Cricket 1899

A p r i l 27, 1899. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 9 l exercise for girls, so lon g as no mixed matches are played, there is every reason to suppose that the game will become increasingly popular. L a s t Thursday K . S. Ranjitsinhji opened a baziar at Bolton in aid of the funds of the town cricket club. In the course of a speech he said that it was cute of the committee to send his friend, Albert Ward, to Cambridge to ask him to go north to open the bazaar. He also said that India fed the Lancashire indus­ tries, and the Lancashire industries fed the Indian workmen. T h e Natal Mercury is responsible for the news that Llewellyn, one of the best bowlers in South Africa has decided to leave the colony to settle in England, with a view to qualify for Hamp>hire. He was to start from Durban on April 15th, and with a view to give him a good send-off, a farewell match was arranged for the previous Saturday (April 8th). The occasion of this match was to be utilised to present him with a tangible mark of the esteem in which he is held by Natal cricketers in the shape of a purse of gold. It will be of interest to see how Llewellyn, who is a left-hand bowler b y the way, upholds the h i»h reputation he has deservedly gained in South African cricket. E. A. W in d s o r , whom several good judges, including G. E . Palmer, G. H. Bailey, and F. A. Iredale, strongly advo­ cated for one of the last places in the Australian team just reaching England, to judge by his record for the season must be one of quite the best all-round cricketers in Tasmania, which sent G. H. Bailey home in 1878 and C. J. Eady in 1896, has produced. Last season, in inter-Tasmania matches, including North v. South, he scored 505 runs for six com ­ pleted innings (average 84T6), and took forty-nine wickets for 467 runs, an aver­ age of 9-53 for each wicket. A good batsman, he is also an excellent slow bowler, and would be very dangerous where the wicket helps the ball in the least. In a match against Esk on March 11th, he contributed 133, not out, to a total of 200 for six wickets made by Cornwall in their second innings. T h e New Zealand cricketers, who recently toured through Australia, seem to have had a varied experience. “ They were treated hospitably in Tasmania, like princes in Melbourne, but received scant courtesy in Sydney.” A t least, that is what some of them said when they re­ turned home. W e a t h e r or no, cricketers must get to work now if they are to be in anything like form for the commencement of the season. So far practice has been practi­ cally impossible at the Oval. Y et Surrey is to play its first county match on M on­ day. In view of this the eleven are to play the next fourteen at the Oval to-day and to-m orrow . The eleven will b e : K . J. K ey, D. L . A. Jephson, Y . F. S. Crawford, Abel, Brock well, Richardson, Wood, Hayward, Lockwood, Holland and Hayes. ------- A c c o r d in g to an Australian newspaper, a cheque for two hundred and fifty pounds was handed to C. Bannerman as the pro­ ceeds of the match between the first and second teams of New South Wales, played at Sydney for his benefit. C.B., it is hardly necessary to remind cricketers, was a member of the first Australian team which visited England in 1878. In his day he was quite one of the best bats­ men in Australia. As an umpire he has of late years earned an equally high reputation in Australian cricket. This summer he will be spending in England. L. J. T a n c r e d , a younger brother of A. B. of that name, and himself one of the very best batsmen in the Transvaal, is over in England just now. As he has come to L mdon with the object of under­ going an operation to his knee, it is hardly likely that he will be able to take part in Eoglish cricket for some time at least. ------- M a j o r W a r d il l , the manager, has on behalf of the Australian cricketers, accepted an invitation from the Com­ mittee of the Surrey County C.C. to dine at the Oval on Thursday next. The Sports Club and the Australasian Club have also signified their intention to ‘ ‘ banquet’ ’ the team. All the same, no one will blame the Major if, in the interests of Australian cricket, and in the facs of a very heavy programme, the social side of the tour should be kept within moderate limits. A l l being well, Major Wardill and the five members of the Tenth Australian team, who have come right on to Eng­ land in the “ Ormuz,” should be due at Plymouth this afternoon. I f the weather is fog g y or bad the six may land there, otherwise they will come on to Tilbury on the steamer. Noble, Iredale and Laver landed at Naples; Johns, Kelly, Gregory, Darling, H ill and Jones at Marseilles, so that the survival should be represented by Trumble, MacLeod, Worrall, Howell, Trumper and the Major. As a team, they are to foregather at the Inns of Court Hotel, H igh Holborn, their headquarters, on Sunday night. News has just come that Darling, Gregory, and Kelly arrived in London last night. T h e Major writes that the voyage, barring a little rough weather on the Australian coast, has been beautifully smooth. The team, who are all well and in splendid health, have enjoyed the trip hugely, keeping up their cricket on deck and joining in all the sports going. They have been unusually fortunate in the sweepstakes on the run, as well as in the sports. If their luck sticks to them throughout their tour they are confident of a high old time in England. Mrs. Wardill accompanies her husband, and Mrs. Gregory is the only other lady on the boat. ------- D a r l i n g , as was generally expected, was elected captain on the voyage, and Trumble vice-captain. The selection committee remain the same as in Australia — Darling, Gregory, and Trumble, to wit. Before leaving Western Australia the team received parting messages of good luck from all the cricket bodies of Australia. A special telegram from Mr. Frank Grey Smith, the president of the Melbourne CO ., gave particular satisfac­ tion. The following are some of the latest hundreds:— MARCH. 11. Kenny Burn, Wellington v. Derwent (Ho­ bart) ,i................................................................ 365* 11. E. A. Windsor, Cornwall v. Esk (Hobart) ...133* APRIL. 22. V. F. S. Crawford, Whifcgift Wanderers v. Addiscom be......... ....................................104* * Signifies not out. THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF JOHN GILPIN. ( w h o SET FOETH IN TH E SPRINGTIME TO PLA T CRICKET.) Away went Gilpin, every mom ; Away, with hat and ball; He sometimes wished, when he set out, He’d also brought a shawl. The wind did blow, the rain did fall, On every blessed day, Till, hope and temper failing both, At last he kept away. Then might all people well exclaim That summer ne’er would come; It was a godforsaken spring, As hath heen said by some. The pros, did mope, the batsmen moaned, IJp went the bowlers’ growl; And every soul cried out, Oh, blow! As loud as he could howl. Away went Gilpin—to a land Where spring is sometimes found ; He’ll not return till June is near— Not for a thousand pound. W . A. B. PROPOSED INDIAN CRICKET TEAM FOR ENGLAND. (From the Indian Sportsman .) The agitation which has long been afoot in Bombay to enlist the sympathy and sup­ port of cricketers in India of an invasion of England by a cricket team composed of pure Indians appears at last to have achieved some sort of definite result, for we leain on the authority of the Bombay correspondent of the Asian that Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have heen asked to reserve accommodation for the Indian team by the first mail in April, 1900. “ Old Rossallian” speaks, or at any rate should speak, in this matter ex cathedra, for he has made no secret of the fact that the idea of its inception to him, and that it has been due to his powerful pleading that Mr. J. M. Framj ee Patel, the once-famous Parsee captain, has helped forward the scheme with all his influence and energy, and not a little of his wealth. The year, namely, that of the Paris Exhibition, will also be not a had one from a purely cricket point of view, as there will he no Australian team in England to distract public attention. Mr. Patel believes that an Indian team will be quite as good a draw as any that may come from South Africa or the West Indies, and he may he right. But we doubt it, and it is because that doubt is shared by Prince Kanjitsinhji