Cricket 1894

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron • No- 3 58 VOL. X III. T H U R S D A Y M A Y 1 7 1 SQd. R eg 'sterel fo r T ransm ission A broad 1 H U I i O l / i i l ^ lViiti X ± 1 , l O c /i . PRICE 2d. vCRICKETNOTCHES. By t h e Bev. B. S. H o l m e s . Whit—more accurately, White—Mon­ day at last; dull and overcast enough, the glass falling ever so little/and the wind distributing its favours between S.E. and S.W. The day may >turn out fineTor wet, but if fine, bowlers all over the country will be certain to enjoy themselves, as a hard, firm wicket can nowhere be found. Cricketers will scarcely be able to endorse the remark of a good, old soul I once knew, who in the very dirtiest weather used to say, “ All days are fine days.” But grumbling won't close this ugly crack, else I would offer my services as leader of the chorus. Ono can always find precedents even for the worst calamities —to wit, Alfred Shaw’s benefit at Lord’s at the same festival in 1879; not a ball bowled the first day. But there are other and brighter cricket memories of Whit(e)- suntide. Thisyday,1 thirty-six years ago, I saw Lord’s for the first time ! Yes,' there were our heroes in the flesh, George Parr, Jackson and Willsher, CaO'yn, Wisden, and Tom Lockyer. The scores are gone out of mind, but the men remain, and one loves to recall them as they looked that day, demi-gods, not men. That match— between the two Elevens—was sacred to Whitsuntide through many successive years. Was there ever quite so great a match ? Giants, everyone of the players; not an amateur once found in the lists; men who strained every nerve for their side ; and all for glory. A crowd of incidents start up immediately. But I am writing for another generation who no longer care to be entertained after this fashion, but are simply anxious to know how the Lancashire-Yorkshire fight of to-day will end, and whether Middlesex will notch a point in their initial county match with Somersetshire. A year or two since the talk was “ Notts and Surrey; ” now it is Lancashire and Yorkshire.” And Briggs and Sherwin have more at stake than the most ardent partisans. There is certain to be the usual holiday crowd at Old Trafford and Lord’s, though it will be fairly safe to prophesy thus early that in neither case will the match run into the third day. But there are sub­ scription lists as well as turnstiles. I should think Briggs is almost the youngest cricketer that has received a benefit, being only 31 years of age, as young as ever, and in theprime of his powers. Yet he has been playing 15 seasons, appearing first as a lad of 16. He is an exception to the rule that bowlers are born, for during his [first six years of County cricket he took only 18 wickets for 651 runs in first-class matches; then all of a i£sudden he woke up, and since 1885 has beenjjuite in the first flight of bowlers. Anyhow, he_.has cto his credit 877 wickets for 12,226 runs, giving an average of less than 14 runs a wicket. Thisiis for Lancashire only, and not including the second-rate matches. A splendid bat, too— “ the hardest hitter in the world for his inches ”—with eight centuries to his credit, viz. 112 v. Derbyshire, 115 and 107 v. Kent, 186 and. 112 v. Surrey, 126 and 129 v. Sussex, and 115 v. Yorkshire; and that splendid last-wicket record, 173 runs against Surrey in 1885, when poor Pilling was his partner. Throw in his wonderful fielding at cover-point, and one may reasonably place him among the greatest cricketers of any age. All good wishes for him and Sherwin. The prowess of men like Briggs should be remem­ bered when the critics wax elo­ quent on the decadence of Notts cricket. Bestore to Notts their own men—Briggs, Lockwood, Bean, and others—and Notts would be as great as ever. Notts first, the rest nowhere. No County can sustain the loss of truly great cricketers with im­ punity. In the Surrey and Warwickshire match of last week, in which the Midlanders scored an even more notable victory than over Notts the week before, Surrey hav­ ing their full forces, in the report of that match there is one item that has set me a- thinking. Thus, we are told, that K. J.