Cricket 1896

J an . 30, 1896. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 5 Bowler. Overs.Kims. Wkts. Aver. Mr. J. J. Ferris ......... 981'2 ... 1269 ... 235 ... 5'38 A. D. Pougher ......... 255'4 ... 393 ... 61 ... 6'43 A. Hearne .................156'4.. 234... 35 ... 6'6S J. T. Heame.................. 739'2 ... 1115 ... 163 ... 6'84 F. Martin ................ 593’4 ... 919 ... 109 ... 8 43 Those of the leading bowlers of the 1888-9 party were almost as good :— Bowler. Overs. Runs. Wkts. Aver. J. Briggs ................. 1220 3 ... 1512 ... 290 ... 5-21 A. J. Fothergill......... 686 ... 826 ... 118 ... 7'00 Mr. C. A. Smith......... 75T ... 999 ... 134 ... 7'45 It >»ay be of interest to give here the names of those who constituted the two former teams. They were :— Major Warton’s {" 888-9)—The Hon. C. J. Coventry, Meesr . M. P. Bowden, B. A. P. Grieve, E. j . McMaster. C. A. Smith, and A. C. Skim er, with R. Abel, J. Briggs, A. J. P o tto gill, F. Hearne, J. M. Read, G. Ulyett, and H. Wood. Mr. J. H. Roberts came out with the team, but returned after the first match owing to a family bereavement, Ulyett taking his place. Mr. W. W. Read’s (1891-2).—Messrs. G. Brann, J. J. Ferris, W. L. Murdoch and W. W. Read, with G. W. Ayres, V. A. Barton, W. Brockwell, W. Chatter- ton, A. Hearne, G. G. Hearne, J. T. Hearne, E. Leaney, F. Martin, A. D. Poiigher and H. Wood. The big scoring of Lord Hawke’s Team against Cape Colony and Pietermaritz­ burg is in front of anything previously recorded in South Africa by an English team. The highest totals of the first team were 299 v. XV III. of Kimberley and 292 v. South Africa. Mr. Read’s team made 283 v. XV. of the Transvaal, George Brann scoring 142, and 369 v. South Africa. This 142 of Mr. Brann’s was the highest individual score in these matches until Mr. C. B. Fry came along and twice beat it within three weeks. The admirable Crichton of Oxford is going very strong so far, in spite of failure in the first match. He has scored up to the time of writing 5, 3, 148, 6, 49, 25, 153 and 33—422 in eight innings. Even now, however, his average is but little in front of Bobby Abel’s in 1888-9 ; while Chatterton also did splendidly in 1891-2. Here are their respective aver­ ages :— Not Aver- Highest Inns. out. Runs. age. score. R. Ahel................. 26 ... 4 ... 1075 ... 48'86 ... 126* W. Chatterton ... 31 ... 8 ... 955 ... 41'52 ... 105* *Signifies not out. The highest scores made by the English­ men’s opponents during the two previous tours were XV . of Cape Colony, 267, and XVIII. of Kimberley, 225, against the first team, and XV. of Cape Colony, 197, against the second; so that these, too, have been beaten during the tour of the present team by the Pietermaritzburgers’ 310. By the way, is not the Lieutenant R. M. Poore, 7th Hussars, who made 112 in that match, a former well-known figure in Indian cricket ? Among the gallant fellows (for gallant they must be owned, however misguided) who rode in “ Jameson’s raid,” and among the prisoners now bound for home on the Victoria to stand their trial for participation therein, is one well-known English cricketer. Frequenters of Lord’s and Fenner’s three or four years ago will remember Cyril Foley, the old Cambridge Blue and Middlesex county man, who eighteen months or so back threw up the study of the law for life on the veldt and Karroo, and who was, it is said, breaking in horses for the Chartered Company just before the raid. Mr. Foley got his blue at Cambridge in 1889, and played three times against Oxford. He was not in residence in 1891, and, as he was well known to be scarcely so reliable in the field as others who might have been chosen, and as he had done nothing in the few trial matches in which he had played, Mr. MacGregor was severely criticised for giving him a place in the team. After all, however, it was Mr. Foley who won the match for his side. Cambridge went in to get quite a moderate number of runs to w in ; but most of the men seemed helpless against Berkeley’s bowling, and it was only the coolness and skill displayed by Cyril Foley (he scored 41) which enabled the Light Blues to win by the narrow margin of two wickets. His best season was undoubtedly 1893. Some of the innings he played at Lord's that season were really remarkable ones ; and his cutting—indeed, his off-play generally—was nothing short of masterly. One hillings, especially, I remember. The M.C.C. wanted just over a hundred to secure victory over Lancashire. If I remember rightly, Mr. Foley went in first. Who his partner was I don’t remember; but that matters little, as, when the premier club had finally won by one wicket, he had had every man on the side as partner, and was still himself unconquered, with 62 runs of a total of 102 from the bat. Other good scores of his at Lord’s that year were :—49, M.C.C. v. Yorkshire; 69, M.C.C. v. Sussex; 56, Middlesex v. Somerset; 60, not out, v. Yorkshire ; 68 v. Notts, and 47 v. Sussex. His highest of the season, however, was put together against Gloucestershire on the Bristol Ground, and amounted to 72. Altogether he scored 658 runs in 25 completed innings in first class cricket that year. Mr. Foley was, by the way, the bats­ man against whom probably the most absurd umpire’s decision on record in big cricket—the historical “ out for handling the bail” —was given. This was in the match v. Sussex at Lord’s in the year of which I have just been writing. As most of my readers will remember, he con­ tinued his innings at Mr. Murdoch’s special request. Who can wonder at the diatribes against umpires when a man of wide experience both in that capacity and as a player could give such a startling proof of incompetency P The decision came at by the M.C.C. to allow twelve matches to qualify for inclusion in the County Championship instead of sixteen, as last year, is a very sensible one—the only sensible one under the circumstances. I fancy the minimum number will have to be permanently reduced to fourteen. There are only two or three counties who can afford to play all the others; and it is not to be expected that the older shires will give up their fixtures with old rivals in order to com­ plete the cards of the promoted teams. Middlesex and Somerset acted with real generosity in giving Essex fixtures last year; but they were unable to repeat them this, and, no one else coming for­ ward, Essex has but twelve games. Leicestershire—certainly on last year’s form neither so strong nor so attractive a team as Essex—has managed to get four- tean, Yorkshire being able to arrange fixtures after at first declining to do so. Surrey and Yorkshire do good service to the game with their long programmes, each meeting all its rivals. Lancashire follows suit to a smaller extent. Could not the Red Rose County play Essex, I wonder F Notts and Sussex can scarcely afford to play more games. Kent, Middlesex, Somerset, and Gloucestershire are so largely amateur sides that they cannot get their best teams together for more matches than at present. All the promoted counties play each other— which is as it should be—so that it is difficult to see where any marked exten­ sion in the number of matches arranged can be brought about. Hearty congratulations to the Notts County Committee on the much-improved state of affairs financially. Let’s hope the cricket will improve correspondingly in 1896. “ Scissors and paste” will not be my method in these columns; but I should like to quote here, for once, some verses which appeared in the Globe recently, and which are really too good to be missed by any of the readers of this journal. They illustrate—satirically, of course—an utterance of Lord Harris’ : that cricket has done much for England in bringing the upper and lower classes together. T he H on . S logley B att , loq. :— ‘ ‘ Brings us together ? ’ ’ Why truly, But parts us uncommonly soon. I was thought the best man, I remember, In a match down in Surrey last June. We were playing a bally village. They were labourers, every Jack, And they put on a blacksmith Johnnie To open the howling attack. I wanted to stay for a fortnight; 1 went in a minute or less, With a duck to my name and a feeling of shame, For he bowled like a bally express. B ill S w ipes , loq. :— “ It brings us together,” but often I’m blowed if it does much more ! I remember that match last summer, 1 hacked myself for a score. We were playing a team of nobs, sir, As swagger a lot as you’ll see ; And I thought as I looked ’em over, I’m in for a fair old spree. . . . I jumped for the first half-volley ; My aunt! how the leather went, But a blooming young toff who was fielding mid-off, He bustled me back to the tent. Satirical, of course; and yet going far to prove Lord Harris’ contention. For be you sure that the Hon. Slogley Batt came away from that match with an in­ creased respect for the race of black­ smiths ; while Bill Swipes must perforce have had to own that there was something in the “ blooming young toff” who did not funk the hottest chance ! NEXT ISSUE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27th.