Cricket 1895

Nov. 28, 1895. CR ICKET: A W E E K L Y RECORD OF THE GAME. 451 CRICKET NOTCHES. B y th e R ev. R. S. H olm es. M y correspondence during the month is marked b y considerable variety, but it is all o f interest. 1. A lo n g eight-sided letter from S^uth H ampstead iu reference to a somewhat m ixed newspaper discussion as to the date o f the famous old picture, Sussex v. K ent. On m y ow n cop y are these words, which ou g h t to be fairly con clu sive: “ Published 1st M ay, 1849, b y E . Gambart and C o., 25, Berners Street, O xford Street, L ondon. W . H . M ason, R epository o f Arts, K in g ’s R oad, B righ ton .” Then how comes H awkins (point) to be playing, as he died in 1846 ? A nd L illyw hite, w ho, ow in g to some squabble, played his last m atch for Sussex—against K ent — in June, 1844, although four years later, when M .C .C . played Sussex, the form er chose both teams, and L illyw hite for this once appeared on the side o f his old county ! I have always been under the impression that this is an im aginary match, at any rate, I have never been able to find the scores of the match in which all the cricketers in this picture took part. W isden’s figure seems to settle the p o in t ; he is in flannels, as if playing, then w h y isn’t he fielding F It is certain that he and Hawkins never once p layed together for Sussex, Hawkins dyin g in the same year in which W isden came out. Charles B o x —who m ay be regarded as an authority— says o f the p ictu re:— “ Itrepresents a m atch between K en t and Sussex at B rig h to n ; seventy- tw o portraits o f the m ost remarkable men o f the time, taken b y Messrs. W . D rum ­ m ond and C. J. Basebee, and engraved b y M r. G. H . P hillips.” M y corre­ spondent, w ho is at fault on one or tw o details—notably L illyw h ite’s last match fo r Sussex— wonders w h y H illyer is not given in the picture. H e i s ; he is in the third place from the left hand margin, front row , and is N o. 8 on the key-plate. I f the picture appeared before 1846, then W isden w ou ld not figure iu it. The picture cannot be historically accurate, else ’h ow comes Bart. G ood in such a match ? H e played fo r N otts, yet he is there in flannels as if playin g, occu pyin g the first place in the second row , left hand corner. 2. F rom H ighgate, and w orth careful consideration. “ W h y shall not the first innings o f a first-class match decide the game iu cases when it is found impossible to play a second innings ? It is so in on e-day m atches; and the on ly reason why tliree-day matches must b y rule be decided on the second innings is, it would appear, because the executive thought at the time o f fram ing the laws, that if the first innings decided a match, much interest in the second innings (and con ­ sequently gate m oney) w ould be lost. B ut w ould not the side which was behind on the first innings play their hardest to pull up in the second ? F or instance, suppose Surrey were playing Y orkshire, w ent in, and scored 30 0; Y orkshire get 270. W ou ld not the latter try their utm ost to get Surrey out the second time ? Should they succeed and ultimately win, they deserve success ; if they do not succeed, then they deserve to be beaten as per the first innings. A s matters now stand, if the first side scores 500 or 600, a draw is alm ost certain on our present- day g ood w ickets.” A gainst this there is first the present L aw , though, of course, this could be altered if necessary. Then there are the remarkable surprises o f the g a m e ; tw o readily occur to me. The first best match played b y Stoddart’s team last December, where ou the first innings Australia led b y 241, and yet lost the match b y 10 runs. N ow suppose rain had stopped p lay after E nglan d’s second innings, or indeed at any other time after each side had com pleted an innings, then the verdict w ould have been in Australia’s favour. Another instance was the Surrey v. M iddlesex match this summer, when in the course o f the last afternoon Surrey converted what looked like certain defeat into a draw largely in their favor. Whereas, had rain prevented their second innings, M iddlesex would, on the suggestion of m y correspondent, have notched a point. A t the same time drawn games are very undesirable. But you cannot legislate for them ; y ou could, of course, iu some o f them , say where a side was 250behind, and had only a wicket or tw o in hand. H a ifa point to their opponents seems fair enough. B ut what about the surprises noted above ? The fact is many matches have to be played to a finish before the result is know n. I wish the closure could be applied on the second day, just to meet cases in w hich the first side is pilin g up too m any runs. A nd tie matches ough t certainly to count, if n ot one point, at least on e-h alf to each side. It is to be hoped that those who next year tabulate the results o f the C ounty Competition week b y week, w ill arrange the counties in the order decided upon b y the M .C .C ., and not, as heretofore, sim ply deduct losses from wins. 3. California, from the old Gloucester­ shire cricketer, A . E . Coates. “ W e have just finished the first series o f inter- county m atch es; the hom e county, Placer, has shown up well, w inning three out of four, and draw ing the fourth. Tw o matches were w on by an innings, another b y 280 runs. A ltogether our county record fo r 1895 reads :— Matches played, 6 ; w on, 5 ; lost, 0 ; drawn, 1. Interest in cricket is steadily g row in g in California, and several new clubs were started this year. Here are a couple of items for your scra p -b o o k :—On September 28th, H. A lder, playing fo r G. H y d e’s X I . v. Citrus C olony C .C ., had his stumps hit tw ice during an innings o f 70, w ithout a bail bein g removed. In the return match, the C.C.C .C . made 365 for five wickets— a record fo r the coast. A . H . Jackson, in first, scored in five hours 179 not out, including 73 singles. H e is not a “ stick,” but the condition o f the out-field at the time was all against run getting. Since then w e have had it p u t in g o o d order.” 4. K ingston, J am aica; from the captain o f the K ingston Club, a club that dates from 1863, and holds the first position both on and off the cricket field. ‘ ‘ The visit o f M r. Lucas’ E leven gave a splendid impetus to the gam e. It wars fortunate that w e w on the first m atch o f the series (b y 8 w ickets), else our local players w ou ld have been somewhat disheartened. A s you w ill readily understand, our opportunities o f seeing first - class batsmen are like angels’ visits, and the natural result is that the style o f m ost o f our batsmen is unformed. But the services o f S. B . Lohm ann have proved very beneficial in this respect. Our b ow lin g is, how ever, much above the average; M ullings and Lewis, righ t m edium ; Chandler, fastish le ft ; and Toone, fast righ t, came in for especial praise b y our E nglish visitors. W e used to play all the year round , bu t have n ow established a close season of three m onths to give the grounds a rest. Our season now begins on B ox in g D ay, and ends on September 30th. In the year ju st ended the K ingston C lub w on 25 and lost eight out o f 40 matches. I shall be m uch obliged for your advice on the follow in g p o in t: W hich is the correct way o f spelling when guard is given on the le g -s id e :— (1) to l e g ; (2) too l e g ; or (3) two le g ? Supporters o f (1) say that ‘ to le g ’ is merely an abbreviation o f ‘ in ­ clined, to leg ’ ; o f (2) that the guard is too m uch to l e g ; o f (3) that the guard covers two stumps, in the same w ay as in ‘ one leg ’ the leg stump is covered.” This is not a vital matter. E verybody may take his choice. I have always adopted the last interpretation; indeed, did not k n ow there was any other until I was enlightened b y M r. P eirce. W ou ld Thom s be g o o d enough to give us his m eaning o f the expression which he must have uttered oftener than any other man. 5. Philadelphia. A n enquiry as to whether there is a chance o f a team from Philadelphia obtaining fixtures over here during the com in g season. N ot know ing, I cannot say. B ut supposing they can send their m ost representative eleven, would it n ot be advisable to postpone the visit until 1897 ? W ith the Austra­ lians am ongst us, it w ill be alm ost im ­ possible fo r the leading counties to take the Americans on ; and some of us have so g ood opinions o f the latter’s ability on the cricket field, that w e are anxious to see them pitted against our crack teams, and not, as in past visits, o n lin e their attention to amateur elevens. A n d w hy should n ot these matches count in the first-class averages ? D ublin University did this year. 7. A nd, lastly, from N ew Zealand. A cop y o f the first Cricketers’ Annual published there, from m y esteemed correspondent, the H on . J. S. U dal, the A ttorney General o f F iji, whose courtesy comm ands m y heartiest recognition. A guide containing 230 pages represents splendid vitality so far as cricket is con­ cerned. I f on ly fo r the sake o f the frontispiece it it very welcome, that being a _photograph o f the F iji team which, under M r. U dal’s captaincy, has recently been touring in N ew Zealand. The native cricket costume must be seen to be un derstood ; it beggars description. There is a capital resume of Stoddart’s tour, w ritten, I should imagine, specially for this book. L eg ion appears to be the