Cricket 1897

430 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t. 16, 1897 THE F IRST -CLASS SEASON OF 1897. If a man who has carefully followed the course of first-class cricket this season were asked to name, without hesi­ tating, the half-dozen men who had most distinguished themselves, he would probably reply, Eichardson, Eanjitsinbji, Abel, Brann—and would then find it necessary to pause. For although there are many others who have done wonder­ fully well—notably, Ford, Druce, Mac­ Laren, W. G., Hayward, Jackson, Brown, Mason, Gunn, Shrewsbury, Cuttell, Dixon, Wynyard, Jessop—it is by no means easy to decide which of these have done the best. The season has been so prolific of scoring, that dozens of players have made their thousand runs, and verj many more have splendid averages, with the result that the bowlers, as a rule, have to take a back seat, leaving Eichard­ son alone by himself on a little pinnacle of glory. The famous Surrey bowler has never before been seen to such advan­ tage ; his successes have been gained on all sorts of wickets ; he never seems to tire; ard he nearly always has a special ball up his sleeve, which he produces when matters begin to look serious for his tide. But he has been wonderfully nursed by the Surrey captain, who has known exactly when to give him a rest, when to keep him on, when to put him on at the other end—in fact, he has hardly ever made a mistake, the conse­ quence being that his bowler-in-chief never became stale. If he is as well nursed while he is in Australia, it will be a fine thing for his side, aud for Surrey next year. No individual batsman stands out prominently above all the rest this year like Ranjitsinhji in 1896, for though both be and Abelhave done remarkable things, they have both had long periods of only moderate success; indeed, Abel, except for one big innings, was out of form for more than a month. Both began the season in a brilliant manner, and both ended it in mediocrity, although Abel, in the very last match of the season, made fine scores, and brought his total up to 2,000 runs. Banjitsinhji did not play after the Sussex season came to a close, and thus missed his chance of scoring the 2,000; he was only 60 runs behind. The new and remarkably successful style of batting adopted by Mr. Brann Las afforded material for much discussion duriDg the whole season. He played more innings of over 50 than any other man, generally taking about a couple of hours to make this score, and he was certainly about the most difficult man to dispose of in England. It is one of the curiosities of cricket that he was not asked to play in the Gentlemen’s matches at Lord’s and the Oval; but such curiosi­ ties have frequently been known before in connection with these matches. It must be remembered that Mr. Brann’s latest style is not altogether new to him ; in some previous years there have been occasions on which he took a very long time to settle down, but never before bas he systematically adopted defensive tactics throughout the season. His steadiness this year was really the result of an accident in one of the Kent matches in 1896. He broke a finger, but continued to keep up his wicket, and in the second innings, when the position of his county was somewhat critical, he went to the wickets with his finger in splints, and remained there for over an hour for about five runs. He discovered that he could easily keep the ball out of his wicket if he was content to wait for opportunities of scoring, and after think­ ing the matter over in the winter he came to the conclusion that he could best serve his side by defensive tactics. But be has not lost the power of hitting. Of course, there were dozens of other men who were constantly doing some­ thing out of the common, notably, Mr. Druce, Mr. F. G. J. Ford, Mr. jessop, and Brockwell. Mr. Ford and Mr. Druce did not play much after the middle of the season, and Mr. Jessop’s most famous innings were played in July. If only for the sake of the sport which he would certainly have afforded every now and then it is a pity that he is not going to Australia as fourteenth man. The improvement in the play of W. G. Quaife, Dixon, Hirst, Baiubridge, Jephson, Burnup. and Perrin has been marked, while W. G ., Jackson, MacLaren, Gunn, Shrewsbury, Brown, Hayward, Wainwright, Mason, Captain Wynyard, Key, Baldwin. Frank Sugg, and Murdoch have quite held their own. W. G. seemed to have lost some of his skill in the early part of the season, but after he had settled down to play a steady game once more, he was, if not the W. G. of old, still one of the best batsmen in the world. Although Mr. Stoddart had an average of 30, he was not the Stoddart of former days; it is possible that playing cricket pretty nearly all the year round has proved too much for him, strong as he is. Several men have fallen off con­ siderably, but it is not necessary to men­ tion their names. In bowling Eichardson stands easily first, although he is not actually at the head of the list. Albert Trott’s immense success in second-class matches has given riseto hopes that he will be a very valuable addition to the ranks of Middlesex next year. Most of the other well-known bowlers have done about what was expected of them, but Cuttell, Hallam, Bland, Mr. Heseltine and Lees have come to the front in an un­ looked-for manner. As usual, the cricket world has never been left for long without some subject of particular interest to talk about, and one might make a sort of diary giving the dates of the subjects. In fact it may be interesting to do so here, premising that the subjects chronicled have not been worked out to a couple of places of decimals. MAY. “ What beastly weather.” Cold and windy. Triumph of batting over bowling. Several two hundreds. The various ways of calling attention to “ Eanji’s ” scores on the contents bills of the evening papers. The defeat of Yorkshire by E*sex. The weakness of the M.C.C. teams, and their remarkable success. “ This is beastly weather.” Rain inter­ rupts all the matches. Consistent play of Murdoch, Abel, Key, Jackson, “ Ranji,” Chinnery, and Milligan. JUNE. “ What is the matter with Yorkshire ? ” The defeat by Cambridge University. “ Surrey’s sensational start” ag-tinst Gloucestershire—4 wickets for 19. The visit of the Philadelphians. Not much of a beginning. The Whit Monday benefit matches. Eain. “ What a poor team Leicestershire has this year!” “ Fancy Attewell making a hundred ! ” “ Philadelphians not such a bad team after all.” The Sussex 7natch. King’s curl in the air. “ Who said there was anything the matter with Yorkshire ? ” Consistent play of Brann. “ What nice weather we are having ! ” The rise of the Essex team. JULY. “ Lucky job for Surrey that they managed to play out time against York­ shire ! ” “ Told you Essex couldn’t beat Lanca­ shire.” Oxford v. Cambridge. “ Bee-u-tiful weather, isn’t it ? ” “ Well, of all the rotten teams! ” (The Gentlemen’s team at the Oval). Gentlemen v. Players at Lord’s. Strong teams. Eecord for the first wicket by York­ shire against Sussex. Eton v. Harrow. Eton v. Harrow. Letters in the Times advocating an extra day. Eton v. Harrow. General discussion and flourish of trumpets. The 476 by Sussex against Lancashire. “ Wonderful weather ! ” Brann’s consistent scoring. “ Have, you seen Jessop’s extraordinary hitting ? ” “ What about Essex ? ” Yorkshire beaten by one run in the return. Abel makes 0 and 0, 5 and 4, after a series of long innings. Philadelphians end a fairly successful tour. Richardson’s bowling. AUGUST. Stoddart’s Australian team begins to take definite shape. “ Abel seems all right again.” The Canterbury Week. Kent out of the running. “ Weather still keeps wonderfully fine.” Poor Leicestershire and poor Derby­ shire. Cripples all over the country. New record for first wicket by Surrey against Hampshire. Sussex are avenged against Yorkshire. Curiosity as to the result of the County Championship. N E X T ISSUE, THUR SDAY , OCTOBER 28.