Cricket 1896

472 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Nov. 26, 1896. MARLBOROUGH BLUES. Matches played 20; won 6, lost 4, drawn 10. Buns scored for—3,550for 169wickets; against—3,648 for 193 wickets. BATTING AVERAGES. No. Times Most of not Total in an inns. out. runs. inns. Aver. S. A. P. K itca t......... 6 ... 4 ... 223 ... 72*...111-50 T. C. G. Sandford ... 6 ... 1 ... 261 ...126*... 52'20 J. H. Alston .......... 4 ... 2 ... 93 ... 32*... 46 50 H. M. Harwood.......... 8 ... 1 ... 261 ...146*... 37'28 H. M. Rogers .......... 4 ... 1 ... 86 ... 50*... 28‘66 E. G. C oles................. 6 ... 1 ... 143 ... 90 ... 28 60 C .W . Lindsay .......... 14 ... 2 ... 299 ... 81 ... 24'91 C. H. M. Thring.......... 4 ... 0 ... 99 ... 44 ... 24*75 L. N. Rogers .......... 6 ... 0 ... 138 .. 39 ... 23 H. C. Bett ................. 5 ... 1 ... 79 ... 45 ... 19*75 R. F. C. de Winton ... 7 ... 1 ... 112 ... 38*... 18*66 H. Freeman................. 7 ... 1 ... 104 ... 67 ... 17*33 G. C. Alston................ 4 ... 2 ... 32 ... 22 ... 16 Rev. M. A. Bere.......... 8 ... 3 ... 80 ... 37 ... 16 H. P. Lindsay .......... 9 ... 2 ... 110 ... 85*... 15*71 F. S. L ew is................. 6 ... 3 ... 46 ... 32 ... 15*33 T. C. Bett ................ 7 ... 0 ... 95 ... 68 .. 13*57 A. H. Streatfeild......... 6 ... 1 ... 54 ... 20 ... 10*80 E. A. C. Druce .......... 6 ... 0 ... 64 ... 32 ... 10 66 W. A. F. Rogers.......... 9 ... 2 ... 65 ... 21 ... 9*28 F. Bellamy ................. 6 ... 3 ...14... 9 ... 4*75 “ CENTURIES ” FOR. H. M. Harwood, R.I.E. College, Cooper’s Hill... 146* T. C. G. Sandford, v. Tonbridge........................ 126* N. F. Druce, v. Beckenham................................ 101 “ CENTURY” AGAINST. J. F. Reynolds, for Tonbridge ........................ 108* * Signifies not out. The analysis of the bowling is imperfect, but the most successful bowlers were:—E. A. C. Druce, 24 wickets; F. S. Lewis, 22; Rev. M. A. Bere, 13; W . H. Lindsay, 13 ; C. H. M. Thring, 13; E. G. Coles, 13; W . A. F. Rogers, 12; R. F. de Winton, 10; and C. W . Lindsay, 10. N A T IV E S OF IN D IA A S CR ICKETER S . From the Nilgiri News. A point that has struck me as worth a few remarks is the almost unanimous wonderment that has been expressed at K. S. Ranjitsinhji, an Indian, doing so well at cricket. To hear people talk and write it might be imagined that there was some inherent ethnological impossi­ bility in any one not of the Anglo-Saxon race being able to take up and excel in the great Anglo-Saxon game. I lay no claims, unfortunately, to being an ethnologist, and therefore cannot argue the matter out from that point of view, but it appears to me to be susceptible of treatment by other means, of which I will take one, analogy. Racing now is confined to quadrupeds of the equine race, but it is certain that, if trained to race, there are not many other kinds of quadrupeds that would do just as well, more especially in jump races ? What if it were possible to train deer as steeplechasers, and then put them in a race with horses ? I dare say if a stag won it would be considered very extraordinary, until the training it had gone through was remembered. So with an Indian playing cricket on equal terms with, nay even excelling, an Englishmen in his national game. It is the training alone; and so far from an Oriental being under any disability, I contend that he comes to the game with very special advantages. Where do the best conjurors come from whose “ quickness of the ’and deceives the heye ? ” Surely from the East, and not from western climes such as England, where everything, climate, temperature, temperament and a thousand and one other things cause eye to be less quick and muscles less lithe than in the case of one reared in the shiny, supple East! To me personally, though this may be owing to the natural obstinacy of my disposition, it seems that an Oriental taking up cricket should ceeteris paribus in the way of a natural inclination for the game, and the best opportunities for learning and practising it, excel as a matter o fcourse, though possibly the cricket of the next generation, or the generation after the next, will be somewhat different to what it is at present. The game will, if Indians and Orientals take it up and excel at it, pass through such a process of evolution, certainly as far as batting is concerned, that the old-fashioned sort of game as now played will appear barbaric in its primitive ways, relying so much on mere strength and physical advantages. Batting will become more “ tricky,” if I may so describe it, and it will as much resemble the game as played now as does Roberts playing “ trick ” billiards resemble the ordinary amateur playing the ordinary game. I make no claim to be a prophet, but I foresee many changes in the batting of the future when our present day cham­ pions—leaving the Indian Prince out of calculations—will not even have ex­ tended to them that amount of pitying toleration that we of the present day, possibly in our sheer ignorance, give to the methods of those old worthies that played before the years of Grace. CR ICK ET IN NATAL . CLERGY v. LAITY.—Played at Eshowe on Oct. 20. C l e r g y . Archdeacon Swabey, b Brockwell................. Rev. R. C. Bailey, c Evans, b Brockwell Mr. R. S. Maxwell, lbw, b Brockwell ... 5 Bishop of Zululand, b Peachey ................. ‘ Rev. W . H. Heale, c and b Deane ......... Rev. F. Roach, c Hay­ ward, b Peachey ... Rev. A. H. Gallagher, b Peachey................. Captain Hayward, b Hainsworth ..........29 Rev. T. H. Robinson, b Deane ................. Rev. Dr. Walters, b Deane ................. Rev. T. Hainsworth, b Peachey ................. Rev. W . M. Mercer, b Peachey ................. Rev. L, H. Frere, b Peachey ................. Rev. H. Allen, not out Extras .......... Total .......... Dr. Balfe, b Roach ... 5 F. Evans, b Roach ... 8 D. Deane, b Roach ... 0 W . E. Peachey, lbw, b Roach........................ 0 Captain Turner, F. Fowler, F. C. Smith, H. Blofeld, A. R. Pierson, and Commandant Mansel did not bat. W. T. Brockwell, not out ............18 A. J. Vanderwagen, not out .................10 Extras ......... 12 Total ..........82 Charles Johnson, a well known Staffordshire cricketer, was killed by a fall of coal at a pit at Silverdale, near Newcastle-under-Lyne, where he was employed as a miner. He was fifty years of age. The address of the Hon. Sec. of the Stoics C.C., A. W. Rammell, is now the Lilacs, Leatherhead, Surrey. RICKET Report Sheets, lOd. per dozen, post free. Order of Going-In Cards,7d. per dozen, post free. West’s Pocket Scoring Book, 1/2 each, post free.—To be obtained at the Office of Cricket , 168, Upper Thames Street. London, E.C. F R EQ U EN T ED BY CRICKETERS. Announcements are inserted in this column at a charge of 21s. per annum. Half-inch space , 50 s. per annum. Each Hotel inserting an Advertisement will rective a copy of the paper, by post , free of charge. B IR M IN G H A M . THE GRAND HOTEL. Centrally situated. 300 rooms. All modem luxuries. Equal to best London Hotels. P ress N otices .— Best Hotel outside London. Banks amongst the best Hotels in the country. J oseph A dam s , Manager. E A S T B O U R N E CAVENDISH HOTEL, Grand Parade. G eo . L ow m an , Manager . S O U T H A M P T O N . DAVIS’S HOTEL Facing Station. F. B en nett , Proprietor. R A N J IT S IN H J I. From the Asian. Cricket, to use a slang phrase, has “ caught o n ” for some years now in India, and whether in Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay, or on maidans multitudinous in the mofussil, the game is a source of delight and recreation to thousands. Ideal pitches may not always be obtain­ able, but what matter ? The Aryan in default of a level mead drives his wickets in the sparsely covered soil of the East, to follow, though with unequal steps, in the wake of those giants whose deeds are the never-failing joy of the “ average compiler.” Strong men in India have lived before Agamemnon, and so far as a good all round team of cricketers are concerned, the Parsee exponents of the game in Bombay show, perhaps, the highest standard of fairly unfluctuating excellence ; but India has never yet pro­ duced an individual cricketer who has filled anything like so large a space in the public eye as the subject of this article. Like Saul, the son of Kish, the young Guzerati prince is from his shoulders and upward higher than any Oriental who has yet become a devotee of the English game, and he reminds one of the legendary Greek who, when the sports were on, came down from the mountains and threw the quoit further than all other competitors, though here the parallel ends, for Ranjitsinhji has by no means stolen away unobserved before the spectators have had time to recover from their astonishment. No. The great throat of Lords and the Oval sends up a sound, the echoes of which ring through Reuter’s wires, and, as the first Indian who in the world of cricket has played for England, a peer amidst his equals, Ranjitsinhji’s position is absolutely unique quite apart from the quality of his play. I V Y CRICKET AND L A T H T E N N IS g r o u n d , F oeest H ill R o a d , H onob O a k . T w o minutes from Honor Oak Station, L.C. & D. and 12 minutes from Peckham Rye Station, L .B . & S.C. CRICKET PITCHES and L A W N TENNIS COURTS to Let, for the Day or Term. For terms and particulars apply to H. A nderson , Proprietor, 1, Hem Villas, Forest Hill Road, Honor Oak. Printed for the Proprietor by M esses . M e b b itt & H atc h e r , 167, 168, and 169, Upper Thames Street, London, E.C., November 26th, 1896.