Cricket 1897

26 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 25, 1897. Gossip’ ’ that, fine bowler as he was, he used up his greatest pace in a truly pro­ digal way in the first few overs after he went on. Owing to the excellent cap­ taincy of Trott this was not so much remarked as it would have been under an inferior captain. In Australia he has opened each innings in a sensational manner, has become slower, and not being taken off with the best of judgment, has been played with ease by the later bats­ men. If he would always keep one of his very fastest balls “ up his sleeve” his bowling would be enormously improved. I n Ceylon, L. H. Gay, the Cambridge Blue, recently scored 22 and (not out) 36, besides stumping two men and catch­ ing two others at the wicket. I n intercolonial matches this year the bowlers have been distinguishing them­ selves in an unheard of manner. What with O’Halloran’s 128 (not out), McKib- bin’s 75, Trumble’s 82, Jones’s 34, Evans’s 34, Turner’s and several good scores, to say nothing of fine innings by men who bat and b’o wl equally well, they have reason to be proud of themselves. New S o u th W a l e s by defeating "Victoria at Christmas has now won 26 of the matches between the two colonies as against 31 by Victoria. Against South Australia New South Wales has won nine matches out of 13, including the last played on January 8, 9 and 11. I t is said that C. Hill cannot make big scores just at present in Australia, because the bowlers always keep the ball well to the off-side of the wicket, and never give him the slightest chance of making glances to leg. I n the first six matches played by Mr. Priestley’s team in the West Indies, Mr. Stoddart scored three hundreds. T h e example set by the Cambridge bowlers of sending down no-balls when they wanted to prevent Oxford from following on, has been followed by Hugh Trumble, who in the matcb between Victoria and South Australia bowled 8 no-balls at the critical moment. There is nothing to be added to the remarks made in Pavilion Gossip on July 9th, last year, upon this question, but it seems likely that the law will be altered in order to prevent such occurrences. Trumble’s manoeuvre has been condemned by many critics in Australia— especially those of South Australia and New South Wales. A d e l ig h t f u l commentary by “ Point” on the above incident appears in the Adelaide Observer. It is as follows :— “ A Victorian Pressman, and myself were walking up from the ground with two South Australians, who shall be nameless. •It was the shabbiest thing I have ever seen, done on the cricket field,’ said one of my fellow.-colonists, a leading light in the ,cricket world. •Yes,’ echoed the others; adding, ‘ we might have played cricket too, but our men had absolutely no instructions.’ ‘ N o ;’ replied South Australian Number One, with an aggrieved inflection of his voice, ‘ Some of us wanted Gift', to tell Travers to get out; but he wouldn’t.’ ‘ You have given yourself away ! ’ came from three of us in chorus; hut the man with the decided opinion rejoined, ‘ Oh, tit for tat, you know,’ and we could not convince him that he would have applied the ‘ tit ’ before he had been annoyed by the ‘ tat.’ ” T h e following remarks by “ Felix,” the great cricket authority of Australia,on the no-ball question are worth quoting. “ A follow-on meant that the South Aus­ tralians would have all the best of the wicket, and if they made a prolonged stand the Victorians might probably wind up on a worn wicket, on which Jones and Giffen would be deadly. If this came to pass and our men were defeated the cry would be, ‘ you were fools not to to prevent the follow on.’ For my own part I do not blame the Victorians, bad as the look of the thing may be, and if you have played cricket and know what it is to go in at the finish on a failing wicket against such men as Jones and Giffen, you, too, will hesitate before condemning them. But what appeared to strongly dissatisfy the spectators, was not the deliberate no-balling by Trumble, but the long delay that took place after the close of the South Australian innings.” A t the first annual meeting of the Dorsetshire County C.C., a deficit of £12 was announced. T h a n k s chiefly to the success attending the matches against Australia at Edgbas- ton, the Warwickshire County C.C. is able to shew a favourable balance. N o r t h u m b e r l a n d is to have a county ground of its own, and arrangements have been made by some of the members of the club to purchase the Constabulary cricket ground at Newcastle. I n the second innings of South Australia against Victoria, Giffen, when six Victoria wickets were down, had taken two wickets for 28. He afterwards bowled for more than two hours without a change, and without taking another wicket, until his average was two for 86. A t the annual general meeting of the Lancashire County C.C., Mr. Swire, the honorary secretary was able to report an increase of 320 in the number of members and 52,000 in the number of spectators. The splendid new pavilion has already been paid for, but despite this the balance in favour of the club for the year was over £2,500. A proposal to contribute £100 to the Indian Famine Fund, as a recognition of the batting of K. S. Kan- jitsinhji in the second match between England and Australia, was carried unani­ mously. T h e Annual Meeting of the Kensing­ ton Park Cricket Club is announced to take place at the Sports Club on Friday next, the 26th. T h e Sports Club have also been good enough to set apart a room where members of the K.P.C.C. can dine previous to the meeting which takes place at 8 o’clock punctually. The report to be submitted to the meeting is on the whole satisfactory, for although more matches might have been won, the finan­ cial position is good. Metropolitan cricketers will wish all success to this old club, now entering upon the fortieth year of its existence for they could ill spare such a splendid ground as this has now become from the ever decreasing Metropolitan area. T h e news that Mr. C. W. Wright is to take upon himself the responsibilities of married life in April will be of interest to the hundreds of friends he bas made during his career as a cricketer. It is perhaps in accordance with the fitness of things that, being a Vorkshireman, at least by birth, he should take to himself a Yorkshire wife, in the person of the eldest daughter of Sir Joseph and Lady Terry, of the Mount, York. S in c e he first came before the public as a member of the Charterhouse School eleven, which was early in the eighties, Charles Wright has played an important part in the cricket world. His four years in the Cambridge eleven represented a record up to date. With Mr. H. W. Bain- bridge he put on 152 for the first wicket against Oxford in 1885. This was at the time a best of the kind. Until it was beaten in 1887 by two runs by Mr. Key, his aggregate of 292, the outcome of the four summers ending with 1885, had not been equalled in University matches. The good work he has done of late years for Notts cricket is too well known to need mention here. Deservedly a favourite with all classes of cricketers, the best wishes of the cricket community will go out to Charles and his future wife. T h e programme of the Philadelphian team to visit England in the summer bas been completed by the arrangement of a fixture with Oxford University Past and Present, to take place at the Oval on Juue 24 and two following days. As this will occupy the latter part of the Diamond Jubilee week, the occasion will probable be utilised in some special way to com­ memorate the presence of the American cricketers. The team has reserved July 5 and two following days to itself to see the Inter-University match at Lord’s. The only other dates really to be filled up after the meeting of the County Secretaries at Lord’s were July 8 and 12, and on these the Philadelphianswill play Warwickshire and Notts, at Birmingham and Notting­ ham respectively. I f Clem Hill, the young South Austra­ lian, has not been quite as successful in intercolonial matches since his return from England as his ardent admirers could have wished, he has evidently not lost his aptitude for scoring. In a match for North Adelaide against Adelaide on Jan. 16, he made 193 out of 389 for eight wickets, and was still in when play ceased for the day. He never gave a chance curing the three hours he was in. That there was plenty of life too in his batting N E X T ISSUE, THURSDAY , MARCH 25.