Cricket 1897

A ug . 19, 1897. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 365 M e . S t o d d a r t ’ s Team for Australia is now complete, Captain Wynyard being the last man chosen. The strength—or weakness—of the bowling thus remains as before. It seems a pity that the team only comprises thirteen members, for in these tours there are always two or three men quite unable to do themselves justice owing to the climate and other things, and very little margin is left for accidents. The names of the team are appended:—- A. E. Stoddart (capt.), Middlesex. K. S. Ranjitsinhji, Sussex. A. C. MacLaren, Lancashire. Capt. E. G. Wynyard, Hampshire. N. F. Druce, Surrey and Cam. XJniv. J. R. Mason, Kent. Hayward, Surrey. Wainwright, Yorkshire. Hirst, Yorkshire. Storer, Derbyshire. Board, Gloucestershire. Hearne (J. T.), Middlesex. Richardson, Surrey. M a n y well-known cricketors were playing for Viscount Grey De Wilton’s Eleven last week at Houghton. The team included H. T. Hewett, G. F. Yer- non, 0. W. Wright, J. H. J. Hornsby, E. A. J. Maynard, P. S. Waddy, F. R. Spofforth, E. A. Nepean, and D. G. Spiro, all famous past or present cricketers. On the other side there were no well-known men, except F. Mitchell and J. H. Stog­ don, who in the second innings made hay of the bowling, the former scoring 227 and the latter 137. Their partnership produced 321 runs. It is not likely that Mr. Spofforth has ever been bowling before when such a long partnership has been made. A PERFORMANCE which the Victoria Daily Colonist (Vancouver Island) describes as a world’s record in bowling was accom­ plished at the end of July by Mr. A. T. Goward, who in a twelve a-side match between the Yictoria C.C. and the Navy, took all the Navy wickets in six overs and a ball for one run. If one may judge from the appended score, which is taken from the Colonist , Mr. Goward’s bowling had such terrors for the opposing side, that, contrary to established custom, no man succeeded in carrying his bat:— N avy . Mr. Muller, b Goward Mr. Mainprice, b Go- tyard .......................... Lieut. Crawley, b Go­ ward .......................... Lieut. Dobbin, b Go­ ward ... .................. Capt. Finnin,b Goward Mr. Davis, b Goward Mr. Ellis, b Goward ... P. O. Law, b Goward Mr. Hawke, b Goward Mr. Russell, c Goocb, b Goward ........... Mr. Boyle, b Goward A. B. Savage, b Go­ ward .................. ... Extra .................. Total ........... To what a depth has “ Ranji ” fallen ! Writers on cricket, who had to describe his doings, were at a loss last year to know how to find new adjectives to express their admiration, and in “ Gossip ” I stated that, as the supply of adjectives was limited, readers of Cricket would, to some extent, have to take them for granted. This year the supply was almost exhausted for a time, but lately quite ordinary adjectives have sufficed. And now Ranji’s second innings against Middlesex has been described in an evening paper as “ a stylish 33.” Can anything be more expressive of the state of affairs ? But, now that he has again made a good score, may he go on and prosper. ------ T h e r e was a good deal of similarity between the second innings of Sussex at Lord’s and Hampshire at Southampton on Saturday. Both sides had to keep in nearly all day if they wished to make a draw. At Southampton three wickets fell for 83, Capt. Wynyard scored 37; at Lord’s four wickets fell for 92, Ranjitsinhji making' 33. At Southampton, Mr. Hill and Mr. Andrew then made a good stand, putting on 222, each scoring a hundred. At Lord’s, Mr. Brann and Mr. Newham made a stand of 136. Mr. Brann made a hundred and Mr. Newham nearly succeeded in doing so. Where the difference comes in was that at Southampton, the big stand had practically saved the game before it was over, and the tail did not collapse ; while at Lord’s the stand was not quite long enough and a rot afterwards set in. In the match between Gloucestershire and Notts at Cheltenham, W.G., for the fourth time this season, made a hundred. After this, as if to show that there was plenty of life in him yet, he put himself on to bowl first, and took half a dozen wickets for only 36 runs, truly a great performance for a man of his age. T h e following bowlers have taken a hundred wickets this season : Richardson, 200, J. T . Hearne, 140, Briggs, 130, Bland, 116, Hayward, 100; while Mold has taken 98, Mr. Jessop 99, Cuttell 93, Hallam 90. It will be noticed that L m- cashire is represented four times in this list, while Surrey is the only other county which is represented twice. T h e latest additions to the list of the injured are Soar and Smith. The former’s leg gave way in the Hampshire match against Warwickshire, while the latter received such a severe injury to his hand in Yorkshire v. Lancashire that he may possibly not be able to play again this season. E n g l i s h cricketers who have enjoyed fine weather for their matches week after week, will read the following extract from the American Cricketer with in­ terest:— “ Baltimore arranged for three or four games in Philadelphia, beginning on Tuesday, the 20th of July, and the following days, but the team met with a most disheartening reception at the hands of the weather clerk. Nothing hut rain, rain, rain ! and although three games were started, not aa innings to a side was finished in one of them. The un­ usually wet July of this year has made the grounds so soft that even when there are a few hours of sunshine there is no life in the sod, and players all know too much of mud and ‘ shooters,’ rather than the lively wickets that are usually in evidence at this time in the season.” O n another page will be found a very entertaining description of the Nonde­ scripts’ tour in the West of England. In the face of the most discouraging mis­ fortunes and accidents, the Nondescripts succeeded in not only keeping up their spirits, but in winning matches—even when they did their best to help some of the strongest sides opposed to them by dropping catches with persistency. T h e following is a verse from a book entitled “ Poems,” by Francis Osmaston. The poem from which the verse is taken is not about a cricket match, as might b;» expected, but is reminiscent of a thunder­ storm :— “ We boys,—ours was a pleasant lot,— What should we know of Nemesis ? We saw Earth’s shadow take a shot At our leg-stumps and miss.” W i t h reference to the John Willis who was mentioned in last week’s Gossip, “ An Old Harrovian ” writes that the name should be Willes, and adds that Willes was always said to be the inventor of round arm bowling. The place of his residence, according to “ An Old Har­ rovian,” was Bellringham, and not Bel- pingham as stated in Cricket last week. A biography of John Willes is to be found in Yol. I of the “ Cricket Scores and Biographies,” page 328. A few specimens of the ups and downs of cricket:— In the last days of July, K. S. Ranjit­ sinhji scored 7 and 170 for Sussex against Essex, and G. L. Jessop 101 and 0 for Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire. Since that time Ranjitsinhji’s scores have been 0 and 26, 3, 33 and 12, 3 and 33, 11 and 58. That is to say a total of 121 for eight completed innings before he made another fifty—average 15. Mr. Jessop’s scores for the same time are 26, 43, 0 and 13, 0, 0. Total 82 for six innings—average 13. In the middle of July, Hayward made 82 for Surrey v. Middlesex. Since then his scores in county matches (he made 33 and 85 against the Philadelphians) have been 47, 12, 13 and 19 not out, 0, 23, 30 and 2. Total 146 for seven innings—average 20. Mr. Jackson made 10 and 79 against Notts on the same dates; since then he has scored 34 and 2, 7 and 4, 30 and 11, 3, 9 and 1, 59 and 0, 101 and 19. So that in the nine innings before his 59 he only made 101—average 11. He is now out of the wood. I n the match between Kent and Surrey Mr. Mason, Baldwin, Lees and Martin, each played an innings of 27. T h e example of the Philadelphian captain in suggesting that a man should take the place of Mr. F. M. Atkins, when the latter was obliged to retire hurt at the beginning of the Kent innings, has been followed by Mr. Hornby, who when Bland suddenly fell ill, at once offered to allow Killick to be telegraphed- for to take his place. The circumstances under which the two offers were made are some­ what different. When Mr. Atkins was hurt, no runs had been scored in the match, but at Brighton runs had been made off Bland himself, while the match was one of the series in the county championship.