Cricket 1897

M ay 20, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 149 some men who have had very little time for practice, while to them the winning of the match means far less than it does to the Cantabs, eager to start their cam­ paign well. The Oxford captain, with at least eight places in his team to fill, has a harder task before him than Mr. Druce; but it is too eirly yet to prophesy that Cam­ bridge will win the great event. The Oxford Freshmen, too,would appear to be considerably stronger than those at Cam­ bridge. But one never knows ; the form shown in the trial matches at both ’Varsities sooften proves fallacious. Big scores run up against inferior bowling don’t necessarily argue extraordinary ability. There are one or two men whom one would like to see secure their blues, if only for the sake of their names— notably, Mr. A. H . Hornby. Mr. C'aampain ought to be a certainty for the Oxford eleven, for he has already proved his worth in county cricket, and I should like to see Mr. A. E. Fernie in the Cambridge team, for he comes of a good athletic stock and from a good athletic school. I don’t think Wellingborough has yet been represented in the match at Lord’s; but there are few schools in the country where cricket and football are so thoroughly encouraged and enthusiastically played. Mr. J. B. Challen did much for the school; but his name, although the most famous, is not the only one to which Wellingburians owe a deep debt of gratitude. I am afraid that, not for the first time, I am rather in Mr. Lacy’sblack books. I am sorry for it, because, while I by no means agree with everything Mr. Lacy says (certainly I don’t agree with him as to the amount of betting done in connec­ tion with cricket), I respect him as an in­ dependent thinker on cricket matters, and as one who has the courage of his con­ victions. He now writes to me under the heading: ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN AVERAGES. Sir,— I do not think your method of com­ paring these at all a fair one. You overlook the fact that all the English runs are made against the pick of all Australia, while many of those of the Australians are piled up iu what were really not first-class matches at all, and certainly half of them against quite weak elevens, representing counties and casual sides. The only fair comparison is that of the averages in the England v. Australia matches. In those, who played in ten of these matches in England, Shrewsbury averages 41; Grace, 33; W . W. Read, 27; Trott, 22. In five matches, Jackson, 38; Stoddart, 33; Steel, 29; Gunn, 29 ; Abel, 26 ; Barlow, 21; Mur­ doch, 44 ; Scott, 36; Lyons, 26 ; McDonnell, 24; Brucc, 22. In two matches, Ranjit- sinhji, 78; Scotton, 36; Sugg, 27; Lord Harris, 25 ; A. P. Lucas, 23 ; Lilley, 23 ; Albert Ward, 22 ; Brown, 21 ; Iredale, 38 ; Barrett, 26. Iu these matches in Australia, taking only those who played in five matches, England 1m s two averages of 40, five of 30, and eight of 20 ; Australia, three of 30, and eleven of 20. I do not think it serves any useful purpose to lump the matches in the two countries together, because the conditions in them are quite different.—Your faithfully, G. LACY. Mr. Lacy lays emphasis upon the different conditions under which first- class matches are played in Australia and in England. Bat surely this tells against his awn argument ? The conditions being so different— and that they are in many respects very different one admits, though, as to the wickel s, there is less difference between a good Australian and a good English one, than between a good and a bad English one— is it not rather too severe a test of the Australian’s merits to judge themwholly by (heir per­ formances on English ground against the very flower of England ? It strikes me as fairer to compare them with the average of those they played against than with the pick. As to no useful purpose being served by the lumping together of matches played in the two countries, there I altogether disagree with Mr. Lacy. The great value of averages extending over a long series of matches— if they are to be allowed any value at all— is that they give us some test of a man’saverage capacity under all sorts of circumstances, and to widen the conditions cannot destroy their value. It will surely happen in most cases that the man who is cap ible of playing well under any circumstances will do better on the whole than the “ specialist,” who is only suited by one particular kind of wicket ; and I take it that the fact of a man’shaving done well both in England and Australia, is a surer proof of all­ round ability than if his performances had been confined to one country. Personally, 1 am of opinion that many of the Australians are far better batsmen than their averages in England would seem to declare them. Had such men as Gregory, Darling, Iredale, Trott, Giffen and Hill learned their cricket in England and been playing for English counties in 1896, they would probably have had considerably higher averages than those theygained fortheNinth AustralianTeam. One or two Australians have been better suited by our wickets than by their own ; but in most cases the change of wickets and of climate has been distinctly detri­ mental to the men’s play. Then no Eng­ lish first-class players put in quite the same amount of travelling and hard work during a season as do the leading members of an Australian team. Take Trott’s place in the batting average table of 1896. Those near him are G. R. Bardswell, E. Rowley, F. G. J. Ford, P. Perrin, P. F. Warner, Baker and F. Mitchell. Except Baker and Mr. Perrin not one of these played half as many innings as did the Australian cap­ tain ; and I should unhesitatingly say that he is a far greater batsman than any one of them. There are thirty- six first- class matches arranged for thismonth. This is some five or six less than the number played last year; but what an enormous increase it is on the days of a quarter of a century (or even less) ago ! In 1878, the first year in which the Australians visited us, there were only three first-class matches played before May 20th, and only thirteen in the month; in 1879 only eight were played in May; and in 1880 only twelve. Nowadays we often get some of the best weather and some of the best cricket of the year in May. To complete the statistics which I have been giving in these columns for the last three weeks, I present here ;— AUSTRALIAN BOWLINS AVERAGES IN ENGLAND. M o re t h a n 100 W ick e ts. Bowler. Matches. Balls. C.T. B. Turner...102 ...24,140 F. R. Spofforth...l05 ...20,313 . H. F. Boyle.. J. J. Ferris....... T. R. McKibbin. T. W. Garrett . E. Jones ....... H. Tramble.. .. G. Giffen ....... G. H. S. Trott . ..12,225 .17,320 . 3,236 .12,661 . 4,438 . . 87 ...13,006 . 139 ...21,155 . 89 ... 6,615 93 74 22 75 27 Runs. Wkts. Aver. 8341 ... 678 ... 12-30 649 323 43> 101 289 121 321 532 175 . 8,107 4.288 .. 5,911 .. 1,441 .. 4,376 .. 1,910 .. 5.483 .. 9,889 ... 3,824 12-48 13*27 13*65 14-26 15-14 16-03 17-08 18-58 21-85 L ess than 100W ickets . A. Coningham ... 12 ...1,201... 561 ... 31... 18*09 J. Worrall........ 22 ...1,036... 455 ... 24... 18 95 P. C. Charlton ... 21 ..2,033... 800 ... 42... 19*04 E. Evans ........ 21 ...1,962... 588 ... 28... 21*00 W. E. Midwinter 19 ... 1,344... 498 ... 23 ... 21*73 F.E. Allan....... 17 ... 1,591... 601 ... 26 ... 23*11 R. W. McLeod ... 24 ...2,751... 1,132 ... 46... 24-60 J. J. Lyons........ 38 ...3,115... 1,597 ... 63... 25*34 C. J. Eady....... 15 ...1,005... 408 ... 16...25 50 J. W. Trumble... 22 ...1,935... 803 ... 30... 2676 S. M. J. Woods... 6... 632... 298... 11 ... 27*09 S. P. Jones........ 15 ... 1,041... 532 ... 18 ...29-55 W. Bruce ........ 49 ...2,844... 1,390 ... 47 ... 29*57 A. C. B innerman 11 ... 800... 387... 12 ...32*25 The following also bowled:— G. Alexander, G. J. Bonnor, T. Horan (8 wickets each); W. H. Cooper (7): J. E. Barrett, W. L Murdoch (6); H. Donnan (5); W. H. Moule, H. J, H. Scott (4) ; J. M. Blar-.kham (3); G. H. Bailey, P. S. McDonnell (2); J. Darling, J. D. Edwards, H. Graham, S. E. Gregory, A. H. Jarvis (1) ; C. Hill, F. A. Iredale, H. H. Massie, H. Musgrove, and R. J. Pope, without taking awicket. J.N .P . SOUTHGATE v. KENSINGTON PARK—Played at Southgate on May 15. K en sin g to n P a r k . A.W.Tritton, b Bryan 1 W.S. Pennefather, not out .....................22 B 19, lb 4, w 4 ... 27 G.T. Campbell,cRick­ etts, b Kemp.... 38 C.Macdonald,cAdams b Ricketts.............. 5 P.Greatorex,cRicketts b Bryan ............... 41 Total (4wkts) *200 J.D. Campbell, notcut 66 A. R. Comyns, H. H.Foy, F.H. Palmer, C. G Hildyard, and W. J. Scottdid not bat. ♦Innings declared closed. S o u t h g a t e . E.P. Sugden,bJ. D. F. Campbell.............. R. F. Gross, lbw, b G. T. Campbell ........ G.S.Churchill,cJ.D.F. b G. T. Campbell ... T. D. Smith, bJ. D. F. Campbell.............. A. L. Kemp, candbG. T. Campbell F. Bryan, cGreatorex, b J. D. F. Campbell 26 R.T. Barker,bJ. D.F. Campbell ... ... 5 C. T. Ewart, not out... 31 G. B. Adams, not out 10 B 6, w 1 ........ 7 Total (8wkts) 102 F. C. Barry and W. T. Rickettsdid not bat. WINCHESTERCOLLEGE v. GREEN JACKETS.— Played at Winchester on May 11. W in c h e s t e r C o l l e g e . E. B. Noel, b Oxley ... 31 R. C. Hunter, b Bowen 30 R. S. Darling, c Free­ mantie, b Bowen ... 16 R. Williams, c Bowen, b Freemantle ... 0 A. B. Reynolds, lbw, b Bowen.................... 2 E. O. Lewin, b Free­ mantle.................... 0 S. N. Mackenzie, b Bowen .............. 35 H.V. Gillett, bBowen 35 C. G. Grant-Peterkin, b Russell.............. 3 F. D. Joy, b Russell 0 L. N. Stevens,not out 0 B 9, lb 2 .........11 Total ,..163 G reen J a c k e t s . Capt. Oxley, not out 50 Total...............166 Capt. Bowen, Major Crake, Capt. Hornby, Capt. Mills, Capt. Shute, Cr.-Sergt. Harriogton, and Capt. Russell did not bat. Major Clowes, b Joy... 13 Freemantle, not out ... 54 Capt. Salmon, st Rey­ nolds,bMackenzie... 49