Cricket 1896

428 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OE THE GAME. S ept . 17, lb'JG. previous form, and as first man in -with Air. Stoddart three times within a fortnight help 3 d lo take the score past 150 before a wicket fell, while one of the Australian defeats—that at Bexhill—was largely due to his fine hatting on a bad wicket. Most of Mr. Ford’s runs were made in his first match, v. Lancashire, when he played two splendid hitting innings. Mr. Wells proved a welcome coadjutor to the hard-worked Rawlin and Hearne, the latter of whom was a better bowler than ever. 1 should rank him as slightly inferior to Richardson, since he does not so often get wickets on a good hard ground ; but given a wicket that suits him there is no finer trundler than Jaek Hearne, as the Australians found both at Lord’s and at Hastings. He batted well on several occasions, too ; but the experiment of sending him in early did not pay. Rawlin did not bowl as well as usual; and he started very badly with the bat, but came on after­ wards, and nearly always made a useful score after the first few weeks of the season. Phillips was a much less effective bowler than usual, nor did he make many runs. An accident to Mr. McGregor, early in the season, caused Mr. E. H. Bray, the Cantab, to do most of the wicket-keeping for Middlesex ; but though he kept well he did not show as good batting form as those who saw him in the ’ Varsity match had expected. Another University man who played for Middlesex, Mr. P. F. Warner, is a batsman of decided promise, and not of promise only, for his performances were distinctly good, both at Oxford and for his county. His old school-fellow at Rugby, Mr. R. W. Nicholls, is also a useful man. Mr. R. S. Lucas was quite off form during the greater part of the season. Two of the most prominent figures in Kentish cricket were young men ; Mr. C. J. Burnup, to whom I referred last week, who is certainly one of the most promising players of the day, and who did great things both for Cambridge and for Kent; and Mr. J. R. Mason, who has steadily progressed ever since he first appeared in i 893, until now he is quite one of the best batsmen in the country, while this year he has also done wonderfully well at times in bowling. But, mainly, the improvement in Kent’s cricket in lb96 was the work of men who may fairly be called veterans. This is Alec Hearne’s thirteeiith season in first-class cricket; and Alec has done really splendid all-round work. IFis batting* average has been higher than in other years ; but he has seldom done so well both with bat and ball. That strain at Nottingham was very unfortunate for him, as, but for that, he would probably have scored a century ; while, by keeping him out j of three or four matches it spoiled his chance cf completing his 1,000 runs—possibly also of taking his 100 wickets. Wright and Martin both bowled well and were also useful on occasion with the bat; but the latter never does so well with the ball towards the end of the season as at first, and consequently the M.C.C. is apt to reap the benefit of his best efforts. It is to be hoped that Wright will be available in all matches next season, for there does not appear to be any fresh talent; and I suppose poor Walter Hearne’s active cricket career is over. Easbv was a disappointment, and had to stand down from several matches; but Hirst’s wicket-keeping improved, and it looks as though the county had at last found a good man to act as regular stumper. Mr. W. H. Patterson was in great form ; a scries of good, but not big, innings culminated in the highest score of his long career—181. Lord Harris, much to the joy of all lovers of Kent cricket, re-appeared in the team, and played one brilliant innings of 119. It is to be hoped he will play often next year. The captain was in curious form; a long score and then a series of failures ; but he tailed off altogether towards the end of the season, and his last tw«lve innings only produced 88 runs. Mr. Gerald Wei^all, after scoring heavily in the earlier matchf-s, also fell off, and only made 93 in his last ten innings. The Row W. Rashleigh played fine cricket on two or three occasion', and has a good average : but he was less con­ sistent than usual. Mr. E. 13. Shine, the Cambridge man, was one of the best amateur bowlers of the season, and should do even better another year. Messrs. Leslie Wilson, W. L. Knowles, J. Le Fleming, and M. C. Kemp did not plav at all; and Mr. H. 0. Stewart only appeared in four matches Mr. G. J. Mordaunt was not in his great form of 1895 ; he did only fairly well for Oxford and played in but one match for Kent. His elier brother, E. C., was of some use, as were Messrs. E. H. Simpson and R O’H. Livesay ; but Mr. C. O. Cooper was an entire failure when tried. The amateur fast bowler, Mr. W. M. Bradley, proved very useful; but I don’t think he will ever do very great things, even if he can find time to play regularly. He is a most consistent batsman, never by any chance making double figures. Captain Wynyard’s fine play was un­ doubtedly the feature of Hampshire cricket in 1896; and it was most unfortunate for the county that the gallant captain could not play regularly. Another of their best men, Mr. F. E. Lacey, is still more infrequently to be seen in first-class cricket; heplayed more than usual this year, however, and, like W. H. Patterson and A. G. Steel, appears to be able to score quite as well as ever against first-class bowling, irregular though his appearances may he. Captain Quinton, who was in good fettle, was also unable to find time to play in all the matches ; and with Mr. A. J. L. Hiil away in Africa, a good deal of responsibility devolved upon Mr. H. F. Ward and Victor Barton. The amateur has come on greatly during the last year or two, and was in re­ markably good form early in the season; he fell off a bit afterwards, but played a fine innings of 100 v. Essex at quite the end. Baiton at last showed his true form in first- class cricket; and the Kent authorities must now feel sorry that they let this really fine player slip. Another ex-soldier, Webb, played some very good innings, and has the makings of a useful man in him; at present he is somewhat unreliable. Mr. C. Robson was in much better form than last year, and one or two of his forcibly-played innings were distinctly good ; Mr. D. A. S-eele was fortun­ ately able to play regularly : he did nothing at all big, but he is a very u-eful all-roundman to have on a side. Bacon was very disappoint- ing; and halfway through the season ho dropped out of the team. Soar was unfor­ tunate in the ma'.ter of accidents ; and Soar’s misfortune was Hampshire’s misfortune, for he is the best bo vler on the side of his day, and avery useful batsman. Baldwin exhibited improved batting form, but was not very deadly with the ball; and Wootton was of comparatively little use. Several new men of some promise were played, notably Mr. E. J. M. Barrett, of the Cheltenham College eleven, Mr. A. A. Pi*lans, Captain Bradford, and Kitchener, who headed the bowling averages.for the county. Mr. Lionel Palairet did bigger things in 1896 than ever before; and it was a gr at pity that he did notmauage to put on another eight runs in the Southampton match and thus qualify for inclusion among the 300-runs scorers. It is scarcely necessary to say that his style was as graceful and attractive as ever ; an1it was somewhat hard lines that a place could not be found for him in the English eleven for at least one of the test matches. His brother Richard batted better than ever before; but Mr. s. M. J. Woods was scarcely as great a batsman as in 1895, while lie has been too much handicapped by a gaino leg and a straiue l side to have any chance of showing his old bowling form. Mr. W. N. Roo played in fine style ; and Mr. Challen batted well on his first reappearance, but did nit do much in later innings. Mr. Gerald Fowler was not in form, nor was Mr. Y. T. Hill, who, howrever, contributed largely to the success over Surrey which wound up the Somerset season. Mr. R. B. Porch played well once or twice ; and Captain Hedley was souaewhat more useful with the bat than he has generally been of late, though his bowling fell far below last year’s standard. Mr. H. T. Stanley played one long innings, but did very little else ; nor wasDr. Poynton success­ ful in his few appearancts. Two new pro­ fessionals of considerable promise—Douglas Smith, a fairly good bat and a fine field ; and Robson, an all-round player, who batted well on sever A occasions, and howled with success late in the season—reinforced the Somerset ranks. Tyler’s bowling was not very success­ ful on the hard wickets; but he scored more largely than usual. Nichols was as hard- working as ever; he is not a great player, but he is a good man on a side. The wicket- keeping was in the capital hands of the Rev. A. P. Wickham and Mr. A. E. Newton; but neither parson nor lawyer came otf with the bat. It was scarcely a case of “ W. G. first and tho rest nowhere1 ’ thisseason•withGloucester­ shire, thougii the Doctor was as good as ever, and played a tremendous innings of 301 against ihd bowling of poor Sussex. It is wordoi-lul tViut, after all these years, the;e should be only i ,ur or five men before \Vr. G. in the b.:. 11 :.g awiages, and tht-se four or five, with the exception of Ranji,” but little before him. He bowled better in the early part of the season, too, than he lias done for some p Mr. C. O. H. SewelI c ime t ut in his true form this season ; and it was a great pity that he could not play in every u atch. The same r mark applies to Mr. R. W. Rice, another batsman who did far better than in some recent seasons. Mr. S. A P. Kitcat played little, but was very conspicuous in one match, that in which W.G. scoredhis 301. Mr. C.L. Townsend was dead out of form with the ball in the early part cf the season, but came again later on and finished up strongly, again securing well over 100 wickets. He tcored more runs, too, though his style is still somewhat devoid of life, and one wonders how he ever gets a ball to the boundary. Of the University con- tingent, Mr. Gilbert Jessop played far better i->r Gloucestershire thau for Cambridge ; he is a lino all-round player, w’ho should do gr. at things for his ’ Varsity yet, but he was not a big success in Cambridge cricket in 189d. Mr. Hemingway and W. U., junior, on the contrary, played better for their Alma Mater than for their county ; the former improved on previous seasons’ records, but young Grat wasno better with the bat t^an in 1895, it as good. His fielding seems to have improved tlnugh. Mr. E. L. Thomas, an o;d Ciiftonian, did good work in the earlier part o the season, but dropped out of the team later on. He was quito worth a regular place in it. Board has improved wonderfully N E X T ISSUE, T HURSDA Y , OC TOBER 29,