Cricket 1899

350 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Acs, 17, 1899. result that theWarwickshire men crowded round him. He skied a ball between the wickets, started to run, hesitated, turned back, and ran into Mr. Glover who was waiting to make a catch. On an appeal for obstructing the field he was given ouh. T h e list of men who have scored a hundred in each innings of a match is becoming alarmingly long. The late<t addition to it is the name of Mr. K . O. Goldie, who for Gentlemen of Sussex v. Old Cliftonians at Brighton last Friday and Saturday, made 133 not out and 102 not out. Goldie is the captain of the Wellington College eleven, and is, I believe, the only schoolboy who has ever accomplished the above feat. The game was prolonged for ten minutes in order to allow him to make his second hundred, which, some people may be inclined to say, was hardly according to Cocker. R e f e r r i n g to the Canterbury Week, the Field says :— County cricket, played on a ground which is not overhung bygrand stands or gas 'meters, ought to be all the more relished now that it is becoming rare, and it is no wonder that the players in the two matches of the Canterbury week have the air of enjoying themselves as muchas the thoughts of the county champion­ ship, and their responsibility for possible changes in portentous andmomentous columns of figures, will permit. W h e t h e r Londoners were not very greatly interested in the final match be­ tween England and Australia on account of the unsatisfactory number of drawn games, or whether they were afraid that there would be an enormous crowd at the Oval, and so kept away as they did at the Jubilee procession in 1897, they certainly did not turn up on Monday morning in the numbers which had been anticipated. The record (admission by payment) for the O val- 30,760 in the Surrey v. Notts match on the August Bank Holiday in 1892—was not approached, for on Monday only 18,019 people paid at the gates. On Tuesday 20,176 paid, and on Wednesday about half that number. N e v e r t h e l e s s there was a run on the gates even as early as six o’clock in the morning, and by nine o’clock, when the doors were opened, there was very soon a ring round the ground, while at ten every available place seemed to be occu­ pied. It was the same on Tuesday, when at ten o’clock it seemed that the number of the previous day would be largely exceeded. On Friday, at Canterbury, the presen­ tation to Lord and Lady Harris of a silver wedding gift, as announced in last week’s Cricket, took place in front of the Band of Brothers’ tent, The gift con­ sisted of a centre-piece and two fruit- dishes. The presentation was made by Sir Edward Leigh Pemberton. Lord Harris, in acknowledging the gift, said that the innings of himself and Lady Harris only stood at 25, not out, which was a mere nothing in these days of long scoring. For the sake of reference I give the names of the thirteen players chosen by the selection committee on Thursday 1ist to be ready if required to represent England in the big match at the Oval: — b e d A. C. MacLaren (capt.)Lancashire. a b e d F. S. Jackson .. ..Yorkshire. a b e d K. S. Ranjitsinhji . .Sussex. a b e d C. B. F r y ................Sussex. A. O. Jones..................Notts. b C. L. Townsend .. . .Glo’stershire. d W. M. Bradley .. .. Kent. a b e d Hayward ................ Surrey. b e d L ille y .......................... Warw’kshire. Lockwood................. Surrey. a b Rhodes........................ Yorkshire. Denton..........................Yorkshire. d Brockwell................ Surrey. (a) Played at Nottingham, June 1, etc.; (b) played at Lord’s, June 15, etc.; («) played at Lord’s, June 29, etc. ; (d) played at Man­ chester, July 17, etc. T he match between Surrey and York­ shire at the end of last week produced at least one new record for Surrey cricket. It wasonly at theend of May thattheprevious best in the way ofanaggregatewasbeaten. But the total of 1,243 registered in the Surrey and Somerset match on May 29 tb, 30th and 31st was outdone last week. When the Yorkshiremen got Mr. Jephson out on Saturday, and stumps were drawn, 1,255 runs had been scored in the three days with only seventeen wickets down. The highest aggregate for the Oval, it maybe stated in parenthesis (1,258 for thirty wickets), was registered in the match between Gentlemen and Players on July 6th, 7th and 8th last. T he close of play on Saturday brought a sequence of four important county matches on the Oval to an end. No better testimony to the excellence of the Surrey wickets during a fortnight of severe cricket can be given than is to be provided by the scores themselves:— Surrey. Opponents. Aggie. July 31.—V. Kent ... 206—829 ... 209-281 ... 1,025 Aug. 3.— V. Middlesex 415— 82s... 191—428 ... 1,116 „ 7 . - V . Notts ... 493— 88+... 303—301 ... 1,182 „ 10.—v. Yorkshire 551t ... 704 ... 1,255 * Two wickets. + Four wickets, t Seven wickets. T his makes a grand total of 4,578 for four consecutive matches. As 122 wickets fell during the fortnight, the average comes out at 37.64. The Yorkshire match last week represented the seventh occa­ sion on which over 1,000 runs have been scored this season in the three days. The test match finished yesterday also pro­ duced over 1,000 runs (1,182 for twenty- five wickets, to be exact), making five consecutive matches in which that high standard was attained. The new magistrate at the Lambeth Police Court will be familiar to Cricket readers as the C. K. Francis who played for Oxford University in the early seventies. He did good service for Oxford both as a batsman and bowler for four years (1870 to 1873 inclusive), and also represented the Gentlemen v. Players. In the Rugby and Marlborough match at Lord’s in 1869 he took all ten wickets in Marlborough’s second innings. The table showing the positions of the various competitors for the Second-class Championship furnishes some curious reading. Still one can not gainsay the figures. This is how the eleven counties engaged stood at the end of last week:— Percentage o f p o in ts in fin ish e d P. W . L . D . P ts . g a m e s, ... 7... 2... 0... 5... 2... 100 ... 8 ... 2 ... 0 ... 6 ... 2 ... 100 ... 7... 6 .. 1 .. 0... 5... 71*4 ... 9 .. 6... 1... 2... 5... 71-4 ... 6... 1... 1... 4 .. 0 .. — ... 3... 0... 0... 3 .. 0... — ... 9... 3. . 4... 2... —1 —14 4 .. 10 .. 1... 2... 7... —1 —33’3 ... 5 .. 1... 3 .. 1... —2 —50 ... 7... 1... 3... 3 .. —2 —50 ... 8 ... 1... 4 .. 3... —3 —60 Norfolk ................. Northamptonshire ... Glamorganshire Surrey (2nd) ........... Hertfordshire ........... Buckinghamshire ... Wiltshire ................. . Northumberland Berkshire .................. Durham Cambridgeshire........... F r o m Cricket Club Life (Phila­ delphia) :— “ Certainly there is something wrong with me,” said Crawford Coates the other day, just after he had been bowled in a cup match for a “ blob.” “ I have been ‘ Yorked’ out four times, and caught out twice on strokes that would bring a blush to the cheek of a junior, in the last six innings 1 have played, and made but twelve runs during that time. And what makes it more annoying is that I never practised harder or took better care of myself. I’ve even stopped smoking cigar­ ettes,” and the Belmont captain looked gloomy indeed. Some one said it was just a streak of hard-luck that comes occasionally to the best bats in the world, but the “ skipper ” wouldn’t have it that way, and is firmly convinced that “ there’s something wrong,” though what it is he himself cannot under­ stand. C o m p a r in g the Australians with a picked eleven of England, says the Daily Telegraph, one important point is con­ tinually overlooked. The Englishmen, without having had anything in the nature of a trial game to help them, have to stand or fall by what they do in a few big matches, whereas the Australians are judged on the general result of a long tour. No one ever stops to think what an England eleven would do if pitted on even terms against counties of the strength of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Leices­ tershire, Derbyshire, Somerset, andHamp­ shire Owing to the immense disparity in strength, such matches, if arranged, would be absolutely without attraction. Still, there can be no doubt that if our overcrowded programme of fixtures ad­ mitted of such a thing being done, Eng­ land’s chosen eleven would gain enor­ mously if, before engaging intest matches, they could take part in one or two pre­ liminary games against opponents of ordinary skill. The fielding would be improved by the men becoming accus­ tomed to their places, and the closer associationwould certainlybeget increased confidence. P r in t e d for private circulation and limited to 100 copies, a little book, which is reallyindispensable to Sussex cricketers, has been compiled by Mr. A. D. Taylor. It is entitled, “ Sussex County Cricket