Cricket 1897

S e p t. 9, 1897. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 409 There are many who think that Surrey was a superior side to Lancashire ; and certainly it would be difficult to cate­ gorically prove inferiority. The Surrey representation is somewhat too vexed a question for one to dogmatise as to Surrey’s best team; but one may say that in Abel, Hayward, Brockwell, Baldwin, K. J. Key, and D. L. A. Jephson (to say nothing of N. F. Druce, who played in only four or five matches), the southern county had a bat­ ting contingent fully as strong as that of Lancashire—I should say decidedly stronger. But Surrey had not a quartet of bowlers equal to the Lancashire four. Richardson is a greater bowler than Mold; but Briggs must certainly rank before Lees, Hayward may be as good as, but is scarcely better than Cuttell, and not one of the other Surrey bowlers can approach Hallam. But enough of com­ parisons. Abel has again had a great season. As he is only 42 off his 2,000, and is playing in two more matches, lie should, for the third year in succession, reach that number, a feat which, I fancy, not even W.G. himself has managed. Yet Abel was not as consistent as he has some­ times been. In May and at the beginning of August he was in wonderful form ; during the first three weeks of the season he scored innings of 144, 95, 250, and 156, and in successive matches during the first fortnight of August he made 215, 27*, 173, and 82. But in July he played six consecutive innings for 27 runs ; and his last six innings to date have only realised 48. Hayward has been much more con­ sistent. His only century was made in his first innings of the season ; but 23 of his other 38 innings are of over 20, and eight of the 23 of over 50. His average of exactly 38 is the best he has yet achieved; and it is a notable fact that he has made a step forward each year, pro­ gressing from 18 in 1893 to 25 in 1894, 29 in 1895 and 34 in 1896 to 38 this year. As a bowler, too, he has made marked progress, and is now really first-class; but one fears that he will scarcely be able to keep up his exceptional form in both departments of the game for very long. Brockwell was another consistent scorer. He played two big innings, 225 v. Hants and 131 v. Sussex, both at the Oval; but he also made useful scores in nearly every match, and among his other in­ nings were 83, 69, 66, 62, and 59. Baldwin came on wonderfully. On several occasions he played a great game for his side at critical times; and one only needs to point to the fact that his total includes scores of 234, 103, 93, 81 and 81, with sixteen others of over 20, to prove that he scored largely. He is numbered among the scorers of a thousand runs for the first time. The captain of the team did better than for some time past, scoring two centuries and totalling over 1,000 for the first time since 1889. He is still one of the best men in England at a pinch. Jephson did not come into the team until the season was half over; but he did so well then that he completely silenced all detractors, utterly eclipsing all his previous performances. Walter Read played in only eleven matches, drop­ ping out of the side when Jephson came in ; and though it cannot be said that he was consistently successful while playing, I, for one, am of opinion that he is better than several of the younger men who were tried. H. B. Chinnery, the young Etonian, started in very fine form, but went stale afterwards, and stood down from the team in most of the later matches. H. D. G. Leveson-G >wer did not by any means maintain the form which he showed at Oxford last year; one cannot say that he strengthened the side, but he is a fine field ani a cheerful, bard- working player, and there seems reason to believe he will do much bigger things in the near future. N. S'. Druce played com­ paratively little for his county, but he was in wonderful form for Cimbridge, scoring 227* in his first match of the season, and later on, successive innings of 117, 109, 45, 21, 74, 52, and 41. It is a great pity that he is unlikely to be able to play regularly for Surrey in the future. Wood kept wicket in his usual style, improving somewhat as the season wore on, and being at his best in the last few matches, when he also scored better than he had done earlier. Richardson is the bright particular star among English bowlers at present; no amount of work seems to tire him, and his performances for Surrey were simply wonderful. L?es backed him up well, and worked hard to fill the void left by Lohmann. Lees is a plucky, determined hitter, to o ; he generally made runs, and with a highest score of 44, has an average of 20, Lockwood, whose falling off last year was only too evident, dropped out of the team after two matches, in which he did nothing to win back his lost laurels. Brockwell’s bowling was once or twice successful, and Jephson’s lobs proved of use. Young Nice bowled very well indeed in the four matches in which he played. Keene, though his figures were not good, showed some promise; Braund batted coolly and well v. Lanca­ shire, but did nothing in his other three matches; Hayes performed creditably when called upon; Marshall was but sel­ dom needed, Wood’s hands standing the work w ell; Holland played two good innings, but was prevented by ill-health and an accident from doing himself full justice, and neither Henderson nor Street found a place in the eleven in even one match. Though the Essex men missed the championship, they proved themselves beyond all doubt one of the best teams of the year. Their success, it seems to me, was in no small measure due to the fact that they had almost the same eleven throughout, the amateurs fortunately being able to play regularly, and none of the players meeting with disabling acci­ dents. Practically their eleven through­ out the season was chosen from a dozen players, and of these dozen A. J. Turner did not come into the team until half-a- dozen matches had been played. When he did, he played in really splendid fashion, and I question whether any young player (Mr. Turner is only eighteen or nineteen) has ever had so successful a first season. Apart from him, Charles McGahey and Percy Perrin were the principal rungetters of the side, and both performed in wonderfully consistent fashion. Each scored two centuries— McGahey’s two being in successive matches—andwhiletbeolderplayerpassed his 1,000 in his last innings, the younger just failed to reach it. A. P. Lucas played pretty regularly in the earlier half of the season, and showed little falling off from the ease and grace which distinguished him in his prime. The captain was scarcely at his best in the last few matches, but he did good work earlier in the season. Carpenter made few long scores, but many useful ones, and did better on the whole than last year, though he did not reach his fine form of 1895. Both for his University and for his county P. L. Pane was very consistent; it is not often a man scores over 700 runs with an average of 25, and has only one seore of over 50. But 19 of Mr. Pane’s 30 innings were of 20 or more. His fielding leaves room for improvement, however. Russell was far below his last year’s form with the bat, and has to be content with a very poor average; but C. J. Kortright came on wonderfully, and making runs in nearly every innings (he had double figures in all but three), has the capital average of 28, which is “ not bad ” for a mere bowler. Mead also did well with the bat on many occasions; like Mr. Kortright, he is not afraid to hit, and, going in late, is not made nervous by the feeling that the side is iu any way dependent on his efforts. The third bowler of the four on the side, young F. G. Bull, perhaps bats in better form than either Kortright or Mead, but he did not score so well or so often as they. He bowled splendidly throughout the season, and, though punished heavily at times, always got wickets. Certainly he has some claim to be considered the best amateur bowler of the day. Kortright was more consistently successful than usual, perhaps because he was worked less hard, and utilised with better judg­ ment ; and Mead did a lot of good work without accomplishing many very phe­ nomenal performances. Pickett, employed only as a change, was expensive ; but he was worth his place as a fourth bowler. Russell kept wicket very well indeed. Apart from these twelve, H. W. De Zoete, J. W. Bonnor, A. L. Gibson, and Reeves were the only men who played at all for the side; and none of these did anything notable. Mr. De Zoete’ s bowling may prove useful in the future, however, especially as Pickett is getting no younger. A great side at full strength, York­ shire, champion county iu 1896, seldom played at full strength this year; aud it must be confessed that, apart from this fact, its record was scarcely satisfactory. No other team in the country has so many fine all-round players as the county of the broad acres has just now. Hirst, Wainwright, and F. S. Jackson would all three have claims to consideration if one