Cricket 1896

M a y 21, 1896. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 147 BETWEEN THE INNINGS. Taken absolutely, the week’s cricket inclu­ ded between the 11th and the 16fch was a remarkable one; a comparison with that which preceded it puts it somewhat into the shade. Distinctly its greatest feature was the continued brilliant success of the Surrey team. Yorkshire, it is true, also won both its matches, but not in such brilliant fashion as did the champions. It has seldom happened that a side has gone in against a score like 349, and yet after all won in an innings. A similar and even better performance, I remember, in connection with Australian cricket; New South Wales scored 403 in the Christmas Intercolonial at Melbourne in 1884, and Vic­ toria, replying with 482 (Blackham, 109), got them all out for 74 in the second, and won by an innings and 5 runs. But such a feat is one in a thousand; years may pass before its like happens. Surrey has now scored in four matches 1,747 runs for 39 wickets—an aver­ age of nearly 4 ) per wicket. To my mind, the Champion County his in Abel and Hay­ ward the best two professional batsmen of the day, not even excepting Shrewsbury and Gunn, and in Richardson the best bowler— especially on the hard tone wickets we are now getting. _______________________ Abel, of course, has scored the 200 runs before ; but Hayward’s name, like Peel’ s last week, is new to the list. His uncle did a similar feat years ago. I fancy that young Tom, however, will eclipse even the fine feats of his relative, one of the kings of cricket of his day, a day when Cambridgeshire ranked among the leading counties. To-day, the Fen County gives her sons to strengthen the teams of other shires. Herbert Carpenter is the best batsman of the regular Essex men ; Tom Hayward ranks second only to Abel in the Surrey team; and George Watts has done fair service on occasion for the Champion County. Abel’s three centuries in successive matches in first-class cricket is, as the Editor remarked last week, a feat only parallelled by W .G. and MacLaren. But the G.O.M. has done it more than once. Besides the great 344, 177, 318*, in 1876, to which allusion was made in “ Pavilion Gossip,” he scored in successive matches in 1871, 118, 178, 162, and in 1873, 134, 163, 158 ; while in 1874 he made centuries in six successive first-class matches, the last three in succession, and smaller scores interspersed among the others, thus : 101 and 19, 23 and 110, 167, 94 and 121, 123, 127. Let me now turn to my list of the NOTABLE PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK ENDING M AY 16. B owling . Richardson, 11 for 170, Surrey v. Essex, at Oval. I ’Anson, 10 for 149, Lancashire v. M.C.C., at Lord’s ; 6 for 39 second innings of Sussex v. Lancashire, at Manchester. J. T. Heame, 8 for 103, M.C.C. v. Lancashire, at Lord’s ; and 11 for 78, M.C.C. v. Leicestershire, at Lord’s—anothet fine week’s work. Tyler, 10 for 242, Somerset v. Yorkshire, at Taunton. A heavy cost, but a fine per­ formance, for only 15 Yorkshire wickets fell. F. W . Milligan, 7 for 33, Yorkshire v. Gloucestershire, at Bristol. H. Trumble, 10 for 108, Australians v. Essex, at Leyton. B atting . Six centuries. Thirty-six individual scores of 50 or over in the ten first-class matches. Totals of 512, 430, 422, 400, 360, 349, 347, 323, and 301. Two 1,000-run matches :— Somerset v. Yorkshire, at Taunton. 1,063 for 35. Derbyshire v. Surrey, at Derby, 1,009 for 3). Long stands for a wicket:— Rs.Wkts. Batsmen. Match. A t Date. 10J...3...L.Palairet&Robson Sm'.v.Yorks. Taun. 11 103...1...De Trafford and Stoddart .......... M.C.C.v.Lanc. Lord’s 11 131...4...Moorhouse and Wainwright ... Yorks.v.Smt. Taun. 12 112.. 2 ..Marlow and Ran- jitainhji .......... Sx. v. Lvncs Man. 14 125...6...Baker & F.H. Sugg Lancs, v. Sx. ,, 15 157...5...Hayward & Lock­ wood S I’y. v. Dby. Derby 15 101...6...Marriott & Wilson Cam.Univ.v. Webbe’s X I. Camb. 15 108...9...Mitchell&Robinsoii „ „ 15-16 M.C.C. v. Leicestershire at Lord’s only realised 382 runs for thirty-seven wickets—a strong contrast to the general rate of scoring. During the week the ten first-class matches realised 7,965 runs for 332 wickets, the smallest fraction under 24 runs per wicket, even higher than last week’s average. But the scoring was somewhat more level. It looks as though Lancashire had found the very man they wanted in I ’Anson, who surely must, by the way, belong to the well-known Yorkshire trainer’s family. His bowling against both the M.C.C. and Sussex won high praise from the critics ; and he can bat, too, as he showed in the game at Lord’s. Robson would also appear to b^, a decided catch for Somerset; and Perrin, the Essex amateur, is evidently a good-class batsman. It is pleasant to see young players com'ng to the front so early in the season. I fear my correspondents will think them­ selves neglected. The exigencies of space last week caused the cutting-out of a batch of answers. I hope the same thing will not occur this time; but even ifitdoes, let me assurethose who have been so kind as to write to me that I heartily appreciate their latters, even though during the season I may not have space to deal with them in these columns. It was very gratifying to me to see that the Cricket Examination paper was received with approval. Several correspondents have referred to it in flattering terms ; and three— two of them, much to my surprise, ladies— have sent in full sets of answers. These I should mark, taking 100 as the standard for an absolutely correct paper, at 85 (Mr. R. L. Elderton), 75 (the Balham paper), and 65 (that from Hull). Mr. Lacy’s letter in the last number of Cricket calls for some words of comment. His reference to famous cricketing families opens up a wide field. How many of them there are! The Graces, Dafts, Hearnes, Studds, Steels, Walkers, Lytteltons, Penns, Mordaunts, Lillywhites, Haywards, Carpenters, McLeods, Gregorys —these are but a few. The list might be greatly ex­ tended. Some day I hope to recur to the subject. As to Mr. W. W. Read’s centuries, Mr. Lacy will see for himself that I cannot possibly afford space to give it in extenso at present; but I may say, that in calculating the number at 37 I accepted the press dictums as to what was or what was not a first-class match, and that the 37 (now 38) were made up as follows : 31 in first-class matches for Surrey, 3 in Australia, one Gentlemen v. Players, one Gentlemen v. Australians, one England v. Australia, one South of England v. Australians. In addition, W .W . has made six in matches against counties not reckoned first-class at the time, one v. Scot­ land, one in one of the Reigate matches against W.G.’s team, one for the Gentlemen of Surrey v. the Gentlemen of Notts, two for the same side against the Philadelphians, and one against the Parsees, besides many in dis­ tinctly minor matches. Now that I am on the subject of classifi­ cation, what of Dublin University v. M.C.C., the match played last week, in which Lucius Gwynn scored 120 ? The match was, by the judgment of the M.C.C., first-class last year, and the figures of those who took part in it were duly included in the first-class averages. This year, ‘ 1 tho funny men of the Press” (to quote Mr. Lacy), have quietly ignored it. Now it seems to me, that if the M.C.C. is the tribunal, and if that tribunal last year decided that the match was first- class, then it is necessarily first-class again this year ; and the Press has certainly no authority to discard it. I have nothing to say as to whether the match ought to rank. That is the business of the wise men of the M.C.C. What I say is that it is ridiculous that it should rank in 1835 and not iu 1896. Let us at least be consistent. I have not included anything done in it in my week’s record, because it appears to have been taken for granted by everyone that it is merely a minor game ; but I hero enter my emphatic protest against the absurdity. So far the Australians have not done any­ thing which calls for lengthy comment at my hands. I note with pleasure the early success of young Hill and Darling. The bowling seems all right, too. Jones bowled a bit short occasionally, in both matches, but he has a very fair record for the week, and “ Long Hugh ” did fin3 work against Essex. J.N.P. STOICS v. WANSTEAD. - Played at Wanstead on May 16. S toics . C. E. E. Lee, c and b Raisin .................. 10 M. Abbott, c Bonner, b M u n dy.................. 6 L.Cowlish iw.bMundy 4 A. W . Rammell, c Cockett, b Raisin ... 1 E.S. Westhorp.b Raisin 1 A. Campion, b Mundy 4 W . J. Haycraft, b Mundy ................... 4 C E.Roberts, b Mundy H .A Higgs, cCodkett, b M u u dy.................. F. A. Buckingham, not out .................. A. E. Buory, b Mundy L b ........................ Total 5 0 1 47 W ansteao . J. H. Bonner, lbw, b H aycraft.................. 4 J. J. Heath, c Higgs, b Saycraft .......... 2 F. Mundy, b Haycraft 17 N. B. Johnstone, b H aycraft.................. 3 C. Raisin, c Abbott, b H aycraft................. 4 C. C. Roberts, b Wes- thorp.......................... 2 R. H. Symonds, lbw, b Haycraft .......... 9 J. Hamilton, b Cowli- sh a w .......................... 8 E. E. Lockett, c Higgs, b Haycraft ...........12 J. H. Hanks, not out 2 J. Osborne, b Haycraft 0 B 2, lb 1 .................. 3 Total ... 63 HORNSEY v. CHESHUNT.—Played at Hornsey on May 16. H ornsey . 14 S. L. Clarke, b Burt W. P. Harrison, c B >yd, b H ills........... 3 C. Vv. Talbot, not out 8 F. T. Church, not out 13 B 36, lb 2, w 1 ... 39 R.W . Nicholls, c Clap­ ham, b Harper ... 29 B. A. Clarke, b Hills 6 ) G. H. Swinstead, b Burt .....................29 A. E. Turberville, b B u r t ........................ 0 F. H. Swinstead, c Total ...........*203 Isaacs, b Burt......... J. Dempsey, and E. A. Cox did not bat. * Innings declared closed. C heshunt . Rev. W . G. Boyd, c and b B. A . Clarke 11 J. Holmes, b F. H. Swinstead.................. 4 F. O. Keysell, b F. H. Swinstead.................. 0 H. J. S. Harper, c Nicholls, b S. L. Clarke .................. 32 A. H. K. Burt, c Tal­ bot,bG.H.Swinstead 6 S. Wales, b B. A. Clarke ..................14 W . L. Isaacs, c G. H. S w in s t e a d , b Dempsey.................. 5 D. Raincock, not out 21 E. J. M. Clapham, b B. A. C larke........... 1 Byes ...........11 Total ...105 F. Hills, and T. Zwiager did not bat.