Cricket 1899

336 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A ug . iO, 189§. 1F IRST -CLA SS ” From Punch. F IX T U R E . Our own cricket reporter is spending his holidays at Slocombe, a village in the depths of the country. During his stay there he witnessed a match between Slocombe and the neighbouring hamlet of Mudfield. From force of habit he felt compelled to write an account of it, which reads as follows :— Old King Sol was on his best behaviour for this important occasion, Jupiter Pluvius being in temporary abeyance. The announcement ran that the upright sticks would be implanted in the grassy sward at 2.30, but it was nearly three o’clock when Slocombe, having won the toss, its first two wielders of the willow emergod from the pavi— from the bar of the “ Red Lion.” These were the sexton and the postman, both batsmen of great reputation. Doubtless they would have wreathed their brows with fresh laurels on the present occasion had not the sexton been given out l.b.w. in the first over on the appeal of long-leg, while the postman, in skilfully playing back to a half-volley, contrived to disorganise the symmetry of his timber-yard. H jwever, on the vicar and his gardener being associated at the wickets, a magnificent stand was made. Not until ten runs would have been registered on the telegraph-board—if there had been one —was the reverend gentleman dismissed for a carefully-compiled four, consisting of two leg-byes (described as “ it’s off the foot ” by the Slocombe umpire, and so credited to the batsman), and two singles. After his dismissal a spell of quiet play succeeded, the most noticeable feature being some smart fielding on the part of a cow grazing round the pitch, which received the ball full on her side, thereby depriving the batsman of a couple of runs. The Mudfield bowling was very deadly, and two of the Slocombe bats­ men retired hurt. Just, however, when a “ rot” appeared imminent, the black­ smith came to the rescue with a fine display of hitting, and when he was at last dismissed by a smart catch at extra longstop he had amassed no fewer than eight runs. Thanks largely to this dash­ ing innings, the Slocombe total reached twenty-two. After a somewhat lengthy interval, the players returned from the “ Red Lion,” and the Mudfield team took possession of the wickets. Their men shaped exceedingly well, and hit the bowling to every part of the field where there happened to be someone who could hold an easy catch. However, their score rose steadily, and eighteen runs had been compiled—including a five, four of which were due to overthrows—when there were still three wickets to fall. At this critical point the Slocombe umpire came to the rescue, and by his masterly decisions enabled his side to secure a glorious victory by no fewer than three runs. He had a splendid analysis, working out at seven appeals, five distinct untruths, and seven wickets. It is commonly reported in Slocombe that several members of the winning team are to be invited to play for England in the next test match. SURREY v. NOTTS. A N E X C IT IN G F IN IS H . Played at the Oval on August 7, 8 and 9. Drawn. As usual the B ink Holiday match attracted an enormous cro*d, and as Mr. Jones was in splendii form the spectators wefe not disappointed of seeing some very attractive cricket. It was generally agreed that the Notts men ought to have made more runs to have any chance of winning unless, indeed, the weather suddenly changed and spoiled the wic’iet —they had nevertheless done remarkably well for the rain had made the wicket a li tie soft. For once Arthur Shrewsbury absolutely and completely failed, while Gunn only gave a tample of what he is capable, and until Mr. Groves—a journalist who has been playing very good cricket this year for Richmond —came in, nobody was f ounl to keep Jones company for long. Fortunately for Notts Jones was at his very best, and everybody who has seen him this year knows what that means—cricket of the most pleasing kind, with an occasional big hit in the air, which delights the eye eve a more than beautiful cuts and drives along the ground. His 129 lasted for three hours; at one time he made four 4’s in an over. Groves made a most promising d6but for his county, and helped Jones to put on 80 runs in three-quarters of an hour. Lockwood bowled exceedingly well. At the close o f the day Surrey had put on 58 runs with­ out loss, Mr. H. C. Pretty, who has for a long time been known as one of the most successful of club cricketers, m iking a very successful debut. On Tuesday the wicket had become very easy, and the 8urrey men found no difficulty in the bowling. Pretty batted in excellent style, making many fine hits on the off side, while Abel was as safe as usual, and was going so well when he got out that his dismissal came as a vast surprise. The stand for the first wicket produced 138 runs in a couple of hours. With Hayes as a partn-r Pretty continued to play good cricket, and in course of time he had the honour of reaching a hundred, in this his first match for Sur­ rey ; he has frequently played for the second team with success. Another batsman who was in great form was Mr. Leveson-Gower, who was playing in place of the usual captain. Hayward soon became set for another big innings, and Surrey were doing veiy well indeed. At one time the score was 250 for two wickets, but, although Hayward played another splendid ianings, gradually the Notts bowlers got rid of the batsmen until there were seven wickets down when Surrey were only 80 runs on. Then came a memorable stand by Mr. Jephson and Hayward which produced 103 runs, and eventually Surrey claimed a lead of ,.93. As Notts lost a wicket for 6 runs before stumps werp drawn they were in a bad way when the game was resumed yesterday. But they are old hands at playing for a draw. Shrewsbury and Gunn damped the enthusiasm of the Surrey men after Mr. Dixon had made 26, and in the course of an hour and three- quarters during which their partnership la-sted they took a lot of the sting out of the bowling, and hid already made a drawn game possible. There was not much •*ungovernable enthusiasm ” (as a writer in one of the afternoon papers humourously pat it) about the spectators dunng the partnership, but they applauded vigorously when Jones came in and hit boldly. A t last Shrewsbury’s valuable innings was brought to a close in the always unsatisfactory manner of l.b.w., and once more Surrey began to see a prospect of winning, although the runs had been knocked off for the loss of only four wickets. A sudden change now came over the game, and when 7 wickets were down Notts had a lead of only 28. Guttridge, however, kept up his end, and Attewell played very steadily, and when the innings closed aurrey had to make 109 in an hour and a quarter, n >t by any means an impossible feat, but a very difficult one. Unfortunately for Surrey, there are no very great hitters in the team just at present, and although an attempt was made to win, the bowling was very steady, and once more Surrey were deprived of a victory for want of a few minutes. N o t t s . First innings. Second innings. A. O. Jones, b Brockwell ...129 cStedm an,bLees 35 Shrewsbury, c Brockwell, b Lockw ood........................... 0 lbw, b Abel........64 Gunn (W .), c Stedman, b c Brockwell, b Lockw ood...........................31 Lockwood ... 68 J. A. Dixon, b Lockwood... 3 b Lockwood ...26 W. B. Goodacre, b Richard- c Leveson-Gower, son ......19 b Lockwood ... 20 Dench, b Lees .................... 1 b Lockwood ... 7 G. J. Groves, c Richardson, b Hayward............................. 42 b L ees.................. 4 Guttridge, b Hayward ... 19 c9tedman,bLock- w ood.............. 44 Attewell, c Stedman, b L ockw ood.............................24 b Richardson ... 19 Gunn (J.), b Lockwood ...2 1 n otou t.................. 0 Pike, not o u t.......................... 1 b Lockwood ... 0 B 3, lb 5, nb 2 .10 B 9, lb l,n b 4... 14 Total ...300 Total ...301 SUBRET. First innings. Abel, b Dixon ...................61 H. C. Pretty, st Pike, b J. Gunn .................................. 124 Hayes, c and b J. Gunn ... 45 H. D. G. Leveson-Gower, c Pike, b Dench .................47 Hayward, b Dench ...........96 Brockwell, b Dench ........... 2 Lockwood, c Jones,bJ.Gunn 4 Lees, run out........................... 3 D . L. A. Jephson, b Dench 68 Stedman, not out................... 4 Richardson (T.), c Dench, b Attew ell...........................17 B 8, lb 5, w 4, nb 5 ... 22 Total ................. 493 N o t t s . First innings. O. M. R. W . Lockwood ... 26'4 7 84 5 .. Hayward ... 18 2 61 2 .. Brockwell ... 18 4 62 1 .. Richardson ... 14 2 56 1 .. Lees ........ 12 6 26 1 .. Jephson ... 2 1 1 0 Second innings. c and b Attewell 8 c Dench, b Atte­ well ...................31 not out................... 9 b A ttew ell...........16 stPike,b Attewell 2 not o u t................. 20 W id e s ........... 2 Total (4 wkts.) 88 Second innings. O. M. R. W. ... 34-2 10 83 6 ,.. 2 1 11 0 ... ‘<7 9 65 0 ... 29 5 63 1 ... 15 5 41 2 ... 4 0 14 0 Abel ... 7 3 20 1 Hayward bowled two and Lockwood four no-balls. S u r r e y . First innings. Second innings. O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Guttridge .. 18 6 44 0 ... ... Gunn (J.) ... 51 18 122 3 .. ... 17 3 45 0 Jones ... ... 19 3 69 0 ... , Goodacre ... 8 1 37 0 ... Attewell ... 28 15 37 1 ... , 18 3 41 4 Dixon ... ... 8 0 44 1 ... Dench ... ... 35 8 118 4 ... Gunn (J.) bowled three wides and five no-balls, and Attewell three wides. T H E C A N T E R B U R Y WEEK . KENT v. LANCASHIRE. Played at Canterbury on August 7, 8, and 9. Drawn. The popularity of the Lancashire match has now become established at Canterbury, and although a good m iny people seemed to have kept away from the ground with the idea of appearing when the Austra­ lians were playing later in the week, there was a satis­ factory attendance of Kent sportsmen, who watched every ball of the game with intense interest, always finding excuses for failures, and giving their blessing to successfulplayers —more especially if they weretheir own me x. It will be remembered that the first match arranged by these two counties this season was never played, owing to the rain, and as both teams were at pretty nearly their full strength an even game was anticipited. For the first time this year Mr. Shine appeared for Kent, who thus rejoiced in the posses­ sion of two good fast bowlers, while Mold was left out of the Lancashire team. Kent made an exceedingly good beginning, and when only three wickets were down for 250 the spectators were exceedingly pleased with themselves. But in another hour six of tne other seven wickets had fallen for the addition of less than fifty runs, an unexpected result which was brought about by some admirable bowling by ttbarp and Cuttell. The honours of the day fell to Mr. Mason and Mr. Bumup, who both came within a short distance of a hundred, both having played very good cricket indeed. Mr. Patterson showed all his old skill in making his 42, while Alec Hearne and Mr. Day were both getting very dangerous when their time came. The innings was soon brought to a con­ clusion on Tuesday morning, and then the Kent bowlers began to do great things. Tfiey could not make any impression on Mr. MacLaren, but they dis­ posed of Mr. Hornby, Ward, and Tyldesley in next to no time, and although they received a alight check when Mr. Eccles made a good stand, they soon took up the running again. Meanwhile MacLaren had been playing such beautiful cricket that even Kent men were sorry when he was bowled by Alec Hearne. It was exceedingly doubtful whether Lancashire would save the follow-on, for seven wickets were down when about fifty more runs were still required, but the tail did what was required easily enough. Most of the best of the Kent batsmen were seen to great advantage in the second innings, Day and Patterson and the captain being in great form. Just before one o’clock Mr. Mason declared his innings, leaving Lancashire to make 318 in four hours and ten minutes. This was a plucky thing to do, but there are no Jessops, or Frys, or Fords, or Worralls in the Lancashire team, so that the risk was not as great as it might seem. After a very good beginning had been made, there was more than a chance that