Cricket 1894

“ Together joined in cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron, No. 3 7 9 VOL. XIII. & g stored for Transmission Abroad F R I D A Y , D E C . 28, 1894. PRICE 2d. CRICKET NOTCHES. By th e Rev. R. S. H olmes . The concluding article on the County Championship must stand over for a month, unless my esteemed editor can place at my disposal about one half of the present issue of this journal. I have been honored with so many communica­ tions from abroad, all of them possessing interest for many besides myself, and all save one from men I have never met, that it is at once a duty and a pleasure to let others take my place for once. Modesty forbids the insertion of the many generous and flattering references to this column, and it is to be regretted that, apart from this, the pruning knife will have to be somewhat freely used. In some in­ stances, too, the writers have begged me to suppress their individuality, and not to make public property all they have disclosed. Here’s to my task then. For convenience sake, the letters shall be grouped geographically. B atch N o . 1.— A fric a . a. Matjesfontein, Karroo. The writer, George Lohmann. Two from his pen, dated respectively September 7, and November 26. The latter says :—“ I am still keeping very fit, and hope to be home next May. I send you an account of a match played in Newlands, a suburb of Cape Town; you will note that a bowler named Goldman bowled a batsman named Plume twice ivithno-balls. Is this a record ? ” Yes,so far as I know: but not wishing io be “ dog­ matic,” I court information. “ I was playing cricket yesterday—Sunday. Why not? Kingsley did it /’ Don’t do so again. Parson Lot ”—Kingsley’s once- famous nom de plume —did a host of things that scandalized the ecclesiastical Mrs. Grundy. In his first letter, Lohmann plays the role of prophet with marvellous success : “ It is a great pity that Jackson and Palairet cannot visit Australia, tho.y are just the class for colonial grounds. Rich­ ardson and Lockwood will not be so successful in Australia as they have been n England. Past bowlers cannot bump on Adelaide, Melbourne, or Sydney wickets. The ball seldom rises above stump high, consequently thsre are not so many catches in the slips. During my three trips I have noticed this particu­ larly. Again, fast trundlers knock up in hot climates more quickly than in cold. The successful bowlers out there are of the Giffen and Peel type, or otherwise bowlers who don’t forget that there are ten men waiting for chances. Some of the finest cricket I ever saw was played during Lord Sheffield’s tour; better batting, bowling and fielding has been seldom witnessed than that in our match against Combined Australia at Melbourne, which we lost by 52 runs.” “ I enclose you a letter; it is one out of about 200 I have received.” Here is a portion of it — “ I hope you won’t think me rude to write and bother you with a cricket question. I am only a little boy, and very fond of cricket.....................would you mind telling me what I ought to drink while playing cricket ? ” Isn’t that delightful ? Who but a simple English lad could have written it ? Lohmann has not furnished me with the answer he sent. One is but echoing the universal senti­ ment when one regrets Lohmann’s absence from Australia at the present time. The mammoth score at Sydney would certainly have been considerably reduced. But we shall forget all about it in the welcome he will receive when he once more appears on English cricket soil. i. Dundee, Natal, September 12. The following may be a curio :—“ Mr. Brooke, an old Cheltonian, was batting for Natal last Easter, and received a ball on the leg side at which he made a mighty smite, missing it. The ball hit his pad, and rebounded, and then was struck by his bat on the return swing, and knocked gently into wicket-keeper’s hands. Has a similar dismissal occurred before ? Natalians generally are greatly pleased with ‘ Skilly ’ Sewell’s success with the South African team in England.” Once more I appeal to the curiosity seekers for information. c. Durban, Natal, October 12. “ Has a similar case to the enclosed come under your notice, and was the umpire’s deci­ sion correct ? A slow bowler tossed a ‘ donkey-drop ’ to batsman, but owing to ground being perfectly sodden, the ball stopped before reaching batsman, who simply stood in his ground and ignored it. The umpire gave it as a no-ball.” I can recall an almost parallel case at Lord’s four years ago; the ball slipped from Whitehead’s hand as he was bowl­ ing to A. N. Hornby ; the latter ran down the pitch to it, but the bowler reached it first, returned it to stumper, who put down the wicket. The ball was in play, but batsman asserted that bowler had obstructed him, and umpire gave him in. In the above instance, the ball was cer­ tainly not a no-ball, but a wide, a wide being a ball which a batsman cannot cover whilst standing in his ground. d. Cape Town, September 13. *•I like your Notches immensely, but latterly they have begun to pall; the reason is ‘ Yorkshire this and Yorkshire that,’ until I have really been inclined to ask mysel whether there is another County in England.....................We shall be start- our matches by the time this reaches you, and we play right through to the middle of April—seven months in all. I enclose fixture list of Cape Town C.C. M.C. v. C.B. means Mother Country v. Colonial Born.” A friendly rap of the knuckles, needed perhaps, though one has tried to give every county its proportion­ ate space. Perhaps seeing so much of Yorkshire cricket of late may have caused one county to bulk more prominently in these Notches- Impartiality is a sover­ eign virtue. B atch No. 2.— A m e r ic a . a. Philadelphia, October 21. The editor of the American Cricketer writes:— “ We were all very disappointed here at the result of Lord Hawke’s visit, especially at the two overwhelming defeats suffered by the Philadelphians, who, without wishing to detract from the credit which rightly belongs to our visitors, certainly did not do themselves justice. However, the disaster in the end may prove a blessing, as the ability of the Englishmen to get runs on a bad wicket, and truly