Cricket 1899

J une 29, 1899. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 237 cannot be seriously taken as a measure of the opponents who were on this occasion able to get them o u t; nor is this by itself a sufficient cause for the dismay which now pervades the English cricket world. The serious fact is that competent spec­ tators of this and the other matches in which our visitors have taken part cannot help recognising that the results have been achieved by real superiority. What­ ever may happen in the remaining test matches, the Australians have established their right to be considered, at least, the equals of any side that can be placed in the field against them. That they them­ selves are conscious of their own ability has been quite evident to everybody who has seen them in action, and they have evidently impressed their opponents with the same idea. From the first ball bowled in each match, they have, as it were, taken charge of the game, and have made their presence felt in much the same manner as a fine chess player will seem to assume, and keep the initiative as soon as he sits down to the board with an opponent in any degree his inferior.” O f the twenty-nine men who were out in the match between Hampstead and Arkley (12 a side) on June 21st, twenty- four were caught—nineteen of them behind the wicket. The first ball in each innings took a wicket. A c c o r d in g to the Madras Times, a batsman named Browne holds the record for slow scaring at Bombay - 16 runs in three hours. T y l e r , who, owing to an accident, was unable to assist the Somerset team for some weeks, re-appeared with great success in the Lancashire match. But at one period of the game he bowled three unfortunate overs, no fewer than 50 runs being made off them by Frank Sugg and Baker. The former made five fours off one over, and the latter two fours and two sixes off another. Despite this treat­ ment, Tyler had the excellent analysis of eleven wickets for 220, and his fine bowling had a great deal to do with the first victory of his county this season. “ A n old Harrovian” writes The Rev. John Henry Kirwan, Rector of St. John’s, near Antony, in Cornwall, died on June 13th, 1899, aged 82. He formed one of the Eton Eleven in 1834 and 1835, and also played for Cambridge v. Oxford in 1839. He assisted the Gentlemen against the Players in 1837 in their second match that year. He was a very fast bowler. A short biographical notice is given of him in the “ Scores and Bio­ graphies,” Vol. II., page 278. His elder brother, Mr. E. Kirwan, played in the Eton eleven in 1832 and 1833. I t may be interesting to refer to the record of J. T. Hearne’s bowling since the first match between England and Australia. Averages are not everything, but if a great bowler is in form he generally gets wickets. From the table which is given below it will be seen that Heame has taken nineteen wickets for 556 runs, which, if we may be pardoned for saying so, looks healthy for to-day’s match. His batting record for the same matches is eight innings (four times not out), 43 runs. Hearne nearly always goes off iu the middle of the season, and returns to form again at the end of it. Let us hope that he will begin to return to form this week. First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W. O. M. R. W . M.C.C. and Ground v. Australians ... 56 22I f8 3 ... 8 1 26 0 Middlesex v. Sussex 49 16103 2 ... 3i 13 6t 3 Middlesex v. Kent .. 29 959 2 ... 35 3 14 63 6 Middlesex v. Leices- shire ................... 21 1025 1 ... 24 8 58 2 Middlesex v. Notts. 8 325 0 ... 12 4 25 0 F r o m Hawkhurst, Kent, Mr. P. Lousley writes :— Although rather late in the day, it may interest your readers to know that Abel, with his huge score of 367 not out against Somer­ set, at the end of May, created a record in first-class cricket. He has now scored one or more centuries against all the other thirteen counties that Surrey have played in the championship competition. The following is a list of his highest Bcore against each county. Derbyshire........... ... 109 Middlesex ... 186* E s s e x ................... ... 231 Notts................... ... 215 Gloucestershire... ... 104* Somerset........... ... 357* Hampshire........... ... 173 Sussex ........... ... 166 Kent ................... ... 219 Warwickshire .. ... 260 Lancashire........... ... 167 Yorkshire ... 114 Leicester ........... ... 152 * Signifies not out. “ I f a broken piece of a bat flies cff and removes the biils when a batsman is at the wicket is he out ? ” asks Mr. Fred Coventry. He is generally given out, just as he is if his hat or cap falls on to the wicket and removes the bails, but there is no authority in the laws for an adverse decision in either case. A hat, when it was off a man’s hand, can hardly be considered as his dress ; and a batsman certainly does not “ hit down his wicket with his bat” if a splinter flies from it and removes the bails. W r it in g from Cape Town, Mr. W . Ronald Puzey asks :— “ Could you find room in your columns to answer the following query. It has given rise to some heated arguments, and as the law is not quite explicit, I should be glad to have it answered by reliable authorities. The striker is out of his ground. The wicket­ keeper catches the ball with his left hand and removes the bails with his right hand, the ball still being in his left hand. Is the bats­ man outP (or must the ball be in the same hand the wicket-keeper removes bails with ?) ” [The wicket must be put down “ with the ball or with hand or arm with ball in hand,” which was evidently intended by the framers of the law to mea>n that the ball must be in the hand which does the work"]. Th e collapse of the Leicestershire team in tbe second innings against the Austra­ lians, on Saturday afternoon, was almost as decided as that of the Australian team at Lord’s in the famous M.C.C. match in 1896. The first seven Leicestershire wickets fell for 4 runs on Saturday ; the last seven Australian wickets fell for nothing in 1896. In the Australian innings the highest score was 8 ; in the Leicestershire innings it was 10; while the Leicestershire men made five duck’s eggs between them and the Australians seven. I t is too generally the custom for bowlers and even wicket-keepers in this country to neglect the practice of batting, says the Field, and even for captains to encourage their men to reserve themselves for one department of the game. A t the Antipodes professional bowlers are almost unknown, and since amateurs cannot, therefore, give themselves wholly to the practice of batting, the versatility of players is thereby developed. Thus while strong defence is the main characteristic of the present Australian eleven—and a higher compliment must be paid to such batsmen as Messrs. H ill and Trumper— it possesses reserves in its bowlers that are capable of often saving it from defeat when runs are wanted. As for the field­ ing, it is no new thing for colonial cricketers to set Englishmen an example of unflagging activity and watchfulness, and the manner in which the fieldsmen are stationed, not only to act in concert with the bowlers, but to suit the bats­ men’s idiosyncrasies, is once again a credit to their captain and a reproach to adversaries who have seen, without learn­ ing, how it is done. W e should imagine that S ‘ orer has created a record—a most unlucky recjrd — in the matter o f l.b.w . this season. In the M C.C. match against Lancashire he was out twice l.b.w ., and after getting out iu other ways for four matches he was again l.b.w . in England v. Australia. Since that time he has been so unfortu­ nate that he has “ obstructed” in every match except one, as will be seen from the follow ing record of his doings :— England v. Australia— b Jones ................... 4 lbw, b Jones ... 3 Derbyshire v. 8urrey— lbw, b T. Richardson £6 c Brockwell, b H ayw ard........... 6 Derbyshire v. Yorkshire— lbw, b Jackson...........£6 c Rhodes, b Hirst 33 Derbyshire v. Lancashire— lbw, b Ward ...........12 lbw, b H allows... 0 Derbyshire v. Notts— c Attewell, b Bottom 0 c J.Gunn, b Wass 22 Derbj shire v. Essex— b M ead................... .. 5 lbw, b Mead ... 7 Derbyshire v. Australians— lbw, b Noble ........... 5 not out ......... 64 In his reminiscences, which are still appearing in the Echo and other papers, Dr. Grace recalls the story of his innings of 344 for M.C.C. against Kent in 1876. He says:— I had another funny experience at Canter­ bury in 1870. I was playing for the M.C.C. against Kent. In their first innings Kent scored 473—Lord Harris contributing 154— while we of the M.C.C. were all out for 144. It was Friday afternoon when we went in again for our follow-on innings, and, as the game seemed lost, and I had to play down at Gloucester on the Monday, it crossed my mind that I would hit out whether I lost m^ wicket or no. Even if, I got out I thought it didn’t matter much, and I should be able to travel down to Gloucester on Saturday instead of Sunday. Anyway I went in and hit out for all 1 was worth. In 45 minutes I had made a hundred, and when stumps were