Cricket 1900

M a t 10, 1900. CRICKET ; A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 121 housetops in safety, the playground being caged in with wirework. It was not always so. But one day, Sir George Martin, the organist, was looking at the school-roof from the Cathedral and was horrified to see an adventurous schoolboy walking along the parapet, cheered on by his companions. A fall would have meant certain death, and Sir George realised the necessity of checking the exuberance of the choristers by wirework, which also has the advantages of prevent­ ing a boundary hit at cricket injuring the innocent passer-by in the street below.” R efe rrin g to a desperate struggle made by the Paddington C.C. (Sydney) to stave off defeat in an Electorate match against South Sydney, a writer in the Sydney Mail says: “ But there was Noble to come, and Paddington placed all their hope of saving the game upon him. He opened as though he meant business, but presently a very severe blow from an extra fast one sent down by Marsh seemed to take all the play out of him, and a few minutes later the same bowler crashed through his defence. Subsequently, Noble, sitting in one of the rooms in the pavilion, remarked that he thought he was crippled for life. Let us hope it was not as bad as that.” W it h regard to the action (referred to in last week’s “ Gossip ” ) taken by C. J. Eady in declaring his first innings, with nine wickets down, in order that his side might follow on, the match committee of the Southern Tasmanian Association has decided “ that he was acting in accordance with the rules, and that in consequence of the opposing club’s captain refusing to proceed with the game alter the closure, the match must be awarded to Mr. Eady’s side.” We do not see how the association could have decided otherwise. sport ought to he excellent. Owing to the bubonic plague, they are quarantining all boats from Sydney ; so we may be delayed a little in consequence. This is a great country, and no mistake. Every one seems well-to-do. There appears to be no poverty. You go into a hotel for a glass of ale, and they give you a plate of oysters with it and a cigarette to finish up with; not a bad sixpence worth. We had a game of golf at the Roslyn links, Dunedin. They have a great club there, very tony. We don’t expect to get back to Mel­ bourne before the first week in April.” I t is admitted on all sides that the correction of one’s faults has a chastening influence which ought to be highly valued, and therefore we are grateful to the various correspondents who have pointed out that the new president of the M.C.C. is the Hon. Ivo Bligh, and not “ Blyth,” as stated by a printer’s error in last week’s “ Gossip.” S cene . —An office in the City. Monday morning. First Gentleman : “ Hallo Jack, what’s up ? ” Second Gentleman (a fast bowler): “ Beastly stiff. Played in a match on Saturday.” First Gentleman: “ How did you bowl? ” Second Gentleman: “ I began with three wides, and the batsman said that it was dashed rot to send such a fool against a good team. The next ball hit him hard on the funny bone and nearly made him howl; as it went on and took his wicket he was pretty sick. Then I hit another man on the chin and bowled him, and he said it was a beastly shame to try a fast bowler on such a wicket.” First Gentleman: “ Did you go off ? ” Second Gentleman: “ Yes, about twenty minutes afterwards. But they were all out then ! ” iNamatch Criterion Theatre v. Hospital for Insane, on the latter’s ground, says the Sydney Referee, J. Baker and J. Slater, of the Criterion, and E. Board, of Parramatta, each met with an accident, the first-named stopping a hard drive with the bridge of his nose whilst quietly watching the game from the pavilion. All three were soon about again, after having been attended to by Dr. Reid. A t some races near Melbourne on March ,24th, a horse named Ranjitsinhji started in one race at 10 to 1, and in another at 8 to 1. But he belied his name, for he did not come to the front in either race. F rom the Australasian : — The Melbourne team are thoroughly enjoy­ ing their tour in New Zealand. One of them writes :—“ We are having a real good time in this country. The people are very kind to us—dinners, garden parties, suppers, etc., galore. No team has ever had half the atten­ tion paid to it that this one has. We are going to play an extra match at Invercargill, and then have a week’s holiday visiting Lake Wakatipu, where you get lovely scenery. I am going to have a couple of day’s trout fish­ ing on the way, and from what I can hear the F rom the Otago Witness :— “ In the Melbourne match against Otago, H. Graham scored 42 in the second innings, 23 of the runs coming from one over of Austin, thus, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 5. The first of these hits was a stylish off-drive; the second, third, and fourth 4’s came from uppish hits off balls which he ran in to bang; the fifth ball also he jumped in at, and it was a mis­ hit between cover point and long slip that gave him a brace; the sixthwas a beautifully timed hit over the pavilion. As an exhibition of wholesale slogging, his treatment of the greater part of the over was excellent; as an exhibition of scientific cricket it was the least attractive portion of his innings.’ ” A PROPOSAL is on foot in Australia to arrange a match next season between old international players of Victoria and New South Wales. Among the players who might be induced to turn out for the latter colony are Evans, D. Gregory, Alec Bannerman, Mr. H . Moses, T. Garrett, Mr. H . H . Massie, and G. J. Bonnor. An old Harrovian writes :— “ The date of the death of William Pilch was asked for in Cricket of May 3rd, page 99. It was not given in any paper, but 1 know that he was, at the time of his death, a tailor at Canterbury, and survived his uncle, Fuller Pilch, a few years, I believe. He, no doubt, is buried near Fuller, and if he has a tombstone a copy could easily be got from Canterbury. He was a very active and excellent long- stop on the rough grounds of his day.” T h e following remarks about Harry Trott appeared in the Sydney Referee from the pen of Worrall, one of last year’s Australian team:— “ Harry Trott (though much the same in his manner), is showing great form at cricket. He bowls, bats, fields, and runs between wickets now himself. He really bats splendidly, bowls fairly well, and is almost as clever as ever at point. He did a smart piece of work the other day. A bats­ man made a fine cut, Trott stopped it brilliantly with his left hand, picked it up with his right, wheeled round smartly, threw the wicket down, and ran the man out. In an Intercolonial it would have been cheered to the echo. ’ ’ T h e name of Mr. N. E. T . Bosanquet, the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel B. J. Bosanquet, is to be added to the list of cricketers serving in South Africa; he was in the Eton eleven of 1898. At pre­ sent he is seconded from the 7th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade for service with the sharpshooters’ corps of the Imperial Yeo­ manry until there is a vacancy for him in one of the line battalions. He sailed from Southampton in the s.s. “ Galeka ” on April 6 th. “ I send you,” writes ‘ An Old Harro­ vian,’ “ an account of the death of a very famous wicket-keeper, the Rev. William Ridding, who was a brother of the Rev. C. H . Ridding and Mr. A. Ridding, the last of whom is deceased. He, like other wicket-keepers, some fifty years ago, stood up to the fastest bowling and never stood back, as is now occasionally done. He did some wonderful feats, and, like his brothers, was as ‘ hard as nails.’ I do not possess a copy of the ‘ Cricket Scores and Biographies,’ so cannot give the date of his birth, age, etc., but if you will turn to the Harrow aud Winchester match, end of July, 1847, in that work, you will find, I think, particulars as regards age, etc.” “ M s. R idding , who was formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Vicar of Meriden, died on May 1st at Clapton,” continues our correspondent. “ He played in the Winchester eleven against Harrow, and against Etoniu 1847 and 1848; also for Oxford v. Cambridge in 1849, 1850, 1852, and 1853. I do not know why he did not play in 1851. He also represented the Gentlemen against the Players in 1849 and 1850.” I n a series of articles now appear­ ing in the Evening News, and possibly other papers, Mr. MacLaren is especially severe on artificial wickets. He says :— In my opinion there lies the root of the whole evil, an evil against which many cricketers expressed themselves in forcible