Cricket 1897

M ay ]3, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 137 A t present it seem s p re tty certain th a t b o w lin g w ill b e a v e r y w ea k p o in t in th e C am b rid ge eleven if th e w ick ets d u rin g th e season are g e n era lly g o o d , fo r unless a n y th in g u n foreseen h a p p en sth e freshm en and seniors ca n n ot p ro d u ce a n y b ow lers above the a verage. T h e r e was nothing of general imp irt- ance to discuss at the annual meeting of the M.C.C., for the question of the follow on had already been decided in favour of the law as it Lstands. The new President is the Earl of Lichfield. The Club in 1896 consisted of 4,197 members, of whom 3,731 paid their subscriptions, 210 are life members, and 256 are abroad. I r the match between Yorkshire and Bedale and District failed to produce a colt who showed much promise as a bowler, it at least showed that Hirst was as well able to dispose of his companions in the Yorkshire eleven as the players of other counties. On the side of the eleven Haigh was in great form. The batting of Bedale on a bowler’s wicket was, of course, not very attractive on the whole; but apart from two hard-hitting innings by Hirst, the local team brought out a determined hitter in R. Walton, a Bugby football player of note. He had the distinction of hitting Peel twice in succession out of the ground. At present he would seem to be simply a slogger, but he evidently has a good eye, and perhaps he might develop defence. Another hard hitter would not be a dis­ advantage to the Yorkshire team. As a result of the Colts’ match at Nottingham two men, Mason and Dench, were in the eleven which defeated the M.C.C. at Lord’s. They both played with great credit to themselves, the former making 26, the highest score on his side, and the latter taking seven wickets in the first innings for 28 and two for 22 in the second. But it would be premature to j ump to the conclusion that Dench is likely to be able to take the place of one of the great Notts, bowlers of former days ; it has so often happened that bowlers have begun the season by doing great things at Lord’s, without afterwards keeping up their promise, al­ though they may have done passably well. Among them may be mentioned Parris (Sussex), Stocks (Leicestershire), Oakley (Lancashire) and Mee (Notts). T h e Essex County Committee are able to announce that last year’s receipts ex­ ceeded the expenditure, and although football may to some extent be thanked for this, the receipts from cricket were very satisfactory. During 1896 the new members of the club numbered no less than 588. It has been arranged that, during the coming season, a special train shall leave Liverpool Street at 2 p.m. on match days. I n their annual report the Committee of the Yokohama C.C. announced that owing to the nature of the soil, and ‘‘ the weed, called g ra ss,” it was so difficult for the committee to produce good wickets that matting was used for the first time, both for matches and practice. The past season has been very successful. G. C. Murray had an average of 31.75 for eight completed innings, and K . F. Craw­ ford made the only hundred of the season. Altogether 15 matches were played of which 7 were won, 6 lost and 2 drawn. The tour of the club was to Shanghai, where, inmiserableweather, threematches were played. F o l l o w i n g the example of many English puplic schools, Haverford Col­ lege, U.S.A., has arranged to have the names of the players in each year’s eleven engraved on oak boards and hung up in the trophy room. T h e New York Exchange says that, during the past 18 years, there have been played 52 games between Elevens repre­ senting Philadelphia, Pa., and Elevens composed of English, Irish, and Austra­ lian amateurs, including those games played abroad by the Philadelphia teams in 1884 and 1889. The Philadelphia teams have won 22 and lost 19 of the above mentioned games, while the re­ maining 11 games were drawn. In these 52 games the Philadelphia teams scored a total of 17,127 runs for the loss of 846 wickets, while their opponetsmade 16,847 runs for 819 wickets. J. T. H e a r n e was the only player on the M.C.C. side against Yorkshire who represented the club in the two matches last year against the Australians when the strongest eleven was available. And yet the Yorkshiremen were unexpectedly beaten by seven wickets. I t has often been the fate of Sussex to get rid of most of the dangerous bats against them at a moderate cost, only to find that their efforts have been in vain owing to an innings played by someone who is not usually one of their greatest persecutors. To dispose of Gunn, Daft, Attewell and Mr. A. O. Jones for an average of nine runs apiece, and to only allow Shrewsbury to make 56, would, under ordinary circumstances, be con­ sidered a very satisfactory state of affairs by the Sussex team. But what is the good of it all when Mr. Dixon scores 268, not out! R o c h e , the young Melbourne bowler, did not meet with any success to speak of in his first match in England— M.C.C. v. Yorkshire— but as he had only been in the country a few days, this was hardly to be expected. At the same time it would seem almost too much to hope that he will turn out to be another Spofforth or Turner, for although he gained very great credit on one or two occasions during the past Australian season, he was not considered a phenome­ non. But he is young, and may find that wickets in England suit him to a nicety ; at any rate, he is certain to have a thorough trial. T h e veterans have greatly distin­ guished themselves in their first match of the season. Abel and Mr. Key open the ball with 144 and 66; Mr. Murdoch makes 44, Mr. A. P. Lucas (who was making his hundreds in first-class cricket more than thirty years ago), not out, 59, and not out, 57, Mr. Dixon, not out, 268, Mr. Walter Read, 62, Lord Hawke, not out, 63. Several other batsmen who are perilously near to being veterans, made fine scores in their first match; their names must be sought for in the scores. Among the veteran bowlers Martin began with 6 wickets for 51, and Attewell 5 for 25 (second innings). T h e Earl of Lichfield, the new presi­ dent of the M.C.C., will bebetter remem­ bered by Cricket readers under his earlier title. As Yiscount Anson he played for Harrow against Eton at Lord’s in 1874, and, as an all-round player, then gave promise of future excellence. Like the majority of Harrovians, he afterwards went to Cambridge, and did fairly well there at cricket. He subsequently repre­ sented Staffordshire on occasions. He is now in his forty-second year. A l t h o u g h , to the majority of the cricket-loving public to-day, William Goodhew was only a name— to many not even that— as a cricketer, forty years or morehewas aprominentpersonalityin the Kent eleven. A contemporary of Edgar Willsher, G. Baker,FarmerBennett, Fi yer, in the fifties and early sixties, he was by no means the least useful all-round mem­ ber of a not over formidable side. Lat­ terly he had acted as coach at King’s School, Canterbury, a position he held until compelled to give up all work, even of this kind. He was just completing his sixty-ninth year. C l i f f o r d W ig r a m , who was playing for M.C.C. and Ground against York­ shire, at Lord’s, in the early part of the week, has only just returned from India, after three years’ military service. He was the best bowler at Winchester College in 1890, and the following year captained the eleven considered to be the best school side of 1891. He was the most successful all-round cricketer that year, having a batting average of 30, besides taking 38 wickets at a cost of 16 runs apiece. Among his contemporaries at Winchester were H . A. D. Leveson- Gower and J . R. Mason. Later on he did good service for the Royal Military Academy. He took part, too, in several matches for the Surrey C.C. before he went abroad, and played for the club last week. E v e r y o n e will be pleased at the bril­ liant success of the captain of the Cambridge Eleven, N . F. Druce, this week. There is no more attractive, cer­ tainly no more dangerous batsman, among the younger first-class cricketers, and his remarkably fine performance against C. I. Thornton’s Eleven gives promise of a more than ordinarily prolific season in the way of rungetting. His big score of the week, it may be stated,