Cricket 1892

JULY 21, 189a CRICKET: A WEEKL1 RECORD OF THE GAME. 309 Circum stances have arisen to necessitate an alteration in tho third fixture of the Scarborough Festival. Surrey originally were to have played the North of England, and the revival of a once popular match gave general satisfaction. As, however, several leading ama­ teurs hardly thought it worth while to go up to Scarborough for one game, that between Gentlemen and Players, to begin on Sept. li it was necessary to alter Surrey’ s engagement to admit of their participation in the match. The Surrey authorities were, for obvious reasons, averse to playing England as was suggested, so the match commencing on Sept. 4 will be An England Eleven v. Surrey. T h e announcement in the Sportsman that the Earl of Sheffield has decided not to per­ severe with his expressed intention to take another English team out to the Colonies next winter will create neither surprise nor, I venture to think, disappointment. The object, to recover any little prestige that may have been lost by the double defeat of his team by Australia in the last tour, was laud­ able enough, and under ordinary circum­ stances would have met with general ap­ proval. As it is, to be logical the objections to the constant visits of Australian teams to Eng­ land should cut both ways, and apply, in fact, equally to any overdose of English cricketers in the Colonies. Further than that, such a tour might, in some way or other, act prejudicially to the visit of an Australian combination here in 1893. T he cricket tournament at Halifax (N.S.), the possibility of which I mentioned some little time ago, has reached the region of actual fact. It is to consist of a triangular competition, commencing on August 1, in which Halifax, Canada, and Philadelphia will struggle for the supremacy, each playing a two days’ match with each other. It is only another instance of history repeating itself. Unless I am mistaken a tournament, and one attended with a great deal of success, was held at Halifax many years ago. T h e r e is some small consolation in the reflection that cricketers in other parts of the globe have been suffering from the same com­ plications of weather, as we have been here of late. Out in the Far West it must have been particularly bad, to explain the following reply of an American cricketer to a request sent to play: — Dear Sir,—I will be on hand on July 2,1892. Will I need rubber boots or stilts ? Will the boat meet us at the station ? I would suggest that soundings be taken on Friday to deter­ mine whether short men will be eligible on the team. I can swim, but I want to touch bottom occasionally to get my wind.— Mac. W. H. S pottisw oode, who played occasion­ ally for Kent in 1890, seems to be in good form this year. Though he was out of cricket last summer owing to absence in Australia, on business connected with his firm, Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, the Queen’s printers, the break does not seem to have affected his play. On the contrary, in the seven innings he has had in club matches, he has an average of 63 runs. He played three times for West Kent, twice for the Oxford University Authentics, onoe for the B.B., and once for the printers employed by the firm. should be watched with interest. He has, unless I am mistaken, a double qualification, of residence as well as of birth, for Surrey. At all events he has what some consider to be the best claim, having been born at Croydon on November 25,1872. E n t e r i n g Charterhouse in the autumn of 1886, he got into the eleven in L889, and has captained it for the last three years. His principal scores for Charterhouse have been— 1889—v. Oxford University Authentics ... 79 1890—v. Sir R. E. Webster’s Eleven ... 51 & 64 1891—v. Wellington College ........................ 69* 1891—v. I Z in g a ri........................................... 59 1891—v. Old Carthusians.............................168* 1^91—v. F. D. Longworth’s Eleven ........ 55 1892—v. Westminster S c h o o l................... 229 1892—v- Prince Albert’s Eleven...................... 52 1892—v. Wellington College ................... 309 The list of bowlers who are fortunate enough to get all the wickets in an innings is never a lengthy one, even when the curiosities of the season come up for final enumeration. An instance of the kind was recorded in a match on Saturday between North Leeds and Teadon. Crosthwaite was credited with the dismissal of the ten Yeadon batsmen at a cost of 53 runs. G. 0. Smith (Captain Charterhouse Eleven). A c c o b d in g to a retrospect of the Notts and Yorkshire matches furnished by Mr. S. W. Hitchin, a cricket enthusiast, to the Notting­ ham Evening News , the first bona fide match between the two counties was at Bradford on June 22, 1863. Richard Daft, whom age has in no way withered, was the most successful batsman for Notts, who were beaten by eight wickets. The return match C. S. R o m e (Harrow Eleven). No less than four of the Harrow Eleven who beat Eton at Lord’s, it will interest Oxford men to know, are going up to their University. Barlow, the captain, has entered at New, Bosworth-Smith at Magdalen, Clayton at University, and Rudd at Trinity College. Rome, one of the best all-round cricketers on the Harrow side, is destined for the Army. He was born at Ipswich, near Brisbane, in Queensland, on Jan. 14, 1875. For tho last ten years his home has been in Gloucester­ shire. P rin ce A lb e r t , against whose eleven the Charterhouse Captain made one of his best scores this summer, as all well informed C rick e t readers are aware, is himself an old Carthusian. H is elder brother, Prince Christian V ictor, was captain of the W elling­ ton Eleven at the tim e the younger was in the Charterhouse Eleven. Prince Albert returned to his regiment at Darmstadt, at the end of last week, after a short leave, a good part of which was spent in cricket. The pleasure of his flying visit to England was greatly enhanced by the fact that he made his first score of a hundred while he was here. One of his last amusements before his departure for Germany, was to spend the first day of the Gentlemen v. Players match at the Oval, in company with his father Prince Christian, him self a keen follower of cricket. G. O. S m ith , the Captain of the Charter­ house Eleven, followed up his score of 229 against Westminster School, to which refer­ ence was made last week, on Saturday with another fine innings, this time 109 against Wellington. Charterhouse has this season won both its Public School matches with ease. It was in the eternal fitness of things that the Captaia should have set his side a brilliant example by scoring a hundred in each fixture. O n his School form during the last two years G. O. Smith’s future as a cricketer A r t h u r S hrew sbury’s remarkable scoring during the past fortnight has been made the occasion for a recapitulation of the principal incidents in a brilliant career. One note­ worthy fact in connection with the latest of his hundreds has not escaped the eagle eye of the writer who comments on Sports and Pas­ times in the Nottingham Evening News. This is that his 116 at Nottingham last Friday is the first score of a hundred he has made against Yorkshire for sixteen years. During the fortnight ending on Saturday, Shrewsbury scored 98 for the Players’ at Lord’s, 4 and 40 for Notts v. Sussex at Brighton, 151 and 11 both not out for the Players’ at the Oval, and 116 for Notts v. Yorkshire. These gave him an aggregate of 420 for four completed innings, and an average of 105. This, as Polonius says, “ is good.”