Cricket 1896

74 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A pril 16, 1896. all these drawbacks, the tour has been, on the whole, remarkably successful. P rom the point of view of cricket solely, the presence in the team of Lohmann was of enormous advantage, and his bowling often proved irresistible. As the other chief bowlers were more or less injured during some of the matches, he is the more to be congratulated on his success. H. K. F o st e r , who, after helping to win the doubles, won the Inter-University Single Racquet Match the other day at Prince’s, is, of course, the old Malveriiian who played such a brilliant second innings for Oxford against Cambridge at Lord’s last summer. As many will still remem­ ber, he made 121 out of 159 while he was at the wickefs, and in a little over two hours. His father, who has been a master at Malvern College for some years, was, in his day, an excellent cricketer, as the opponents of the Free Foresters and other clubs had good reason to know. G e o r g e L o h m a n n has decided to stay on in South Africa for the time. It was hardly expected that he would return to England with the main body, and it will probably be a few weeks before he makes his appearance in English cricket. F. E. Smith and A. E. Street, the two Surrt y professionals, who have been fulfilling engagements with the Western Province and Cape Town clubs respectively this winter, ought to be well on their way home now, if my information is correct. They were, according to that, to leave the Cape the week following the depar­ ture of Lord Hawke’s team. The following letter will speak for itself:— BETWEEN THE INNINGS. “ My newsagents are responsible for this letter being belated, as they only delivered my Cricket yesterday. I wish to make a few remarks concerning your notice of Maurice Bead. In your tables of his averages you only credit him with the runs made in matches which certain journalists, year by year, took upon themselves to describe as first class. The distinctions they made were in all cases purely arbitrary, and in most utterly absurd. What can he more ridiculous than calling a match first class one year and not first class the next ? If there were any competent authority to decide the point it would be different, but there is not. The M.C.C. is quite unfit, as witness the egregious dicta that Yorkshire v. Liverpool and Cam­ bridge University v. Dublin University are first class, and Surrey v. Scotland is not! Failing any such authority, surely the county committees are the only arbiters. All matches arranged by a first class county are ipsofacto first class. Maurice Read’saverages should therefore include all runs made for Surrey. You have yourself set aside the journalists’ judgment in one instance, for you call his 186 against Somerset first class, but that county was not ranked as such at the time. Bead has made 13,058 runs in 489 completed innings for Surrey. I have not here any record of his other matches except Gentlemen v. Players for the years 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, but without them he has had 599 completed innings for 15,380 runs. Probably 300 or more will have to be added to these. Let me now put in a word as to the two disputed high scoring matches at Harrismith and Sydney. I knew Harrismith and New­ castle intimately from 1865 to 1875 inclusive. In the first-named year the former consisted of about twenty-five houses, and the latter of exactly two. In the last-named year Harrismith had some seventy-five houses and Newcastle thirty. I knew pretty well every­ one in those places, and I am sure there was not a man in either capable of making a dozen runs. I believe I myself could have beaten the best eleven of either place. I do not know what year the match in question is referred to, but it is thoroughly inconceivable that such an influx of cricketers took place to render such scores possible, especially when we remember that the only wickets possible were of bare earth, for you can’t play on South African grass, and matting wickets were not invented. Next as to the Sydney match. I lived there from 1879 to 1884 inclusive, and attended every good match, but I never heard of the score till I came home. Moore Park is or was partly grassed with a tufty grass that grows in strong tufts like straw, nearly a foot high where not kept under, and partly with buffalo grass, which runs flat, but is extremely coarse and so thick and soft that the feet sink into it like into bog moss. An innings of ten runs on Moore Park in those days was as good as one of a hundred on the Association ground. There were one or two clubs that kept their pitches in some order, but anything like huge scoringwas a physical impossibility. I don’t agree with your estimate of Australian bowlers. I think Spofforth, Evans, and Allen were much better bowlers on a good wicket than Giffen and Ferris; and Turner the best on a bowler’s wicket, with Spofforth, Ferris, Palmer and Boyle close up. Garrett did not mind what the ground was like. I think Ferris owed a good deal of his success to his peculiar action; you did not know whether the ball came from his trouser pocket, the top of his head, the small of his back, or the breast of his shirt. I am surprised at acorrespondent comparing Evans to A. Shaw. The only resemblance was in precision ; Evans was much the faster and quite different in style. No one who had not seen Evans previous to 1880 at the latest can know what he really was.” Yours faithfully, Eastbourne, G. LACY. April 13th, 1896. F rank S ugg , as most of the Liverpool cabdrivers have had occasion to know, is, like his brother Walter, a cyclist as well as a cricketer and golfer. It is considered by connoisseurs in Liverpool to be well worth a journey to Lord Street, on the chance of seeing the well-known Lancashire player mount his machine under the noses of half-a-dozen wonder­ ing horses, in rapid motion. A n o t h e r instance of the boom in county cricket, the outcome to a very great extent of the elevation of Derby­ shire, Essex, Hampshire, and Leices­ tershire to the front ranks, is to be found in the report to be submitted to the members at the annual meeting of the Sussex County C.C., to be held at Brigh­ ton this afternoon. A profit of nearly four hundred pounds on the years’ working would be a proof of itself were others wanting. But the most gratify­ ing feature on the balance-sheet for 1895 is an increase of two hundred pounds in subscription. This looks like an improve­ ment which has come to stay; in other words, a regular addition to the funds. W hile of cricket statisticians there is enough and to spare, writers of stories with a vein of real cricket interest running through them are comparatively few. It has been my good fortune just lately to go through the MSS. of a cricket story far above the average, and, what'is more, from the pen of a lady. I am not be­ traying secrets in adding that the authoress is a resident in the county of fair maids, which is to say of Kent, though she takes a keen and active interest in the game everywhere. I have reason to believe on the best authority that ‘ ‘ Played On” will very shortly see the light of print, most likely in book form. T h e wet weather of the early part of the week has delayed the commencement of the test practice, which under more favourable circumstances should have begun at the Oval on Monday. A start may possibly be made to-day, I under­ stand, but in any case, the elements permitting, the Surrey youngsters will be hard at it in the course of next week. It is intended, if possible, so I learn, to have a trial match of Young Amateurs against Young Professionals at the Oval on Wednesday and Thursday next. L a s t week I had occasion to notice an exceptionally fine performance by J. Carlton, of North Melbourne, in taking all ten wickets of South Melbourne. Since then the North. Melbourne bowler has had a very fitting compliment paid him in the presentation of the ball with which he performed so successfully, neatly mounted, and with the particulars of the feat duly inscribed on a silver plate. In handing the trophy over, Henston, the captain of the North Melbourne Club, expressed the opinion that the recipient had only to keep up the form he had shown that season for his dub, and get a little more encouragement from the Selection Committee, to win the highest honours in the game. M r . W a it e r F o r b e s , who has for some years past been the resident estate agent of the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood, as well as clerk of the course there, is giving up his offices, to settle in South Africa. He leaves Goodwood in July for Bulawayo, accompanied b y his wife, who is a sister of Lord Wenlock. W . F . Forbes made a great reputation at Eton, twenty years ago. M a n y Cricket readers will, no doubt, still remember his score of 113 against Harrow, at Lords, that summer. A splendid batter, as well as a fine fielder, he was, in his prime, one of the best amateur fast bowlers of his day. In the Eton College Sports of 1876, when eighteen years of age, he threw the cricket b a ll 132 yards.