Cricket 1896

J uly 30, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 321 To the names of the great batsmen who, without having any reputation as bowlers, have recently done well, must be added that of Gunn. In the M.C.C. match against the Australians, his analy­ sis of 3 for 37 was the best of any bowler on either side. R emarkable were the successes of J. T. Hearne until the beginning of July, and still more remarkable have been his recent failures. He did very well in the Gentlemen v. Players at the Oval, but since then he has been altogether out of form until the Middlesex v. Sussex match at Brighton. In the previous five matches he had only taken 8 wickets at the cost of 434 runs—an average of 54.25 per wicket. T he familiar old cry of “ give us more play for our sixpence ” is again being heard in the land. It is nothing to those who demand that first-class matches should begin half-an-hour earlier each day, that the strain on men who play right through a season is something enor­ mous, more particularly when that season is fine. They do not understand the weariness of fielding out to an innings of four or five hundred; they cannot see that the Australians, in generally arrang­ ing to play for half-an-hour less per day than is usual in other matches, are only exercising a wise discretion. CHATTERTON was within a very little of accomplishing the feat of scoring two hundreds in Derbyshire v. Essex. In the first innings he made 111, and in the second was not out 85 when the closure was applied. It seems a pity that the chance of a lifetime should have been thrown away for the sake of a few minutes, for there was very little proba­ bility that Essex would be disposed of in the three hours which were left for play. O n e of the quaintest of the many quaint suggestions which have recently been made as to the possibility of finishing the next England v. Australia match, is that of a genius who proposes to adjourn the match from the Oval (if it is not concluded on the third day) to Wembley Park ! T here can be no doubt that Mr. W. H. Patterson is still one of the great batsmen of the day. For many years he has been able to get very little practice indeed, and yet on the few occasions that he is available for Kent he almost| in­ variably does well. If most of the team fail (as in the match against Surrey at Oatford) he is almost certain to make a lot of runs. Five or six years ago he played a match for Kent without having had any practice except what could be obtained on a bad wicket on a school ground, and without having played in a single match during the season, and made over a hundred runs. R. H. L a m b e r t , who has during the last two years gained a great reputation in Ireland as a bat, has recently been making very large scores. On each of the last three days of the week ending July 18, he scored a hundred, which must be a record for Ireland, and his last six innings (up to Friday last) have produced 73 (not out), 111, 122 (not out), 108, 69 and 41. T he 367 made by the M.C.C. last week is the highest total which has been made against the present Australian team. T he list of individual hundreds made by the Australians has now been brought up to seventeen by Trott’s 103 against the M.C.C., and Hill’s 118 against Surrey. Abel’s 116 for Surrey has brought the total made against the Australians up to two. According to Spiel wndSport, a recent match between two German cricket clubs was productive of no leas than two dozen duck’s eggs and half a dozen pairs of spectacles. A local newspaper in des­ cribing the game said that it was easy to see that the cricketers were all good players, but possibly this was meant to be facetious. A correspondent writes:— A month ago you had an interesting chat on the cricket field with an interesting per­ sonality, Colonel John Pennycuick, C.S.I., so that it may not be out of place to send you a line to say that he has just been appointed to the important post of President of the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper’s Hiil. All the Colonel’s Anglo-Indian friends, and especially those who know his energy on the cricket field, will be delighted that the Secretary of State for India has used his patronage so judiciously, and cricketers generally will with confidence look to the noble game being more keenly fostered at Egmore than has been the case of late years. Your interviewer made the Colonel convey rather a wrong impression in one of his remarks, i.e., where he makes him say, “ we made 348 for eight wickets, and declared at 4.30 on the first day,” as, of course, the law as to closure is the same at Ootacamund as at home. What was meant was that the first day’s play closed at 4.30 (owing to theground being required for polo, a nuisance cricketers at Ootacamund often have to complain of !), and the innings declared the first thing next morning. While correcting this trifling error, there is another which crept into Mr. Bettesworth’s notes which is not altogether unimportant. It is contained in the last lines of the interview, and makes out that when the Misses Pennycuick grow up they will have to give up cricket. This assertion, I believe, they indignantly repudiate. W i t h regard to the above, it maybe said that the young ladies had an oppor­ tunity of correcting the proof of the short interview with them, and that they were kind enough to suggest an addition to it. Now that young Frank Crawford, son of Parson Crawford, has got his knee right once more, he is busy again in batting as well as bowling. His 110 for Whitgift Grammar School against St. Dunstan’s College on Wednes­ day last week included twenty-eight from one over ! ! ! T he twenty-eight runs were made up of four fours and two sixes in the order given. The fifth ball of the over was a no-ball, and in the second sixer the ball was not found at all, having gone some­ where into the next county. In the same match Crawford did the hat trick with the first three balls, besides taking a fourth wicket with the last ball of the over. Last Saturday, for Cane Hill Asylum, he made another hundred. His 103 runs were got in seventy minutes ! T here was a curious finish in a match between the Free Foresters and Shoebury- ness just lately. One wicket to fall, one run to make, and one ball to bowl. You will guess the rest ? The last ball got the wicket, why cert’nly ! M i n d f u l of the poet’s dictum, “ On their own merit modest men are dumb,” George Lohmann, whom everyone will hope to have a bumping benefit this week, has omitted one notable fact of his cricket career in the very interesting interview he had with Mr. Bettesworth. It is particularly significant of his acknowledged greatness as a cricketer, that he has been selected for England for every representative match, that is, of course, while he has been in England, since he camp into real prominence. No one need be surprised if it is an­ nounced presently that a project for the visit of a South African team to England next year is on foot. As a matter of fact, there is every probability that English cricketers will have the chance of returning the hearty welcome given to Lord Hawke’s team last winter in South Africa. The next South African team to visit this country will, it is stated o i the best authority, be thoroughly representative. S urgeon C aptain J. E. T rask , the well-known Somersetshire amateur, who was on the Medical Staff in the Egyptian expedition, succumbed to cholera on Saturday. Reuter’s special correspon­ dent speaks very highly indeed of his bravery and coolness in attending to his duties, which were often carried on under heavy fire. He played in twelve innings for Somersetshire last year, after being in India for a long time, and had an average of 18-40. His highest score was 46, against Hampshire, in the beginning of July, and while he was in with Dr. F. J. Poynton, 90 runs were made in 85 minutes. T he death is announced of the Rev. E. L. Fellowes, an old Oxford Blue, at Papworth, on July 23rd. He played against Cambridge in 1865, ’66 and ’68, and for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1866. He was best known as a good fast bowler. L ast Saturday, Mr. C. J. Burnup made 94 for Blackheath y. Beckenham. This must be the fifth Or sixth time he has just missed his hundred this season.