Cricket 1897

42 6 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S ept . 16, 1897. formances of the men who played were so good that one still looks for another solution of the comparatively poor achievements of the side. P. F. Warner was the only Middlesex man who reached four figures, and his play was a great advance on all his previous performances. Yet it can scarcely be said that he was consistently successful. His best batting was done in the first half of the season, when he scored 108* for M.C.C. v. York­ shire and (in successive matches) 84 for his county v. Gloucestershire, 83 v. Somerset and 176 v. Notts. H. B. Hay­ man was much more consistent. Only in five innings of 33 did he fail to reach double figures, but until August, when he made two 84’s in one match, his highest score was only 62. He seems to have a liking for the Gloucestershire bowling, for he made 252 in four innings against it. A. E. Stoddart was just getting back into his true form when he hurt his knee, and had to stand down for the rest of the season. His last three innings were 91, 25 and 109; previous to them, he had only twice topped 50, but only four of his twenty-one innings were of less than double figures. A. J. Webbe, except for a run of five single figure innings in June, was always making useful scores, though after the middle of the season he never once reached 30. His record is curiously like Lord Hawke’s. Sir T. C. O’Brien, who only played during the first two months, was scarcely at his best. In the early part of the season Rawlin did not shine as a bats­ man, but in July and August he was more than useful, and finished up with a good record. Owing to ill-health, E. S. Lucas did not play until August, but he did well then. G. MacGregor played the highest innings of his first-class career against Sussex at Lord’s, and contributed usefully in most of the other matches in which he took part; but unfortunately for the side he could not always play, and although Philipson made a fair substitute behind the wicket he was not nearly as good in front of it. Doctor Thornton, who only played in the first half of the season, was in fairly good form, but did nothing to equal his big score last year. H. R. Bromley-Davenport did not play regu­ larly ; but his hard hitting was useful in one or two matches, and for Mr. Webbe’s X I. at Oxford early in the season he made the biggest score of his first-class career thus far, 87 to wit. But the two most notable performers with the bat for Middlesex in 1897 were two old Cantabs, J. Douglas and F. G. J. Ford. It is rather singular that they never appeared on the side in the same match, Ford being unavailable when, in the schools’ vacation, Douglas began to play. The old Dulwich boy did two or three big things last year in conjunction with Stoddart; but this season he eclipsed all previous performances, and his average of 40 is really better than it looks when one considers that he only played in August, the wettest month of the season. Against Somerset at Taunton he scored 70 ami 38, v. Sussex »t Lord’s 110, v. Y<i'ks!iire at Sheffield 102*, and v. Kent a tL > ri’s70. H i only played in seven matches, and it will be seen that he was brilliantly successful in four of the seven. Francis Ford heads the averages of the year; and, on the whole, it must be ad­ mitted that he well deserves the distinc­ tion. He has never before played in anything like the same form ; and his stylish hitting reminded one again and again of that phrase of Andrew Lang’s, “ the champagne of cricket.” He only went to the wickets eighteen times, but scored 805 runs ; and among the eighteen innings were 150, 112, 79*, 79, 77, 66, 50*, 43*, 41, 40 and 39, which does not leave a big margin of failures. The bowling of Middlesex was mainly J. T. Hearne. I said last year, and I say again, that I consider Tom Richardson the finest bowler in the world; but I am not sure that, despite the fact that Briggs and Cuttell have distinctly better averages, I should not still rank Jack Heame a good second. He has scarcely the physique of Richardson ; but he has done very nearly as much work this season, and his record is a very fine one. As in more than one other year, he began and finished in better form than he showed in the middle of the season. Rawlin did not give him as efficient support as usual; save in his first match of the season, Jem Phillips was a failure; F. H. E. Cunliffe, who did big things for Oxford, only played in four matches for Middlesex, but bowled well in these four; and C. M. Wells hardly met with as much success as usual when he joined the team for the last month of the season. Hampshire suffered even more than Middlesex from being unable to get together her best side, for Hampshire’s “ second best” were hardly as good as Middlesex’s. If the Hampshire teams in every match could be selected from Captains Wynyard and Quinton, F. E. Lacey, C. Robson, A. J. L. Hill, W. Andrew, D. A. Steele, C. Heseltine, E. C. Lee, Barton, Webb, Soar and Baldwin, the team would want a lot of beating. But unfortunately it was the exception rather than the rule to see the full Hampshire team in Ihe field; and Hampshire, as sometimes represented, was about the weakest of the fourteen flrst-class county elevens. From the other regular members of the team, Yictor Barton stands out conspicuously. Except for a few matches in the latter half of July, he was always making good scores; and, although his average was not high, he played really great cricket for his side. In successive matches he made 93* v. the Philadelphians, 125 v. Yorkshire, and 81 v. Somerset. Had the M.C.C. match been reckoned as first-class (as I still think it should have been) he would have figured in the list of scorers of 1,000 runs. As it is, Hampshire has no representative therein, for Captain Wynyard did not equal his great deeds of 1896, though he made double figures in 18 out of 22 innings, including thirteen scores varying from 31 up to 80. Captain Quinton only played in seven matches altogether ; but he was very conspicuous in three of them, and played very fine cricket on a bad ground against the Surrey bowling. F. E. Lacey, one is pleased to be able to chronicle, played oftener than for several years past, and had a better average than any other Hampshire batsman. Scores of 121, 58, 55, and 51 were included in his total of 385. C. Robson made but one score of over 30, 75 v. Warwickshire, but played several other very useful innings, and kept wicket well. Webb is not a con­ sistent batsman; but in three or four matches he was seen to great advantage, notably, at Derby, where he scored 86 and 43, and at Portsmouth against Sussex, where he made 111, the first century of his county career. Without doing anything big, the Oxford freshman, E. C. Lee, was very useful, and should get his “ blue” next year, especially as he can bowl a bit aB well as bat. W. Andrew, a new acquisition, played a great game against Sussex at Brighton, and Warwickshire at Southampton, but, unfortunately, could not spare the time to assist regularly. R. A. Bennett batted fairly well in two or three matches, and kept wicket with some credit to him­ self in a greater number. A. J. L. Hill’s batting form was very in-and-out; but he has never bowled so well before, and if his 100 v. Warwickshire at Southampton had been his only good score (which it was not) he would have been worth his place for that and his bowling. C. Heseltine met with great success as a fast bowler, and hit out well on more than one occasion. D. A. Steele came off with the bat in some matches, and with the ball in others, and if he neither made a great many runs, nor took a great many wickets, was always worth his place. Soar and Baldwin both bowled well at times, but were very expensive on the whole. However, both can bat a bit, and the rotund Baldwin’s hitting was more than once very useful. Capt. Luard played in five matches, but did not show a glimpse of the form which raised high hopes of him when he first played for Gloucestershire. Major J. Spens scored 152 for once out against the Philadelphians, but did not assist in a single county fixture. Young E. J. M. Barrett was very disappointing. Light was unfortunate in being out of the team when more bowling was wanted, and he might have had a good trial, and in it when some of the other bowlers were doing so well that he was not needed; and Kitchener scarcely had a fair chance given him. I find that I shall have to leave over the conclusion of these jottings to the first of the Winter numbers of Cricket. Kent, Somerset, Notts, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire all remain to be dealt with, besides the few first-class men not identified with any county ; and, though not one of the five counties mentioned did well in 1897, each had in its ranks good men and true, whose performances I cannot find it in my heart to dismiss with a paltry half line each. J.N . P. N E X T ISSUE, THUR SDAY , OCTOBER 28.