, has j ust returned from a tour in the East. During a visit to Hong Korg he came across the old Harrovian, Captain J. Dunn, who has been repeating some of his perform­ ances as a gentle tapper of late in far Cathay. I h a v e it on the authority of the captain himself that C. B. Fry, F. A. Phillips, V. T. Hill, and R. T. Jones have all obtained their places in the Oxford elever. Fry’s attainment of the rare distinction of a triple blue will be tidings of great joy to those who followed his career at Repton, and have seen his early promise of athletic greatness more than fulfilled. The instances of triple blues have been so few that it would be of interest if some one would devote a part of his leisure to the prepara­ tion of a reliable li.it. Within my own recollec­ tion tho most conspicuous exemplar of all­ round excellence in sports was perhaps the late C. J. Ottaway. He represented Oxford at cricket, as well as racquets, from 1870 to 1873 inclusive, and was also one of the Oxford Association Eleven in 1873 and 1874. In addition, he played against Cambridge in the singles as well as in the doubles at tenuis from 1870 to 1872, and also opposed Cambridge in the hundred yards race at the Inter- University Sports of 1873. He placed for the Gentlemen against the Players at cricket, and was captain of the English Association Foot­ ball Eleven which met Scotland at Glasgow in 1872. More than that, if my memory serves me right, he was an accomplished whist player.- I h a v e always been under the mistaken notion that the story of the umpire who called “ No-ball, wide, over,” all in the same breath, was the creation of the fertile imagination of our common friend, one Mr. Benjamin Trovato. But after all truth is stranger than fiction. Only on Saturday week a similar inci­ dent actually oocurred in a match between Barnes and another club at —you will spot tha place when I say it was Epsom way. One of the umpires, taking his ease with dignity, actually called out “ wide, over,” and the field would have been ohanged had not one of them pointed out the necessity of another ball. It was, no doubt, a fault of omission rather than commission—omission, that is, to attend to the small details of the game. W. L. K n o w l e s , who made such a oredit- able show for Kent against Middlesex at Blackheath, it will interest many to know, was educated, like the Rev. F. J. Greenfield at St. John’s, Hurstpierpoint. I should have said he was a Hurst Johnian, only I have a painful recolleotion of an extraordinary reading of a printer some years ago, in referring to Mr. Greenfield, in which the words were rendered as Honest Johnson. As a member of the Hurst eleven from 1874 to 1877, Knowles did some notable perform­ ances, scoring a hundred on two or three oc­ casions. Since he joined the Plaistow Club in 1878, he haB been one of its most useful players. He has good defence, and his late cut is a fine stroke. This season, so far, he has played five innings for Plaistow for an average of 75 runs. His best performance was against H. B. Smith’s eleven, when he carried his bat through the innings for 92 against the two Surrey professionals, Bowley and Baldwin. Born in November, 1870, he has some months yet to complete his twenty- second year. A (BRET) HARTE-FELT PRAYER. “ Are things what they seem, Or is visions about ?’* It’s a sorrowful theme, Is the champions’ rout. Is their batting and bowling a failure ? Are the Shuter-led players played out ? It behoves them to see— These our Southern big pots— That their record is free From disfiguring blots. We hope it won’t happen next Monday That Middlesex emulates Notts ! C P . H. V. B a t e , the hon. sec. of the Clapham Wanderers, was very much in evidence for ■his club against Dulwich, at Dulwich, on Monday. He assisted in the dismissal of seventeen Dulwich wickets, and of these fifteen were from his bowling, six bowled, four caught and bowled, two hit wicket, and three caught. These fifteen wickets cost 65 runs. In addition, he scored 46 for once out. S. A. P. K it c a t , who made such an excep­ tionally promising debut for Gloucestershire this week, is a son of the Rev. D. Kitcat, of Westonbirt, Tetbury. As captain of the Marlborough Eleven in 1886, he had a fine average of over 43 runs. He was born on July 20, 1868. ----------- A l a m k n t - a b e l contrast. Surrey v. Notls, May 20, 1891. The “ Guvnor,” b Needham, 103; not out, 63. Surrey v. Notts, June 8, 1892. The “ Guvnor,” c Shrewsbury, b Shack­ lock, 1; c Robinson, b Shacklock, 0. Hence these tears !