Cricket 1895

A u g . 1, 1895. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 313 t.he Marylebone Club. Nor is it necessary to add, that as a Grimston, he was bound to be a lover of all honest and straight­ forward sport. T he Irish I Z ., in other words the N. A. Shuler, according to appearances, are still doing the same good work 1hey have done for years in the diffusion of cricket on the other side of the St. George’s Channel. It is interesting, too, to note that the old Harrovian who did good service for Cambridge University in the days of “ the Great Cobden,” that is to say early in the seventies, W. Blacker to wit, is still directing the side. Iu their opening match of the season last week at the Curragh, the Shuler had in addition several cricketers well known in England, among them A. M. Sutthery, the old Cantab, G. F. H . Berkeley, the Oxford slow bowler of 1893, and L. H Gwynn, of Dublin University. On the other hand the Military Eleven included one cricketer who made his mark on the playing-fields of Eton and Oxford, in the person of Lord George Scott. H a r r o v ia n s will hardly need to be told that J. H . Stogdon is a verv easy first in the batting averages of Harrow School this season. His score of 124 against E ton has given him a big lift of coarse, but still there is a very big margin between his average of 47-4 and the 23 6 of R. F. Yiart, who is second on the list. Altogether he has an aggregate of 522 for eleven completed innings, which is a pretty good performance. But, besides this, he took ten wickets at an average cost of just under twelve runs. The Ebrington Cups, it will interest some to know, were won by J. H . Stogdon for b ttting, E. M. Dowson for bowling, and R. p . Viart for fielding. W. E. J. Li, Fontaine took Mr. E. E Bowen’s prize for the best catch. Like his brother, J. H . Stogdon is, I understand, goiug up to Cambridge. O u r old and tried friend the Samoan crioketer is with us again. He always comes up to time towards the end of the season with the same regularity as the big gooseberry and the sea-serpent, in a higher sphere of journalism. The latest news of his movements comes from the acting British Consul at Samoa, which I need hardly add is one of the Fiji group of islands, so that the information is bound to be reliable. According to a recent advice from that high official, the inhabitants. . . But here is the state­ ment as it appeared in a contemporary, to speak for itself :— The acting British Consul in Samoa, one of the Fiji group of Islands, states that the inhabitants of a village close to Apia, the capital, are indulging their sporting pro­ clivities hugely by boat-racing and cricket. The land on which their village stands is mortgaged for the sum of 800 dollars to a European firm, and is advertised for sale. Instead of making any attempt to raisemoney to pay off this tr-fling sum, they have for the last four months been playing almost weekly cricket matches, with 30 or 40 players aside, for stakes consisting of pigs and kegs of salt beef, to the accompaniment of a band of savage music, and general dis-organisation of their affairs. The consul believes th amount of money expended on cricket in this village since February would have paid off not only the interest, but a large part of the principal of the mortgage. As one of, if not the very first to pro­ claim from the housetops the claims of the young Irish cricketer, Lucius H. Gwynn, to a place in some of our repre­ sentative matches, I am especially glad to hear that he has been asked to take part in the Scarborough festival at the end of this month. The Irish Field is my authority for the statement that he has been invited to play for the South against the North, as well as for the Marylebone Club against Yorkshire. In “ Gossip” of last week I had occasion to mention that the Halifax Cup, which carries with it practically the Championship of Philadelphian cricket, had recently been won by the German­ town team. Their success, too, was the reward of consistently good cricket. They were only once beaten in the Cup games, and that was by the Tioga Club. Cricket readers who had an opportunity of judging for themselves of G. S. Patter­ son’s ability as an all-round player will certainly not be surprised to learn tha he has again won a double first inbow ling as well as batting for Germantown. According to all accounts he is pretty sure of the “ Childs’ B ittin g Cup,” which was last won by Mr. Coates, of the Belmont Club. T he Abbey School, Beckenham, whose doings I have had occasion on several occasions this summer to notice, has just brought to a conclusion a season of remarkable success. Perhaps the most striking feature of the year’s record is the high average of the batting. During a long season it has reached 18'16 against 4 62, and this against such strong teams as Elstree, Cheam, East Sheen, Bull’s, and Hawtrey’s amongst others. As the total number of wickets taken shows 216 to 153 lost, the balance is on the right side. The average bat presented by K. S. Ranjitsinhji, I may add, goes to Dillon. His average of 35'6 for seventeen matches is distinctly good. Of the seventeen matches played by the School fifteen were won, one drawn and one lost. In all 2,780 runs were scored b y the Eleven and 999 against. The best averages in batting and bow ling were :— BATTING. No. of Runs Most Times Inn. Scored, in Inn. notout. Aver. Dillon, E. W . ... 17 ... 533 ... 82 ... 2 ... 35 6 Cornab6, W. E. 15 ... 242 ... 69 ... 3 ... 21*16 Sanderson, Gt. B. 15 ... 308 ... 66 ... 0 ... 20’53 BOWLING. Overs. Maidens. Runs. Wickets. Aver. Dillon ... 304-3 ... 112 ... 460 ... 91 ... 5*05 Carpenter 172 ... 44 ... 310 ... 56 ... 553 A ccording to appearances, Durham will be a dangerous rival to the most for­ midable of the competitors for the Second Class Counties’ Championship. A t all events, the county which can claim A. E. Stoddart as one of its sons, has been, and is still, going very strongly. So far, this season, the Durham Eleven have scored 1,983 runs for the loss of seventy-nine wickets, and had 1,686 made against them for ninety-five wickets. This is not such a bad record, particularly when it is remembered that the county has not been able to put its full strength into the field at any time during this summer. W . G. has been written about so much and so often during his thirty-one years o f first-class cricket, that one would think every possible detail, concerning his cricket at all events, had been exhausted long before this. That there still remains something capable of interesting; is shown bv the announcement that the New Review i j publishing something in the form of a biographical notice of W. G. from the pen of the Hon. R. H Lyttleton. The Lyttletons can never be accused of being mere snappers-up of unconsidered trifles in their literary work. On the con­ trary, they have generally had something original to say. Cricket readers, there­ fore, may be certain of finding something to interest them in the New Review even on a subject apparently so trite as that of W. G. W a s there ever a much more curious ending to an important game than that which brought Surrey’s first match of the season with Sussex to a close at the Oval on Friday afternoon ? As Sussex just managed to save the innings, Surrey had only one run to get to win. The irony of the situation asserted itself unmis­ takably when Brockwell, notwithstanding his evident anxiety to score, had to play a maiden over from Mr. Murdoch. But worse remained behind. Mr. Brann did not imitate his captain’s precision. His first, and as it proved, the only ball he bowled was a wide, a n d then the players hurried from the field with all the blush­ ing honours of another new thing in the way of cricket fiuishes thick upon them. A n Adelaide correspondent writes to ask whether it is not a record for one college to have two of its old boys in the same Australian eleven. I should myself be a little chary of making the admission, but in any case m y friend would seem to be counting his chickens before they are hatched. C. J. Darling and Clem Hill no doubtare pretty well certainties forthenext Australian team. Still, the fact remains that the tour has not been decided on as yet. And there’s many a slip— you can finis'a the quotation. Still, it is interest­ ing to know that both these fine players are old pupils of Prince Alfred’s College at Adelaide. What is more, they are both left-handers, and, still more strangely, both played for the same South Australian Football team againstVictoria. Each, too, has held an Australian cricket record. Darling’s 252 against St. Peter’s College was for a long time the record for South Australia. H ill’s 365 (retired), also made against St. Peter’s College, is the Australian record up to date. T h e match between Prince Alfred and St. Peter’s, my correspondent goes on to add, “ correspondstoyour Etonv. Harrow,