Cricket 1895

Ji ne 6, 1895. CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. The Star was the first of a number of papers to—I had almost written Echo, only it might be thought I was making a poor joke out of the evening dailies— support the suggestion I made in last week’s Cricket, that the game should be royally recognised in the person of its great master, W. G., as the drama has recently been. At the time I was aware that some of the leading citizens of Bristol, with the Mayor at their head, were already moving in the direction of a testimonial to record in some substantial shape the public sense of W. G. Grace’s unapproach­ able doings as a cricketer. P e r s o n a l l y , as one who has watched his cricket and closely without a break through the whole of his career, in other words for over thirty years, I feel as do hundreds of others, that no testimonial, however general, could represent suffi­ ciently, the public sense of the great work W. G. has done as the greatest exemplar of our greatest game. At the same time, as the only way to get at the national feeling is in this way, it will gratify cricketers of all classes to know that the movement is taking the proper course. T he Committee of the Gloucestershire County C.C. preferring, and rightly, that the initiative should be taken by the Marylebone Club, as the head of cricket, have very properly approached the M.C.C. with a view to its taking the lead, Nor can anyone doubt for a moment as to the reply of the Marylebone executive. W. G. is a household word not only among cricketers but all over the world, and a testimonial to him should be the recog­ nition of Englishmen throughout the Empire. I co m m en ced my remarks on this par­ ticular topic with the suggestion that W.G.’s marvellous career merited a royal recognition, by which of course I meant the bestowal of some royal favour, as in the case of the recent birthday honours. A royal recognition has certainly reached him during the last few days in the shape of a gracious letter from the Prince of Wales. No one, it goes without saying, kaows better how to represent the public feeling than H.R.H., and as the letter is a singularly pleasing incident in what may prove to be a most important matter of cricket history, it deserves to be per­ petuated. Marlborough House, Pall Mall, S.W., Dear Sir, June 1, 1895. The Prince of Wales has watched with much interest the fine scores which you con­ tinue to make in the great matches this year. He now learns that you have beaten all former records by scoring 1,000 runs during the first month of the cricket season, as well as com­ pleting more than 100 centuries iu first-class matches. His lie yal Highness cannot allow an event of such interest to all lovers of our great national game to pass unnoticed by him, and he has desired me to offer you his hearty congratulations upon this magnificent performance. I remain, dear Sir, Yours truly, W. G. Grace, Esq. F r a n c is K s ? o i l t s . A t the same time it is gratifying to find that Cricket’s suggestion to honour W.G., and cricket through him in another way, by a title of some sort, has met with such favour, not only among influential papers, but among some of the highest officers of the state. To quote the Star — “ Why not Sir W.G. ?” A pr o po s of Sir W. G., the following lines from last week’s Truth may be taken as representing a popular view of the situation. Two “ players” in two different ways all others do surpass, One nightly plays upon the boards, one daily on the grass; Then why should only one of these receive a knight’s award, And wherefore should the boards be held as better than the sward ? Then, while we hail the buskin knight—sure all will join in that— Let’ s hope that honour yet will crown the champion of the b a t; And ere his innings shall conclude, and others take his place, W e trust to hail our champion chief “ Sir W . G. Grace.” T h e memorial which old Harrovians have initiated in recognition of the long and devoted attachment of the late Earl of Bessborough to Harrow School and all its works, is to take the form of a suitable record in the School Chapel, as well as of an additional cricket ground, to com­ memorate in a fitting way the active interest of a life time in the game of which he was in his own day such an excellent exponent. Subscriptions, it will interest old Harrovians in particular to know, may be extended over a period of two, three, or even five years. They can be paid to Messrs. Coutts & Co., or any of the Hon. Secretaries, W. B. Anderson, 6, Stratton Street, London, W. ; T. Greatorex, The Cloisters, Westminster Abbey, London, S .W .; M. C. Kemp, Harrow-on-the-Hill; I. D. Walker, Arnos Grove, Southgate, Middlesex. A. C. M c L a r e n , as luck will have it, has not been allowed to have a very long spell of first-class cricket since his return from Australia a fortnight ago. New duties, Cricket readers will be concerned to hear, will, too, cause a material reduc­ tion in the amount of cricket he will be able to play for Lancashire. The accept­ ance of a mastership at Mr. Hasting’s School, a preparatory for Harrow, will prevent him, in fact, helping the County until, at the earliest, the middle of July. I t will be of interest to a number of Cricket readers, more especially to those who remember him over here as one of the keenest and most cherry of players, to know that T. W. Garrett, the New South Wales cricketer, was bowling away in Sydney at the end of April with marked success. Playing with S. P. Jones for the Sydney University against Manly, he took seven of the nine wickets which fell to the bowlers, and at a cost of only fifty eight runs. One of his seven victims on this occasion it may be added was H. D. L. Woods a younger brother of the Somer­ setshire captain, who was also in the Brighton College eleven. The younger Wpods, so I learn from th e ;Australian papers, is generally successful on the University Ground at Sydney. In the match in question, he was the highest scorer for Manly with 35 out of a total of 147 from the bat. P ro m a source which ought to be trust­ worthy I learn that the English teamwhich George Lohmaun, the Surrey cricketer, proposes to personally conduct in South Africa at the end of the year will in all probability play some fifteen or sixteen matches there. The party are, of course, to land at Capetown, and the tour will in all likelihood run to the middle or latter end of March, 1896. Matches, it is expected, will be played at Capetown, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Port Eliza­ beth, Bast London, Durban, and Maritz- burg. At Johannesburg the intention is to have three matches—against Johannes­ burg, the Transvaal, and South Africa respectively. S o m e r se t sh ir e and Hampshire would seem to have a curious partiality for close finishes, to judge by the experi­ ence of their recent matches. On the occasion of their last game prior to this season, which was in 1890. Somersetshire won amidst considerable excitement with only two runs to spare. The close of the play at Taunton on Friday seemed to indicate that Somerset would again pull through with some very small margin. The finish, as events proved, was close enough, but what luck there was this time favoured the opposition. As a con­ sequence Hampshire had compensation for their defeat of 1890 by almost as narrows victory, by eleven runs in fact. A k e e n cricket enthusiast, as well as a devoted supporter of the paper of the name, passed away on Friday last in the person of Mr. Frank Spybey. Collectors of the litera+ure of the game do not need to be reminded of the valuable register of Notts cricket he published for many years. Until a season or two ago he was always to be seen on the Trent Bridge Ground when a big cricket match was on, and Notts had few better workers in his time. Latterly he had resided in the Isle of Man, and it is only about a fortnight ago that I had a kind and cheery letter from him from Douglas, testifying to his continued interest in Cricket. “ T h e dear old game is going strong in California.” So writes my good friend, the old Gloucestershire cricketer, A. E. Coates, from the Citrus Colony Club, Loomis, California, under date of May 20. But let him speak for himself. The California Cricket Association now includes eight clubs, and three others which are not affiliated. We have some really good men on the coast, and couldmake a fair match with a good amateur eleven, such as Lord Hawke’s last American team, or Lucas’ West India eleven. We can muster a moderate team here in Placer Co., and have just played and won two matches. We have unfortunately to mourn the loss of our best all-round man, Leonard Marsh-Browne, who was killed on April 18th by collision with a tree, while riding in the Colony Race Meeting; his loss is a sad blow in every way. In November,