Cricket 1898

M at 26, 1898. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 153 THE JUNE WINDSOR # • MAGAZINE R E A D Y TO -D A Y . Commences a New Volume, and Surpasses every Sixpenny Magazine ever produced. I t C ontains the C ommencement of W I T H N A N S E N IN T H E N O R T H . L i e u t . J o h a n s e n 's N a r r a tiv e , (Secured at unprecndented cost). THE OPENING CHAPTERS OF A SPLENDID NEW SERIAL STORY. “ PHAROS.” B y GUY BOOTHBY, Author of “ Dr. Nikola.” C R IC K E T E R S . B y C. B FRY. Illustrated with splendid Portraits. F L Y F IS H IN G . B y j . PAUL TAYLOR. T H E D E S T R O Y E R S . B y RUDYARD KIPLING. And many brilliant Stories and Articles. WINDSOR MAGAZINE J U N E N U M B E R R E A D Y T O - D A Y . SIXPENCE, as usual. Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LOUDON, E.C. THURSDAY, MAY 26 t h , 1898. $atriiton (gosstp* The abstract and brief chronicle of the time.— Hamlet. A f t e r being made much of in Madras, Ranjitsinhji started for Abu, where, according to my latest information, it is his intention'to stay for some time with his uncle, Sir Pratabsinhji. On his way he broke his journey at Rutlam. Here he was received at the railway station by his Highness Sujjansinhji, the Raja of R u tlam ; the Dewan, Kh an Bahadur Cursetji Rustamji Thanawalla; and several officers of the State; two of his brothers also met him here. T h e match between Middlesex and and Cambridge University was note­ worthy in many ways. I t was the first match between the teams; Trott made his first appearanca for the county ; Mr. Stoddart did not p la y; M r. MacGregor and Trott both damaged their hands; and in their only innings Middlesex had three men run out and one absent. W h e n a man who is being tried for his “ blue” is pitchforked, as twelfth man, into a team which visits his University, it is not often that he has such a chance of distinguishing himself as fell to the lot of B. J . T. Bosanquet last week. He had to give way to R. E. More, who was not called upon during the match to take his place in the field or at the wickets. On the other hand, Bosanquet was in clover. As the M.C.C. team was weak in bowling he was put on first change, with the result that he at once put an end to a long stand for the first wicket, and took five of the seven wickets which fell before the game was abandoned. I f the weather were to continue in its present cheerful condition, some of the more unfortunate counties might not, perhaps, find it altogether an unmixed evil. There are opportunities and chances in the course of a rainy season which are never to be met with by a weak side when the wickets are perfect. In such variable weather as this, however, it sometimes falls to the humble to make their runs when the ball “ cuts through,” and to put in their opponents when it takes good enough hold to be dangerous. It is then that accidents happen, and that the players representing the strong team are said to be miserably falling off. THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS. F r o m o u r A g r i c u l t u r a l C o r r e s p o n d I t cannot be said that the weather this M a y has been entirely satisfactory to county committees, who, as the prices of admission are regulated to some extent by public opinion, may find it difficult to make both ends meet. Would-be in­ vestors show a lamentable tendency to keep away from the market. There has been a very fine crop of rheumatism, and some owners are said to have enough of it to last them for weeks. Unquestion­ ably, the weather has influenced the crop of swear-words immensely, so much so that it is a drug in the market. Several new varieties of this useful commodity have been introduced. It is stated on good authority that many people, having a good stock in hand, are keeping some of it for future use. L a s t week’s injured list:— Stocks, J Marlow, > Practising at nets. Tate, ) MacGregor, hand hurt while wicket-keeping. Trott, hand very severely cut. B e f o r e bidding a final farewell to the game of cricket, “ Charlie” Lawrence, the old A ll England Eleven player, who has been coach at Melbourne for so many years, took part in a match entitled M e l­ bourne C.C. v. Lawrence’s Colts. While the club team was batting the veteran showed remarkable activity in the field, despite his seventy years, and when he went in to bat on a very treacherous wicket, kept up his end for over three- quarters of an hour, scoring nine runs. O n the night before the match at Hobart, between North and South of Tasmania, the wicket was covered with a tarpaulin. B y an oversight, the captain of the North was not told of this, and when he won the toss, he decided to put his opponents in, to their intense surprise. It seems that he had counted on a heavy dew, which is generally to be reckoned with at this lime of the year in Tasmania, and when he found his mistake he was— well, let us say “ surprised.” It is a little odd, perhaps, that the South should have taken advantage of the mistake. To a representative of the M a d r a S t a n d a r d Ranjitsinhji stated that he was going again to Australia in 1900, and would, if it were possible, take a team to Western Australia. It will be noticed that by this remark he does not commit himself to controlling the next team which goes to Australia. Mil. A. J. G a s to n w r it e s C a p t a in Poore’s achievement of going in first and carrying his bat through the innings on the occasion of his initial appearance for a first-class county— viz., his excellent 49 out of 97 for Hampshire v. Somerset at Bath, on Thursday last— is not a record. G . W. Ayres, when he first appeared for Surrey, at Southampton, in August, 1890, against Hants, was first in with Brockwell, and carried his bat for 53. In Mr. R. T. E llis’s d e b u t for Sussex v. Gloucester, at Clifton, in August, 1877, M r. R. T, Ellis went in at the fall of the first wicket (Harry Phillips) before a run had been scored, and carried his bat for 73 out of 131, and this against the bowling of “ W . G.,” R. F. Miles, and Midwinter. M u c h credit has been given to a team of Melbourne ladies (the Forget-me-nots) who played the members of Parliament and scored 49 against 48 for nine wickets, but the A u s t r a l a s i a n t kes some of the gilt off the gingerbread, as the following remarks will show :— 11 Passing by the fact that the captain of the Forget-me-nots was allowed to take a good look at the coin after it had come down before she called ‘ woman ’ and decided to hat, the whole proceedings were marked by a delicacy of feeling and consideration which must go far to raise Parliament in the eyes of every lady cricketer in the land. . . There were many clear cases of ‘ leg before,’ but delicacy forbade any appeal to the umpire on that ground. ‘ Would you like them to the off, or to the left-hand side ? ’ asked the cour­ teous and obliging bowlers, thus dexterously avoiding the use of the vulgar expression, ‘ to leg..’ As a matter of fact, the only stroke which the ladies could make was to le ——to the left-hand side, and they brought this off with a broad agricultural sweep worthy of the district, almost going on their knees the while. When the Membeis were going in to bat, Mr. Taverner gave instructions that no one was to make more than five runs, and this rule was pretty closely observed—though it was hard when the girls would not take the catches purposely spooned up to them. Par­ liament would have won in spite of everything, had not the gallant captain called time before the winning stroke could be made, and the match was drawn.” T h e r e can be no doubt, if the A d v o ­ c a t e o f I n d i a is to be believed, that Ranjitsinh jiis a born diplomatist. ‘‘While