Cricket 1896

M a y 21 , 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 153 SOON after Mr. Ward began his excellent innings, he had an experience which was calculated to take the nerve out of any man, however experienced he m ight be. A very fast ball from Jones (which pitched not quite half way) took off his cap with a neatness which could not have been surpassed. During the past season in the Transvaal, Mr. Albert Goldman, an Australian cricketer of repute, has been doing great things for the Sanitary Board C.C. Mr. Goldman, who is a brother-in-law of C. T. B. Turner, is the smallest cricketer playing in good matches in the Band. Besides being a cricketer, he holds the roller skating championship of South Africa and Australia. T h e scores made b y Mr. Goldman in his last eleven innings are as follow s:— v. Thespians, 103*; v. Filmer’s X I., 42; v. Chambers’ Club, 76 ; v. Wanderers, 56*; v. 1st Wanderers, 82; v. Water Works X I ., 98; v. Thespians, 9 2 ; v. Doyling’s X I., 75; v. Town Engineers, 78; v. Pirates, 38; v. Thespians, 73. Total, 823. This gives him an average of 91 '4 For the same club Mr. E. A. Halliwell has an average of 52 for six innings. Mr. Goldman took over sixty wickets. T he name of a well-known athlete of a past generation—W . S. Bambridge— figures in the list of the candidates for the office of Principal of the Guildhall School of Music, rendered vacant b y the death of Sir Joseph Barnby. “ Old Bam,” as many Cricket readers do not need to be reminded, is the senior of a brother­ hood of first-class footballers, as well as keen cricketers. “ Bam ” himself was not only a useful all-round cricketer, but a capable administrator in addition. For a long time, if my memory serves me rightly, he was hon. sec. of the Wiltshire County C.C. He has filled the office of Mayor at Marlborough, too, with great credit. O n the second day of the' Essex match at Leyton, George Giffen went on to bow l at twenty minutes to four, when the Essex second innings began. Exactly an hour and a half afterwards he was taken off without having been fortunate enough to get a wicket, although he had beaten the batsmen frequently. This must be almost a record for a bowler on a wicket in England, for English bowlers seldom have the chance to go on for very long if they do not take a wicket, how­ ever well they may be bowling. T he already famous ball b y which Jones creates terror in batsmen, even if he does not get their wicket b y it, generally pitches rather under half way than over. It comes so quickly off the pitch that a batsman seems only to have just time to get his nose out of the way, and is as likely as not to touch it with his bat without intending to do so. It remains to be seen whether Richardson can develop a similar b a ll; Mold seems to be out of tbe running. C o m m e n tin g on the vagaries of the translator who does the French titles of the pictures in the Salon des Beaux Arts into English, the Globe points out that Jeune Baigneuse is rendered as Batting Girl, and adds: “ A young batting girl in the costume of a ‘ jeune baigneuse ’ would cause a sensation at Lord’s. Not even a pad has she, which is unwise in these days of fast bow ling.” Perhaps, however, the translator is not so much to blame iu this case as the compositor. C r i c k e t curio hunters will be interested to learn that a sparrow came to grief during the course of H iggins’ innings of three figures for the Surrey Colts against Brockwell Park, at the Oval, on Monday. The batsman hit a ball from Swinfen rather hard between cover-point and mid- off, and it came on the little bird un­ awares. The effect was more disastrous than that recorded in Gossip recently, in referring to a somewhat similar case on the same ground a few years ago. On Monday, at least, the restoratives were not in time to save the sparrow’s life, as in the other case. I n a reference to the interview with Mr. Sydney Pardon, which appeared in Cricket a week or two ago, Mr. Arthur Budd, in last week’s Athletic News, gave thefollow ing definition of “ throw ing” :— “ If the lower arm is flexed on the upper during theact ofdelivery it is throwing.” Mr. F. Mitchell, in the same journal this week, speaks of this definition as a fallacy. He considers that it is established that 1. One cannot throw with a perfectly straight arm and uninterrupted swing. 2. A throw is caused by flexing the arm. 3. There are fair bowlers who bowl with the arm flexed. M r . M i t c h e l l also says that he considers it is the bounden duty of every county captain to exclude from his team every man whose delivery is not absolutely fair, and refers, to support this opinion, to the rule about “ no ball.” A t the same time he thinks there is exceedingly little throwing at the present day, and that if any steps are taken to stop what there is, the amateurs must be dealt with first. I n an interview which appeared in Cricket two or three weeks ago, Mr. Sydney Pardon said:— “ As far as one can tell from long experi­ ence in comparing cricketers of one period with those of another, I do not think that the big cricketers of the nineties are appreciably better than those of the eighties and seventies and sixties.” As an example which would tend to prove this, Mr. Pardon instanced a performance of Mr. B. A. H . Mitchell. It is interest­ ing, as bearing on this question, to note the performance of Mr. A. P. Lucas this week against the Australians. Mr. Lucas is essentially a batsman of the seventies and eighties, and was, perhaps, at his very best at the end of the seventies. I t is a long time since such wonderful batting on a curious wicket has been seen at Lord’s as was shown in the match between M.C.C. and Leicestershire b y Mr. W. J. Ford and Mr. de Trafford. Mr. Ford, in making his scores of 27 and 33 (retired) treated Woodcock and Pougher as slow bowlers. Both the Leicestershire bowlers had two men deep in the long field for him, but on most occasions they had not the remotest chance of getting to the ball before it reached the boundary. His hits were worthy of the days when he was a terror to bowlers in first-class cricket. M r . d e T r a f i - o r d ’s second innings was a curiosity. Ten balls were bowled to him. Off the first eight he made 23 runs ; the ninth he played hard back to the bowler ; the tenth kept low and beat him. He began with three fours off Heame, finishing up the over with a two and a one. A t this time last year (May 19), centuries in first-class cricket had been made by Burns, G. F. Higgins, H. W. Bainbridge (2), Tomlin, K. S.Banjitsinhji, F. Mitchell, Carpenter, S. M. J. Woods, Lilley, Abel (217), Holland (Surrey), F. S. Jackson, G. F. Vernon, H . T. Hewett, G. Fowler, N. F. Druce, Lock­ wood, Dr. Grace (2) including 288, Gunn (219), and Bagguley. Of these twenty men, only Gunn (3), Abel (3) including 231, Mr.Woods, Holland (2), Banjitsinhji, and Mr. Jackson have made them in ’96. T h e Haverford College team, who are to leave Philadelphia in the s.s. Belgenland on the seventeenth of next month for Liverpool on the first stage of their trip to England, will, in all probability, con­ sist of the follow in g : John A. Lester, the captain, D. H . Adams, C. H . H ow - son, A. B. Mifflin, J. H . Scattergood, C. B . Henchman, W . K . Alsop, A. F. Coca, L. H . Wood, A . C. Thomas, and T . Wistar, with, no doubt, at least one reserve. Haverford College has not only trained a goodly number of the leading Philadelphian players, but has also con­ tributed to international cricket not a few of the most distinguished exponents of American cricket. Of the latter, it will be enough to mention G. S. Patterson, Lowry, Fox, H . P . Baily, and Sharpe, all of them well-known to English cricketers. A n o t h e r cricket curio ! It occurred in a match between Mr. W. Moens’ Eleven and Lessness Park, at Lessness Park, Abbey Wood, on Saturday afternoon. Eustace Butter, son of F. J. Butter, one of the celebrated family of Middlesex cricketers, going in first for Mr. Moen’s Eleven, carried out his bat for 136. But the captain of the home team was not to be outdone. The captain of Lessness Park is Surrey’s whilom captain, J. Shuter, and he too carried his bat through the innings with a score of 105. This double first in batting speaks well for the wicket at Lessness Park, which was only laid down last autumn by Apted, the ground superintendent at the Oval.