Cricket 1896

A pril 30, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 99 BETWEEN THE INNINGS. Not much of note in the cricket world has happened since my last article ap­ peared. The chief event has been the arrival of the manager of the Australian Team, who is himself an old cricketer of no mean ability. Playing for an Eighteen or Twenty-two of Ballarat (if my memory is not at fault) against Shaw and Shrewsbury’s 1884-5 Team, he scored an innings of 109. When the team of two years’ later played Fifteen of the East Melbourne Club, he was again to the fore, making 59 in the second innings of the Club. A few days afterwards the mixed match, Smokers v. Non-Smokers, was played. This was the match in which the (then) record score in a first- class encounter, 803 (with one batsman absent), was put together by the Non- Smokers. Mr. Musgrove’s share of that 803 was 62. That was a remarkable match in every respect. Three batsmen —Shrewsbury (236), Gunn (150), and William Bruce (131)—-made centuries for the Non-Smokers; one—G. E. Palmer (113)—for the Smokers. Briggs scored 86 and 54, Flowers 69 and 25, Worrall 78, Musgrove 62, Houston 57, W. H. Cooper 46, and Maurice Bead 30; and the aggregate was 1,294 for twenty-five wickets. Allowing that the ground was small—the game was played on the East Melbourne ground, not on the fine Mel­ bourne Club enclosure—and that perhaps the game was scarcely contested as seriously as an intercolonial or inter­ national match might have been, it can yet hardly be gainsaid that these figures are out of the common. The bowlers, naturally, came in for severe treatment. George Lohmann had 113 scored off him without taking a wicket ; Flowers 93 with like unsuccess; Briggs took four for 141 ; and Palmer three for 189. Even Shrewsbury went on to bowl, and sent down a maiden. There was a curious finish to the match. Everyone was anxious to obtain pos­ session of the ball with which it had been played. Scotton had to take the last ball of the last over. He played it very gently away, and then rushed to pick it u p ; but he touched it before the umpire had called time, and was consequently given out “ handled ball.” Yery few other instances are on record of a bats­ man being out under Law 29 in first-class matches. Jones, the South Australian fast bowler, was out thus in an inter­ colonial between his colony and Victoria in 1894-5, and Mr. Charles Wright when playing for Notts, against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1893. I believe there are one or two other instances, but I cannot at the present moment recall them. Two of my correspondents this week have a word to say about Shrewsbury’s centuries. The Bev. H. A. Tate says that be makes the number of them 43, with which figure my list agrees. Someone else enquires whether Shrewsbury or W. W. has made the more; and my answer to this is Shrewsbury. I have gone through the list of W. W .’s, and find that there are 37 in all, so that the great Notts batsman is six ahead, and stands second to W. G.— longo intervallo, however. Here is a list of SHREWSBURY’S CENTURIES IN FIRST-CLASS MATCHES. 267 Notts v. Middlesex ......... Nottingham... 1887 267 Notts v Sussex ................ Nottingham.. . 1890 •236 Non-Smokers v. Smokers ... Melbourne ... 1887 232 Shrewsbury’s Team v. Viet. Melbourne .. . 1887 227* Notts v. Gloucestershire ... Moreton-in- Marsh........ . 1886 224* Notts v. Middlesex .......... Lord’s ........ . 1885 212 Notts v. Middlesex .......... Lord’s ........ . 1892 209 Notts v. Sussex ................. Brigh’ on . 1884 207 Notts v. Surrey ................. Oval ......... . 1882 206 Shrewsbury’s Team v. Sixth Australian X I................... Sydney.......... 1888 178 Notts v. Kent ................. Nottingham... 1891 165 Notts v. Sussex ................. Brighton . 1891 164 England v. Australia.......... Lord’s ........ . 1886 164 Notts v. Sussex ... ... ... Brighton . 189 { 152 England v. M.C.C................ Lord’s ........ . 1887 151* Sherwin’s X I. v. Hall’s X I. Bradford . 1891 151* Players v. Gentlemen.......... Oval ........ . 1892 148 Notts v. Lancashire .......... Nottingham..., 1893 144 Shaw’s Team v. Victoria ... Melbourne .. . 1887 143 Notts v. Derbyshire .......... Nottingham.. . 1895 137 Notts v. Gloucestershire ... Nottingham... 1885 135 Notts v. Sussex ................. Nottingham... 1887 130 Notts v. Lancashire .......... Nottingham.. . 1887 127 Notts v. Surrey ................. Oval ........ . 1884 127 Players v. Gentlemen.......... Oval ........ . 1886 127 Notts v. Gloucestershire ... Cheltenham... 1892 124 Notts v. Kent ................. Canterbury ... 1893 119* Notts v. Gloucestershire ... C lifton.......... 1887 119 Players of North v. Gentle­ men of South ................. Oval ... . . 1877 119 Notts v. Middlesex .......... Lord’s ........ . 1887 118 Notts v. Yorkshire .......... Nottingham... 1876 118 Notts v. Derbyshire .......... Derby .......... 1885 117 Notts v. Lancashire .......... Nottingham. . 1890 116 Notts v Yorkshire .......... Nottingham. . 1892 111* Notts v. Kent ................. Canterbury .. . 1892 111 Players v. Gentlemen.......... Lord’s ........ . 1887 111 Notts v. Kent ......... ... Maidstone .. . 1895 106 England v. Australia.......... Lord’s ......... . 1893 105* Shaw’s Team v. Australia.. , Melbourne .. . 1885 104 Notts v. Sussex ................. Nottingham.. . 1889 101 North v. South ................. Manchester.. . 1885 101 Notts v. Sussex ................. Brighton . 1887 101 Notts v. Lancashire.......... Manchester ... 1893 It is curious how Shrewsbury’s scores have repeated themselves. His highest— 267—has been duplicated. Twice he has scored 164; 151 occurs twice, 127 three times, 119 three times, 118 twice, 111 three times, and 101 three times. He has made no fewer than seven centuries against Sussex, four each against Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, and Middlesex, two each against Surrey, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. He has never played against Hampshire or Essex, and has never managed to achieve three figures in the few matches in which he has met the bowling of Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Somerset. I remember the time when the question —Who has scored over two hundred most times ?—was often put, and almost in­ variably answered wrongly. Nearly everyone said “ W.G.,” but until last year Shrewsbury held the lead in this respect. (I speak, of course, of first-class matches only.) Now the Champion is once more ahead, having made eleven to Shrewsbury’s ten: 344, 318*, 288, 268, 261, 257, 224*, 221*, 217, 215, 215. W.W. has made three: 338, 247, 244*. Gunn four: 228, 219, 205*, 203. G. Giffen four: 271, 237, 205, 203. W. L. Murdoch five: 321, 286*, 279*, 226, 211. A. C. MacLaren tw o: 424 and 228. Other players have achieved the feat once, the complete list being, I believe: Abel (B.), W. B. Gilbert, H. Graham, S. E. Gregory, Hayward (T., sen.), W. H. Hadow, H.T. Hewett, C. Hill, Jupp (H.), K J. Key, F. E. Lacey, Lockwood (E.), F. M. Lucas, P. S. M’Donnell, Marsden (T.), H. H. Massie, T. G. Matthews, G. J. Mordaunt, H. Moses, Sir T. C. O’Brien, W. E. Boiler, S. W. Scott, A. E. Stoddart, Ward (A.), W . Ward, A. J. Webbe, S. M. J. Woods. If any name that should be in this list is omitted, I shall be glad to be told of it; but I believe it to be complete, unless there were other two-hundred scores made in the earlier years of cricket, of which my M.S. book contains no note. I have not Scores and Biographies by me at time of writing. Space would scarcely permit of my giving details of the sixty-six scores j ust now, but this is a subj ect to which I may recur when the off-season once more comes round. By that time, it is not unlikely—especially if we have a season like 1895—that there will be others to add to the list. I got involved in an argument the other evening with a friend who is by no means a cricket enthusiast, his knowledge of the game not quite stopping short of being able to distinguish which is the right end of the bat to hold, but scarcely going much farther. Of what possible use or interest, he asked, is it to know that a certain man on a certain day made a certain number of runs ? How can any sane person arouse enthusiasm over a bare fact of that des­ cription. I ventured to point out, that to me “ W. G. Grace, c Shaw, b Harris, 344,” meant considerably more than “•white to play, and mate in four moves; ” or “ Two by honours, and three by tricks.” But he was not to be convinced. Chess and whist were intellectual exercises; this chronicling of cricket, this dabbling in statistics, were barren of intellectual results. Whereupon, I mildly suggested that if he needed something craggy to break his mind upon, he should take the same set of averages as given in two or three different volumes—say the Austra­ lian averages in England, as given by Brumfitt and Kirby, C. P. Moody in Australian Cricket and Cricketers, and Wisden, over which I lately puzzled many hours—and endeavour to construct from them a correct set. I did not recommend the exercise as being a pleasant one, for I did not find it so ; but I should be sur­ prised if anyone who undertook the reconciliation and accomplished it, could afterwards tell me that he had done so without troubling his brains at all. But to me cricket statistics and cricket chronicles mean much more than this. I take a volume of Wisden, and open it haphazard ; and at once before my mind’s eye passes the panorama of a bright summer’s day. The skies are blue over­ head, and the sun pours down on the asphalte path at Fenner’s ; and a hum of excitement goes round, for the old W. G. and the young W .G . have just walked to wickets together, playing for the M.C.C. Or again, there is the thunder of applause as K. S. Ranjitsinhji, so easily and grace­ fully and quietly, puts the ball to the leg-boundary, or gallant Perkins hits