Cricket 1898

236 CRICKET : A WEEKLY I ’.ECORD OF THE GAME. June 30, 1898. BUSSEY’S fo Uj 0 25 cs Q QC a. 1 i k s k fo s 1 3 .2 w BETWEEN THE INNINGS. Whatever feebleness may be alleged against some of our first-class batsmen when they come to face good bowling on a really difficult pitch, it cannot surely be denied that most of them are very quick to take advantage of a change, however abrupt, to hard, true wickets. The weather during the last week or two has only been summerlike by comparison ; true, there has been three or four such days as belong of right to June— “ then, if ever, come perfect days,” says the poet—but for the most part the clouds have been constant in attendance, and the thermometer has shown low temperatures. Yet, whenever, by a cay or two cf decent weather, wickets have been allowed to recover themselves, centuries have been scored, two dozen or so of them during the last fortnight, and the list is rapidly running up to some­ thing like its proportions of last year. Is it that batsmen are more skilful, and quicker to accustom themselves to changed conditions than they were wont to be? Or is it that bowlers are less skilful, and most of them by no means deadly on anything like a good pitch ? Or is it that by reason of the progress made in the important art of ground-keeping, wickets recover much more rapidly and thoroughly from the effects of rain than used to be the case ? CO Whatever be the cause, the recent crop of centuries has been abundant indeed. One feature of the list which strikes me, however, is that only one name of the thirty or more batsmen who are included in it is new to the list, and that that name is borne by the scorer of the highest innings (up to date) of 1898, Mr. W . Troup, the hero of that wonderfully patient eight hours and ten minutes’ score of 180 at Bristol. Some day I mean to look up particulars of such long- protracted innings; just now, the only ones I can remember which exceeded Mr. Troup’s in duration of time are Gunn’s 9J hours (for 228) for the Players v. Australians, in 1890, and some of Shrewsbury’s innings, notably his 8 hours, 50 minutes (for 267) v. Sussex, at Trent Bridge, in 1890, his 10 hours, 15 minutes (for the same total) v. Middlesex, at Lord’s, in 1887, and his 8 hours, 30 minutes (for 212) in the same match, in 1892. Walter Read’s 338 v. Oxford, in 1888, was made in 6J hours, W . G.’s 344 for M.C.C. v. Kent, in 1876, in ten minutes less, and his 318, not out, v. Yorkshire, in that fame year, in about the same time as Mr. Troup’s score. But I see that he took 8iv hour8 to score his 301 v. Sussex, in 1896, which is another instance of an innings of longer duration than Mr. Troup’s. Mr. MacLaren’s 424, at Taunton, in 1895, only took him 7 hours, 50 minutes. trouble to Woods, Tyler and Co. on previous occasions. I have been working up their figures against the cider county. (By the way, cider is not Somerset’s only article of produce, I fancy; but to cricket scribes Somerset is always the cider county, and one may “ as well be dead as out o’ the fashion.” ) This is Ward’s first century, Sugg’s third against Somerset, both his others having been made four years ago. Their respective figures are:— M. Inns. Not out. Runs. Aver. Sugg ... 14 ... 21 ... 2 ... 884 ... 4662 Ward ... 14 ... 23 ... 3 ... 889 ... 4445 Ward has been (“ it is his nature to ” ) more consistently successful than Sugg; but the latter’s three long innings just give him the pull in the averages. Both have done fine work against Gloucestershire, too. Here again Ward has been more consistent, in spite of his two fives last week; but Sugg has slightly the better average. Ward has scored innings of 140 not out, 131, and 109 ; Sugg has made 220 (his best in flrst-class cricket), 127, and 102 not out. Both average much nearer 40 than 30. BUSSEY’S Last year there were ten or a dozen bats­ men who had qualified for inclusion in the century list up to the end of June who had never before figured in it. But on the whole the lists are not very dissimilar. We find many of the same names: Abel, Hayward, Albert Ward, Hirst, F. S. Jackson, Storer, Brockwell, W . L. Murdoch, G. Brann, F. G. J. Ford, and Gunn, were all there last year at this time. There were 29 centuries in May, 1897, and 25 in June. There were but 13 in May, 1898, but the June list is already a longer one than that of last year. When one saw that Albert Ward and Frank Sugg had run up a century each against Somerset, one seemed to remember that the same two batsmen had given considerable Mr. Jackson’s century against Middlesex and Mr. Sam Woods’ v. Sussex seemed also to have an old-time ring. And on looking up the records one finds that in 11 games v. Middlesex the Yorkshire amateur has had 19 innings for 813 runs (average 42-78), and that six of those 19 innings were such as 133, 115, 101, 91, 83, and 76. The 101 and 83 were in the same match. “ Sammy’s ” positive love for the Sussex bowling has been even more strikingly (methinks that is a word - appro­ priate) exemplified. In 1888, 1891, 1895, and 1896 he made his highest scores of the season against it, those scores being respectively 79 not out, 62, 215, and 158 not out. I say nothing about 1898, look you, for Mr. Woods has plenty of time in which to make a bigger score than his 143. Altogether he has played in 15 matches against Sussex (four for Cam­ bridge, 11 for his county) and has had 25 innings (four not outs) for 1,023 luns, average 48*71. Gunn and Shrewsbury have, of course, even higher figures against the much- battered Sussex bowling; but I doubt if anyone else’s (even W .G .’s) are better than the Somerset captain’s. Again, Mr. Stoddart’s century (never one more welcome to thousands of cricket-lovers) against Notts. It was against Notts that Mr. Stoddart’s first long score was made, in his first season with Middlesex, 1885. This was 79. He has scarcely been so consistent against the Notts’ bowling as Mr. Woods against that of Sussex, Mr. Jackson against Middlesex, or Ward against Somerset; but this is his fourth three-figure innings against it in 23 matches. He scored 130, at Lord’s, in 1892, and did his greatest performance, that wonderful double of 195 not out, and 124 on the same ground a year later. Frank Sugg, by the way, notoriously a bad starter, both as to a season’s cricket and as to an innings, has never before started quite so badly as he did this season, when up to his 169 on Tuesday, June 21, he had made but 66 in eleven innings. In 1893 he made only 70 in his first eight innings, however, and in 1894 he had actually played 18 innings for 186 when Lancashire and Somerset ranged up for battle at Manchester. That match only lasted one day, the western county being beaten in an innings; and Sugg’s contribu­ tion to the Lancashire total of 231 was 105, a really magnificent innings on a difficult wicket. The western tour followed this match, and Frank scored 0 and 50 v. Gloucestershire,