Cricket 1896

J une 18, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME, 225 Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME , 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C, THURSDAY , JUNE 18 th , 1896. $a\rilton <g>o££tjp. Ih e abstract and brief chronicle of the time.— Hamlet. T he match between the M.C.C. and the Australians was almost bewildering in its surprises, and one of the greatest o f the surprises was, not that the Australians made only 18 in their first innings, but that the Englishmen made 219. Any side may collapse on a very difficult wicket, and although Australian teams have been nearly always able to make a moderately large score, even under the most disheartening circum­ stances, they have occasionally failed. But how the Englishmen managed to make so many runs seems a mystery. T h e Australian bow ling did all sorts of curious things, and the only faults that could possibly be urged against it are that there was perhaps a little too much work on the ball, and that the work was not done quite quickly enough. But despite this, the batsmen, without exception, were continually nonplussed when McKibbin and Trumble were on — as was indeed only to be expected— and there was nothing short of a fatality in the way they escaped. It is true that all the men who made the runs played the right game for the wicket, but there cannot be one of them who would say that he ever felt comfortable while he was in. It was an unlucky day for the Australians. O ne of the nearest approaches ever made of scaring two separate hundreds in a match recently fell to the lot of Captain Cosens, who for the South Staffordshire Regiment against Ootacamund Gymk­ hana, scored 106 and 99 on May 21st and 22 ad. A c c o r d in g to the Tasmanian Mail a son of the famous Australian cricketer, T. Horan, who as “ Felix,” writes such interesting cricket notes in the Austra­ lasian , has succeeded in bowliDg three no-balls in succession, getting a wicket with ea^h of them. T h e programme for the Haverford College Eleven, who ought by the lime this sees the “ glory of print,” to have done the best part of their voyage from Philadelphia to England, has during the last few days, received important additions in fixtures with Shrewsbury and Upping­ ham Schools. These will necessitate an earlier commencement than was originally intended. The first appearance of the Haverford team will be next Saturday week, and against Shrewsbury School. The Uppingham match will be on either July 14 or 15, most probably the latter. The revised fixtures of the team are as follow s:— JUNE. 27. Shrewsbury, v. Shrewsbury School. 29. Cheltenham, v. Cheltenham College.* JULY. 1. Winchester, v. Winchester College.* 4. Rugby, v. Rugby School. 6. Haileybury, v. Haileybury College. 7. Marlborough, v. Marlborough College. 8. Lord’s, y. Marylebone Club.* 15. Uppingham, v. Uppingham School. 16. Repton, v. Repton School.* 18. Harrow, v. Harrow School. 22. Charterhouse, v. Charterhouse,School. 24. Clifton, y . Clifton College.* 27. Malvern, v. Malvern College.* 31. Oxford, v. Mr. H. D. Leveson-Gower’s X I.* * Two-day matches. M r . M a r c h a n t ’ s innings was an object lesson on how to play cricket when the bow ling is too good for a batsman. When he went in he began to play a careful game with the result that he very narrowly escaped being out several times, and was altogether unable to make head­ way against the bowling. Therefore he began to hit, and although he gave one or two chances and made some curious strokes his score was 20 , which was about 20 times what it would have been if he had continued to allow the bowlers to experiment on him. As it was his innings was of the utmost value to his side. T he explanation of the collapse of the Australians is not far to seek. On a very difficult wicket, with bowlers against them who did not bow l an easy ball, they had no batsmen who ventured to attempt to force the game. This was the case in both innings, and until the wicket im­ proved in the second innings very little was done. In former Australian teams, there have always been men who could take the bull by the horns when it was necessary, and although there are no big hitters in the present team, it is certain that the captain and one or two others can adopt aggressive tactics, and will do so when occasion requires. It is ten to one on that there will not be another collapse throughout the tcur, for Aus­ tralians have ever been famous for adapting themselves to circumstances. M a j o r W a r d i l l , “ whose Christian name is Ben,” has, in his capacity as secretary of the Melbourne C.C., done so much for the comfort of English cricketers visiting Australia, that it will interest them in particular to know that his cricket still retains a good deal of its old vitality. That his hand has not forgotten its ancient cunning in directing the ball, is shown by the fact that last season he took in all matches the largest number of wickets for the Melbourne Club. I t may be urged, of course, that the averages in question are compiled from old players or non-players’ matches. Still, fifty-one wickets at a cost of less than eleven runs apiece, particularly for a slow bowler, is not such a bad record for an old ’un. In batting, too, the Major came out creditably with an average of 14-75 for sixteen completed innings. “ A B arrister ” writes as follows upon a custom which must often have struck cricketers as being curious :— “ Why, whenever a batsman gets out by ‘ playing ’ a ball into his wicket, do most newspapers and most of the onlooking public cry out *hard lines ? ’ (I was especially reminded of this in the M.C.C. v. Australians match). To my uneducated mind it seems that if a man fails to play the ball with a full bat and so it finds its way where he did not mean it to go, into his stumps, it is the same as if the same miscalculation sends it into the hands of the wicket-keeper, or any of the slips, or, in fact, leads to a mis-hit to any part of the field. I never could understand the ‘ hard lines’ in such a stroke, but I can understand the ‘ hard lines ’ in a hard hit to leg being caught on the boundary. For this way of getting out the crowd shows no pity.” As tbe bow ling of Pougher and Hearne in M .C.C. v. Australians was so remark­ able, it may be interesting to give the details of their analyses, for future reference. HEAIiNE. •I- . I . . i . -I v i- -i • i• 1 1 • pougher . w w I . . | . w . I w I t is difficult to understand why McKibbin has not been more successful in England. That he is a really great bowler must be evident to anyone who has studied his doings in Australia during the last two or three seasons, and to speak of him as a fraud is unjust. He is not quite as accurate as he might be, and is perhaps a little too slow to be effective, but there are more unlikely things than that he will astonish some English team or other before he goes home. A t present he has met with persistent bad luck. It will be remembered that Frank Allan, the greatest Australian bowler of his day, did not do himself j ustice in England. T H E E V E N T O F 1896. The Latest Patent Cricket Bat. After many ex­ periments and pro­ tracted trials, F ra n k S u g g has at last succeeded in pro­ ducing a Handle, which,from his prac- tical knowledge, he has no hesitation in asserting is abso­ lutely superior to any other Patent Handle in use at the present time. Section showing top of handle, p a t e n t a p p l ie d f o r “ LANCASHIRE W I T C H , ” 1 7 s . 6 d . e a c h . Carefully Selected Canes, Superior Straight- Grained Blades. FRANK SUGG, 32, Lord St., Liverpool.