Cricket 1896

A pril 16, 1896. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 67 BETWEEN THE INNINGS. The usual Good Friday articles in all the leading daily papers, on the prospects of the coming season, contained little that was news to those who follow cricket matters closely. To me, the most interesting part of them was the revised list of fixtures, which one may now take as being practically final. Indeed, there is scarcely room for additions to it, though most of us would be glad to see a place found in the Australians’ pro­ gramme for a game with Cambridge University. The only way to render this practicable, however, would appear to be an earlier beginning of the tour. The Cantabs have no match on the 7th of May; and though both sides would then be short of practice, it would surely be better to begin the game on that elite than not to play it at all. The list of first-class fixtures runs very nearly to 200—189, to be exact. This is some score or more in excess of the num­ ber of last year, which in turn was a heavier season than any which had pre­ ceded it. It is just possible that 1897— with both the Philadelphians and the South Africans here—may go one better. The matches for 1896 are divided among the five months into which the season extends thus:—May, 43; June, 51; July, 43 ; August, 49 ; September, 3. In spite of the length of the programme, the season—unless more matches are arranged —will come to an end pretty early, the Australians, as in 1893, leaving directly after the Hastings Festival in order to play a few matches in America. Here is a brief, but comprehensive, summary of the important matches to be played by the various first-class sides:— The Australians play England (3), Lord Sheffield’s eleven, Mr. C I. Thorn­ ton’s eleven, the North, the South, the Gentlemen, the Players, M.C.C. (2), Oxford University, all the first-class counties except Middlesex (Yorkshire being met three times, Surrey, Lanca­ shire, and Gloucestershire each twice), and games at Eastbourne, the Crystal Palace, Wembley Park, and Bexhill, with scratch elevens—34 matches in all. M.C.C. and Ground play the Austra­ lians (2), Cambridge University (2), Oxford University (2). Notts., Sussex, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Essex, Derby­ shire, Kent, Warwickshire and Yorkshire, lo matches. Cambridge University play Mr. Thom- W s X I., Mr. Webbe’s X I., M.C.O. (2), Somerset, Yorkshire, Sussex, Notts., and Oxford University, 9 matches. Oxford University play Mr. Webbe’s XL . M.C.C. (2), Australians, Surrey (2), Somerset, Sussex and Cambridge Uni­ versity, 9 matches. Derbyshire play Surrey, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Notts., and the four other promoted Counties, M.C.O. and the Australians, 18 matches. Essex play Surrey, Yorkshire and the four other promoted Counties, M.C.C. and the Australians, 14 matches. Gloucestershire play the other eight old urst-class Counties, Warwickshire and the Australians (2), 20 matches. Hampshire play Surrey, Sussex, York­ shire, Somerset, the four other promoted Counties, and the Australians, 17 matches. Kent play the other eight old first-class Counties, Warwickshire, M.C.C. and the Australians, 20 matches. Lancashire play all the first-class Counties, except Essex and Hampshire, the Australians (2) and the M.C.C., 25 matches. Leicestershire play Surrey, Yorkshire, Lancashire, the other four promoted Counties, M.C.C. and the Australians, 16 matches. Middlesex play the other eight old first- class Counties, 16 matches. Notts, play the other old first-class Counties (except Somerset), Derbyshire, Cambridge University, M.C.C. and the Australians, 19 matches. Somerset play the other old first-class Counties (except Notts.), Hampshire, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the Australians, 19 matches. Surrey play all the other first-class counties, the Australians (2), and Oxford University (2), 30 matches. Sussex play the other eight old first- class counties : Hampshire, the Austra­ lians, M.C.C., Cambridge University and Oxford University, 22 matches. Warwickshire play Surrey, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Kent, Gloucestershire and the other four promoted counties, the M.C.C. and the Australians, 20 matches. Yorkshire play all the other first- class counties, M.C.C., the Australians (3), and Cambridge University—31 matches. The changes as compared with last year’s programme are considerable (in this connection, of course, one may set aside entirely the Australian matches.) There are no new county games; but of those played last year Essex v. Somerset, Essex v. Middlesex, and Notts v. Leicester­ shire are not renewed ; Dublin University has no matches in England. Oxford University does not play Kent, but instead has two fixtures with Surrey, nor is Yorkshire met by the Dark Blues. That time honoured fixture, Surrey v. Cambridge, drops out—only for this one season, let us hope—and is replaced by a distinctly less interesting game v. Notts, which, however, I hope may prove attractive, as Sherwin is to have it for a benefit. The Scarborough Festival jrogramme is stronger, the scratchy Yorkshire X I. v. Lancashire X I. fixture being replaced by what is practically, though not nominally, an England v. Australia game. In addition to their first-class matches, the Yorkshiremen play Durham twice, and have as last year, a fixture between the Gentlemen and the Players of the county, so that their programme is actually of exactly the same length as that of the Australians. Mr. A. J. L. Hill will, it seems, be lost to Hampshire—at any rate, for the greater part of the season. Oh, these tours! Perhaps some of my readers may remem­ ber the news that straggled home from time to time from the Cape, when the first English team (Major Warton’s) was out there. We were told that nearly every member of the team was going to settle down and become an Afrikander. There was truth in some of the stories, too, Messrs. “ Round-the-Corner ” Smith and “ Monty ” Bowden did actually go into partnership at Johannesburg as stock­ brokers. But that partnership is long since dissolved. Poor Bowden sleeps in his grave on the wide veldt; and his erstwhile partner is earning laurels on the London stage. The Hon. Charles Coven­ try, another member of the team, stayed, too—to come back a few weeks ago with Dr. Jameson. And Frank Heame returned, under doctor’s orders, after another season of cricket in England. But if all the stories had been true, Briggs, Ulyett, Fothergill, were all to accept professional engagements and make their home in “ the land of the floods and thunders.” They didn’t ! And Briggs, Lohmann, and Peel are not yet Australianized, although projects for buying the services of all three of them were seriously discussed in colonial cricket circles a few years back, when the supply of native colts seemed about to become exhausted. Had any of these projects come to anything, it would only h ive been fair retaliation for the capture of Ferris. And in saying that, I do not in­ tend the slightest imputation upon either W.G. or the Australian. No one thinks more of W.G. than I do; and “ plucky little Ferris ”—it was the late Charles Pardon, one of the best of cricket scribes, who first spoke of him thus, and the epithet has lingered in my memory—has always been one of my favourite cricketers. I am firmly pursuaded that it was the trip to South Africa in 1891-2 that ruined his bow ling; and I still entertain hopes—though they have grown dimmer—of his regaining it, and perhaps even being once more seen as a member of an Australian team in England. I don’t altogether mean that it was the actual hard work of bowling in South Africa that took from Ferris’s left arm its cunning, though of hard work in that way he did plenty—witness his figures:— 931*2 overs—1,269 runs— 235 wiekets. Rather was it the combination of hard work and rough travelling, the threi season’s cricket in succession, which not every man can stand. Some can—Jem Phillips, for instance, though his seasons are not particularly heavy ones. One might easily instance others. I cannot imagine that, fit and well, W. G. in his younger days, George Uylett, fifteen years back, Giffen, ten years ago, or Mr. S.M .J. Woodsnow, would havebeen, or would be a whit the worse for any amount of hard work. But these are of the stalwarts. Ferris, plucky and wiry as he is, was not. It would be easy to mention others whose play has not been improved by these winter trips. Why did Sharpe’s bowling fail after his visit to Australia with Lord Sheffield’s team ? Did Lockwood’s trip with the last team do him any good ? It is a fact, I believe, that Mr. Webbe and the other magnates of Middlesex cricket would have objected trongly to Jack Hearne’s going to Australia with Mr. Stoddart; while Lancastrian partisans were by no means anxious that Mold p-^uld be chosen.