Cricket 1895

M ay 23, 1895. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 153 C ir c u m s t a n c e s must have occurred to justify an important alteration in the arrangements made by George Lohmann, the famous Surrey cricketer, for his return to England. According to his own statement he expected to leave the C*pe on the 8th of this month, and on the strength of this, Surrey’s supporters w<>re looking forward hopefully to seeing him within the next few days. And now, I understand, a letter has been received from himwith the intimation that he is not likely to be in England till the end of July or the beginning of August. No doubt, as I have already said, he has good reasons for his change of plan. Still, there will be no harm in saying that as far as recent appearances go, assuming that he came back fit and well, the Surrey eleven would welcome with open arms his return, if only for the sake or another bowler. This indeed is not unlikely to be the bitter cry of many a side if hard wickets only prevail, to add to the severe strain of the increased obligations of the county championship. From a good friend who is closely in touch with Natal cricket I am glad to learn, as all Cricket readers will be, that the grand old game is making rapid strides in South Africa. The visit of the South African team to England last year was bound, of oourse, to give a great impetus to cricket. As a natural conse­ quence the game, my correspondent adds, is being played more as it is in England than before. The form in the Currie Tournament this year has too been of a higher order than has ever been seen in South Africa. G eorge L ohmann ’ s presence proved an immense attraction for the Tourna­ ment, and showed how widely he is known by all English-speaking people. I am glad to say, my informant adds, he is in magnificent health, and has ap­ parently lost little of his old form. It may interest you to know, he says, that G. Beves, who captained the Transvaal eleven, is the old Notts cricketer and Rugby footballer. J. T. Hings, another of the Transvaal men,hails from Leicester­ shire. Mills, the Surrey cricketer, who has wintered in South Africa for the last three winters, showed really good form for the Western Province, both in batting and bowling. As a bowler, indeed, he came out with an exceptionally fine record in the second innings of the Transvaal, as can be seen by reference to the scores of the match in another place. I t was George Lohmann’s first visit to Natal, and he seems to have been highly pleased with Durban and its capabilites as a sporting centre. So satisfied, indeed, was he, that he expressed his intention of making the town the venue for one of the test matches between the team he hopes to bring out next winter, and a combined South African eleven. W.G. EFFECTUALLY set all doubts at rest as to the exact number of centuries he had made by his grand score for Gloucestershire against Somersetshire at Bristol last week. Whether his 105 for M.C.C. and G. against Sussex was his ninety-ninth or his hundreth hundred or not now matters little. He has settled matters conclusively by his 288 of last week, which is beyond a doubt his hundredth innings of a hundred in first-class cricket. I f only for the purposes of reference it may be of use to give the various scores in chronological order: 1866 Surrey I ........... 224* 1876 S u ssex........... 104 Players........... 173* Players ........... 169 1868 Players........... 134* North ........... 114 , North ........... 130 North ........... 126 North ........... 102* Kent ........... 344 1869 O x ford ........... 117 Notts ........... 117 Surrey ........... 138* Yorkshire ... 318* Notts ........... 121 1877 North ........... 261 South Plavers 180 England 110 North ........... 122 1878 Notts ........... 116 Kent ........... 127 1879 S u rrey......... . 123* 1870 Players........... 215 Notts ........... 102 Players........... 109 Somersetshire 113 M.C.C........... ... 172 1880 Lancashire ... 106 Surrey ... 143 Australians... 152 Notts ........... 117* 1881 Notts ........... 182 1871 Surrey ........... 181 Players........... 100 North Gentn. 118 1883 Lancashire ... 112 North ........... 178 1884 Australians... 116* Cambridge ... 162* Australians... 107 Married 189* Australians... 101 Surrey ........... 146 1885 Yorkshire ... 132 North ........... 268 Middlesex ... 221* Kent ........... 117 Surrey ........... 104 Players ........... 217 Players........... 174 Notts ........... 116 1886 Oxford Univ. 104 1872 Yorkshire ... 101 Australians... 170 Players........... 112 Australians... 148 Players ........... 117 Australians... 110 Notts&Yorks. 170* 1887 Yorkshire ... 183* Yorkshire ... 150 Cam. Univer. 116* North ........... 114 Notts ........... 113* 1873 North Players 145 Middlesex ... 113 South Players 134 Kent ........... 103* Players........... 163 Kent ........... 101 Players........... 158 1888 S u ssex........... 215 M.C.C.............. 152 Australians... 168 North ........... 192* Yorkshire ... 148 S u rrey........... 160* Yorkshire ... 153 1874 S u ssex........... 179 1889 North ........... 154 Yorkshire ... 167 Middlesex ... 127* South Players 150 Middlesex ... 101 England 12L 1890 Kent ........... 109* Kent ........... 123 1891 Victoria 159* Players........... 110 1893 Kent ........... 128 Yorkshire ... 127 1894 Cam. Univer. 196 North Players 104 Cam. Univer. 139 1875 Playera........... 152 Players........... 131 Notts ........... 119 1895 S u ssex........... 103 Yorkshire ... 111 Somerset 288 * Signifies not out. F rom the above it will be seen that his 288 of last week at Bristol is actually the third highest score recorded to his name in a first-class match since he appeared at Lord’s, no less than thirty-one years ago. He went not only one but two better in 1876. His two highest scores, omitting his 404 (not out) against Twenty-two of Grimsby, which of course does not count, were both in August 1876, and within a week of each other, They were as follows:—Canterbury, M.C.C. and G. v. Kent, 344; Chelten­ ham, Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire, 318 not out. R egarded from any light, his latest score of 288 was a wonderful achievement for a cricketer rising forty-seven years of age. The enthusiasm evoked by Gregor McGregor’s happy suggestion at the Hampstead Club’s dinner of welcome to A. E. Stoddart on Saturday night, that W.G. on Friday last in making his 288, was the “ Grandest Show on Earth” rather than Olympia, showed how uni­ versal W.G.’s popularity is. Indeed, the reception he met with on his arrival that night would have been sufficient to make anyone less fine and large, in the way of cricket fame that is, blush. H ave the sporting dailies been poking fun at us in the announcement that the Committee of the Marylebone Club have decided the match between M.C.C. and G. and Dublin University to be first class ? If they have all I can say is that it is a sorry jest. The union of hearts is not likely to be expedited by such jibes. But what do you say ? Well I never. But no matter. ------ T he eleven to represent England against Surrey at the Oval, on Monday, in Mr. W. W. Bead’s testimonial match, will consist of Mr. W. G. Grace, Mr. F. S. Jackson, Mr. S. M. J. Woods, K. S. Ranjitsinhji, Albert Ward, Mold, Briggs, Gunn, Lilley, Davidson, and another. The Surrey team will be in all probability be selected from Mr. K. J. Key, Mr. W. W. Read, Abel, M. Read, Lockwood, Brockwell, Wood, Richardson. Holland, Street, Hayward, and Smith, Young Holland who, as I have before remarked, made his first appearance in an Inter-County match at the endof 1894,had a good time of it last week at the Oval. His two innings against Essex and Warwickshire respectively realised 123 and 62. ■■ ■ Y. F. S. C rawford , the Whitgift School boy, whose doings I have occasion to mention more than once lately, has already this season, so I am informed, made six hundred runs and taken fifty wickets. On Wednesday of last week he scored fifty-eight, eighteen of them in one over. On the following day in the one innings he had he made twenty more, so that the outcome of the two days cricket was 146 for two knocks. T he glorious uncertainty of cricket was never perhaps more gloriously exemplified than in the match between Notts and Sussex, at Trent Bridge last week. On recent form Notts would have seemed to be one of the most unlikely sides to beat the record for a first class Inter- County match, so long held by Surrey. And to make the surprise the more com­ plete the rate of scoring throughout the innings was so utterly above the accepted notions of the dulness of Notts batting, that eighty-three was the average of their scoring in their total of 726. Another feature of the innings was the fact of three hundreds, or rather one two hundred and two hundreds, a very rare occurrence in important matches. E ven if the Notts total of 726 is not the highest in a first class match any­ where, it has the distinction of being the best by an English County team in Inter- County Cricket. The occasions on which this total has been beaten in first-class cricket are the Australians v. Past and Present of Oxford Universities, 843, July 31, August 1 and 2, 1893, at Portsmouth; Non-smokers v. Smokers at East Mel­ bourne, Australia, 803, March, 1887; New South Wales v. Victoria at Sydney, 775, February, 1882.