Cricket 1895

420 CR ICKET : A W E E K L Y RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 19, 1896. and where I fancied I should have given an o pposite verdict, I have never failed to remind myself that 1 was, at the time, sitting in the pavilion, and not standing close up to the game in progress. I have, however, once more to express a hope that, so far as first- class cricket is concerned, every umpire will before long be required to pass a double examination—in eyesight and in the authorised Laws of Cricket. And there has been no friction, either among cricketers or counties. Cricket schisms seem to be a thing of the past, and one hopes they will never be revived. The present race of cricketers would find it difficult to imagine the strained relations that, not so many years ago, existed between the northern and the southern counties, nor could they perhaps believe it possible that certain men refused to take part in county matches when other counties had to be faced. Cricketers don’ t go on strike now-a-days for any purpose whatsoever; but they did for all sorts of reasons when the century was younger. A fine spirit of comradeship and of good fellow­ ship is a predominant note in modern cricket, and it strikes gratefully on every ear. If cricket cannot be played amicably, better Cease to play it altogether, for it is not worth retaining as a source of livelihood when it can no longer claim to be a great and glorious sport. Have we had too much cricket this year ? Certain writers, with a remedy for every misfortune under the sun, have been seeking to prove that Yorkshire lost the County Championship because their players were overworked. It may be advisable occasionally to give certain players a rest, your fast bowlers especially; here comes in another argument in favor of a “ second string ; ” yet it shall not be forgotten that there is an immense advantage in playing the same eleven match after match, and that that County is certain to do best in the course of a season which does not make repeated alterations in the composition of its eleven. Surrey furnish an admirable illustration here. Again, it is certainly desirable that matches should be so planned that long tedious rail­ way journeys shall be reduced to a minimum ; it is not wise that Lancashire, for instance, sifter playing Kent on the latter’s ground, should in the same week bo engaged in a match at home, only to return to Brighton for match No. 3. But this is a detail which the county secretaries may be trusted to look well after. This apart, I can discover no sufficient grounds for the complaint that our county cricketers are overplayed : unless you admit that this has been the case for many years past. No cricketer takes part in more matches than W . G .; let us see how his work this year compares with what he has done during the ten preceding years. In 1895 he played 46 completed innings; in 1886, 52 ; in 1887, 38; in 1888, 58; in 1889, 43 ; in 1890, 52; in 1891, 39; in 1892, 34 ; in lo93, 45 ; in 1894, 44. So that in several years the first-class fixtures have been quite as numer­ ous as during the pist season. I f anybody should complain of overwork it should be the fast bowlers, and one has not yet heard either ltichardson, Mold, or Hirst utter any com­ plaints on this score. I can understand a cricketer getting sick and tired of the mo­ notony of playing day after day ; but all work gets monotonous in a very short time. To me it is ridiculous to urge that a visit to Australia accounts for the loss of form occasionally remarked both in batsmen and bowlers. 1895 has been a batsman’ s y e a r; the averages prove that. Concerning those averages much sentimental regret has been wasted that the first place is occupied by MacLaren, W . G. just missing it by the smallest fraction. It should be said that down at Hastings the younger batsman most unselfishly strove to let his elder brother in ; one could hardly expect him to score the spectacles even to oblige the champion, but he did generously stop short at 0 and 7. W . G. had a grand chance of topping him ; was he over anxious? But what matters it ? MacLaren will be the first to concede that the premier position among the bats­ men of 1895 belongs to W . G. ; if only because he has taken part in twice as many innings as the Lancashire captain. And has he not in addition nine centuries against his name? In 1871 W .G . scored 10 such innings in first-class matches, twice, oddly enough as this year, running into the third hundred ; but in no other year has his quota reached nine. For the fifth time his aggregate has reached 2,000 runs [How about 1869 ? E d .] Thanks very largely to the inclusion of the five new counties—all of whom have done uncommonly well in their first season—more batsmen had scored 1,000 runs than in any previous year. I said many weeks ago that 30 names would figure on this list when the number had only reached 15. So they would if, as seemed probable, N. F. Druce, Mordaunt, and Gunn had been able to play to the close of the year; as it is, we have two short of that number. But that is twice as many as we had in 1893, when the weather was even more favourable, and it is four times as many as in the j ubilee year, which was almost the finest meteorologically ever experienced by cricketers—at least since 1868. But perhaps the batting feature of 1895 has been the extraordinary aggregate scoring. Thus in County matches proper, fourteen times were more than 1,000 runs scored in a match; whereas in the twenty-two previous seasons this total was reached only twenty-six times altogether. Besides, in eleven other first- class matches this year 1,000 runs have been completed, the Sussex and Oxford match at Brighton furnishing the largest aggregate— 1410— ever scored in the old country. Did ever both the Gentlemen v. Players matches run into four figures ? O f separate innings much might be written. Lancashire’s 801, and Notts’ 726, stand out alone. Of innings that reached 400, E-sex scored 2, v. Warwickshire and Somersetshire ; Gloucestershire, 2, v. Somersetshire and K en t; Kent, 2, v. Gloucestershire and Notts , Lancashire, 1, v. K ent; Middlesex, 2, v. Sussex and K en t; Somersetshire, 1, v. Sussex; Surrey, 4, v. Essex. Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and Sussex; Sussex, 1, v. Somerstshire; Warwickshire, 1, v. Kent; Yorkshire, 2, v. Middlesex and Leicestershire. Whilst, to descend from the sublime to the ridiculous, the spectacles were distributed in the county matches as follows :—Derbyshire, 5 ; Essex, 5 ; Gloucestershire, 3 ; Hampshire, 3 ; Kent, 6 ; Lancashire, 4 ; Leicestershire, 6 ; Middlesex, 3; Notts, 4 ; Somersetshire, 3 ; Surrey, 1; Sussex, 5 ; Warwickshire, 6 ; Yorkshire, none. But we must hurry on to the bowlers. In such a batting year we should expect that the bowling has been exceptionally weak. Far from it. Fifteen men have taken 100 wickets and more ; Richardson, with a total of 290, touching a higher figure than any English bowler ever reached. Last year there were eleven bowlers in this column, and ten each in 1892 and 1893 ; but the number never reached double figures before. Pickett and Tyler both secured all the wickets in an innings. Mead had seventeen wickets in a match—a distinction previously monopolised by W .G ., to whose lot it fell as long since as 1877. Davidson and Tyler did the hat trick in county matches ; whilst as many as nine wickets were taken in the same class of match by Mold, G. G. Walker, Peel, and Richardson (twice) ; Pougher scoring a similar success in the Surrey v. England match. I wish there was space to enumerate many more interesting features of the past yeir. For instance, my favourite test of bowling, viz., the number of overs bowled as compared with the number of wickets taken. It is curious that, judged by this standard, Townsend takes first place with an average of one wicket for every 5 7 overs, Richardson one for every 5*8 overs. It would make a capital paragr iph were we to enquire how far old reputations have gained or lost by another season’ s work ; ana how many new names of promise have appeared on the page of cricket history. After all said the most wonderful feature of the year has been the batting of our grand old champion, and it will never be forgotten that the National Testimonial testified to the world-wide admiration excited by his thirty- two seasons of fir.'t-class cricket, at the end of which he still remains the greatest batsman in the world. The century of centuries promises to increase indefinitely before he lays aside his bat for the last time. P S.— In bringing these summer ‘ ‘ notches ” to a close I avail myself of this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to friends in all parts of the world whose timely thought­ fulness has helped to convert this weeklyr duty into a labour of love. If one word has been written that has given a moment’ s un­ easiness or pain ttf any cricketer, know that the writer’s pen has failed to do justice to his loyal feelings for every living cricketer, whether first class, second class, or no class at all. C H A R L T O N P A R K v. M R . H A Z L E R IG G ’S X I .- P layed at C harlton P ark on S eptem ber 14. C harlton P a r k . C apt. M cC anlis, c T . H azlerigg, b B u tler 0 A . L . M c C a n l i s . c Spense, b A . H a zle - rig g ................................ 0 H . T u rrell, c C och ­ rane, b B u tler.............20 D r. W . F . P . H olton , c Spense, b C ochrane 102 J . H u n ter, b B u tler ... 7 A . J . D od d , b W illis 0 M r . H a z lr r ig o ’ F irst In n in gs. T . H azlerigg, c B u rn ett, b M a rtin .........................................13 A . H azlerigg, at Sargent, b M a r t in ....................................... 5 R . Cochrane, st B urnett, b M a r tin .........................................23 G . B . O sm ond, st H u n ter, b M a r tin .........................................12 R . G . Spense, b K e a ts ........... 0 F . G. A llen , st Sargent, b M a rtin ......................................... 1 W . W illis, st S argent, b M a r tin ......................................... 0 H . J. B utler, b K e a ts ............ 1 A . E . M ascall, n ot ou t............. O A . N oak e, b K eats ............ 1 H . D eeds, b K eats ............. 0 B y e s ......................................... 2 T otal................................58 S. It. Sargent, b W illis 0 W . M artin , b W illis 6 A . F . L ov ey , c Spense, b A . H azlerijfg S. C. B u rn ett, c Spense, b C ochrane ............. D r. W . J . C . K eats, n ot o u t ....................... Byes ...................... 23 T o ta l .............169 s XE . S econd In nings. b A . L . M cC anlis 21 b A . L . M cC anlis 3 c A . L . M cC anlis, b C apt. M cC an­ lis ...................... 0 c A . L . M cC anlis, b C apt. M eC au- lis ...................... 4 s t S argen t,b Capt. M cU a u lis............. 7 T ota l ... 35 K. S . R a n j it s in h j i writes: “ I have great pleasure in recommending the quality of your Playfair Cricket Bats, and have made a good many of my big scores with them.” Send for illustrated catalogue to H. J. UitiY & S o n s , 8, GosweU Road, Aldersgate, E.C. [ A d v t .]