Cricket 1897

N o v . 25, 1897. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME 463 T. J. D. back a bit. The ball hit Kelly pretty hot on the shoulder, and cannoned to mid-off, who thus secured an easy chance. I never saw the little stonewaller looking angrier than he did as he walked away on that occasion. E. M. Grace is regarded as one of the finest points ever seen. Once when he was getting in a bit close I cut a ball hard against his shin, and for the cannon off the shin we ran a triplet. The doctor stood back a bit after that. Richard Daft says that Bob Car­ penter was a famous point, and in our own time we have a first-class point in Harry Trott, to whom the Indian prince refers as having “ adhesive ” hands. Arthur Shrewsbury at this post was A1 at Lloyd’s, and used to bring off some capital catches, especially on sticky wickets. W. G., too, was a. first-class point in his best days, and by his skill and judgment in studying the strokes of opposing b .‘ smen caused many of them to walk lame iting away. On the Clifton ground, in Gloucestershire, W. G. was bowling to B nnor, who was in hitting mood. “ Keeping them a bit short to him?” I observed. “ Yes,” replied W.G. “ If I don’t keep them a bit short he might rush in at one, hit it straight back, and maybe kill me, for I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way.” In the position of mid-off, Alick Ban- nerman, in my opinion, has had no superior in the world. Always on the ball, sharp as a needle, full of dash, clean in picking up, a fine catch, and remark­ ably accurate in return, he was a host in himself, and took positive delight in his work. In all the smart and clever work he has done in that position, perhaps the smartest and cleanest bit was when he caused the crowd to laugh at Peate at Harrogate. Peate kept on dodging a yard or so out of his crease and back again— “ playing the Angora,” as George Bonnor in his refined way termed it. Alick noticed this, but did not pretend to throw at the wickets, until presently Peate advanced about an extra foot. Then, with surprising dash and rapidity of action, Alick picked up, and, letting fly at the stumps, knocked the middle peg out before the astonished Peate could get back. Never before or since have I seen a batsmen more utterly crestfallen than Peate seemed as he walked to the pavilion amidst the laughter of assembled thousands. The only per­ sons who did not laugh were Peate himself and little Alick, whose “ dander ” was up to such an extent that his mous­ tache fairly bristled as he said, “ Play the Angora with me, will you ?” G. B. Studd was also a very fine mid-off, and both Jack Harry and Jack Worrall rank in the first class in this position. Jack Worrall has taken some hot catches as mid-off, but none so hot as when he caught and bowled George Bonnor in such a marvellous manner that the whole arena rang with applause. At short-slip I have never seen anyone equal to George Lohmann, and to show what he can do there you need only recall that superb catch which disposed of W. Bruce on the Melbourne ground off a fast one from Sharpe. To my mind, Hughie Trumble and Abel rank next to Lohmann. Dave Gregory, captain of the first Australian Eleven (“ please charge your glasses to the brim” ), was also an excellent short-slip, and that left-handed catch, low down, which got -rid of the Hon. Edward Lyttelton, after playing a grand innings of 113 at Lord’s was one of the finest I can recollect—worthy, indeed, of being bracketed with George Lohmann’s catch which I have just mentioned. One of the fluent fields Australia has ever pro­ duced is the celebrated bowler, Ted Evans, and no matter where the captain sent him he could not place him wrong. Another great field was Harry Boyle, who fairly amazed the old folks at home by standing so close up to the batsman at the spot called ‘ ‘ silly mid-on.” It was Harry Boyle who “ created ” that position in the field; he has had many imitators, but none equal to the original, though Jack Worrall and W. Bruce are very excellent seconds. At Clifton College ground E. M. Grace landed one on Boyle’s neck, and dropped him. We thought old “ Boyley ” was done for, but he soon picked himself up, gave his neck a twist to set it straight, and went on as if nothing had happened. The old post of long leg is blotted out pretty well now, except to leg break bowlers, or to under­ hand slows, but in his day the finest long leg and cover we had in Victoria was L. Goldsmith. When the Victorian fields­ men saw that hit to square leg by W. G. Grace in 1873 (what a skier it was) travelling towards “ Goldie,” it was felt that W.G.’s fate was as good as sealed, yet “ Goldie ” dropped it, and to this day carries the scar on a finger split by the descending ball. The late W. J. Hammersley, when sporting editor of The Australasian, used to speak of a superb fieldsman in England who always wore glasses. Mr. fiammersley was playing in a match with Alfred Mynn, Box, and Adams. The latter was batting, and skied one of Mynn’s midway between the wickets. Mynn ran for it, Box ran for it, and Adams ran for it the other end. The three met in violent collision. Mynn and Box were badly shaken, especially Box, who bounced off Mynn’s 18st. like an indiarubber ball. Adams managed to get into his crease by scrambling, but Mynn had the ball tightly clutched, and when able to speak the first words he uttered were, “ How’s that, umpire P” and Adams had to depart. Though we have many famous fields­ men in cricket now, I am quite certain that in and round Melbourne we are not so good in the catching department as were the players of fifteen or twenty years ago. Last season the catching was nothing short of execrable, and I have said before, and I say again, that the defect arises from want of practice at catching. It is practice that makes perfect, either at cricket or any other pastime or calling, and so long as the nets are there to stop the strokes, so long will our players be weak in catching. Frank Laver and other cricketers were fairly electrified by the magnificent catching of the crack baseballers of the eastern leagues in America. The secret of their skill is practice, practice, practice, and we can form a pretty good estimate of what they can do in the catching department when we note Frank Laver’s statement that, compared with the fielding of the first-class baseballers, that of Surrey and Notts seemed more like the fielding of old women. When the East Melbourne team years ago won cups without sustaining a single defeat, in two or three seasons, a very important factor in their success was their fine fielding, and they did that fine fielding by setting apart one evening for set practice in the field. In addition to that evening they used to throw lofty ones regularly to one another, right across the ground, and often a batsmen would get the ball, and hit it out to fieldsmen stationed as far away as he could hit. This was excellent practice, and to it is due the fact that the percentage of chances missed was not nearly so high as it is now. In the American game of baseball every chance missed counts as an “ error” against the fieldsman, tnd these errors are always on record against him. I think it would tend much to improve our catching if a similar plan could be adopted in cricket. At any rate every lover of cricket will admit that the exponents of the manly game should be as perfect as possible in all its branches, but however high-class may be our batting and bowling, our fielding, so far as catching is concerned, is not nearly what it ought to be, and what we are capable of attaining to by assiduous practice in this department is exhibited in a striking light by the difference between county fielding in England and the magnificent fielding of the first-class American baseballer, whose catching is not only infinitely superior to ours, but whose throwing in is as un­ erring as ours is erratic. BRIGHTON COLLEGE. Matches played, 12 ; won, 5 ; drawn, 3 ; lost, 4. BATTING AVERAGES. No. Times Most of not Total in an inns,. out. runs. inns. Aver. c. L. A. Smith ... ... 16 ... 2 , 504 .. 149*.. . 36 G. R. Hainpson ... ... 15 ... 1 ..., 299 ... 77 .. . 21 36 (J. 8 . Y ou n g.......... ... 14 ... 2 ..., 241 ... 64 .. . 20 08 C. C. M cLeod .. ... 17 ... 3 ... 253 .... 45*.. . I8 O7 M,. C. Kernander .. 9 ... 0 ... 92 . . 33 .. . 10 22 D. H. R. Gilford... ... 16 ... 2 ... 141 .... 34 .. . 10*07 ii R. J. Holmes... ... 16 ... 1 ... 129 .,.. 28 .. . 8-66 L. F. P. de ttrnidt ... 10 ... 2 ... 59 .,.. 21 .. . 7'47 K. Aparius ........... ... 6 ... 2 ... 25 ... 10*.. . 625 F. L. King ........... ... 12 ... 0 ... 56 ... 25 .. . 4-66 C. L. eimpson ... ... 12 ... 2 ... 44 ... 8 .. . 4-44 F. H. Charlton ... ... 6 ... 0 .., 5 ... 2 .. • 083 * Signifies not out. BOW LING AVERAGES. Overs. Mdns. Runs. Wkts. Aver. C. L. A . Smith .. . 221 . 71 .,. 489 .... 47 .,.. 10-4 G. R. Hampson .. . 213-1 ... 61 .,. 498 ..,. 45 . ,. 11-06 C. C. McLeod . 113 ... 27 ... 366 .. . 17 ... 21-52 L. F. P. de Smidt.. . 12 ... 4 .... 50 .. . 2 . ,. 25 H. R. J. Holmes .. . 19 ... 4 ... 77 .. . 3 . . 25-66 C. L. Simpson . 70 .. 15 .. . 189 ... 6 ..,. 3150 A L L CRICKETERS should possess a copy oj “ Cricket’s Year Book.” Price sixpence. Con­ taining portraits of all the celebrities for the year in addition to a mass of useful information. Copies can be had of all the railway bookstalls, newsagents, or (sevenpence by post) from Cricket Office, 168, Upper Thames Street, E.C. N E X T ISSUE, THURSDAY , D ECEM B E R 30.