Cricket 1898

S ept . 1, L898. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 379 BUSSEY’S BETWEEN THE INNINGS. There is a touch of autumn in the air as I write, and one finds it easy to believe that in a fortnight’s time the cricket season of 1898 will be a thing of the past. Already eight of the fourteen first-class counties have played their last match; before this appears in print four others will have finished, and only Surrey and Warwickshire will have an item of their programme left outstanding. One feels that it is not too early to begin to take stock of what the season has brought us. A strange season has it been, in respect of weather, and one is inclined to wonder that scoring has been, on the whole, so high. For we have had very little indeed of the long spells of settled fine weather, of cloudless skies and hard true wickets, that rendered heavy run- getting but natural during the greater part of 1895, 1896 and 1897. Yet there has never been any prolonged rain, and perhaps, what we have had has aided the batsmen in the loDg run, for it has kept the wickets from grow ing fiery. According to my reckoning, no fewer than 75 players, hitherto unknown to English first-class cricket, have appeared in 1898, and it would be a strange thing if there were not among these a few who wi’l be likely to go far in the future. Perhaps scarcely more than 20 per cent, of them are likely to become regular first-class players; but from these it would be possible to choose a very fair eleven. Cambridge cricket would give us G. E. Winter, A. E. Hind and A. T. Coode, all of whom are Jikely to do better than they have done, although each has done good work already; Oxford, B. J. T. Bosanquet; Essex, Y o u n g ; Hants, Major Poore, E. A. Euglish and Tate; Lancashire, W . B. Stoddart and Hallows ; Sussex, young Humphreys, L. de Monte­ zuma and C. L. A. Smith ; Warwickshire, Kinneir, Dickens and H opkins; and Yorkshire, Ehodes. One would unhesi­ tatingly pick out the last-named as the most notable of the lo t; next to him the gallant Major, who has had so large a share in Hampshire’s battles; third, I should feel inclined to place Kinneir, whose previous experience as a Wiltshire c junty player seems to have stood him in good stead, for he has shaped like a first-class player from the very send-off. At least two really fine players who have been too long absent from first-class cricket have lately re-appeared with a notable measure of success. One, Mr. R. N. Douglas, has not played in big matches since 1892. his third and last year in the Cambridge Eleven. He was one of the famous Five Freshmen of the 1890 team (F. S. Jackson, A. J. L. H ill, D. L A. Jephson, and E. C. S reatfeild were the other four), and did better work .in that year than in either of the two succeeding ones. In 1890 and 1891 he also played in a few matches for Surrey; and his com ­ plete fir.-t-cla^s record for the three years was: 54 innings, ones not ouS 1,279 runs, average 24'13, highest score 131 (v. Mr. Thornton’s England Eleven at Cambridge in 1891). The other, Mr. P . H . L ttham, came into the Cambridge team in Mr. Douglas’ third year, and, like him, was far more conspicuous in his first season than afterwards. He, too, had three years, and then dropped out, his complete record for 1892-3-4 being: 43 innings, twice not out, 980 runs, average 23-90, highest score 116 (v. M.C.C. at L ord’s in 1894, his year of captaincy). Since then he has appeared occasionally for Worces­ tershire ; it is under the family-home clause, I understand, that he is qualified for Sussex, to whom he has proved a most welcome recruit. Like Mr. Douglas, he is not likely to be able to play before August; both belong to the tutorial pro­ fession, which keeps so many good men out of the field in May, June, and July. On the other hand several good men who have played a fair amount o f big cricket during the last few years have been absentees from their county sides during the whole of the season of 1898. Somerset has not once had the assistance of either C. E. Dunlop or R. B. Porch, neither of them a great batsman, but both useful; E. B. Shine, R. O ’H. Livesay, and G. J. Mordaunt have not made even a solitary appearance for K en t; Captain Luard, though in fine form, has not once helped Hampshire, from whose eleven the M.C.C. secretary, who batted so well for the county in 1897, has also been absent; Sussex has missed ‘ ‘ the Prince,” absent in India; “ W .W .” has dropped out of the Surrey team, and to some of us the team has lost something of its old fascination in consequence; Pickett has been dropped by E ssex; Hallam, through ill-health, has been unable to help Lancashire; and plucky Joe Mounsey has not had a single chance for Yorkshire. I have heard that Mounsey aud another of the White Rose pros, (is it Moorhouse ?) are, with the consent of their county executive, qualifying, or about to qualify, for another county, though I have not been able to gather what county. Either Leicestershire or Hampshire could well do with two such men. Iu form, they are as good a pair when the game is going against their side as one might hope to find. I have said little of late as to the Thousand Runs and Hundred Wickets’ races, because the progress made in each has been duly set forth in “ Pavilion Gossip.” But the present seems a fitting time for a word or two in this connection. The new men in the batsmen’s list thus far are C. B. Fry, C. L. Townsend, C. O. H . Sewell, F. G. J. Ford, and H olland; and to these are likely to be added the names of W. Troup, P. Perrin, D. L. A. Jephson, Lockwood, and Cattell. Of those who have still a chance of reaching four figures, to whom the experience would not be a new one, Lotd Hawke, Baker, and Lilley are the most likely candidates. For the Two Thousand, only Abel and Tyldesley seem to be in the runuing, and these should