Cricket 1894

322 CBICKET s A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. AUG. 16, 1894 two fairly strong; the players are mostly British, Canadians, and Australians, the natives not taking to the game. There are also clubs in Lake County, and at Bakers­ field andLos Angelos in Southern California. ..................... I might also add that my old friend , W. G. Grace, is the Vice-President of our club—the Citrus Colony Club. Do you think that C r i c k e t would care to have an article in the winter on ‘ Cricket in the Pacific Slope ? ’ If so, I sha’l be pleased to write one.” Yes, I am sure we shall, and if our good friend will only keep us posted in matters cricketal in those far-away par ts he will receive the thanks of all cricketers at home. I begin to feel that a cricketer would soon strike root in any part of the world to­ day. Hasn't one read somewhere of a cricket match even in the island of Samoa in the South Pacific—a cannibal island within my memory—in which hundreds played on each side from morning until evening for months ; everything meanwhile was neglec­ ted, trade, crops, and even religious worship; everybody lost his head in the excitement, but “ they are better now.” Another enthusiast writes me from Barce­ lona a long letter[recapitulatingWalter Hum­ phreys’ best bowling records in 1892 and 1893, to justify his selection in the coming Australian team; and at the same time he protests against the non-inclusion of the lob howler when Sussex met Middlesex this year, and lost by seven wickets. There is no need to reproduce his summaries. Though I question still the wisdom of this special choice, 1 yield to no one in the earnest wish that Humphreys will bother the Australian batsmen once again, and will do the hat trick as many times—twice—as he has already accomplished it against them. Brockwell is chosen at last, he ought to have been a dead certainty weeks ago. Who next ? Abel ? On present form Brown, of Yorkshire, might be thought of; he is out- and-away the best bat in Yorkshire. In spite of his fine innings this week, Jackaon like most old University men, having gone off. I suppose the reason why most of them show their finest cricket—especially in batting—whilst undergraduates is that then they practise every day against the best bowling at the nets. How few of them have kept their cricket even when they have long after played in front-rank matches. A. G. Steel was one of the very few exceptions here; Patterson, of Kent, is another. I saw Steel get 134 for the M.C.C. v. Australians in 1884, though this was his first match of the season outside club cricket; and did not Patterson score 124 (not out) against Notts in 1890, after only an evening or two’s prac­ tice at the nets ? An old Oxonian asks for my opinion on the following point:—“ It happened in Norfolk the other day. A was batting. He always stands outside the crease, and on this occa­ sion held his bat outside also. He hit theball and ran one run; the umpire called ‘ one short,’ ruling that as he had never been within his ground at all, the run had not been completed.’1 Ingenious, certainly, but wrong. Look up Law No. 2 ; there we learn that a run is scored “ so often as the bats­ men, after a hit, shall have crossed and made good their ground from end to end.’’ It looks as if this had been framed to cover the case just mentioned. As well say that a batsman must not go up the pitch to hit a ball. To the same correspondent I would urge the desirability of carefully reading the Laws. A no-ball, when runs are made off it, no longer counts as a no-ball, but the batiman is creditedwith the runs. (Law 16). At the same time Law .13 instructs that such a ball, though scored from, is not to be reckoned as one of the over. I neednot repeatmy opinion on the general question of no-balls; for the present, cricketers must play the game according to the authorised laws. A correspondent from Burton-on-Trent asks for the birthplace and age of Richardson, Surrey’s fast bowler. He was born on August 11, 1870. But where ? In C r ic k e t of September 1, 1892, Byfleet was given as bis place of birth. In Lillyichite's Annual for this year, page 244, we read: “ Bichardson, T. Born at------------.’’ Why that ominous blank? The editor of said Annual is the Surrey Secretary; he ought to know. Was not Richardson after all born within the County? Whether or not, we know that he learned all his cricket down on Mitcham Green, where earlier on the brothers Humphrey and Southerton—the latter Sussex-born—were familiar figures. For the sake of getting at the actual fact, it might ba advisable to write to Richardson himself. Did we ever have so many benefit matches in one season? Sberwin, Barnes, Briggs, Hide, Wcotton, Wood, Peel, and Painter— eight in all—have been duly honoured. I suppose if any of them had been amateurs (so called), a complimentary match would have been given them. But I will reserve all comments on such matches until such time as one is definitely arranged; then I may have to let fly, Respecting benefits, it is open to question whether they are not wrong in principle. Mind you, I shall prob­ ably change my opinion when somebody proposes to recognize my services to cricket in this way, and I shall then particularly request that my match is called a benefit , and not a complimentary match. If professional cricket were remunerated as it should be, there would beno necessity for sachmatches. I like to pay people adequately as they go along, at the time when they do the work. Here’s Peel, for instance, netting perhaps in one lump sum more than he has received during ten years of cricket at home. Say, he deserves all he will get, and that he will take care of it, my contention still holds. County cricketers could be named to whom a benefit has done more harm than good; there are also old cricketers still living whose names figure on their County’s Pension List, even though they had a benefit on retiring from active cricket. Up in Yorkshire lately, or rather it happened six weeks ago, a club bowler netted £25 from his match and has not been heard of since; it is expected that he will turn up again, however. What cana man without a business dowith £1000 ? If he has a business, the money will help, of course, to develop it. I could not refrain from giving Peel a small homily last week ; he has no business. So I advised him that so long as he is playing cricket, to put every shilling from his match into Government Securities; his money is absolutely safe there. And settle the whole amount on his wife and children. We are expecting some £2000 will pass into his hands. Yes, everything was done to give Peel a bumper. For weeks previous admission cards were sold round the ring at the Yorkshire county matches ; every local olub started a subscription list, and a twopenny sketch was hawked during the match both inside and outside the ground. And the weather left small cause for complaint. The one desideratum at the match was a band; you generally get music at a club benefit match ; why not at a county benefit match as well ? I hope to see the day when Lord’s shall boast a band-stand that shall discourse appropriate music during every afternoon of the season. What scope the fluctuations of the game would present to a sensitive conductor. At Bradford last week, perhaps, a band would have been superfluous; no need for more noise. I never saw so densely packed a crowd at a cricket match. True, there have been bigger gates at the Oval— witness the Notts match of 1892, when 30,760 paid on the Monday, 29,370 on the Tuesday: the gate at Bradford—24,841— looks small by contrast. But remember the capacity at the Surrey enclosure, and then bear in mind that Horton Park is almost the smallest County ground in England; and the above remark is amply confirmed. As far as one’s personal comfort and enjoyment was concerned, one half of the number present might have been dispensed with. It will sound strange to Southerners to be told that anybody could get into the pavilion on payment of an extra shilling, and that pavilion none too ample. County members and ticket-holders alone would have filled it to repletion; it was bad enough not to be able to get a seat, perhaps worse to find a seat, and see nothing because somebody would stand up between you and the next seat. But one thought of Peel, and rejoiced for his sake. Cricket, however, was never so enjoyable to me as in the old days when the crowds did not roll up. Fancy the best matches at Old Trafford attended by some 500 people on a fine day 1 That was the normal state of things there twenty-five years since. Ptel was themost popular man in Yorkshire, but even he will be forgotten before fifteen years are over. I mused on the caprices of sporting crowds generally, and their short-lived hero worship. Here’s a capital sto y by way of illustration. When Lancashire played the Australians in 1888, there was great dissatisfaction at Crossland being dropped for Parson Napier. “ Why did they play that, &o ? ’’ was asked by one knot of on-lookers, and with sundry words thrown in that argued no sneaking fondness for the *•Cloth.” Well, the parson scored an innings of 37 runs and bowled remarkably w e ll, especially at the close of the Austra­ lians’ second innings. In the end Lanca­ shire won by 23 runs. “ What do you think of the parson now ?” was said to the same group. “ Think on him now? Why, they ought to make a Bishop of him ! ” But there is no reason why one should ever leave off prattling about this match : is there any reason why one should begin ? York­ shire were on their merits, the call for innings meaning nothing until the third morning, when a fierce sun followed after heavy rain during the night. The batting on the dead wickets was good, never great. Ernest Smith and Tunnicliffe certainly played fine cricket, the liveliest hitting being tempered with sound judgment; in 45 minutes they put on 98 runs. I should pro­ nounce this the very best innings that has ever come from Tunnicliffe’s bat. Smith we all know; where does he get bis force from? Somewhere in the forearm: not from the shoulders certainly : the wrists may account for his gentle taps which three times went completely out of bounds. Bis last match for his county was at the Oval, I think ; then he scored 112—44 and68; last week 110—52 and 58. Perhaps he does so well whenever he turns up from the fact that he is always fresh, never stale from over much cricket; Elstree, too, is a first-rate school for practice. But MacLaren and Wood gave the finest bat- tiDg display : slow at times, but just because it was impossible to score so long as the bowlers kept straight and of a length, and the batsmen played real cricket. But a holiday mob knows nothing of this: gallery hits are their game : so to vary the proceedingsthey cheeredeverystroke that did not yield a run. After such a start —90 up before a wicket fell—Yorkshire's total (183) ought to have been passed. But just lately we have had many instances of the example set by the first pair not followed by their successors at the wicket. See Kent against Yorkshire last Saturday at Canter­ bury ; 68 for one wicket, 116 for ten! An