Cricket 1899

468 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Nov. 30, 1899. the old wickets at Nicetown, Stenton, Ardmore, Elmwood, and Wissahickon. The generation of cricketers prior to the present learned their cricket on first-class wickets, fast, indeed, in many instances, but true. On those wickets the ball did not come at all sorts of pace, neither did one ball get up and the next keep low, and as a consequence that generation learned to play forward with perfect confidence, and to punish severely fast bowling when it was short on the leg side. The boy of to-day, when he practises in the nets, will not put his left leg across and head down at a good length ball with the same confidence that the boy of fifteen years ago did, for on the practice wicket of to-day the good length ball often comes straight up off the pitch. So also in playing short fast bowling on the leg side the batsman of to-day, with the un­ certainty of what height the ball is coming, pulls away from the wicket and tries to pull the ball between short leg and mid-on—one of the most dangerous strokes possible off afast bowler—instead of facing the ball and hooking it to long leg. I am well aware that a first-class bat can bat on a bad as well as a good wicket, but I submit that he never can become a first-class bat by learning his cricket on a bad wicket. The most essenfial element of batting, confidence, will be lacking. So also the boy of to-day, when he bowls in the nets, sees one ball go this way and the next the other, and the shorter and faster he can bowl the more difficult it is for the bats­ man, so he does Dot learn to get any spin on the ball, and when he has a real sticky wicket to help him he can’t utiliz i it as he should. Another great disadvantage, in the opinion of the writer, that the cricket of to-day is labouring under, is the system of half-day matches as opposed to the old plan of playing Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, or beginning Saturday morning at eleven. It may be that under existing business conditions no better system can be devised, but I am certain it is a harmful one when those who have been playing under it come to play three-day international matches. The environment is different and the ability to make runs after being four or five hours in the field can be only learned by experience. In concluding this screed let me say that the cricketer of the past generally considers his gene­ ration far better cricketers than the present one. I me.ke no such claim, but 1 do believe that my generation learnt their cricket under more favourable auspices. Let us have better wickets, especially practice ones, and lengthen out, if possible, the hours of our Saturday matches. WHY THE AMERICANS FAILED. (From Giicket Club Li/e.) Never before in the history of inter­ national matches have we been as dis­ appointed in the showing made by our representatives as in the series just ended against Prince Ranjitsinhji’s eleven. The whole story is that we didn’t make enough runs. It was to be expected that the Britishers would score heavily. It isn’t out of the way to say that we got rid of them cheaply. True, they scored 435 and 363, but these totals for such a team wern’t too high. They were worth every run they made. Ranjitsinhji, MacLaren, Townsend, Stoddart, Jessop, Woods, Brann, and Bosanquet are likely to make a century against any bowling, and their individual averages iu England are higher than they made here. No, that wasn’t the trouble. It was as bats­ men we were a lamentable failure. The visitors’ team didn’t include any great bowler, and there was no reason why Philadelphia should not have scored be­ tween 250 and 300 in each innings. Take Graves’ record. The young German- towner averaged 26. If the others had done as well, the Quakers would have made 300 in each innings. It does really seem as if they were overawed by the men whom we had to meet. Of course, the dead wickets onwhich all our innings were played was some excuse for the dismal showing with the willow. Un­ doubtedly Philadelphians areat their best on a dry, fiery wicket. Anyhow, the matches were a failure, and it will prob­ ably be some years before we import such a strong aggregation again. Ttiere is a well defined feeling abroad that while we enjoyed the lessons taught us, we would like hereafter to meet some one at our own weight. We are bantams, and out­ classed among heavyweights, and ’tis just as well to own up. And, too, if rumours are true, ex­ perience is a dear teacher, a cricket “ gate” uncertain and a Gentlemen of England team’s expenses certain. FLOWERS OF AMERICAN CRITICISM. [Being some racy extracts from American papers on the play during the tour of lianjitsinhji’s team.] “ Only once or twice did A. W. Jones allow a ball to pass him, and even then it was a nip and tuck chase.” “ They (th<5 visitors) didn’t worry, though. “ The strangely curious thing was their nonchalence. “ They seemed (from the point of view of an outsider) sometimes to stop a run by the perfectly beautiful carelessness with which they allowed a ball to pass them—or picked it up and held it before firing it in to wicket, or simply let it lay on the ground at their feet, as though to say : “ ‘ You needn’t try to run, we have you !’ “ And the colts must have lost many a run thereby. “ After all, it was largely an object lesson. “ A lesson in the art of Bluff, with a capital B.” “ With the total at 122 ‘ Ranji’ re­ lieved Townsend, and the way he doled out maidens was in truth right sickening to the flesh.” “ An innings and 173 runs. “ Two innings—262 runs. “ Sort of overwhelming, wasn’t it P “ Perhaps Germantown will have a beard worth shaving.” “ Well, let bygones be bygones, and let Germantown take upon itself to wipe out the blots that have been put upon Philadelphia’s escutcheon by choosing the strongest, best, fittest, fightingest team possible to put up the biggest kind of an opposition to the Englishmen on Friday. “ A strong arm and a long arm and a pull together. “ Now, then, Germantown.” “ Clark’s first ball from the other end gave Brann’s wickets a disheveled aspect and the tall man with the fierce mustache took a sneak.” “ The latest leviathan of the bat, Prince Ranjitsinhji,” “ From across the seas came the king of cricketers to be clean bowled by a boy ! “ The boy’s name is F. A. Greene. “ Don’t call it a fluke. “ There was no fluke about it. “ And thereto hangs a little bit of friendly advice to the English cricketers. “ When you play with a colt watch out lest it have the heels of a horse.” “ The Britisher cannot hide from any­ one the fact that he feels superior. “ All right. “ But it does not always pay. “ Especially at cricket.” “ To the ‘ Colts’ all kinds of praise is due. “ No amount of praise can be suffi­ cient. “ The pick of England put out by ‘ a lot of boys ’ for 185 ! “ Never in the history of the great game has there been such a record.” “ It is well known that for a batsman a fairly dry, hard ground is the best, but this is apt to be slippery for the bowler— especially if it has been too hard worked when soft the day before. “ It was just such a ground yesterday. “ Quod est demonstrandum. “ Was everybody pleased ? “ Did the ‘ Colts ’ receive a demonstra­ tion of that when they came in ? “ Well! “ We should remark ! ” Pirated and Published fox the Proprietor by M e r r it t & H a t c h e s , Ltd., 167, 168, and 169, Upper Thames Street, London, B.C., Nov. 30th, 1899.