Cricket 1899

318 CfetCKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A ug . 3, 18§§. are likely to accomplish the feat are A. O. Jones (977), Worrall (899), Hill (864), Brann (996), Gregory (909), Wain­ wright (953). A M i d l a n d contemporary has (a little late in the day) celebrated the perform­ ance of M a jo r Poore and Captain Wyn­ yard in putting on 411 in partnership by a parody on “ Tommy Atkins.” One can imagine the delight of the two officers in being referred to as Tommies. The parody is signed “ W . A. B .,” but its author does not write for Cricket. F o r Tonbridge against Hadlow, on the ground of the former, Mr. F. W. Franks, the well-known Yorkshire player, scored 237 in two hours and a-half, 184 of the runs being made of fours. B e f o r e the match at Derby between Worcestershire and Derbyshire a serious accident happened to Straw, the Worces­ tershire wicket-keeper. He was stand­ ing by the nets while practice was going on, and a ball, which apparently found a hole in one of them, struck him in the face with great force. Straw was ren­ dered insensible, but although he re­ covered sufficiently to assert that he was able to play, it was decided to leave him out of the team. A v e r t interesting little pamphlet, published at a penny, is “ Surrey v. Notts at the Wicket.” It appears at an appro­ priate moment, for on Monday next the two counties meet for the Bunk Holiday match at the Oval. The book contains practically everything that a cricketer would desire to know about the matches between Surrey and Notts. R e s u l t s of matches between Sussex and the Australians:— 1878 Brighton, Australians won by seven wickets. 1880 Brighton, drawn. 1882 Brighton, Australians won by inns, and 355 r. 1884 Brighton, drawn. 1888 Brighton, drawn. 1888 Brighton, Sussex won by 58 runs. 1^90 Brighton, Australians won by inns, and 45 runs. 1893 Brighton, Australians won by eight wicketa. 1896 Brighton, Australians won by six wickets. 1899 Brighton, drawn. Ten matches in all, Sussex winning one and the Australians five. The re­ maining four were left unfinished :— R e s u l t s of matches between M.C.C. and Australians: — 1878 Lord’s, Australians won by nine wicketa. 1882 Lord’s, drawn. 1884 Lord’s, M.C.C. won by innings and 15 runs. 1888 Lord’s, Australians won by 14 runs, j Lord’s, M.C.C. won by seven wickets. ( Lord’s, M.C.C. won by four wickets. 1R qo i Lord’s, drawn. ( Lord’s, M.C.C. won by seven wickets. Lord’s, M.C.C. won by innings and 18 runs. Lord’s, drawn. 1899 I k 01^ ’8’ Australians won by eight wicketa. ( Lord’s, Australians won by nine wickets. The fixture arranged for 1886 was abandoned owiDg to rain. Twelve matches have been played, the M.C.C. winning five, the Australians three, and three being left unfinished. On Monday evening the Australians lost four wickets for 54 at Lord’s against the M.C.C., and the fifth wicket fell on Tuesday m o r n iD g at 86. This state of affairs was generally attributed to the unexpected which so often happens at cricket. O n Tuesday eveniDg the M.C.C. lost five wickets for 85 against the Austra­ lians. This was generally regarded as a miserable exhibition and a disgraceful performance, which shows that circum­ stances alter cases. W i t h the 300 not out made by Victor Trumper and the 304 by Major Poore the complete list of scores over 300 is now as follows: — A. C. MacLaren, Lancashire v. Somerset, Taunton, 1895 ........................................................ 424 Abel. Surrey v. Somerset, Oval, 1899................... 357* W . G. Grace, M.C.C. v. Kent, Canterbury, 1876 314 W . W . Read, Surrey v. Oxford University, Oval, 1888 ................................................................. 338 W . L. Murdoch, New South Wales v. Victoria, Sydney, 1882 .......................................................... 321 W . G. Grace, Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire, Cheltenham .................................................. 318* Hayward (T.j, 8urrey v. Lancashire, Oval, 1898 315* Brown (J. T.), Yorkshire v. Sussex, Sheffield, 1897 .......................................................... 311 Major Poore, Hampshire v. Somerset, Taunton, 1899 ......................................................................... 304 W . G. Grace, Gloucestershire v. Sussex, Bristol, 1896 .......................................................................... 301 Y. Trumper, Australians v. Sussex, Brighton, 1899 ........................................................................ 300* Brown (J. T.), Yorkshire v. Derbyshire, Ches­ terfield, 1898 .......................................................... 300 •Signifies not out. HARD LINES. Scene: Free seats at Lord’s on Monday morning. Dr. Grace has just b9en caught for three runs. Gentleman (toperfect stranger): “ Well, I went nine times to hear Sims Reeves before he turned up, and when I did hear him I didn’t think much of him. I ’ve been nine times to see Grace bat, but it has always happened that he was fielding, and now that I have seen him play an innings, I ’m blowed if I couldn’t make as many runs myself.” A ccordin g to the Daily Telegraph a ground has been set apart at Dieppe on which cricket may be played by all on payment of a small fee, the club providing all requisites. I wonder whether that includes umpires ? D isc u ssin g the question of the advis­ ability of a visit to America by an English team this year, a writer in the American Cricketer says:—“ Looking at it from a purely cricketing point of view and laying aside all arguments that ‘ the annual international cricket matches have become a recognised society event,’ it seems to the writer that Philadelphia cricket will certainly not be harmed by allowing this year to pass without having a team from England over, and that if such a team does come over, it may do harm. Cricket is in a precarious con­ dition in Philadelphia, with the old blood draining out more and more every year and the younger element taking the vacant places, and anything that would tend to ‘ glut the cricket market ’ would certainly be harmful, and this appears to have happened of late. Having a team over each year may be a great incentive to urging the younger element to greater efforts, but may there not be too much of a good thing ? ” C e r t a in l y the humiliation of being defeated by such a weak aggregation as Mr. P. F. Warner’s team is very great, continues the writer, and assuredly it,did not tend to raise the English estimation of our cricket ability. By this is not intended a slur on the visiting eleven of last Fall, but it certainly must be admitted that there were very few first- class bats in the eleven, and an almost total lack of good bowlers, and still we were beaten in both of the games. And of the men who played in those games for the first time iu international cricket, how many may be pointed to as showing any striking improvement which may be traced thereto ? And of the older men who played last year, look at the failure of men like Wood, Noble, and Clark (E. W .) in the Halifax Cup games this year. If we cannot compete with a strong eleven, it does not seem advisable to bring over a weak one, and who can tell what changes another year will bring forth ? T h e August number of the “ Bad­ minton Magazine ” contains a short story by Mr. W. J. Ford, entitled “ How we Won our Match,” and an article of the statistical order on Public School men in first-class cricket, by Mr. Harold Macfar- lane. There is nothing startling in Mr, Ford’s story, which is, however, none the worse for that, for it gives a very true and entertaining picture of a village match and what happened therein. W e shall not be doing Mr. Ford an injustice if we quote his charming sketches of the new vicar and the black­ smith :— The new vicar arrived with a large reputa­ tion as a cricketer; he was reported to have played for Oxford, though later investigations proved that he had played once for his college, when several members of the first eleven were in “ The Schools; ” hut as we only knew of two colleges, Oxford College and Cambridge College, we regarded the newcomer as a “ blue” ’ and marvelled that he never wore the colour. Still, like other good men and good enthusiasts, he did much for the game without being a great performer, and he can boast of being the founder of the Slackborough C.C. He called a meeting in the school-room, induced the local magnates to attend, harangued the assembly in touching terms, and secured promises of support—ay, and more than promises—that enabled the S.C.C. to commence existence on a sound financial basis. The blacksmith, who generally stood umpire ‘ for our side ’—very much ‘ for our Bide ’—had two sons who turned out to be above the average of the village player, their father himself being persuaded to play occasionally as a fast under-hand bowler of erratic tendencies ; he may never have heard the story of “ Here be the parson, Bill; bowl he in the stummick,” which Bill did, and disabled the holy man for the day; but our man of forges and anvils had been known to do such deeds.