Cricket 1896

10 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J a n . 30, 1896. to get together a thoroughly representa­ tive side. T he critics who argued on the assump­ tion that any of the first-class counties would be left out in the cold for want of the requisite number of matches to qualify for the County Championship, were not i nly premature, but altogether out of their reckoning. As a matter of fact, the proposition to reduce the minimum from eight to six matches for 1896 only met with the hearty support of all the fourteen first-class counties. The Mary- lebone Committee, therefore, had merely to conform a unanimous decision of the parties interested. T he earlier prophesies with regard to the selection of a manager for the coming Australian team seem to have been wofully wide of the mark. On paper there appeared to be at the outset only about three candidates in the running at all, and not one of them reached the post. Towards the last, Messrs. G. M. Evans, of Adelaide, and W. F. Boyle, were apparently the most fancied, though several other names were mentioned. After all, the choice of the Australasia Cricket Council has rested on Mr. Harry Musgrave, of the Princess Theatre, Mel­ bourne. Himself a very fair cricketer, Mr. Musgrave is an excellent organiser, and in the opinion of those who ought to know, he is evidently qualified, possess­ ing both the tact and decision necessary for such a responsible position. E veryone who remembers Percy McDonnell’s attractive style of batting will be glad to hear that he still retains a good deal of his old brilliance and free­ dom. In the recent International match between New South Wales he made his 65 in the first innings in his most approved form. He was in ten minutes under the hour, and a good judge describes his batting “ as the best fifty minutes cricket he had seen for many along day.” While on the subject of fast scoring I may record, in passing, that the younger Trott (A. E. to wit), who is not coming over here after all everybody will be sorry to hear, made 113 in an hour and a quarter, for East Melbourne against South Melbourne, on December 14th. T h ey have a pretty good tosser in the captain of the Glenelg Club, which is Adelaide way, if the form of the early part of this season has been anything like maintained. Up to the middle of Decem­ ber, at all events, he had a record which most captains would like to be able to emulate. To date the Glenelgs had won the toss nine times, and batted through eight Saturdays. They had at that time only fielded once, and that for no longer than half an hour. The other skippers in Adelaide must, I fancy, look a bit askance at that same captain. They might well say, “ I know that man, he comes from Sheff—I mean Glenelg.” T he Adelaide Observer of Dec. 14th, is my authority for the following ‘ ‘ Last Saturdaya curious incident occurred. Playing for the Registers against the Rey- nellaClub, Brackenreg howled two consecutive hallsrightthrough thewicket without touching the stumps or removing the hails. After the first hall was bowled the umpire, Mr. W. Watson, told the bowler that the ball went through the wicket, Jand the wicket-keeper, 6 . Chaplin, also noticed it, hut thinking it could not occur again did not touch the stumps, with the result that the hall was bowled through again. The ball was then thrown to the umpire, who put the hall through himself. A piece of paper each side of the ball would have touched the stumps.” A nother well-known cricketer, who has joined the noble army of Benedicts, is Mr. S. A. P. Kitcat, the old Marl- burian who did good service for a time for Gloucestershire. Unfortunately, I have stupidly mislaid the announcement as it appeared in the marriage column of my daily paper, so that I can only record the simple fact. This will not prevent Cricket readers who know bim, and there are many, from offering him their hearty congratulations. As everyone who knows anything is aware, S. A. P. K. is located at Esher now. R owley P ope , the young Australian, who played so well for Edinburgh Uni­ versity during the pursuit of his medical studies some few years ago, and also assisted one of the Australian teams occasionally with fair success, is making runs pretty regularly in Sydney just now. Rowley—he is now full blown Dr. A. J. Pope—was principal scorer for Sydney University against Sydney in a match towards the end of November, with 52 out of a total of 246. T. W. Garrett and S. P. Jones were also assisting the Uni­ versity in that match. L ieutenant P oore , of the 7th Hussars, who was a year or two ago one of the most consistent scorers in India, is giving the South Africans a taste of bis ability as a batsman. Just at the close of the old year he played a very fine innings of 187 for the garrison against the Standard at Pietermaritsburg, and carried out his bat after all. Now he has eclipsed even this by his fine per­ formance within the last few weeks against Lord Hawke’s team, also at Maritzburg. The Australian Team has at last been selected, and now we are able to get something like an idea of the opposition English cricketers will have to face during the coming summer. In some ways it will be, of course, a matter for regret that players of such known expectation as W. Bruce, C. T. B. Turner, J. J. Lyons and A. H. Jarvis, are not on the list. In some cases their absence may be due to the judgment of the selection committee, but hardly in all. The non- appearance of young Clement Hill, of South Australia, on paper certainly the rising batsman of Australia, as well as that of A. E. Trott, will also cause some regret. On the other hand, the presence of F. A Iredale, of New South Wales, and C. J. Eady, of Tasmania, among others of the new men, will give special interest to the tour. The team, as cabled through Reuter on Tuesday, will consist of the following :—J. Eady, Tasmania; T. R. McKibbin, F. A. Iredale, S. Gregory, and H. Donnan, New South Wales; H. Trott, H. Graham, H. Trumble, Johns and H. Harry, Victoria; and George Giffen, E. Jones, and J. Darling, South Australia. T he selectors of teams for the New South Wales Association could hardly be blamed for hesitating to play J. J. Ferris for New South Wales against Victoria until he had had a chance of getting into something like practice. The Victoria match is one which New South Wales is pretty keen on winning at all times, and those responsible for the teams are naturally desirous of being certain that all their players are fit. This J. J. F. will have had a chance of getting by this time, and everyone will earnestly hope to hear of him taking part in Australian cricket with all his old success. LAN CA SH IRE COUNTY CLUB. The annual meeting of this county club was held on Tuesday 28th, at the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly, Manchester, Mr. A. N. Hornby in the chair. The annual report pointed out the splendid position occupied by the county in last year’s champion­ ship, and paid a high tribute to the members of the eleven. The achieve­ ments of Mr. A. C. Maclaren were set forth in glowing terms, and the committee had decided to make him a life member of the club. The fact was mentioned that C. Smith, the wicket-keeper, had the best record of its kind in England, having during the season caught 50 and stumped 25. The club has a membership of 2,370, including 60 life members, whilst 475 ladies’ tickets were taken up. The attendance of the public had shown a remarkable increase, the gates in 1894 amounting to 97,230, whereas in 1895 the numbers reached 148,000, an increase of 51,000. Mr. J. Maclaren, the hon. treasurer, followed with a statement of the financial affairs. This showed the club to have a balance in hand of £2,299 9s. 5d. The receipts amounted in all to £8,676 14s. 5d., of which subscriptions reached £2,920 5s., and gate money £5,251 8s. The expendi­ ture included £2,847 15s. 6d. for profes­ sional wages and expenses in connection with the county matohes, and £1,618 for wages of the ground staff, etc,, whilst donations to benefit matches, etc., reached £205. The election of officers was then pro­ ceeded with, and the whole of last year’s officials were re-elected, v iz.: President, Mr. A. N. Hornby; hon. sec., Mr. S. H. Swire; hon. treasurer, Mr. J. Maclaren ; committee, Messrs, W. E. Opsnshaw, H. Thornber, S. M. Crosfield, and A. F. Pope. The proceedings were concluded by the presentation to Mr. A. C. Maclaren of a gold watch and chain in recognition of his achievements last season. NEXT ISSUE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27th.