Cricket 1896

412 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 10, 1896 Jackson, Peel, Brown and Hirst were all, in my opinion, better batsmen than ever before, the improvement being mo3t noticeable in the play of the two bowlers, neither of whom had previously ever reached 1,000 runs in one season. Their bowling suffered, of course; but still, Peel got over 100 wickets, and bowled in splendid form in August, when the wickets suited him, and Hirst, when play­ ing at Hastings, neededonly two more, and got them. Brown was miles in front of his 1895 form—a really great batsman, good for runs on any and every kind of wicket, and rather more likely to make themwhen circumstances seemed against him than when things were favourable. Mr. Jackson did even better than in 1893, his last year at Cambridge, when he was in such brilliant form; and from May till September he was always making runs, and plenty of them. His bowling was scarcely as effective as of old, and after June he seldom got wickets. The hard grounds did not suit Wainwright’s bowling, but he did far better work than in 1895. He was in fine batting form at the beginning of the season, but fell off greatly later on. At the Hastings Festival he had still just an off-chance of reaching his 1,000 runs, and thus, like Peel and George Giffen this season, and W.G., Davidson, Flowers, and C. T. Studd in past years, accomplishing a tremendous all-round feat. Denton batted well, and so did Tunnicliffe ; but their good performances were somewhat overshadowed by their more brilliant comrades. Both, as in 1895, topped four figures. Moorhouse did not; a strain kept himout of several matches, and in spite of many useful innings, his figures fell far below those of last year. Lord Hawke made two centuries and a score of 62, but otherwise did compara­ tively little. Mounsey and Mr. F. W . Milligan both improved, the latter especially. It is rather a pity that Mr. Milligan does not play for Derbyshire, as he might do; he is just the man the Peak County needs, while Yorkshire has so many good men that she could well spare him. Mr. Ernest Smith was very useful when he was able to play, but did nothing great. Schofield Haigh, the new bowler, is a decided acquisition; and it was very rough on him that an attack of sciatica prevented his play­ ing in the later matches, as with two or three more chances he would probably have secured hishundredwickets. It is almost unnecessary to say that Hunter is as good a wicket-keeper as ever, and now and then he comes off with the bat, as when he helped Lord Hawke to put on over a hundred runs for the last wicket, v. Kent, at Leeds. No new man of any particular promise, bar Haigh, was seen in the team ; and, of those who had given some evidence of ability in preceding seasons, neither Foster nor W . W. Lancaster had a chance. The way in which Albert Ward continually got out for scores of 20, 30 and 40, or there­ abouts, was one of the features of the Lancashire season. Indisputably Ward was not in his true form ; yet he was always making runs. For a man who had shown less ability in former years, his record for ’96 would have been wonderfully good; but wo expect bigger things than 30’s and 40’s from a batsman of Ward’s calibre. However, he scored over 1000 runs and had an average that was only poor by comparison ; and he will probably do better again in ’97. Frank Sugg made a notable advance ; for a “ mere slogger,” as he is sometimes called, his con­ sistent play was very strange. A great innings was that 220 of his at Bristol. Baker was in fine form, too ; though stopping short of the century, he made good scores in match after match, and his bowling was more useful than it had ever been before. At Bristol, indeed, it met with almost phenomenal success. Mr. MacLaren was sorely missed ; when he came back to the team, with the season more than half over, he played as well as ever, as well as even a record score man might be expected to play. Especially prominent was he when the ground was b id, or when the game was going against his side ; and his splendid 226, not out, though terribly slow at times, undoubtedly saved Lancashire from a beating by Kent during the Canter­ bury week. Tyldesley, left out after one or two failures early in the season, regained his place later on, and fully maintained his promise of ’95, making 40’s and 50’s in nearly every match. Mr. Ro«vley is a fine young batsman, with inexhaustible patience, and should yet do great things for his county. The inclusion of Mr. Bardswell was one of the pleasantest features of the season. Originally played both for Oxford and for Lancashire as a bowler, the old Uppingham boy seems ^quite to have lost his trundling; but his batting has developed wonderfully, and he is such a good fieldsman and such a plucky, cheerful player that he is good enough for any side. If he can find time to play regularly, he may yet be found captain­ ing Lancashire in the earlier part of next season. Paul was scarcely as good a bat as in ’95; but he did good work, and if he would only hit out a little more, as he should do with his physical advantages, he would be a most useful man in any team. Mr. S. M. Tindall was unfortunately prevented from playing often; and Mr. Benton fell far short of what was expected of him. Briggs has gone off in batting of late ; but he played three or four very useful innings. As a bowler, he is not far from as good as ever, though at times in ’ 96 he got more punish­ ment than he has been accustomed to. Charles Smith’s batting ability seems to have entirely deserted him ; but he is still a rattling good wicket-keeper, though he has his off-days. Hallam was very unlucky; accidents kept him out of the the team for some time; but he was, on the whole, the best change bowler, though as a batsman he met with no success. Mold was very much the same as ever. He is a bit behind Richardson, to my thinking, but a grand, reliable bowler for all that. A new man, I ’Anson, was very successful at first, and gave rise to hopes that the long-wanted change bowler had at last arisen; but he trained off badly, and had to be kept out after the middle of the season. In another year, he may be very useful. Mr. Hornby played a few times, and made one fine score of 66 v. the M .C.C.; but the years have told their tale upon him as upon others. Storer’s batting was the great feature of Derbyshire cricket; and in county matches only, the wicket-keeper runs a very close second to Ranjitsinhji. His record for the season is a splendid one, placing him quite among the leading batsman of the day. He followed in the footsteps of Grace and Mac- Laren, and anticipated ‘ Ranji ” in the scoring of three consecutive centuries; and he has also done what only W .G., Stoddart, Brann and Banjitsinhji besides have done in English first-class cricket—scored two cen­ turies in the same match. In addition, he has kept wicket as well as ever, and has bowled successfully at times. Davidson has batted in fine form, fcoring one tremendous innings of 274 v. Lancashire; but his bowling has suffered, and he does not repeat his double feat (1,000 runs and 100 wickets) of last year. Chatterton has also been in fine form ; had he been given ten minutes or so more at the wickets before Mr. Evershed closed the innings in the Essex match> he too might have been credited with the double century. Bagshaw and Mr. Evershed batted in even better form than before; and Mr. L. G. Wright and Walter Sugg showed no falling off. Mr. G. A. Marsden has come on a bit, and should prove a valuable member of the team in years to come, though at present he does not score heavily. Hulme has shown good all-round form; but, though he got a lot of wickets, it was at a heavy cost, and what Derbyshire needs more than anything is a good bowler, especially now that Porter appears to have lost his form, and Mr. G. G. Walker cannot often play. None of the yuung players tried appears likely to repair the deficiency ; and it seems a pity that more was not seen of Bennett, who did fairly well in 1895. Purdy may prove of future use to the county ; he is very keen, and a really smart field. Pougher batted in 1896 as he had never batted before, and for the first time in the history of Leicestershire cricket, a batsman from that county made over a thousand runs in a season’s first-class matches. But Pougher’s bowling was a good deal “ off,” in spite of that wonderful 5 for 0 analysis for M.C.C. v. Australians. Woodcock, too, per­ formed far less efficiently than in 1895. Geeson did fairly well, and showed improved all-round form ; but he is still a long way off being a great player. Mr. Hillyard got a few wickets, but could get no runs. Holland was dead off form. Mr. H. H. Marriott, who played very finely up at Cambridge, could make no show for his county. Mr. De Trafford began well, and finished up in decent form, but was badly off colour in the middle of the season. Tomlin was scarcely as good a batsman as before, though he generally made runs. The one ray of hope was in the progress made by Knight, who, for a young cricketer, is wonderfully reliable, though one wishes he could score a little faster. The colts tried were not promising, the best of a poor lot being Mr. lt. Joyce, of the Bedford Grammar School team, and Coe. Never, even in his best days with Surrey, did Diver show finer form than he has done this year; and his missing the 1,000 runs by two, was a stroke of most undeserved bad luck. He was in fine form throughout the season, and made nearly as many runs in his biggest innings as he made in all the six or seven matches he was seen in in 1895. The younger Quaife came on wonderfully, to o; twice he was out for the dreaded pair; but ho also scored two centuries, and secured a four-figure total. So did his captain Mr. Bainbridge, who did not start well, but played remarkably good cricket in the later matches. Walter Quaife, however, failed badly, by comparison with his brilliant doings last year ; twice he scored 96, but his other big scores were few and far between, and he has but a poor average. Law was, as usual, a very useful man. A new player, Welford, well-known to the football wrorld, as one of the Aston Villa full-backs, who has, I believe, played for Durham as an amateur, hit out well, but did not impress one as particularly high-class. Mr. Glover could not play in most of the earlier matches, and on the whole did not show the improvement expected, his bowling having fallen away