Cricket 1892

SEPT. 8, 1892 CRICKET* A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME, 41*7 THE SCARBOROUGH FESTIVAL. G entlemen y . P layers . This match, forming the second of the Scarborough Cricket Carnival, as the locals delight to designate it, commenced in boister­ ous weather on Thursday last. The attendance? somewhat poor at the start, considerably increased after lunch, and with brighter weather it was not surprising to find a crowd of something like 2,000 persons to witness the game. Strong sides had been got together, and although the Gentlemen might have been strengthened by the addition of Messrs. W. G- Grace, Hewett, Palairet, Patterson and others, the Players’ team, except for the absence of Shrewsbury, was about the strongest side that could be got Jtogether. The wicket, although not recovered from the soaking it had received on the previous Monday, yet played fairly well, and Gunn, who captained the Players’ team, was fortunate enough to win the toss. Punctuality is not a strong feature at these back end festivals, and it was not until nearly half an hour after the advertised time of starting the match that O’Brien led his men into the field. Abel and Chatterton were deputed to open the Players’ innings, Spofforth and Ferris having charge of the bowling. The start was anything but promising, as with only three runs scored, Abel was caught at cover point, letting in Gunn. Scoring now ruled of the slowest, and when the total reached fifteen, a good catch at the wicket sent back Gunn. Read came next, and Chatterton signalised the partnership with a beautiful late cut for four. Read soon showed the spectators that he was in the vein for rapid scoring. He snicked Spofforth for four— a lucky stroke, and very nearly a catch to Smith in the slips—and turning his attention to the left hander hit him for two fours. Read was now hitting most brilliantly, being specially severe on Spofforth, whom he sent to the off and on for fours, following these up with a splendid hit for four to square leg. At 52 the first bowling change took place, Jackson superseding Ferris. At 1.30 an adjournment was made in consequence of a heavy shower, Read not out 41, Chatterton not out 9. After a quarter of an hour the weather cleared up sufficiently to allow the game to be resumed. Ten runs resulted from an over of Spofforth, a two and a four to Read, and four Dyes Stoddart relieved Spofforth at 75, but Read cut him immediately for two fours, thereby completing his fifty just before lunch. When the Players retired, the score was 87, Read not out 57, Chatterton not out 12. The Players were entertained to lunch by Mr. Leasowe Walker, one of the vice presidents, while Mr. Woodall did the same for the Gentlemen. During lunch time, a heavy shower fell and delayed the resumption of play until five minutes past three, but from this time the weather cleared, and although somewhat cold and windy, a fine afternoon set in, and the crowd of visitors— w hich could not have been less than between two and three thousand—enjoyed a full afternoon’s cricket. Messrs. Smith and Ferris had charge of the bowling, and the rate of scoring slowed down considerably. When the scoring board totalled one short of a hundred, the parting was effected. Read jumping in to drive Ferris, got under the ball and skyed it to cover point, where it was easily taken by de Trafford. Read’s faultless 66 was the result of clean hard hitting, in his score being included no less than twelve fours. The wicket had put on 84 runs. Without any addition to the score, that which so often happens at cricket after a long Dartnership occurred, Chatterton being clean bowled by Ferris for a meritorious but very slow and monotonous twelve, which had taken him just on two hours to complete. With 100 on the board, Lockwood was secured at mid-off, having failed to trouble the scorers. Barnes and Wainwright now became associated, and both played free cricket, Barnes cutting the fast Yorkshire bowler for four, and Wainwrighb doing the same for three. The latter next turned his attention to the Australian, driv­ ing him to the boundary for four, and in the next over hitting him for two fours. At 130 Spofforth took the ball from Smith, but Barnes immediately got him to leg for four and in the same over Wainwright repeated the dose. At 139 W.W. took the bail from Ferris, but the parting came from the other end, Barnes being caught at the wicket for sixteen, the partnership having yielded 42 runs in just under half-an-hour. Peel came in and Wainwright hit the lob’ bowler for four, but in trying to repeat the dose was easily taken at the wicket. Lolimann filled the vacancy, but at 159 the Surrey man put his leg in front of a straight one from Spofforth and was given out—a decision he did not at all appear to relish. Attewell filled the vacancy ana immediately became busy, hitting the slow bowler for two fours. This caused Ferris to resume in place of the lob bowler, but runs came pretty freely, causing Smith to take the ball from Spofforth and Jackson to relieve Ferris. Just after the second hundred had been totalled a foolish attempted run on the part of the Yorkshire- man lost that player, who was well set, his wicket. The ball was stopped by McGregor standing back to the fast bowler, but rolling just out of his reach Peel started for a run, but Attewell refusing to move, the ball was returned by McGregor to Smith, who put down the wicket with the two batsmen at the other end. With Wood in, the last wicket gave considerable trouble, and 34 runs were added before Wood was caught at slip by W.W. Read, who had just previously missed him at cover point. The innings closed at 5.25 for 238, ascore which might have been considerably curtailed if the Gentlemen’s fielding had been up to the standard we usually associate it with. Possibly the cold wind that swept across the ground had something to do with thi?, but catches were dropped that unquestionably ought to have come to hand. Only a quarter of an hour was left for batting, and in this time the Gentlemen scored nine runs without loss. Friday opened beautifully fine, and conse­ quently a largely increased gathering watched the play. During the afternoon there could not have been less than 4,000 people on the ground, who were rewarded by seeing some very fine cricket, and possibly some of the best bowling of tho season. While hardly anyone else seemed to trouble the batsmen in the slightest, they seemed, with the exception of Ferris, Lacey, and O’Brien, to be all abroad with the deliveriesof Lockwood. Certainly the wicket was not all it should be, and both the fast bowlers, amateur and professional, got up considerably, but there was no excuse for the way in which the batsmen “ funked” Lockwood. Although heavy rain had fallen during the night, yet anyone who knows the ground is aware how quickly the ground dries, standing as it does on top of a hill and looking across a deep valley to the open moors and hills. At a quarter past twelve, play was resumed. Lockwood and] Lohmann as over­ night having charge of the bowling. Lohmaun opened with a maiden from the pavilion end. In Lockwood’s first over, a beautiful ball just took the Leicestershire Captain’s bails, letting in Stoddart. Scoring freely as is his wont, the new comer took the score to 25, when he was caught at slip off his hand. Read, who followed, shaped very badly at the fast bowler, and with four added, he was easily caught by Abel at third man. Murdoch now joined Ferris, and scoring was painfully slow. With the score at 40, Attewell missed Ferris from an easy chanoe at extra cover, but with two runs added, Lohmann sent back Murdoch with a trimmer, and Smith came in. Immediately after, Attewell again missed Ferris from a very easy chance in the slips. The runs now came somewhat faster, and Peel took the ball from Lohmann. Lockwood, however, caused the separation, a very fast ball running up Smith’s bat, and being easily taken by Wood. Jackson now joined Ferris, and Lockwood was given a rest, Attewell taking his place. Peel, however got the wicket, bowling Jackson for eleven,with the total at 80. O’Brien followed, and by dint of somewhat lucky cricket had added fifteen without further loss, when the lunoheon bell rang. Play was resumed at 3.5, Lockwood opening the attack, with Peel at the other end. Gradually the score mounted to 116, when a splendid catch by Abel at third man close to the ground got rid of the Middlesex Amateur. Lacey partnered the left hander and the best batting of the innings was seen. By free and stylish cricket Lacey helped. Ferris to take the score to 162, when a clever one-handed catch high up with the left hand brought the former’s innings to an end. McGregor joined Ferris and played anything but well, slogging at everything and bringing out the laughter of the crowd by patting the ground in front of the opposite batsman’s wicket, presumably as a protest against a short ball he had just received from Lockwood. We are sorryto see acts of this kind introduced into first-class cricket, but the bowler had his revenge by bowling him two balls later with a slow straight ball. With the score at 170, Lock­ wood bowled Spofforth with a real beauty and the innings terminated at 4.25. Both Fcfris and Lockwood received an ovation from the spectators on returning to the pavilion. Ferris began his innings at a quarter to six on Thursday evening, and was not out when the innings closed on Friday evening at 4 25. Allowing for stoppages lie had been battiDg three hours and twenty minutes, and as far as recollection serves this is his greatest per­ formance in first-class cricket, and worthy to rank with the best performances in first-class cricket. True he gave three chances, as in ad­ dition to those mentioned he returned a ball very hard to Lohmann with his score at 56. He, however, carried his bat through the innings against the finest bowling in England, a performance which has been seldom equalled in a match of this importance. Lockwood bad a very fine analysis, taking eight wicketc at a cost of 72runs,the next beat being Peel’sone for 29. This performance speaks for itself, and is worthy of his brilliant record of this season. With 68 runs to the good the Players com­ menced their second innings with Chatterton and Read to tha bowling of the two Anglo- Australians, Spofforth andFerris. Read played free and attractive cricket, while Chatterton scored rather faster than is his wont. It was not till 54 had been got that a parting was effected, Read, who ran in to drive Ferris, being easily stumped by MoGregor. Gunn and Chatterton then played out time. On Saturday, at 12.15, the match was continued in the presence of a very small number of spectators. Somewhat rap’dly the score mounted, Read and Smith relieving Ferris and Spofforth at 86 and 89 respectively. These changes soon worked, Chatterton being clean bowled by the Yorkshire Amateur. Abel was oaught and bowled by the lob bowler, and Lookwood, who followed,was bowled by Smith for a single. The Surreyite,who had hurt his hand in trying to catch a tremendously hard return by Gunn, gave way to Ferris. At ten minutes past one rain drove the players to shelter. On resum­ ing Smith bowled Gunn for a very fine innings of 31. Barnes and Wainwright were now associated, but a catch in the slips sent back the Yorkshireman. In the hope of getting a wicket Spofforth was put on for Ferris just before lunch, but no wicket fell, the score at the adjournment being 139 for six wickets, Barnes not out 15, Peel not out 7. Resuming at 3 o’clock Smith and Ferris had charge of the bowling, and at 144 each got a wicket, the left-hander bowling Barnes, and Peel being caught at point. Attewell and Lohmann now became partners, but at twenty minutes past three a very heavy shower stopped play for half an hour, and then with 4 runs added Attewell was bowled and the Players’ innings declared closed. With 230 required to win the Gentlemen commenced batting with De Trafford and Stoddart to the bowling of Lockwood and Attewell. With four up Da Trafford was caught at slip, and with the total at 27 a splendid catch in the long field disposed of Stoddart. Murdoch and Smith were now partners, but rain came down so heavily that all further chance of play was out of the question. The match was conse­ quently abandoned as a draw at half past five o’clock, the Gentlemen requiring 206 to win with eight wickets in hand.