Cricket 1900

1 2 2 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE CAME. M a t 10, 1900. terms last season. I can speak from experi­ ence concerning these artificial wickets, and I go so far as to say that they are even easier for the batsman than are the perfect wickets in Australia, for the latter always possess life, the ball coming a great pace off the pitch, whereas an artificial wicket in a dry season in England will make a really excellent bowler appear simple to a degree to even a moderate batsman, for he can get no assistance whatso­ ever from the pitch, every ball coming along absolutely true. This very soon disheartens a bowler, and it rests entirely with the bats­ man as to how long he will remain at the wickets ; some watch the clock, and run risks to obtain their runs fast; there are others, how­ ever, who can only play one game; and again there is the selfish cricketer who might score faster when the game is safe for his side but prefers to run no risks and improve his average, the cause of many a drawn game. O n the the question of running hits out, Mr. MacLaren has something to say:— I should be very sorry to see hits run out, boundaries being abolisLed. This alteration would certainly fatigue the batsman sooner than hits to the rails counting four would : I should undoubtedly take a much longer in­ terval after running to regain my wind than I do at present; and, again, off balls 1 should certainly not look at when exhausttd, as one is apt to be a trifle late, and consequently gets caught in the slips. This alteration would certainly tend to make my own play slower, and if it did bring down one’s totaJs, 1 feel they would take considerably longer to compile. Another rare quality possessed by good batsmen of to-day would be worth nothing so far as runs would be concerned. I refer to the placing of one’s drives between the out­ fields, which the good man is always watching, and so often keeps beating by just hitting them so hard and true that no outfield can quite cut them off, which means 4, in place of 1 or 2 at the most if the boundary wtre done away with. T h e latter part of Mr. MacLaren’s remarks completely bears out what was said in Cricket last week. The former part as completely bears out what was said by the Field last Saturday, v iz .:— “ The new rule appears to be based on a perfectly fallacious assumption. It is sup­ posed that batsmen who now make their hundreds without exertion by means of boundary hits will be inductd to fatigue themselves by running their hardest for the sake of adding a few points to their score, and so shorten their stay at the wickets. But why the whole nature of the wary cricketers whom it is designed to repress should sud­ denly be altered by a mere change in the rules nobody has attempted to explain. It is an insult to the intelligence of such players to imagine that they will not sotn learn how to run with discretion.” A c o r r e s p o n d e n t has been good enough to set me right by pointing out that Mr. John Penn, M .P., has not been unanimously elected first mayor of Lewisham, as stated in Got-sip last week. Peccavi. But will it be bufficient excuse if 1 hdd that the announcement was le- prcduced from one cf the up-to-date dailits ? 1 fear me not. Still, as my inloimation adds that the new coipora- tion does not come into existence till November, I am hopeful that I have only been a little too previous in making the statement. M y correspondent also asks if it was not Alfred Penn who played in Kent matches with his brother Frank ? As a matter of fact the three brothers, William, Frank, and Alfred, placing them in the order of seniority, all played for Kent. Of the three the two younger were the better known in Kent cricket, with which they were longer associated. Y et another instance of three hundreds in an innings. St. Kilda whose bowlers have not infrequently had a bad time of it of late, were again the sufferers. In their match against East Melbourne, played on Saturday, March 24th and 31st, they had to field out while the latter made 604 for nine wickets. The score was as under :— E a st M elbourne . First innings. M*Miehael, l.b.w., b Robertson ... 4 M 'Alister, b E a r l.................................. 87 Boran, b Ainslie .................................. 113 Carter, l.b.w., b T u ckw ell................. 22 Godby, b Robertson .......................... 43 Thompson, c Ainslie, bKnell ............123 B o* lett, b Kn^ll .................................. 14 htuckey, not out ..................................139 Christian, b K nell.................................. 9 W right, b Knell .................................. 0 Laver, not out .................................. 22 Extras .......................................... 28 Total (9 wkts.) 604 J. Horan, I may add, is the son of the worthy ciicketer Tom H< ran, who came oyer to England with the First Australian Team in 1878. S cene : A bar parlour in a small village public-house in Wiltshire. Time, last summer. The Village Oracle : “ Ho ! These Orsteralians ’aye carried everything afore ’em, ’ave they ! ! When do we play ’em ? We’ll give them Orsteralians socks ! ” F rom a local newspaper : “ W ell! The great match between the Horatio Nelsons and the St. Mary’s Alberts has ended, as we anticipated, in a ridiculously hollow victory for one side and an igno­ minious defeat for the other.” I n the interview with Alfred Shaw in this week’s Cricket, reference is made to his great feat in the M.C.C. and Notts match of 1875, when he took seven wickets for 7 runs, bowling all through the innings. In his famous book “ Cricket,” Dr. W. G. Grace, who was playing in the match, says : “ It took me an nour to make 10 runs, and I thought —and still think—as much of that hour’s play as 1 do of many an hour in which I scored close upon a hundred.” T h e London and Westminster Bank greatly distinguished themselves on Saturday on their new ground, for they were opposed in their first match of the season to a strong scratch eleven, which included Alec Hearne, J. T. Hearne, Mr. G. J. Y . Weigall, and Mr. J. H. Stogdon, and yet managed to make such an excellent fight that the visitors only won when their last two men were at the wickets. The Bank, aided by 32 byes, scored 102 against the two Hearnes on a very difficult wicket. They seemed in for a beating, for the visitors began to make a lot of runs, but Mr. E. A. Willson, a fast bowler, did so well that when eight wickets were down the game was a tie. Amid great excitement another wicket fell, and then the last two batsmen succeeded in saving the match for their side. I n the first two days of this week there were two partnerships of 199. On Mon­ day Mr. A. P. Lucas and Mr. K. J. Key scored 199 in two hours for M.C.C. v. Leicestershire at Lord’s, and on Tuesday Mr. Kinneir and W. G. Quaife Bcored 199 in three hours at the Oval for |Warwick­ shire against Surrey. T h e announcement that the Attorney- General has been offered and has accepted the Mastership of the Rolls, with a peerage, cannot fail to give universal satisfaction to Surrey cricketers, for Sir Richard Webster has been much more than an ordinary president to the county club. No one but those who have acted with him indeed know the amount of work he has done for Surrey cricket during the last few years. The new pavilion and tavern, to mention nothing else, will be lasting memorials of his devotion to the interests of the club. The erection of the handsome buildings which now represent the official home of Surrey cricket would never have been completed as expeditiously or as thoroughly as it wasbutforthe president’s untiring care and watchful supervision throughout. D i s s a t is f ie d with the result of their experiment at Lord’s the M.C.C. have decided to try some alterations. Hits which bound over the net or go through it, or under it, are now to count as four ; hits clean over the net are to count as five, and hits out of the ground six. This is obviously a great improvement, and although a hitter is still placed at a disadvantage as far as ground hits are concerned, because for a hitter the out­ fields are placed nearer the net than for a potterer, the scheme has a much better chance of success than before. B u t suppose that it is successful—so successful as to meet with universal approval. What then ? Will it be incor­ porated in the laws of the game ? It has always been the proud boast of cricketers that whether the game is played at Lord’s or in the backwoods of America, its fol­ lowers all meet on an equal footing as regards the laws. There is not one law for the rich and another for the poor. But if it becomes imperative that a net shall be placed round a ground, only wealthy clubs can afford to obey the law. It is hardly necessary to remind cricketers that there are thousands of clubs—probably hundreds of thousands —which play in the parks, etc., where wickets are pitched within a few yards of