Cricket 1900

“ Together joined In Crlcket’e manly toil.”— Byron. n o . 6 3 7 . v o l . x i x . THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1900. p r i c e ad. CHATS ON THE CRICKET FIELD, ALFRED SHAW. It falls to the lot of very few men who have gained a vast reputation in the cricket field to be able to convince a later generation that the reports of their fame were in no way exaggerated. Alfred Shaw is one of the fortunate ones. He played in first- class matches for about twen­ ty years, and was universally considered the greatest bowler who had ever been seen; he returned to the field of his former exploits in 1894, and although he then represented a county notoriously weak in bowling, which is universally admitted to be a serious handicap to a bowler, he still got batsmen in two minds, still took more than his share of wickets, and still bowled maidens with a frequency whioh was astonishing. At the end of the year he was first in the Sussex bowling averages and fourth among the regular bowlers in the English averages. To see the greatest batsmen of the day feeling after the ball in a most hesitating manner was a revelation to those who saw the same batsmen playing other bowlers with absolute confidence and ease; it cannot be disputed that not a single batsman gained a complete mastery over him in any innings during the year. His superiority was never better shown than in the Sussex out matches against Surrey and Lanca­ shire. The Surrey score was 356 in the first innings, and yet Shaw took seven wickets for 69 runs ; in the Lancashire match the score was 354, and he took four wickets for 73, bearing in each case the brunt of the bowling. Perhaps the great day of his life as a cricketer was July 15th, 1875, when for Notts against M.C.C., whose team in­ cluded Mr. Grace and other splendid batsmen, he bowled through the second innings with the following analysis :— 41*2 overs, 36 maidens, 7 runs, 7 wickets. This performance is unique in the annals of cricket. As a bowler Shaw was medium rather than slow, although the ordinary spec­ tator was apt to describe him as quite slow. His success was due chiefly to his extraordir arv skill in disguising his pace and to his great accuracy of pitch. But, in addition, he had a favourite ball which came on faster after it had pitched, and kept very low—a most deceptive ball. He was throughout his career extremely difficult to get away, and the frequency with which he bowled maiden overs was entirely owing to the necessity found by the batsman to treat every ball with respect. As a short-slip Shaw was in his way unrivalled. He hardly ever missed anything which came within reach of his outstretched hand, and he never made any attempt to bring off fancy catches. He might have been a good batsman if he had not made up his mind that he pre­ ferred to be a great bowler. Although he was born on August 29th, 1842, and is thus in his 58th year, he still plays in club matches with great success. “ Last year,” he said, “ I played in a lot of Saturday after­ noon games and did pretty well. Once I scored 40 odd not out, and in another match I took eight wickets, while I seldom failed to get four or five. In the winter I get a good deal of exercise in shooting, thanks to Mr. William Wright, the father of Mr. C. W. Wright. I don’t know how Notts cricket would havf got on without Mr. Willi, m who does a lot of work behind the scenes; he is one of those men who, without showing themselves promi­ nently, do the most useful work.” “ Of course you still field at short slip ? You have theories about what short slip ought to do f ” “ I always stand there, partly because there is less running about to do than in other positions in the field. My idea is that a short slip ought to stand quite still and take anything which Providence may send him, without going out of his way to pick up odd catches which were never meant for him. Lots of catches are missed by men who are always expecting the ball to be where it never is.” “ Have you noticed much alteration in the batting of late years ? ” “ I think that more men stand and hit fast-footed n ow ; but I don’t think that