Cricket 1895

S ept . 12, 1895. CRICKET : A. WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 411 FIRST-CLASS COUNTY 0 TICKET IN 1895. THE CONTEST FOR 'I II 1C CHAMPION SHIP. REVIEW OF THE SEASON. The county season just el > ■ vhicli lias been probably the most menovable i;i the annals of the game came to an e id with a single innings victory of Surrey ' er Hamp­ shire. The curtain fell amid a s! .i. p shower of rain through which the Surrey ien fielded untiltheyhadc apturedthe lastren; .ingwicket secured by the eminent bowler who stands out so prominently in the statistic--Richard­ son. There is no necessity for dv. 1ling at any length in (his place upon the d.ered con­ ditions of the County Champio u>nip, which by the inclusion of the four coun promoted in May 1894—Derbyshire, Esse Leicester­ shire, and Warwickshire, an he well- deserved elevation of Hampshi. \ has been fought out by fourteen competik instead of nine. This increase rendered impossible for the arrangement of a complete series of matches, and a system of adjudg • the order of merit by a comparison of the pr portionate points in finished games was ir. i nduced by the committee of the M.C.C. and proved by the counties. Under this arrangement the destination of first honours wa& i ot decided definitely until the very last .itch, and had Hampshire managed tc lower the colours of last year’s champion Jjancashire I would have been placed at the he.d of fairs. As it is, Surrey, by their hancl> e success, wind up the season with 13 points in 21 finished games against Lancashire’s 10 in 18 concluded matches—a proportion evidently superior. The inclusion of the ve x counties, as we have already mentioned, 1 the effect of disposing of Lancashire’s fiances of premiership. The northern c o i r / engaged with a much smaller number o the new rivals than did Surrey. In this result the Ovalites, by a large proportion f wins over the new counties, obtained the.r commanding lead. In matches between the - 1 counties Surrey stood second to Lancashi Notwith­ standing the fact that their initi • gagement terminated in a reverse at the h.i ids of Lei­ cestershire,the Surrey eleven,by r : ig thron "h June and July without defeat made their ultimate success appear a certain* August, however, produced a startling J. inge, and reverses from Yorkshire and Lan- n hire with­ in one week raised the hopes , the two northern shires. But each \va- < stined to experience defeat in their succe< engage­ ments from newly promoted tis, Essex getting the better of Yorkshire ; farrogate, and Derbyshire worsting Lan )?.’iire, thus again demonstrating the great d - .lability of the new system in giving rising rpunties a chance of coming to the. front. Surrey’ s further disaster at Taunton neutralised the latter, but Yorkshire’s inability to hold their own against Gloucestershire settled their claims. Time robbed Surrey of a point at Clifton, but they made no mistake in th< two concluding encounters, and alth.» gh not so brilliant a record as at one time &:« med prob­ able, they are we think, clear- - entitled to the honour. How the various ■ onipetitors have fared had best be shown by appended table of SUMMARY OF RESULTS AND ELATIVE POSITIONS. F’shed T. W. L. D. Pts. Games. 1. Surrey ........ 28 ...17 ... 4 ... 5 ,... 13 in 21 2. Lancashire 21 ...14 .. 4 ... 3 , 10 „ 18 3. Yorkshire ‘26 ..14 . . 7 .,. 5 ... 7 „ 21 4. Gloucestershire IS ... 8 ... 6 .,.. 4 ... 2 ,, 14 5. Derbyshire 16 ... 5 .,. 4 .. 7 .. 1 „ 9 \ Middlesex IS ... 6 ... 6 ... 6 .. 0 „ 1*2 b. { Warwickshire . 18 ... 6 ... 6 ... 6 ... o „ 1*2 8. Somerset... ... 17 ... 6 .-. 8 ..,. 3 —2 ,, 14 9. Essex ........ 16 ... 5 ... 7 ... 4 ... —2 „ 1*2 10. Ilampshire 16 ... 6 ... i) ... 1 ,... —3 „ 15 11. Sussex ........ 18 . .. 5 ... 9 .. 4 ... —4„ 14 12. JLeicestershire... 16 ... 3 ...10 ... 3 . —7 ,, 13 \ Notts ........ 18 ... 3 ..10 ... 5 ... —7 „ 13 14. Kent.............. 18 ... 3 ...11 ... 4 ... -8 ,, 14 Losses are deducted from w ns, and drawn games ignored. The mat h, Lancashire v. Somerset* at Manchester, July *23th, &c\, w *.s abandoned through rain, without a ball being bov-led, and is, therefore, not included in the nbeve figures. It will, from the above, at onco be recognised that tb ' new contestants have, with the exception of Leicestershire, acquitted themselves really very well indeed, and fully justified their promotion. Even the county named possesses as good a record as Notts and is placed above Kent, who from being bracketed fourth with Lancashire in 1894, fall.' to the undesirable position of absolute last, a remarkable downfall, with Shrewsbury and Gunn still playing, if not in full vigour. A striking feature is the improvement in the position of Gloucestershire, who have not had such a successful season for many years, a result for which they have largely to thank the return to form of W . G. Grace, and the bowling of C. L. Townsend, together with G. L. Jessop’s all-round play. Derbyshire’ s record is undoubtedly a good one, but they have had the misfortune to have a singularly large number of matches left unfinished, many of them in a position greatly in their favour. In all there were 132 matches on the inter- countv programme, as against a total of 72 in 1894, all the old features being retained with the exception of the discontinuance of the meetings between Notts and Somerset. There is, however, a striking difference in the proportion of unfinished games as, exclusive of the contest at Old Trafford between Lancashire and Somerset, which was abandoned without a ball being delivered, no few<;r than 30 matches were left undecided as against ten twelve months ago. For this there have been two contributory causes, the heavy scoring on the fast wickets and the alteration in the law as to the follow-on. Derbyshire had no fewer than seven games left drawn, the eighteen matches of both Middlesex and Warwickshire were equally divided between wins, losses, and unfinished games, while Surrey, who certainly cannot be accused of playing for a draw, had five left in that un­ satisfactory position, Hampshire being unique in figuring in-only one undecided contest. Of the 101 matches in which a definite result was arrived at, the visiting county won in 53 instances to the home side’s 48, which is not a proportion which argues strongly for the advantage of playing :rt home. In the course of the whole season a grand total of 90,513 runs was obtained for the loss of 4,321 wickets This is an average of 20*94 as against 16*55 last season. It is noteworthy, however, that the ratio is but slightly in excess of 1803, when tn average was 20*38, but the wet weather at the end of July was responsible for many {^breakdown, and again equalled the position of batsmen and bowlers. No fewer than 78 scores of 100 or more have been registered, foremost of these, of course, being Mr A. C. Maelaren’s 424 for Lancashire v. Somerset at Taunton, in July, which beats the previous best of “ W .G .*’ and is likely to stand as a record for first- class cricket for many years to come. ITalf-a- dozen other instances occurred in which the second hundred was completed, “ W .G .” claiming two of these, and the compilers of the other big scores were Gunn, Abel, S. M. J. Woods, and Sir T. C. O’ Brien. Another record was achieved by Lancashire in their Somersetshire match, this being the highest aggregate for a first-class county match, viz., 801. Earlier in the season Notts had surpassed the previous best by registering 726 against Sussex at Nott­ ingham, but this was only allowed to stand for a couple of months. Numerous , instances have from time to time been recorded of exceptional match totals, while something more than a passing allusion should be made to the fact that both Pickett and Tyler captured all ten wickets in an innings, the former for Essex v. Leicestershire at Leyton at Whitsuntide, and the latter for Somerset v. Surrey at Taunton last month, their respective cost being 32 and 49 runs. W . G. Grace on May 17th, in the Somerset match brought his record of “ centuries ” to a hundred, while on the 30th of the samemonth he accomplished the remarkable and uneqalled feat of reaching four figures in the first month of the season. Some phenomenal batting averages have bee#.'" secured, while 11 players exceed 1,000 runs in inter-county fixtures. Abel is at the top of the tree with 1,787, Albert Ward being second with 1,446, W . G. Grace third, 1,424, and the others are Ranjitsinhji 1,364, Tunni- cliffe 1,167, A. C. MacLaren 1,162, L. C. H. Palairet 1,159, Quaife (W .) 1,156, Lilley 1,137, Brown (J. T .) 1,118, and H. W . Bain­ bridge 1,069. Richardson has accomplished a marvellous performance with the ball, and in Surrey’ s county programme is credited with-237 wickets. Mold stands second with 182, and eight others have reached a hundred, viz., Peel 136, Hirst 130, C. L. Townsend 124, Mead 120, Briggs 119, Tyler 114, Hearne (J. T.) 105, and Baldwin 102. The closure rule has been put in force on nineteen occasions, four times in the first inn­ ings of a side, and on fifteen occasions in the second. In four of these instances, a definite result was arrived at, the remainder being still left drawn. Yorkshire availed themselves • of the rule four times, Warwickshire thrice, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Surrey twice, and Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, and Sussex once. Lancashire, Leicestershire, Notts, and Somerset did not liave occasion to employ the rule, while Hampshire alone did not have it put in force against them. War- wickshire was never dismissed for less than three figures, and in this respect they stand alone ; but, on the other hand, they have never got rid of their opponents for a smaller total than a hundred. Lancashire not only claimed the highest individual and aggregate scores, but disposed of Notts for the lowest total in the county season, viz., 35, in Flowers’ benefit match at Trent Bridge. On the whole, the season just passed has been the busiest and the most full of incident of any within the memory of man. Without the adventitious aid of an Australian invasion, the summer, long and bright as it has been, has proved all too short for the sport. As marking, a new departure in the game in putting merit forward as the sole titlo for inclusion in first-class crcket, and in the leading competition of the cricket field, the M.C.C. has met with an unqualified approval. The Sportsmanlike way in which the new counties were received by those already in, the front rank speaks very strongly in favour of the game as tending to encourage the spirit of fair play. In bidding farewell to the season of 1895, we may heartily thank it for