Cricket 1897

M a y 6, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 121 T h e death of F. E. Cheeswright removes a once striking personality in South Lon­ don cricket. For fifteen years, indeed, he was quite a power in cricket on the Surrey side of the Thames. During all tbis time he scored heavily for the Brixton Club, and in fact, his batting average for Brixton during; this long time, worked out at 36. In all, he scored 14 centuries for the Brixton Club. Of strong physique, he was a very dangerous bats­ man when set. Not long ago his health compelled him to seek warmer climates, and his latter days were brightened by the courtesy shown to him by the cricket­ ers of Australia. Membership to the Melbourne Club and admission to the Sydney Ground were extended to him, and at both places he was an interested spectator last winter. He died at Picton in New South Wales on March 22. I t would seem, after all, as if G. A . Lohmann had terminated his connection with Surrey cricket. So far as one can hear, the executive of the county club at all events ha.ve given up the idea of see­ ing him return this summer to take his place in the Surrey Eleven. That he will be a loss to Surrey cricket goes with­ out saying and, under certain conditions, his bowling is bound to be greatly missed. But there are hundreds who would have liked to hear that he was returning for the season, and for his own sake alone. T h e fact that the Whitgift Wanderers have no local habitation, but play exclu­ sively on their opponents’ grounds, prevents them from being regarded as a metropolitan club “ within the meaning of the act,” that is to say, within the scope of our current articles. Neverthe­ less, the Wanderers play an important part in metropolitan cricket, at least, on the south side of the Thames. The twenty-seven fixtures on their card, indeed, include one club north of London, and that is the London Hospital. That they are going strongly, too, can be judged from the fact that fifteen of the twenty-seven fixtures are for the second eleven. No doubt a similarity of names is accountable for the rumour that C. C. Stone had succumbed to the illness which laid him low in the West Indies. Several correspondents have called attention to an announcement of his death which ap­ peared in a New York paper some three weeks ago. Cricket readers will be relieved to hear that the Leicestershire cricketer of the name, at all events, has arrived home safe and souud. Prom information I have received he has been on the ground at Leicester within the last few days, if he has not actually been practising. R. JOYCE, the young amateur, who shaped so creditably in the first innings for Leicestershire against Surrey, at the Oval, on Tuesday, is still at Bedford Grammar School. He played, it may be remembered, several times for Leicester­ shire at tin end i f last season. Altogether, he played .n ten innings, f ; an aggregate of 108, which, with two not outs, gave him an average of 13 4. His best performance was hi-i second innings of 44 against Hampshire, at Southampton. That was the more meritorious, too, as it was not a match <>1 large soring by any means. H . B. C h in n e r y , who made hi* first appearance for Surrey against Leicester­ shire on Monday at the Oval is a son of W. M. Chinnery, the old London Athletic Club runner and one of the very best milers of his day. H . B. had the batting average for Eton in 1895 and, as many cricket readers will remember, was the chief scorer against Harrow at Lord’s that year with 75 and 64. He made his mark at first in connection with Surrey cricket last year with a freely played innings of 122 for the Second Eleven against Staffordshire, at the Oval on August 26th. He bats right and bowls left hand, it may be added. M b . F . S. A siiL E Y -C oorE R thus d e ­ scribes a visit to several p laces in the sou th -w e st corn er o f S u rrey w h ich w ere fam ou s in th e ea rly d a ys o f c r ic k e t :— “ At Godalming I visited Jim Street, the old Surrey player, and had a pleasant chat with him. He looked wonderfully well and hearty and not a day older than forty. I asked him whether he still played. ‘ Not now,’ he replied; ‘ I ’ve had a fairly long innings, hut -I stand umpire occasionally.’ He is now in business as a cricket outfitter in Bridge Street. Passing through Godalmmg, it was pleasant to think that I was going over the same ground that Beldham trod in com­ pany with some others of those old worthies who played before the years of Grace. The south-west portion of Surrey was the nursery of the grand old game, and going along I passed Bowler Green, Pitch Place, Balls Corner and Willow Green. These four places are south-west of Godalmmg and. south-east of Farnham.” A m o n g well known cricketers who have recently made big scores in local matches are Lilley 67 not out, Dr. Grace 72, C. L . Townsend 50, A. Shrewsbury 46 not out, N. P. Druce 72, C. E . De Trafford 49 (retired), A . N . Hornby 74, S. M. Tindall 126, Tyldesley 116. So exceedingly small was the attend­ ance at the annual general meeting of the Bedford County C.C. that a quorum was not obtained, and the county club has to all intents and purposes come to an end. The adverse balance is small, but of late very little interest has been taken in the club. I t is not often that one sees such fluc­ tuations in the fortunes of a game as in the S fcoa d innings of East Sydney v. Iledfern on March 20th. The former club, which had to make 265 to win, had put on 146 for three wickets and seemed in a very favourable position. But three more wickets fell with the total unaltered. Thus the chances suddenly veered round in favor of Redfern. The seventh wicket fell at 177, but the next two men made runs very quickly and seemed to be win­ ning ea-ily until wi.h the scora at 243 (only 21 behind) one of them played a ball on to his wicket. The tenth man went at once, and uufortunately the last man was absent, so that which might have been a very pretty finish was turned into a victory for Redfern by 21 runs. T h e three brothers Newell were all in fine form at Sydney on Saturday after­ noon, March 20th. A. Newell, who is well known in Australian cricket, made 99; H . Newell 77 not out in the same match, and J. Newell 64 not out iu a second grade match. Thus the brothers made between them 240 for asingle com­ pleted innings. Of H . Newell’s 77 no less than 71 runs were scored by means of fours and fives. L a s t Saturday, Pougher, the Leices­ tershire professional, was unfortunate enough to meet with a severe accident to his foot when bowling at practice. In consequence of this Leicestershire had to do without his services in the match against Surrey— and badly enough were they missed. It is feared that Pougher will not be able to play for some time. T h e Melbourne C.C. put a strong team in the field on March 18th and 19th against Wimmera District, and ran up a total of 702, of which Tom Trumble (a brother of Hugh) made 157, J. McBiack- ham, the veteran wicket keeper, 153 and Leith 106 not out— three individual hun­ dreds in an innings. On the same day Harry Boyle, another veteran, scored 105 not out for East Melbourne against a local team. I n addition to scoring 157 on March 18th, Tom Trumble, who is the youngest of the family, made 102 not out on the previous day for Melbourne against Kew College. He also took five wickets for six runs. He is spoken of as a very promising player— he is about 22 years old— and Hugh Trumble thinks a lot of him. A m o n g recent instances of rapid scor­ ing in Australia may be mentioned the 118 of G. Yautin for East Melbourne against Malvern College iu forty-three minutes, the innings including a six, three fives, and sixteen fours. East Melbourne scored 293 against Malvern College in an hour and a half. The first hundred went up in half an hour, Vautin’s share being 88. H . Lander made 143 in fifty-five minutes in a local match at Sydney. His score included twenty-three fours and four fives. J. D a r l i n g accomplished a fine per­ formance for Adelaide against Port Austral. On March 13th he was not out 75, when stumps were drawn, with the total at 129 for six wickets. There seemed just a chance that he might make his hundred on the following Saturday, March 20, and finding some useful partners, he kept up his wicket the whole of the afternoon, and when play ended, his score was 235. As there were still two wickets to fall, he had a chance of beat-