Cricket 1896

A u g . 13, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 353 played at Manchester; Eady played at Lord’s and not at Manchester, while Johns has been left out in all three matches and Graham in the last two. T he scoring before lunch on Thursday was exceptionally fast at Taunton, where 177 runs were made by Sussex. At Leicester, when luncheon time arrived, 147 runs had been put on, and Mr. De Trafford had made 113. Going in first, as usual, he was out with the total at 138, and his first hundred runs were made out of 117 from the bat. I n the match between Gloucestershire and Middlesex, Mr. Jessop on Friday made seven fours in succession off Mr. Wells. On the same day, Mr. L. C. H. Palairet hit Mr. Fry to the boundary five times in succession. O n Thursday last, Mr. De Trafford with 113, Killick with 116, not out, (increased on Friday to 191), Russell with 110, and Knight with 86, all made their highest score in first-class county cricket. M r . B ubnup ’ s 101 for Kent against the Australians, at Canterbury, is the third innings of a hundred which has been scored against our visitors. The Austra­ lian total of hundreds still remains at 18. I t will be seen from the following list, that Mr. Burnup has made no less than six scores this season of between 90 and 100 —a tantalising, but unique record : Seniors’ Match, Cambridge ... ....... 98 Cambridge Univ. v. C. I. Thornton’s XI. 92 Cambridge University v. M.C.C. 93 and 95 Blackheath v. Beckenham......................... 94 Blackheath v. Granville ................. ... 92 F ob. once, Gloucestershire has won a match in which W.G. did practically nothing—he made 5 and not out 6 against Middlesex, and had 43 runs hit off him without taking a wicket. The chief credit ofthe victory belongs to Mr. Townsend and Mr. Jessop, but Mr. Sewell and Mr. Cham­ pain also distinguished themselves. T heir defeat by Essex practically puts Surrey out of the running for the Cham­ pionship, and as Middlesex lost against Gloucestershire, everything points to the success of Yorkshire. T he Notts, v. Kent match was re­ markable for the fine stand made for the first wicket by Shrewsbury and A. O. Jones for Notts., and by J. R. Mason and Alec Hearne for Kent. The Notts, men put on 223 before they were parted, and the Kent men 195, but while Shrewsbury and Mr. Jones scored at about the same pace and made the runs in about three hours and a half—which was by no means bad scoring, Mr. Mason scored twice as fast as Hearne, and the runs were put on in two hours and a half. I t is very seldom that the scoring in an innings is so curiously balanced as that of Notts on Monday and Tuesday. The firbt v\icket fell at 223, the second at 265. Then, although the score still mounted, because Shiewsbury slid kept in, the next six men only made 41 between them—of these Gunn had to retire after making 8. At the end of the innings there was a blaze of fireworks when Guttridge was batting, so that the total was large. But out of the 415 runs from the bat, four men made 370, Shrewsbury and A. O. Jones claiming 299 of them. S in c e E. M. Dowson’s year, when Elstree won by 17 runs, the Abbey School, Beckenham, has not lost a single home match. Last year’s eleven won all its school matches, and the same pleasing result has followed this season. The Elstree match, however, could not be played. The great match of the school season was that at Sheffield Park against a Junior X I . , which was so disappointingly weak, that the visitors after losing one wicket very soon, had over 300 up before the next wicket fell—-a record for Sheffield Park. The School has been fortunate in winning the toss almost invariably this year. In addition to subscribing three guineas towards the Charles Absolon Testimonial Fund, the Surrey County Committee have granted the use of the Oval for a match to be played on August 31 and September 1, between Gentlemen and Players, on behalf of the fund. The honorary secretary of the fund, A. W. Mynett, 7, Cloudesley Square, N., will be glad to hear from any gentlemen who would like to take part in the match. F rom Dimboola, Victoria, “ Sub­ scriber ” writes as follows : * ‘ I shall be much obliged if you will be kind enough to let me have your opinion on the following incident:—‘ In a match, Dim­ boola v. Blackheath (strange to say, the name of my old club at home), played at Blackheathlast April, on aground where there were no boundaries and several trees, a bats­ man hit aball which lodged in one of the trees. One of the fieldsmen climbed up into the tree and obtained the ball.’ Was the striker out ? ” ‘ ‘ I may mention that I have written to the Australasian on the subject for their opinion, and “ Felix ” has replied as follows : —‘ At the time the rules of cricket were drawn trees were not taken into consideration, but having regard to the rules of fair and unfair play the decision should be ‘ not out.’ ” My correspondent may take it that “ Felix ” is, as usual, right in his view of the question. There is no law which applies to boundaries, and even if there were, and a tree was defined as a boun­ dary, there would be still chances for dispute, for it would be impossible to decide where a tree began and a shrub ended, or for the matter of that, where a shrub began and grass ended. Common sense is the only guide to questions such as this, but common sense would suggest that if there were anything in the shape of a tree on a ground it should be con­ sidered a boundary before the match Legan. I n the match between Uppingham Kovers and Horsham, the ball from a hard hit from one of the batsmen landed the ball neatly on the umpire’s diaphram ; thence it took itself into the pocket of his coat, where it lodged. The wicket­ keeper making for it secured it as it rested innocently in the receptacle men­ tioned, and appealed for the catch. And the verdict was. “ Not o u t! ” I t is not often in these days of well kept grounds and arrangements, as near perfection aspossible, thataballgoes clean through the wicket. Such was the case in the match between the Old Cliftonians and Eastbourne, at Eastbourne, last week. The old Surrey amateur, Mr. F. W. Bush, was the bowler, and F. B. May, of the Old Cliftonians, was batting, when the ball went through the stumps without removing the bails. A. E. Gibson, the wicket-keeper, can also testify that the incident occurred as has been stated. S om e few weeks ago a visit from a South African team next year was men­ tioned as within the scope of practical politics. Information has just reached us from a thoroughly reliable source that the Parsees have also an idea of coming to England in 1897 to try their strength against some of the best of our English sides. T h e publication of the “ Indian Field Athletic Handbook ” enables one now to get the scores of the principal matches played in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras in collective form, so that it is now possible to get an idea of the development of cricket in India. The I. F. A. H. for 1896, of which a copy is just to hand, is a record of athletics, football, hockey, cricket, golf, tennis, aquatics, polo, and swimming in India, and if only as an evidence of the growth of athletics in that part of the Empire, should be in­ teresting. It is published in Calcutta. T hree hundreds in an innings. There have been two instance sof the kind during the week in matches of importance. No. 1.—M.C.C. and Ground v. Glamorganshire. Lord’s, August 8. M.C.C. and Ground, Second Innings. F. G. J. Ford.......... 160 Cyril Gooch .......... 119 Chatterton .......... 102 (not out) No. 2.—Derbyshire v. Lancashire. Manchester, August 10 and 11. Derbyshire, First Innings. Chatterton .......... 104 Davidson................. 274 Storer ................. 116 A G r e a t many correspondents have kindly pointed out that in the list of W. G .’s innings of over 200, which appeared in “ Gossip ” last week, his 257 for Gloucestershire v. Kent was in­ advertently omitted, and that his 344 was made against Kent for the M.C.C., and not for Gloucestershire. No less than 1035 runs were made in about 13 hours in the match between Sussex and Somerset, at TauntOD, for the loss of 16 wickets, an average of nearly 65 runs per wicket.