Cricket 1895

308 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A u g . 1, 1895. once again the howlers are in power. And haven’tweallhad enough ofhattingand batting records? Just take one item only. From 1873 to 1894—that is twenty-two years—in the first-class county matches 1,000 runs in a match have been scored twenty-six times—at the rate of just over one each year. How many such matches has the present season yielded ? I do not here include matches played by the counties against M.C.C., the Universities, and the like, but inter-county matches only. Venture a guess, someone. The number is twelve, and there are six weeks of cricket still. The list is before me, but I won’t weary you with it. The centuries are still more formidable. If you askme whether I want any more this year, my answer is about as emphatic as the reply of a boy who has j ust eaten more than good for him to an invitation to a further meal. So, being per­ fectly happy for once, I want all my friends to rejoice with me. Love never likes to eat its morsel alone. Here’s a choice banquet for y o u :— 1. In the nine matches completed we had one century, and just seven more innings above 50 runs apiece. No more. Last Monday week the highest innings played was 42 by W. G., and on that day there were no less than twenty-one ducks in the five matches begun. But let’s decently throw a veil over the failures of batsmen in order to emblazon the triumphs of the bowlers. 2. It was a “ record” bowling week. If it was not, I shall be obliged by being posted up in any other week during the past twenty-two years in which ( a ) one bowler took seventeen wickets in a match, (5) another had sixteen, (c) a third had fifteen, id) a fourth had fourteen, whilst (e) a fifth, not to mention (c) as well, took nine wickets in a single innings. But let us set forth their doings in fu ll:— a ) Essex v. Hants. Mead, 17 wickets for 119 runs. b ) Gloucestershire v. Notts. Townsend, 16 wickets for 122 runs. (c) Yorkshire v. Somersetshire. Peel, 15 for 50 runs. (d) Somersetshire v. Yorkshire. Hedley, 14 for 70 runs. (e) Surrey v. Sussex. Richardson, 9 for 49 runs. (Peel took 9 also in the first innings v. Somerset­ shire, and at a cost of 22 runs.) Whilst other choice items were :— Richardson, 5 for 16, Surrey v. Kent. Briggs, 8 for 49, Lancashire v. Gloucestershire. Jessop, 5 for 13, Gloucestershire v. Lancashire. Pallett, 7 for 19, Warwickshire v. Leicestershire. Foster, 4 for 9, and 7 for 28, for Players v. Gentlemen of Yorkshire. Now, kindly bear in mind, (1) that 17 wickets have only once before been taken by any bowler in a first-class county match since 1873, viz., by W . G. v. Notts in 1877 ; (2) that 16 wickets have only twice been taken, viz., by Burton v. Yorkshire in 1888, and by Mold v. Kent in the present year ; and (3) that, prior to last week, only ten bowlers have ever secured 15 wickets in a match. And I fancy there will be a consensus of opinion that the bowling of last week is unparalleled in county cricket. Anyhow, it affords convincing proof that our present-day bowling suffers nothing by comparison with the greatest bowling of the past, and that, with the wicket at all in their favor, bowlers to-day have nothing to fear from the batting, and need not combine for any alteration in the dimensions of the wickets. And just for the present I am contented to drop the l.b.w. question. Perhaps the most noteworthy features of the week were (1) that in spite of Mead’s marvellous bowling, Essex lost the match to Hampshire ; but (2) Gloucestershire’s victory over Notts takes leading honors, in that W . G. for once had nothing whatever to do with the result beyond the moral influence which his presence ought always to inspire in his men. We recall his county’s three previous triumphs during the present season, viz., against Somersetshire, Kent and Middle­ sex, in each of which matches his batting alone gaveGloucestershire a point; but against Notts at Trent Bridge there were six higher scorers on his side,.and the margin of 135 runs in the Westerner’s favor was due, after young Townsend’s magnificent bowling (eight wickets each innings), to the batting of Jessop (55), Hemingway (23 and 45), Wrathall (29 and 41), and Townsend (41). One and all are to be most heartily congratulated. This match augurs well for the remainder of their programme. A keen cricketing friend of mine has for weeks maintained that Gloucestershire willwintheieturnwith Surrey; I might have attached some importance to his “ tip,” had he not unfortunately given Hampshire as well as the conquerors of Surrey. He was a trifle out there. But I shall not be greatly surprised if to-day’s fight at Bradford does not...........................But there, our concern is with what has been done, not with what may be. Ne sutor tiltra crepidum —the cobbler should stick to his last. Besides Peel and Hedley’sbowling at Leeds, there was but one other conspicuous item, viz., an innings by Denton (60) that would have rejoiced the Old Buffer’s heart who once wrote to me as follows : “ Saw W. H. Patter­ son play on suet pudding, batter pudding, and hard-bake wickets, and it was all the same to him. That is what I call a cricketer .” After his performance against Hedley’s bowl­ ing, Denton is a cricketer, too. On all wickets he has proved himself to be the best youngster of the year, and as, like Holland, he is an ardent follower of Sir Wilfred, that good old customer, Care, is sure to be well provided for. One does love to watch an innings where every run wants making, and seeing that three full innings of this match realized only 73, 69, and 64 runs, Denton’s single score of 60 must be described as a great effort. He has dropped me a line telling me that the Hastings folks have found room for him in the North v. South match in their festival. Should he keep his form, which in his case, as in most others, I take to mean in health, a place in the Players’ team next year should not be beyond his deserts. Only last year I travelled in the same compartment with Brown, who expressed a wish that he might, in 1895, be chosen for this match ; he opened his eyes when I quietly answered, “ Wouldn’t you rather be chosen to go to Australia ? ” I see that the match at York has not been included in the week’s averages. I scarcely see why. The playeie on both sides were first-class, but perhaps no match on the delightful Yorkshire Gentlemen’ s en­ closure can be played very seriously. It is essentially a gentlemen’s club, and an air of repose seems to overspread the place. By-the- bye, is there any other county that can put into the field two such elevens as Yorkshire did at York? Several may be stronger in the amateur element only, in batting if not in bowling; and one or two (at most) are weightier on the professional side, but no other county is so well balanced. I should think Foster would get a further trial before the season closes, as Wainwright seems to have lost his bowling altogether for the present—at any rate, had he retained his old skill, the Somersetshire bat-men would have been unable to look at him last week—that depart­ ment may want reinforcing when Lancashire and Surrey have to be met for the second time. Certain folks want Moorhouse to be sent in earlier, on the strength of eight not out innings ; leave him where he is. If all these eight innings had been of. the quality he showed on the Tuesday against Somersetshire, when he gave three simple chances in com­ piling 15 runs, I can’t see how Yorkshire would benefit by the alteration suggested, or Moorhouse either. Surrey’s fresh triumphs —over Kent and Sussex, and by the same margin (10 wickets) in each instance—seem to have made their place at the top quite safe. They can’t win the toss—three times only in 16 matches— never mind, they can’t lose amatch. Derby­ shire would like to accomplish to-day what they were within an ace of doing ten days ago. Nous verrons. I was surprised that Richardson did so brilliantly on the soft turf ; 22 wickets for 156 runs sent up his season’s analysis a couple of points. Maurice Read (51) was the only Surrey batsman to pass the half century; Mason (46) and Alec Heame’ s (71) stand of 118 runs for the first wicket was the batting gem in both the Surrey matches. The feature of chief interest, and a source of unqualified delight to cricketers all over the world, was the re-appearance, and most successfully too, of Lohmann in the ranks of the county which his genius certainly lifted into the front rank. An innings of 20, and nine wickets for 90 runs, 'were worthy of his best days. As he was stumped in both the matches it looks as if out in Africa wicket- keeping was an unknown art; doubtless he will quickly get accustomed to the presence of the “ man behind.” Like other bowlers, Hearne was in the fashion, taking eight wickets in Surrey’ s innings. Lancashire’ s matches need not detain us; my lady correspondent has dealt with the first, whilst the weather accounted for the second. Somersetshire are not to have a decent match up north ; either all over in a day - that was their luck twice in 1894—or else no play at all. That makes the fifth match since 1873 that had to be abandoned through rain. The Eastern Prince’s great innings—100 exactly— against Notts did not suffice to send his county home first. Probably there has been' no finer exhibition all the season ; the Sussex total, thus buttressed, ought to have travelled beyond 171 notches. Bagguley (62) and Flowers (93) had a big hand in the result—- 67 in Nott’s favor. Hardstaff’s 11 wickets for 118 runs would have bulked conspicuous in the ordinary way ; last week they are riot above mediocrity. Hard lines, Warwickshire ! It looks as if a few more minutes might have been squeezed in somehow. Still, well played, very pluckily played, Knight of Leicestershire ! A glorious stand of 27 not out, worth many a century. Rarely has the closure, as here by Warwick­ shire, been applied to the first innings, and a fragment of one innings resulted in victory. Lancashire’s historic defeat of Sussex in 1890 comes back to me, when Sussex totalled 35 and 24, their opponents 246 for the loss of a couple of wickets. Hampshire’s defeat by 171 runs of Essex:— the county that so recently waltzed around Somersetshire—completes our present survey, Barton (79) alone of the twenty-two batsmen got past 50, and Baldwin’ s bowling—13 for 78—ranks worthily second to Mead’s great effort with the ball. N.B .—My weather prognostic for the week: grounds slowly recovering; bowlers still happy. /CRICKET Report Sheets, lOd. per dozen, post-free. \ j Order of Going-In Cards, 7d. per dozen, post free. West’s Pocket Scoring Book, 1/2 each, post free.—To be obtained at the Office of Cricket.' 168, Upper Thames Street, London, E.C.