Cricket 1899

292 C R IC K E T : A W E E K L Y R E C O R D O F T H E G A M E . J u l y 20, 1899. Personally I should have imagined Mr. Jackson would have written at once to the papers that so defamed him and to the editor of Wisden , and indignantly denied the suggestion that he threw away his wicket from any mistaken notion of chivalry. Certainly if—-which I for one refuse to believe—Vie did such a thing of set purpose, he should never have been included in a county or first-class team, much less chosen to represent England, again. And his silence under the imputa­ tion was to many of us passing strange ! I will not take up more of your valu­ able space, or should like to write a few words in appreciation of Mr. Jno. W . Skelhorn’s admirable letter in last Thurs­ day’s Cricket. Your correspondent, of course, presents no cut and dried scheme, but his suggestion of a time limit is, even if radical, bised on the sound“st of prin­ ciples, and could only, if carried into effect in some form or another, lead to the improvement r f modern cricket. Here is an instance of what Mr. Skelhorn so justly reprob ltes, taken from to-d a y’s Sportsman , and this not the fe i.t of a pro­ fessional dependent on his livelihood and future in life on his average. bnt that of a gentleman and amateur who has had such a glorious time of it lately in trying to follow in “ W .G .’s ” footsteps as the leader of Gloucester crick e t! “ W .G .” himsolf is slow now, I readily admit, but at 51 much may be forgiven “ the old gentleman,” as Mr. Ashley- Cooper dubs him. The extracts from the Sportsman’s re­ port are as follows :— “ Troup . . . . had batted patiently for an hour and twenty minutes for seventeen.” And again, in the second inning's: “ Troup was very cautious, and batted sixty-seven minutes for his first eleven runs. . . . Troup . . . was caught at short m id-on, after a stay of two hours and five minutes, for his careful tw enty-eight.” It may be said that this sort of play is useful. And then we must ask for a definition of t^at adjective. But one does not need the gift <f prophecy to say that the development of this dreadful play— and it develops every year—will assuredly ruin cricket. Yours truly, K ING W ILLOW . S. Swithin’s Day, 1899. SLOW SCORING AND DRAWN GAMES. To the Editor of C eick e t. D e a r S ir , —While endorsing most of the opinions of your correspondent, Mr. Jno. W . Skelhorn, on the subject of slow scoring, I think he makes a serious mistake in attaching so much importance to the spectators’ point of view. Surely cricket has not degenerated into a mere spectacle and our first-class players into iirst-class ju gglin g artistes ! Are we to believe that our best cricketers, among whom one expects to find the finest sportsmen, walk out to the wickets with the one idea of giving a performance to the crowd ? Let us think of the cricket first and the spec­ tators afterwards. It is just this mean commercial spirit and this anxiety about gate-money which spoils our modem sport, and it is the over-rated importance of the averages which causes the finest professional players to hesitate to take liberties with good bow ling. . . . If we are to have cricket for spectators we must choose bowlers who will send down a half-volley or a long-hop every time, because a bowler like Mead or J. T. Hearne (or Attewell a few years back) sends down so many perfect length balls that it is a sheer impossibility to score fast without slogging and taking many risks. 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