Cricket 1896

S ept . 17, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. BETWEEN THE INNINGS. THE COUNTIES.— Continued. It was pleasant to see Arthur Shrewsbury once more in good form and good health ; and though he is no longer facile princeps among professional batsmen there are still few better. Apart from the fixtures in the Notts card (from one or two of which he was absent through business), he only played in three matches; but never'’ .e1.ess he scored over 1,000 for the ninth fV'c during his long and brilliant career. Giv .<1 was also in fine form, and was fully entitled to a plnce in the England team, though, as a matter of fact, he only played in one of the thTee test matches. A bad cold kept him out of the cricket field during the last month or so of the season, and he thus missed some of the worst wickets, which may partly account for his position as sccond only to Abel among the professional batsmen of the year. Flowers was in wretchedly bad batting form until quite the end of the season, when he surprised everyone by playing brilliant cricket against Sussex. His bowling seems to have deserted him entirely ; all through the season he only took two wickets. •Daft played perhaps the best innings of his career against Surrey at the Oval, but otherwise was not very con­ spicuous. Mr. A. 0. Jones was distinctly the most improved man on the Nottingham­ shire side ; he batted in great form almost throughout the season, fielded as smartlyas he has always done, and was often very useful as a bowler, though his leg-breaks are too obvious to be really dangerous as a rule. Mr. J. A. Dixon was quite out of form, and scarcely played an innings worthy of himself. Mr. C. W. Wright was the same hardworking player as of yore, and was rather more successful than in most recent years ; he scored a three- figure innings for the first time for some thirteen years. Attewell was the same great bowler, really—more than even Gunn or Shrewsbury—the mainstay of the side; and he batted well at times. Two players formerly identified with other counties, though both Nottsmen by birth, F. Guttridge of Sussex, and S. Brown of Cheshire, came into the team, and met with some measure of success. Both are fairly good bowlers, and both can hit a bit; but what Notts need now are good colts , and neither of these men come under that definition. Hardstaff was, next to Attewell, the best bowler of the side, but could not play in week-end matches. Pike came on in batting, and lost none of his skill as wicket-keeper. Mr. P. W. Oscroft again showed considerable promise; but a longer trial is necessary to decide whether he is really first-class. The colts tried were not a brilliant lot. The batting of Abel and Hayward was splendid; and in these two Surrey possesses the best pair of professional batsmen that any county has at the present time. Abel is the more consistent of the two; but then he has had nearly four times as long an experience of first-class cricket as his younger comrade. Both performed well in the bowling department, too; indeed, Hayward appears to be training on into a really first-class bowler. Brockwell has come back almost to his best form; playing a dashing game, he was nearly always successful, and it is to be hoped he will not relapse into too great steadiness. With his slashing cut-and-thrust style, he is a very attractive batsman to watch. As a bowler, he is of little account nowadays,though he getswickets occasionally. Charles Baldwin came back into the team late in the season with very satisfactory results. He has apparently turned his back upon the stonewall game. Holland was very dis­ appointing. He began the season in splendid style, but later on suffered something very like entire collapse, and had to be left out of the team. Is it stamina that he lacks ? Mr. Key was often of use at critical times, and with an extraordinary number of not outs secures a capital average ; but he was not really at his best. The samo remark applies to Mr. Read, who, though he was making runs almost all through tho season, seldom showed his true form. Lockwood has gone dead off, both in bitting and bowling; and one would hardly recognise in him the really great player of three or four years ago. Lohmann batted much better than last year, and bowled quito as well; but he does not get somuch work to do as of old, and con­ sequently has not fo great a chance of distinction. Richardson’s bowling was magnificent. In my opinion he is the greatest bowler in the world to-day. Street played a few good innings early in the season, but strained his knee about half-way through and had to stand down. Wood, as smart as ever behind the wickets, did not emulate his 1895 achievements with the bat. Several youngsters from the second eleven were tried; and Hayes, Braund, Lees and Thompson, the first-named especially, all showed distinct promise. Of the University men qualified for Surrey, Messrs. N. F. Druce and R. P. Lewis did not play at all; Mr. G. O. Smith played in three matches, and Mr. H. D. G. Leveson-Gower appeared once. All four of these gentlemen did well for their Universities, Mr. Leveson-Gower being in especially fine form. Mr. Druce was scarcely as good as in 1895 ; and Mr. Smith made nearly all his runs in two matches, but one of these was the match of the season, as far as he was concerned. Sussex cricket in 1896 was—Ranjitsinhji. Not that the other men on the side did nothing; on the contrary Killick, Mr. Newham, Mr. Fry, Marlow, Mr. Murdoch, and Bean all rendered good service with the bat, and though handicapped by the hard wickets, Tate, Parris, Killick, and Mr. Hartley stuck to their work as bowlers with resolution worthy of a better fate. But the Indian Prince played as only two other batsmen—Arthur the Great and Grace the Greater—have ever played; beat W.G.’s record aggregate in first-class cricket; scored ten centuries, two in one match and three in succession ; was only once out for a duck; and played the finest, if not the biggest, innings of the year in the great test match at Manchester. Mr. Newham played very finely, and for the first time scored aninnings of 200 in a first-class match, while his aggregate of runs was in excess of anything previously credited to him. Killick’s rise was wonderful; Sussex would,'no doubt, rather have had a great bowler, but a bats­ man of such ability as the Horsham youngster is something for which any county may be thankful. Marlow and Bean did well without being remarkably prominent; both had hard lines in narrowly missing a four-figure aggregate, and Bean played better cricket than for three years past. Mr. Fry was only available in the later matches; but he played fine dashing cricket then. It is possible that we may see him no more in first-class cricket after this season, as I hear that he has been offered an engagement under the South African Chartered Company. Mr. Murdoch began well, among his scores during the first few weeks of the season being a 144, and seven of over 40; but his highest score after the second week in June was 21. An accident kept Mr. George Braun out of first- class cricket after thn first few weeks of the season. Mr. J. C. Hartley did far better for Oxford than for Sussex, contrary to his last year’s performances. Butt kept wicket well, and was useful with the bat. Tate boro the brunt of the bowling pluckily, but without markfd success, and on two or three occasions chipped in with a useful innings. Parris seems to have lost his batting entirely, and the hard wickets made his bowling very harmless; he was perhaps the least useful member of the side, but may likely enough be one of the most useful next year. Mr* Collins and Mr. Arlington did not play’ r. gularly, but wpro very useful once or twice; and Joe Vine, of Eastbourne, showed decided promise on his dehut for the county. Mr. Owen, the Essex captain, was in his very best form in 1896; and to his succfsrf the side is largely indebted for its triumphs. But the two most notable features of Essex cricket in the season just dead, were the fine batting of a newman, Mr. P. Per;in, and the splendid bowling of Mr. F. G. Bull, who first appeared last season. Like Minerva—or was it Pallas P—springing fully-developed from the brain of Jove, Mr. Perrin came into first-class cricket a first-class batsman, and was successful from the outset. He should do even greater things in another year. Mr. Bull’s slow bowling was very successful; ho uses his head well, and was no great way from being the best amateur bowler of the season. Carpenter and Mr. C. McGahey were n<>t quite as successful as in 1895; but both did well after rather a bad start. Mead’s bowling was far less effective ; however, he managed to secure a hundred wickets, though at much greater cost than in 1895. Pickett, as usual, was useful, but a long way off brilliancy. Mr. Kortright’s cricket was very streaky ; in batting he seems to have gone off entirely, but now and then his bowling was as effective as ever. Russell’s batting has improved wonderfully; a year or two back a mere slogger, he is now a really able run- getter, of whom much may be expected in time to come. Mr. F. L. Fane is a capital bat, and should certainly get his Blue at Oxford in 1897, though he narrowly misso I it this year. Tho best of the new men tried (barring, of course, Mr. Perrin) was Mr. J. W. Bonner, who, if not quito first-class, is decidedly useful. Though Mr. A. E. Stoddart his his off- days, he has played great cricket in 1896, better, on the whole, perhaps, than in any season since 1893, when he scored the co ible century and topped 2,000 runs. Sir T. C. O’Brien has also been in fine form ; and Mr. A. J. Webbe has not batted better for years. It was unfortunate that an accident at Brad­ fordkepthimout of the latermatches. Indeed, Middlesex was somewhat unfortunale in the matter of accidents, for Mr. Hayman, after showing immense improvement in his formof previous seasons, was hurt so bidly in the Gentlemen v. Players match at the Oval that he did not appear again. Great strides were also made by Mr. 11. R. Bromley-Davenport, the old Cantab and Cheshire captain, who batted at times in fine, free form, though he appears to have almost entirely lost his b >wl- ing. Three more old Cantabs—Messrs. F. G. J. Ford, J. Douglas, and C. M. Wells—were not available until August; but all three did well then, the first two with tho bat, and Mr. Wells with the ball. Mr. Douglas, iniced, showed a marked alvanca on hU N E X T ISSUE, T HURSDA Y , OC TOBER 29.