Cricket 1893

890 CRICKET s A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. SEPT. 7, 1893 Yorkshire filled up the programme of the whole week. Owing to Notts meeting Aus­ tralia on Thursday, a North and South match was out of tbe question. One likes a little variety, and loyal Tykes though many of us are, it is possible to have too much even of a good thing ; and besides, Scarborough ia at this season not wholly made up of natives of the big county, and consequently are not Yorkshire men. There are funny folks at the cricket here; one of them, a sensible, middle- aged man, asked me on Sunday whether England or Australia would go in first. I told him that would not be decided till they tossed the next morning. “ Oh, I thought all that was done before they left Australia.” There was a story told in this Journal last week of a match-box which reminded me of a former visit to Scarborough. It was in 1886, the morning of the eventful day when Eng­ land scored 558. I was bowling to W . G. at practice; mind you, I don’t say that the 10 minutes’ batting he got at my expense had anything to do with his subsequent innings of 92; but what I do say is this—I had taken my jacket off and made it the bowling crease : a ball was driven back and stopped by said jacket. A minute after W . G. said, “ I think there’s something wrong with your coat.” It was on fire, that’s a ll; a cardboard box of wax vestas had caught alight, and from that day to this I have carried only safety matches. I did not keep that charred box, though it might have had a value by this time. But what about the cricket ? Well, I am coming to it. It’s all the fault of Scarborough that 1 am yarning like this. Here are sundry notes of some interest: 1. Two Yorkshiremen stood umpires in a match where their county was figuring. As I said to them, “ Yorkshire are playing 16 men to-day.” 2. There was only one hit out of the ground during the first week, a gentle off-tap from Spofforth by Ernest Smith. I recalled C. I. Thornton’s 107 in 1886, when he alone shifted the ball eight times over the wall, once making the biggest hit I ever saw, and the biggest (so he told me) he had ever made in his life—a mighty on-drive off A. G. Steel clear over the very lofty houses on the South side, the ball pitching right in Trafalgar Square. 3. In the second match, by mutual consent of the captains, the fastest bowlers on either side, viz., Ernest Smith and Richardson, were not put on ; it was too dangerous, Wainwright getting a terrible smack on the left temple which floored him, and has compelled him to cancel all engagements up to the end of the season. One thought of poor George Summers and that fatal ball from Platt’s right hand more than twenty years ago. Wainwright is not seriously hurt, he has been on the ground regularly since, but he was well-advised to give up cricket at Scarborough and Hastings. We had some glorious batting and bowling throughout the week, and, as everybody knows, Yorkshire beat M.C.C. handsomely by eight wickets, and then made a very respect­ able draw with a strong South of England eleven. One would have liked to see W.G. in the latter team, but there was some soreness about his non-appearance two years ago. And surely it was a shocking oversight to have no regular stumper engaged. Murdoch may in 1878 have been considered as good as Black­ ham by his own countrymen; over here we never thought him up to the mark even then, and to-day he is a veritable frost behitd the sticks. W .W . did duty there in the second part and with far happier results, but then he is not a born “ keeper.” I think, too, that Hunter should have been chosen before A. T. Kemble for the third match, if only out of compliment to the natives of Scarborough. But the ways of committees were ever peculiar. Spite of the peppery wicket, which looked more like burnished copper than ordinary turf, the bat triumphed over the ball, but none too conspicuously. For once in a way Peel was a.failure, in the two matches he got not a single wicket, though but few runs were scored off him. But, as he said, such a pitch was hopeless for a slow bowler. It was refreshing to see Ernest Smith bring off a good double in the first match, M.C.C.v. Yorkshire, inasmuch as he score! 61 (for once out), and took ten wickets for no more than 10 runs apiece. He would doubtless soon play himself back into first class form. Hirst too (8 for 82) was in form, whilsl in the first innings both John Hearne (6 for 35) and Spofforth (4 for 40) were more than useful. Spite of what Rawlin and others say about Hearne’s condition, he looked terribly worn and fagged. A fairly safe gauge of any man’s bodily health is his voice ; thus tested, neither Hearne nor Lockwood can be pronounced too fit just at present. The creamiest batting of the week came on Tuesday evening. Yorkshire finished off their first innings 76 runs behind—86 to 162—and as M.C.C. then ran up only 118, Yorkshire seemed to have a hopeless task. But the sanguine ones did not despair. A young man in my neighbourhood expressed his willing­ ness to back his County at 4 to 1, and was at once accommodated in half-sovereigns. Need­ less to remark now that Yorkshire knocked up 196 for the loss of only two men, thanks to F. S. Jackson (111 not out) and in a lesser degree to E .Smith^40not out).And in j ust uuder two hours! The last 16 minutes constituted a re3ord well nigh,for 66 runs were ran in that time, or at the rate of almost 250 an hour. Jaokson played brilliantly, and proved that he can be as useful to his Countyas he has been to his University ; he may have given a chance, at least there was a mighty shout for a ball which the stumper dropped. But nobody could tell whether, if ball had been held, the umpire’s verdict had gone against him. The wicket, whilst he was in, seemed fairly easy. As he scored 20 and 33 in the second match— Yorkshire v. South—the week was a great triumph for the Light Blue Captain. That second match produced some stylish batting. Lord Hawke got 53 in 40 minutes, Hirst 36 in 25 minutes, and Sellers 31 in 30 minutes. But Stoddart (54) and Hewett (67) did best. The former had fared badly in the earlier match, but here he was quite himself. One does not wish to see better joint batting than that hour produced on Friday afternoon. Stoddart seems to me to be W .G.’s successor, anyhow I rank him higher than any batsman we now have, in point of style, and in the number of strokes—all so firm and hard—not to mention the rapidity with which he scores —he is far to be preferred to either of the Notts cracks. The match ended in a fairly even draw, the South wanting 88 and having six wickets in hand. The only bowling worthy of mention was Humphreys’ . He had travelled through the night from Brighton, and was none too fit on Thursday ; on Satur­ day he took 5 for 62, making a catch off his own bowling that made F. S. Jackson open his eyes. Oh, those lobs do look so simple, and as if anybody could bowl them. Hum­ phreys told me of an Australian cricketer (I suppress name, but it wasn’t one of the present Colonial team) who is about to return home for a season. Said he, *•they don’t relish lob3 out there, and so I’ve made up my mind to change my method of bowling; how long will it take me to learn h«w to bowl lobs ? ” Answer—“ Well, I have been twenty years and more learning. You will never learn now, for you are too old and set.” As Humphreys got nine wickets in all, he might have been engaged for the third match ; it doesn’t pay a man to make such a journey for a beggarly fee of £7. I am convinced of sundry points. One is, that the plain ball may be the ball that does the most damage. Lockwood gave me this wrinkle when on Saturday Sellers and Smith were all at sea with the most innocent balls which hung a bit. Another is, that our professionals’ fees need to be twice as large as they are, if they are to live in decent comfort the year through. It is a poor paying gamei, and one doesn’t wonder that so few of them encourage their sons to walk in their footsteps. A third point is, that overthrows ought to be classed among extras, and should neither go to the credit of the batsmen nor to the debit of the bowler. A certain great bowler did not hold with me on Thursday last; before the week was out he said, “ You are right, I agree with you now after that idiotic shy at the wicket at the expense of my analysis.” It is satisfactory to learn that ihe first two days yielded enough to clear all the expenses of the festival. And they are not inconsider able, witness the boarding of the amateurs at the “ Grand ” at the rate of 253. per day a man. But for Thursday afternoon’s rain the weather was perfect, indeed one is very loth to have cricket shunted by its rough rival foot­ ball. Notts’ return with the Australians was most disappointing. The visitors batted first on a perfect wicket, and reached 343, Greg)ry (94), Lyons (61), Bruce (56) all doing great things. And then the floods came, and Turner had a wicket made for him, and thirteen wiokets fell before him at a cost of only 52 runs. As he told me to-day, he wished he could have brought that same wicket to Scarborough. Gunn and Shrewsbury failed (no wonder), and as usual Notts got no runs, not enough to save them bang beaten by an innings and 54 runs. At last Gunn has reaohed 2.000 ; I heartily congratulate him. Who would like to say A. E. Stoddart won’ t do the same ? At the present moment he has three more m itches, and a few short of 200 to get. I am quoting from memory and so may be caught tripping, but I remember W.G. got more than 2,700 in 187 L, and more than 2,600 in 1876. besides running into the third thousand in 1873 ; and unless my memory trick me, his averages in 1871, 1873, and 1876 were 78, 71, and 62 respectively. Gunn’s is twenty behind the lowest of these. A friend said yesterday, “ There is nothing in sooring 2,000 runs pro­ vided you play in sufficient matches; nearly anybody could if he played often enough. The chief thing is the average.” P.S.—Mr. Arthur Wilson has been courteous enough to send me two photos of the Austra­ lians, taken at Portsmouth after their record score (834). They are not on sale, but he requested me to say he has sent a lot to Pilling and Briggs of Manchester “ who will let any­ one have copies.” I beg also to thank Messrs. Chaffer, of Taunton, for forwarding a framed copy of the photo of the soore board in the Somersetshire-Yorkshire match of last year, when Hewlett and Palairet scored 346 for first wicket. A lot has been made of Yorkshire’ s refusal to let certain men off for the representative matches against Australia. Middlesex in particular are very sore about it. It should b3 stated that Wainwright did not get the “ wire” in time asking him to play in Maurice Read’s match, though if he had he would have declined the favour. Nor ought Yorkshire to have broken faith, for, let one Yorkshire secretary say that he will, there was an informal agreement among all the counties to make “ England ” England in every sense of the word. Granted. But don’t circumstances alter cases? We used to be told so. “ But Yorkshire had passed their word.” Yes, and so did a certain king of old to a voluptuous dancing girl, and because of said “ word ” went and beheaded a great and noble prophet. A man’s word is his bond, yet some of us, wbo are all martyrs to so- called consistency (the better word is pig­ headedness and self-conceit in many instances) have no hesitation in changing our mind and so of revoking a decision, so long as we are persuaded that we made up our mind hastily and formed an unwise decision. Though I am oertain to be misunderstood, I do not hesitate to dub that man an ignorant fool whose invariable boast is that he never goes back on his word. Do I justify the action of Yorkshire? Yes, under the circumstances I do. Six months since they had not a thought of the Champion­ ship ; it never entered the dreams of the most sanguine. Three weeks since it hung in the balance. Mind you, I don’t say Wainwright could not have been spared for the match against Middlesex ; as it was, he did not come off there: but as matters stood, and Lancashire