Cricket 1894

1G2 ORICKETs A WEEKLY EECORD OF THE GAME, MAT 31, 1894 most innocent-looking man, Lockyer was pe-haps the quietest wag I ever saw in first- class cricket. And his fooling was never hindersome to real sport. Another Tom— Emmett—ran him hard in th's respect. Out Philadelphia way, the principal cricket competition goes by the name of..the “ Halifax Cap.” The rules for this competition, jast to hand, form valuab’e reading. The visitors are to have choice o f innings, to begin with. It’s pleasant to find one’s sentiments echoed somewhere. Time is to be kept; fines are imposed if a club turns up late—at the rate of a sovereign for eich quarter o fa n h .u r . At the end of forty-five minutes the match is forfeited. “ The same penalty applies to delays between innings.” Lord’s apart, there is probably no ground in England on which punctua'ity is observed. I very often n ot1 when an innings closes and the next innings opens, and twenty minutes seems to b : the minimum interval. They manage mat'ers better on the other sid\ Two minutes only b tween the fall of a wicket and the “ n^xt man in.” A wicket is declared down if by that time “ the batsman is not at the wicket ready to play.” Every ground is to possess a bat-gauge. And as the marches are limited to one day, the over may consist of six, eight, or ten balls, as agreed beforehand. The umpires must turn up half an hour before the start, and shall, with “ the assistance of the ground man,” pitch fair wickets. This is business like; and I sincerely trust that the rub 8 will be literally obeyed, and not be honoured in the breach, a is our wont. Spite of the weather, we had some'splendid cricket last week. Big scares are all the fashion, and our batsmen are turning out c nturies wholesale. The Universities were very busy, and are preparing us for a hard tussle when they play off their sixtie h match on tbe firpt Monday in July. One fact is e v i d e n t I n bowling they are equally defi­ cient ; so far neither has produced a bowler up to the average of even modern amateur form. Every sue essive match proves that. The batting tells a quite different tale. Phillips, Mordaunt, Foster, Leveson-Gower, and Fry among tbe “ Dark Blues,” are well matched by Douglas, Perkins, the Druce’s, and Mitchell of the “ L'ght Blues,” Cambridge notched a creditable enough victory at the ex­ pense of Yorkshire, who were again short of amateurs, the latter having elected to play elsewhere. Professionals cannot do this : should amateurs ? Jf a man can play at all his county should be his first consider <tion ; the status of a player makes no differ, nee in this respect. Yorkshire’s defeat, however, was largely the work of one of them elves : so we can grin and bear. F. Mitohell (75 and 92) made Peel and Hir,-.t harmless for once. Of rece it years I can rccall but one performance of similar dist notion on the part of a Freshman a:ainst high class bowling—viz , T. C. O’Brien’s 91 (not out) and 57 against Lancashire in 1884; and yet he got the spectacles in the “ ’Varsity Match.” A friend on the spot writes that Mitchell was once a member of the Brighton Cricket Ciub, and hon. secretary for a short time of the Brighton Football (jlub, holding a mastership in the Grayfriars School in that town. That wid account for his being three yt ars older than the men who go straight from school to the University. A fjrtnight ago it was mentioned he would play for the Yorkshire Colts, and for the Yorkshire second Eleven. I scouted the sta' ement. Yorkshire are too wide-awake to waste their resources, and so one was not surprised to learn that he will appear in the County ranks all th s week He was n t so fortunate later on in the week, still, an innings of 45 against W .G. was not to be despised. Doesn’ t A. G. Steel tell us in '‘ Badm inton” that when he first met W.G., the latter coolly informed him that he always got a youngster’ s wicket when playing against him for the first time ? I wonder wheth'r W .G. was as generous to Mitchell as he was to A .G ., by giving him some practice at the nets on the second morning of the match. And here’s the Master's 139. W onderful! His 95th century in first-class matches, and chanceless too. It is just 23 years since W .G. played first at Cambridge, for the Gentlemen of England, and his score was 162. It was in the same year (1871) that he made his first appearance on three other grounds—West Brompton, Trent Bridge, and Maidstone, and scored as follow s; —118, 79 and 116, 81 (not out) and 42 (not out). And now he is almost as full of runs as ever. I have long held that for a novice it must be as invaluable to meet W . G. at cricket as Boberts at billiards : you can see how it is done, even if you can’t do it your­ self. Chatterton (113; helped to add 256 for tbe second wicket. One is likely to get confused with so many “ W. G.’s ” — three of them playing iu one match at Cambridge. Why is it that the bowling of the “ W. G .” has always dismissed so many batsmea lbw., especially juniors? J. A. Dixon’s innings (106) alone redeemed the Notts batting in their return with Warwickshire. A return match sounds odd thus early in the season. Gunn’s re-appe ir- ance was very refreshing: he will soon be him­ self again. The new stumper, Pike (16 notout and 50), who, I see, is playing for the Leyland Club, Lancashire, seems a likely man. But it’s a bowler Notts wants. Why doesn’t H. B. Daft bowl now? I have noticed in past years that he generally com e3 off, when tried; yet last week he was on for only two overs which produced but one run. Whitehead for the third time this year took eight wickets in a single innings, Shilton c’aiming seven in the second hands. Once more William Quaife (58), Law (68), Diver (57), were in evidence ; whilst L. C. Docker (70) proved that he also must be reckoned with. As another friend writes :—“ Warwickshire are doing amaz­ ingly. When one player fails, another succeeds. Still, I can’t help thinking they are playing above their form .” But is that possible? We shall see. In connection with Not s cricket, one item calls for par­ ticular notice— the reappearance in County cricket of Alfred Shaw, this time under the Sussex flag. I cannot reconcile it with any cod e o f honour. Shaw played regularly f >r Notts through 24 years— 1864 to 1887 —and had a benefit at Trent Bridge. He may, or may not, be worth playing now. O.d Lillywhite and W illiam Clarke bowled as w ell as ever when they were years thaw's M‘n:or, and all these were slow bowlers. The con ten tion I put forward is that if Shaw is worthy of a place in a County Team, that shall be Notts and Notts alone. We kn >w how intimate his relations have been with Sussex for now nine years, and that he may be anxious to serve a County which, through its noble patron, has served him so well. A ll the same, if Notts want him, Notts should have him. I would sooner scratch the match than see him play against his old Cjunty. Perhaps, after all, some such anomaly as this may compel ihe M.C.C. to legislate for us in all matters relating to the transfer of cricketers. F.S Jackson’s innings (131) was the leading item in Yorkshire's match with Sussex,though Tunuicliffe (75) was his partner whilst 141 runs were added. But with two of their be-t batsmen—Bean and Barlow— crippled, Sussex could scarcely ( xp ct to stave off a one-innings’ d-feat. W . Newham (75) alone batted with success. Peel’s eight wickets cost 9 runs apiece—whilst Humphreys lobbed out seven Yorkshiremen for 108 runs. “ F.S.” scores almost as fast as A. E. Stoddart, and is very nearly in the same class. The rate at which the Middlesex man scorf s is about a run a minute, match- in, match-out; witness his two innings against Kent and Surrey last week, 81 in 75 minutes, 41 in 35. We have, probably, no batsman to day who combines the soundest defence, perfect style, and brilliant hitting in the same degree. H . T. Hewett hits as hard, if not harder—witness, 101 in two hours against Oxford last week; but he is not a model for younger players. By-the bye, can’ t he, or won’t he, p'ay for Somerset­ shire ? Wa professional business the reason for his resignat on of the captaincy of the county ? He played at Cambridge on the same days as Somersetshire were meeting Sussex. But his successor, by his won lerful 181 against Oxford, looks as if he would do the work of at least two men It will be no exaggerati >n to say that the Oval match at the back-end of last week produced the finest cricket of the season. It was anybody’s match almost to the very last. A match of startling fluctuations, and glorious all-round cricket from stirtto finish. The better side won. One item I always look out for—viz, extras. Surrey did not give a bye throughout; the only extras against them were leg-byes (6). Wood m u4 bave “ kept ” as well as Kichardson and Lockwood bowled. 35 extras appear against Middlesex. In the first innings respectively, Middlesex scored 66 when No. 1 went, Surrey 21 when No. 3 retired : Middlesex at that stape had the call in the odds. Yet on tbe first hands, Surrey led by 79—300 to 221. And then in le s han two hours it was all over but shouting. Middlesex only just managed to make up arrears when eight wickets had fallen. But they determined to die hard. B. S. Lucas (97) and Phillips (67 not out) were bent on showing their leaders how first-class bowling ought to be played. One run short of 150 was the result of their com ­ bination. And in the end Surrey had to go in a second time against a lead of 188. To win by five wickets under such conditions was a veritable triumph. Abel (136 not out, and 37) takes first honours. His eyes cannot bother him now. Four years ago he played a similar all-through-tbe - innings score against Middlesex, notching 151. That was chanceless; last week’s innings had a blemish or two. Fancy a man taking 2 hours and 40 minutes to score his first 50 runs, and then later on scoring 52 runs in less than the same number of minutes I should like to have seen that seven-hit, all run out. If he had only put a little m re piwer into the strike, it would have count d four. Maurioe Read (74 not out) played as well as he ov,r did, whilst Surrey’s new general is to be con- gratul ited, not only upon his individual con­ tributions to the score-sh'et, but a’ so upon inaugurating his new duties so favourably. He must beg, borrow, or s‘ eal his predeces­ sor’s lucky p nny, for losing tbe toss in every match is beyond a joke. In an innings of 188 run=, might not the bowling have been more frequently changed ? To a man of such experience as the Middlesex captain, who is now playing his twentieth season in first- class matches, it may savour of impertinence to offer a suggestion. But Hearne and Bawlin bowled throughout that im ings, save for 7 overs. At such a crisis, any expiriment might have paid But that is one of the lessons our English captains have never picked up, even after the example set us by such men as W . L. Murdoch. Though bowling may never be thoroug ly “ o dlared,” the b st of it b comes plain when batsmen are set.