Cricket 1899

238 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J une 29, 1899. drawn the M.C.C. total was 217, of which I had contributed not out 133, with several wickets to fall. Next morning the high pace of Bcoring continued, and the M.C.C. total was advanced to 323 in 90 minutes. By five o’clock in the afternoon I had made 344, and the M.C.C. aggregate was 587 for eight wickets. As the result, the match, which it was thought was going to he a soft thing for Kent, was left drawn, if anything, in favour of the M.C.C. A DESCRIPTION of a cricket ground in India, from the Madras Times :— There’s a place on the Himalayas known as Mu8soorie. In a dug-out sort of deep trench kind of a gravelike sort of a hollow kind of ravine sort of a piece of fiat ground between two ridges the sporting population of Mussoorie take their pleasure. They call Ihe place Happy Valley, because you can’t play any game happily there. They try cricket on matting. The straight on and off drive boundary at both ends is not ten yards beyond the w icket! The leg-hit and the boundaries are practically limitless. A straight on or off drive to the boundary scores 2, a hit over the boundary wall (a khud 20 feet high) is 4, and over a narrow road beyond is 6. Over the narrow road beyond is not more than fifty yards. And yet on this ground a century is far rarer than it was in Chepauk last season. The smallness of the ground induces hitting, care goes by the board, and no centuries are made. I ^hink I am stating a fact when I state that W . Troup, the Gloucestershire amateur, who got four or five centuries at home last year, has never got one at Mussoorie, where he has played a good bit. From the Daily Telegraph :— Omdurman has defeated Khartoum de­ cisively—at cricket. The officers of the detachment of the Koyal Irish Fusiliers, quartered at Khartoum, crossed the Nile, and armed with bat and ball, made a descent upon the officers of the Egyptian army at Omdurman, who repulsed them with great loss. It is characteristic of the British Army that the sergeants of the Fusiliers should have made a tennis court on which they play with the thermometer at 116. The men, to keep themselves cool, indulge in the afternoons in games of football, cricket, quoits, and hockey. If their doings are reported to the Khalifa he will of surety think that a great madness has fallen on the army of his enemies. A L a n c a s h i r e man, who was an in­ terested looker-on at the match at Bramall Lane between Yorkshire and Lancashire, was obviously annoyed at the way in which Tunnicliffe’s arm seemed to act like a telescope when he caught Briggs off a ball which seemed far out of his reach. After a pause he remarked severely to a friend, “ It’s a bit of real hard lines when we have to play against a team with a whacking great octopus in it.” T h e r e was an interesting little bit o f by-play at Bramall Lane on Monday. The wicket at the pavilion end had an objection to keeping in a perpen­ dicular position. Once it required the careful supervision o f both of the umpires and several of the players before it would resume a position which gave universal satisfaction to players and spectators. But the light was very bad all day, and it is certain that the spectators did not see through rose- coloured glasses. T he fashionable l.b.w. epidemic has again broken out with severity. Storer has never recovered from his first attack, while the Cambridge men, most of whom pull with refreshing vigour, suffered severely on Monday at Lord’s. The following is the list of victims for the past week :— Storer, Perrin, RusEell, W . Quaife, Glover, Gill, Hayman, Laver, Geeson, C. J. B. Wood, Owen, Storer, Hancock, A. F. Somerset, R. N. R. Blaker, E. R. Wilson, A. E. Femie, H. H. B. Hawkins, Fjank Sugg. “ C h e l t o n ia n ” points out that it is a curious coincidence that both the present captains of the Universities are not only Gloucestershire men, but were also bom in the same town—Cheltenham. I t is one of the advantages of the game of cricket— and at the same time one of the disadvantages— that a hundred made by a boy of twelve in a “ pick-up side” is as much a hundred as if it were made in a match between England and Aus­ tralia. When it comes to two, three, and now six hundred it is the same thing. Records in the way of enormous totals always presuppose good wickets and very poor bowling and fielding and favourable circumstances of all kinds, but they count just the same. For many years Mr. Stod­ dart has held the record for the highest score made by a cricketer— 485 not out. He is now left far in the shade by a boy of fourteen, named A. E. J. Collins, who, batting at various odd times, in a home match at Clifton, has run up a total of 628 not out. It is hardly necessary to say that Collins has been interviewed, and that the interviewer has elicited the information that the boy is fond of cricket. The score of the innings is appended:— C la b k ’ s H ouse . Collins, not o u t ......... 628 Champion, cMonteath, b K endall......................27 Gilbert, b C re w ........... 9 Buddy, c Davis, b Sainsbury................... 8 Shireff, b Crew ........... 6 Galwey, b C rew ..............11 W hitty, c and b Mon­ teath ........................... Spooner, b Monteath Leake, b Monteath ... Raine, b Sainsbury ... Redfem, caught E xtras................... Total ........... O n e can easily imagine the immense satisfaction of Storer, who has been out l.b.w. so many times of late, in getting iid of both Gregory and Trumper for “ obstruction” immediately after he went on to bowl for Derbyshire against the Australians. O n Tuesday the Evening News intro­ duced its remarks on the match between the Australians and Derbyshire by the following statement, which was, perhaps, not very tar wrong :— “ Nothing of a sensational character was done before luncheon at Derby to-day, the betting being about 50,000 to 1 against the the county winning.” “ B y his brilliant innings of 107 in the Sussex v. Cambridge University match at Eastbourne,” says Mr. Taylor in the Hove Gazette, “ Prince Ranjitsinhji scored his nineteenth century for the home county, thus creating a record, the previous best being eighteen centuries credited to Mr. W . Newham.” T h e race for the honour of being first to score a thousand runs has been very close. It was won by J. T. Brown, who accomplished the feat on Thursday, Ran­ jitsinhji following him on Friday, and Abel on Monday. Hayward with (896) Fry (937) are likely to be the next on the list. Albert Trott has taken a hundred wickets, while Mead, with 93, and Rhodes 88, and Hearne 79 are not far off. A s p e c ia l general meeting of the M.C.C. will be held at Lord’s on Septem­ ber 7th, at 3 p.m., to consider, and if thought expedient, to pass the following alterations in the laws of cricket:— Law 10. The ball must be bowled'; if thrown or jerked, either umpire shall call “ no ball.” Law 48. If either umpire be not satis­ fied of the absolute fairness of the delivery of any ball he shall call “ no ball.” The following additions to the instruc­ tions to umpires have been approved by the M.C.C. Committee:— (a) If a side declare its innings during the luncheon interval, it must do so within fifteen minutes after the com­ mencement of such interval; otherwise an extra ten minutes will be allowed for rolling. (b) If a side declare its innings closed in the morning before play commences, it must do so in sufficient time to enable the other side to choose the roller it prefers; otherwise an extra ten minutes will be allowed for rolling. Laws 10 and 14, if they are amended as above, would enable the umpire at the wicket-keeper’s end to sit on a “ chucker ”— the theory is that he can more easily watch the action of a bowler than the umpire at the bowler’s end. But the same old difficulty remains, which is recognised by all umpires, if not by all spectators, viz., it is impossible for any man to watch the bowler’s hand and his foot as well at the same time, and, in addition, to watch the flight of the ball so that he may be ready for a catch at the wicket, or lbw, or anything else that may turn up. How could the umpire at the wicket-keeper’s end carefully study the actions of a fast bowler like Jones and at the same time keep his eye on the wicket­ keeper lest he should be doing unlawful things ! R e s u l t s of matches between Leicester­ shire and Australia:— 1878. Australians won by eight wickets. 1880. Drawn. 1882. Australians won by 74 runs. 1884. Australians won by ten wickets. 1888. Leicestershire won by 20 runs. 1890. Australians won by an innings and 64 runs. 1893. Australians won by an innings and 67 runs. 1896. Drawn. 1899. Australians won by 248 runs. Nine matches in all, of which two have been left unfinished. The Australians have won six matches and Leicestershire one.