Cricket 1897

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. no . 4 4 0 . v o l . x u i . THURSDAY, JANUAEY 28, 1897. p r i c e aa. W . a . QUA IFE . One of the little men who by their extraordinary quickness of movement and good eyesight manage to hold their own against players with the longest reach, W. G. Quaife has a particularly graceful style as a batsman. To a spectator it always comes as a surprise when Quaife happens to get out before he has made a good score, for he seems to have such ease in playing the bowling that it is difficult to realise the possibility of a catastrophe in the immediate future. His career has been short, but he has steadily im­ proved each year, and with ordinary luck he may be trusted to continue to im­ prove. Last year he had the honour of placing his name among the list of batsmen who have scored a thousand runs in a season, and this result was not attained by any phenomenal scores. On the contrary, his batting was nearly always consistent. He had an average of 32'29 for 32 completed innings, and among his best scores were: v. Yorkshire, 92 not out; v. Leicestershire, 105; v. Gloucestershire, 58; v. Essex, 81 not out and 51 not out; v. Hampshire, 110; v. Leices­ tershire, 50. The 92 against Yorkshire was the salvation of his side. Yorkshire had made a record score, and with very little time in which to get ■Warwickshire out twice, seemed likely to accomplish their object. But Quaife kept their bowlers at bay for no less than four hours. In 1895, his second year for Warwick­ shire in first-class matches—he played one innings for the county in 1893, and made 102 not out, but it was only against Durham—he proved himself to be a sound and useful bat, and played several fine innings, although he only twice at all nearly approached the hundred. His best scores were: v. Surrey, 50; v. Lancashire, 19 and 56; v. Surrey, 34 not ou t; v. Kent, 21 and 78 not ou t; v. Leicestershire, 78 not o u t; v. Cheshire, 40; v. Essex, 31 and 26. He made his debut in first-class cricket in 1894, after qualifying for Warwick­ shire, where he followed his brother Walter, and on three occasions he made over 50, only missing his hundred by eight against Surrey. Quaife was bom at Newhaven on March 17th, 1872, and appeared among the Sussex Colts on May 5th, at Brighton, in 1890; he then made 1 and 29, the latter innings being the highest in a total of 156. He still keeps up his con­ nection with Sussex in Asso­ ciation football, a game at which he is very proficient. Quite recently he represented Sussex against Lancashire at Warrington, and although he was on the losing side, he played a splendid game for­ ward, and attracted a great deal of attention among the spectators. It has been objected that although Qnaife has a very pretty style he is often very tedious to watch, and there is a certain amount of truth in this. In the match against Hampshire, inwhich he scored 110 last year, he was batting for four hours, and it was, of course, natural that during such an innings there were periods when his batting was monotonous in the extreme. But there can be no doubt that as a rale Quaife plays the game which seems likely to be of the most service to his side. That he can play lively and taking cricket was evidenced by the second innings against Essex, in which he scored 61 not out in partnership with Diver. The batting of these two menwas decidedly the feature of the match. Quaife’s highest innings was 228 not out for Warwickshire against Staffordshire on May 26 last year. W. G. QUAIJTB. From a Photo by R. W. Thomas , Cheapside, London , E,C.