Cricket 1898

386 CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE UAMJS. S ept . 1 1898. An interview with Mr. P. F. Warner appears in the Athletic Times, a Leeds newspaper. It is somewhat singular, seeing that no acknowledgement is made of its source, that the same inter­ view appeared in Cricket a few weeks ago, word for word, except that Mr. Warner is invariably referred to as “ Warner ” in the Leeds piper. The Gr eer’s Company has granted 100 guineas and the Leathersellers’ Com­ pany 10 guineas towards the £ 10 , 000 , which the London Playing Fields Committee are trying to raise for the purchase of Prince George’s Ground, Haynes Park, as a playing field for Londoners of the poorer classes. Among the other recent contributions are the Morgan Crucible Company, Limited, 100 guineas ; “ F. J. P .,” £ 5 0 ; Mr. W. S. Deacon, £ 5 0 ; Mr. J. W . Charrington, £ 5 0 ; Mr. Y . C. Walker, £ 25; Mr. M. Beaufoy, £ 2 0 ; Sir F . Mappin, Bart., M .P ., and Messrs. M . Barrow, A. F. Tritton, and Martin Lucas, 10 guineas each ; “ A Golfer,” £10 5 s.; and Messrs. Arthur Lucas, C. Lucas, W . F. Court- hope, A. T. B. Dunn, W . S. Gosling, A. H . Gosling, and S. F . Gosling, £10 each. The shilling subscription list which was opened in the columns of The Sportsman, in aid of the above fund now amounts to about 17,000 shillings. Altogether the sums secured amount to about £6,300. The balance has to be found before Christmas, when the Committee’s option to purchase expires. N ow is the opportunity for the philanthropist. T he extremely valuable collection of cricket books, pictures, etc., which has been brought together by the late Mr. T. Padwick, is now for sale, and* there never was a better opportunity for lovers of cricket bibliography to increase their collection. I have received an advance copy of the catalogue of this truly remarkable collection from M r. A. J. Gaston, 133, Ditchling Rise, Brighton, Sussex, to whom all communications should be addressed. Yery many readers of Cricket will hear with regret of the death of Mr. A. E. Coates, of Loomis, Placer County, Cale- fornia. The “ old ’un,” as he was familiarly called, died at the beginning of August, in Los Angeles, of heart disease. H is loss will be a very severe blow to California cricket, in which he took exceeding interest, and it will be very difficult for anyone to fill his place. Mr. Coates frequently wrote interesting letters to Cricket about the game as played in California. I t is pleasant to find that there is still another cricketer in California who will do all that is in his power to keep up the interest in the game in that far-off part of the world, where cricket is played under very great difficulties. This gentleman is Mr. Herbert V. Keeling, a cousin of the Rev. Cecil Wilson (the Bishop of Melanesia), of Mr. Leslie Wilson, both of whom used to play for Kent, and of Mr. J. R . Head, the Middlesex cricketer. Cricket had no more enthusiastic follower than the old Harrovian, C. F. Reid, who died last week. A good all­ round player; as a boy he laid the foun­ dation of his cricket at Harrow in 1860 or thereabouts. His pretty ground at The Node, Waboyn, was subsequently the scene of many an interesting match, most of the amateur touring teams at one time or other, indeed, had reason to speak feelingly of the hospitable recep­ tion extended at The Node. He did, too, good Service to Association Football in his time for the Wanderers and the Har­ row Chequers, being above the average as a back. An old member of M.C.C. and the Surrey C.C.C., he hardly ever missed an important match either at Lord’s or the Oval until the last. His daughter, a contributor to Cricket, by the way, is the wife of E. A. Nepean, some few years ago one of the most useful members of the Middlesex Eleven. I n the autumn the young cricketer’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of tours, in this case wedding tours, so it would seem. A t least, if my information is cor­ rect, R. W . Rice, the Gloucestershire amateur, has either been or is to be married this week. It is a fact that D. L . A. Jephson, who has been acting as Surrey captain now that K . J. Key has gone abroad, is also to be married next month. Both are keen sportsmen, and Cricket readers will wish them heartily the best of luck. S t ill another aggregate of over a thousand runs, in which the Surrey eleven assisted. This time it was not at the Oval. The match between Somersetshire and Surrey at the end of last week realised as many as 1,203 runs for thirty- three wickets. For a wonder, considering that it was at Taunton, Surrey escaped with a draw. I t is just on the cards that Lees, the young Surrey cricketer, may go to Buenos Aires for the winter to coach the local players. In such an event he would be back in England quite early in April. The chief point of interest in the match at the Oval on Monday, between the Public Schools and Surrey Col£s, was the batting and bow ling of R. T. Crawford, a son of the Rev. J. C. Crawford, and brother of “ V. F. S.” He made 95 runs for the Schools, including a six and 17 fours, and took five wickets for 16 runs. Jayaram, the Indian cricketer, is in a good vein for scoring, evidently, just now. On the day after Bank Holiday he made 120 at Kolar, out of a total of 240 odd, against a weak Madras team, and with only one or two hard chances. As he also made a brilliant catch at short slip, dismissing the great rungetter, Sewell, just as he was settling down, he had a considerable share in winning the match. The day before, M. R . Jardine’s all-round cricket was the chief feature of the match at Bombay, between the Gymkhana and the Byculla Club. Be­ sides scoring 137 out of 226 from the bat, he got rid of four Gymkhana batsmen with his bowling, and caught a fifth. M.A.P. is giving a good deal of interesting information about cricketers, their belongings, as well as their doings. But it would be better if that chatty little paper were a little more up-to-date. A year ago it would have been correct to describe W. W . Read as the assistant- secretary of the Surrey County C.C. It is certainly not the fact now. P rince R anjitsinii . ti ’ s latest book — “ With Stoddart’s Team in Australia” — has reached us rather late in the day, although it is none the less interesting for that. It is published at a shilling by Mr. James Bowden, 10, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. A character sketch of the Prince, by “ Rover,” forms the introduction to the book, which contains chapters on the Personnel of the Team, Departure and Yoyage, Our First Matches, etc., etc., as well as a summing up of the tour, part of which we quote on page 390. I t is needless to say that Ranjitsinhji speaks out quite fearlessly, and does not beat about the bush. On page 380 will be found a letter from Mr. W . A. Firth, explaining that the statement in “ Gossip ” on June 9th that “ Ned ” Gregory’s benefit at Sydney produced about £20 in the way of gate- money was entirely wrong. I am very pleased indeed, for the sake of Gregory and Australian cricketers, to find that my informant, who is generally accurate in his statements, had made a mistake on this occasion. Mr. Frith does not, how ­ ever, mention to what the actual gate- money amounted. The latter part of Mr. Firth’s letter will be read with the greatest surprise b y Englishmen, who can have had uo idea that the visit of an English team would cause such a vast falling-off in the takings at intercolonial matches. Th e legend under Sir John Tenniel’s clever cartoon in Punch this week is as follow s:— NINETY IN THE SHADE—NOT O U T ! U m p ir e P u n c h ( to W.G., so l .) : “ B y J o v e , OLD MAN, YOU’ VE ‘ BEATEN THE RECORD ’ this TillE AND NO MISTAKE. [The Record-breaker was greatly gratified with the greeting, hut did not fail to remember that his long innings might be declared ‘ 1 closed ’ ’ at any moment by that most capricious of captains, the Clerk of the Weather.— Punch's Epitome ofHistory .] W e do not presume for a moment to criticise Sir John Tenniel’s cartoon from the point of view of art, but we cannot help wondering where he saw that b a t! The follow ing are some of the latest hundreds:— AUGUST. 25. L . C. H . P alairbt , S omerset v . S urrey ... 107 25. W. N. R oe, Som erset v. S u rrey . I ll 27. B rockwki . i ., S urrey v . S omerset joo 26. J . D ouglas , M iudiesex v . K kni ■ 26. F . G. J. F osd , M iddlesex v . K ent I!! 135,