Cricket 1898

100 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M ay 5, 1898. Gaddum, P. J. T. Henery and P . C. Ramsay, who gained their blues in the next season. But, on the whole, the con­ tinual chopping and changing that took place were not for the good of the side. In their first match, a twelve-a-side game with an England team, the Cantabs had decidedly the best of a draw, the scratch twelve wanting 283 to win, with only 3 w icketstofall, when the match ended. The brothers Studd were in great form. G. B. scored 69 and 48; J. E. K . (his first match for Cambridge), 9 and 79; C. T. made 30 and 19, and took 5 wickets for 34. A. G. Steel, with 5 for 27 in Eng­ land’s second innings, and R . Spencer, with a score of 57 in the second of Cam­ bridge, also did good work. Gilbert’s 37 was the highest score for the scratch team, for whom Tom Emmett took 11 wickets for 138 runs. A curious game was the match with Yorkshire which followed, the county winning by eight wickets. The Tykes made 180 for the loss of one wicket on the first day, which was very showery. On the second their innings closed for 248. Hall scored 77, Tllyett 66, Bates 45, Lockwood 2 4 ; these were the first four men on the side ; the other seven made 24 among them. Of Cambridge’s first total of 88, J. E. K. Studd (40) and R . Spencer (23) con­ tributed nearly 75 per cent. The Light Blues followed on. J. E. K . made 25; and then G. B. (68) and Steel (71) made a good stand, and the total, with only two wickets down, was 141. The remain­ ing eight added but 82; and Yorkshire, left with only 64 to get, secured the ver­ dict with the loss of but two wickets. Six men (three on each side) scored 450 of the 592 runs from the bat made in this match. Peate’s six for 33 in the Cantab’s first was the best bow ling per­ formance. The M .C.C. match at Fenner’s was drawn, after heavy scoring all round, 864 runs being made for the loss of 32 wickets. The brothers C. T. and G. B. Studd, in very different styles, played magnificent cricket. C. T., going in third wicket down, carried his bat in each innings for 62 and 70 respectively. G. B. made 80 and 48. The former’s 132 contained two 5’s, one 4, and 54 singles; the latter’s 128 included one 5, eleven 4’s and 19 singles. Steel, with 33 and 21, was most successful of the other Light Blue batsmen. For the Club Alfred Shaw made 78 not out, and bowled^ 125 overs for 125 runs and 7 wickets; Mr. R. Miller, of St. John’s College, who had played well for the ’Yarsity in the first match, but was now performing against his comrades, ran up 73; Flowers made 49, Gunn 31, Clement Booth 27 and 36, and Barnes 7 and 29 not out. Another big-scoring match, with the Gentlemen (901 runs, 30 wickets down), resulted in another draw. Though seven other batsmen made double figures Mr. A. P. Lucas’s magnificent 142 bulked by far the largest in the Gentlemen’s total of 352, To the 370 of Cambridge, two of the brothers Studd contributed more than two-thirds. J .E .K ., going in first, made 154; C. T. scored 113. Every member of the scratch side bowled. The second innings of the Gentlemen realised only 145, C. I. Thornton 50 not o u t; and when time was called the Cantabs wanted only 94 to win with eight wickets still to fall. The first of the out-matches saw Cambridge’s best performance of the season, for in it the Light Blue team beat b y seven wickets the team which won the county championship of that year without losing a match to another shire. The game was remarkable in more than one way. It was the opening match of the beautiful Aigburth Ground at Liver­ pool, and it was Lancashire's only defeat of the season. But, more than for these things, it was memorable for the play of two men on the ’Varsity side. G. B. Studd, the hitter of the Cambridge team, went in first and carried his bat right through an innings of 187 for 106, and on a by no means easy wicket. A. G. Steel, against his county comrades, took six wickets for 22 and five for 69. No one did any specially notable performance for the losers. The M.C.C. game at Lord’s was lost b y 70 ru n s; but as the club had a splendid team in the field, and Cambridge had wretched luck through­ out, the beating was not a disgraceful one. C. T. Studd (58 and 23), G.B. (4 and 70) and Steel (36 and 25) made most runs for the losers; Midwinter (44 and 35), Barnes (42 and 35), A. W . Ridley (26 and 42) and A. P. Lucas (34 and 15) were most prominent for the winners. Since the results of the matches were so singularly alike (the club beat Cambridge by 70, Oxford by 56 runs), it is worthy of note that the M.C.C. team, which a day or two later took the field against the Dark Blues only differed from that which met their rivals by the substitution of A. N. Hornby, G. F. Vernon and T. S. Pearson for A. P . Lucas, G. H . Longman and F . F. Crawford. Cambridge won the match with Surrey by nine wickets, thanks largely to an unexpectedly fine innings of 102 b y A. F. J. Ford, who in his four seasons in the ’Varsity team had cartainly never shown anything like as good form before. For the losers, Walter Read made 27 and 87; and the batting o f these two men dwarfed the efforts of the other rungetters in the match. Still it is worthy of note that, beside Mr. Ford, there were eight double-figure contri­ butors to Cambridge’s 317, and that A. P. Lucas made 43 in the first innings of the county. Steel, who had been off colour with the ball in the M.C.C. match, quite came back to form, taking eight for 113, while C. T. Studd had five for 47, and C. P. Wilson, in Surrey’s second, five for 34. The teams for the ’Varsity match w ere:— Oxford'. —A. H . Evans, G. C. Hartison, M. C. Kemp, C. F. H . Leslie, N . Mac- Lachlan, W . H . Patterson, E . Peake, G. E. Robinson, W . A. Thornton, A. H. Trevor, and A. O. Whiting. Cambridge :—Hon. Ivo Bligh, A. F. J. Ford, N. Hone, F .C .C .R ow e, R . Spencer, A. G. Steel, C. T. Studd, G. B. Studd, J. E. K . Studd, H . Whitfeld, and C. P. Wilson. N ot for years had the sides been so evenly matched. Each had six or seven really fine batsmen, each plenty of bow l­ ing. Most people thought the Light Blues almost certain victors ; but one can see now that such a judgment overlooked the phenomenal brilliance of Leslie and the great capacity o f such men as Evans and Patterson, men good enough to turn the tide of any match. A t the end of the first half of the match it looked as though the Light Blue partisans were right, though Cambridge’s lead was not a tremendous one— 179 to 131. Oxford had had first innings; C. T. Studd and Steel had bowled w e ll; Leslie, Thornton, Whiting, and Peake, who had all been making runs just before, had all failed; and only Trevor (41), Kemp (29 not out), and M'-tcLachlan (21) had done anything much. Evans (seven for 74) bow led splen­ didly when Cambridge went in ; G. B. and J. E. K . Studd and Steel were among those who went cheaply; but the captain made 37, Ford and C. T. Studd 34 each, and Whitfeld 29. It was when Oxford went in again in a minority of 48 that the best cricket of the match was seen. Trevor (40) hit out while Patterson played the waiting game, and the arrears were more than wiped off when, at 68, Ford bowled the Su-sex man. Then Leslie came in ; and the great stand of the match began. When Leslie had only made eight he looked to have been caught and was leaving his wicket, when Patter­ son appealed to the umpire, who unhesi- tafiugly gave his verdict as “ not out.” Seven bowlers were tried before the pair could be parted, and by that time 113 had been put on, and Oxford had something more than a chance of victory. Thornton and Patterson put on 27, but Kemp and Evans went very cheaply; and with five down for 212, the balande veered once more in favour of Cambridge. But then Peake stayed, making 24 out of 34 while in, and after MacLachlan had gone for a duck, Whiting helped Patterson to add 48, himself making 22. The old Harro­ vian reached his century while Whiting was in. Neither Harrison nor Robinson could do much; and the end came with the total 306, Patterson having carried his bat right through for 107, in spite of the fact that his hand had been hurt early in the innings. C. T. Studd was the only bowler who met with much success; six for 85 were his figures. Steel could not get a wicket, and had 59 runs scored off him. Cambridge wanted 259 to win, and their case was not looked upon as b y any means a hopeless one. But when Bligh and G. B. Studd were out with 11 scored, the result was foreshadowed, for perhaps more on “ G. B .” than on any other bats­ man had the Light Blue hopes been cen­ tred. “ C. T .” (28) and Steel (36), like the great players they were, made a man­ ful effort to stem the tide of disaster, and added 68 before they were parted; but, though Ford played good cricket for 20, no one else could do much with Evans, and the innings closed for 123, Oxford thus winning by 135 runs after three suc­ cessive defeats. Evans had 13 wickets in the match for just 10 runs each ; and it was a fitting culmination to the ’Varsity career of a man who had for four seasons worked his hardest for an unfortunate side (Oxford won but three matches of 20 played during the four years the old Clif-