Cricket 1900

M a y 2 4 , 1 9 0 0 . CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 153 I t seems that "Worrall, who came to England with last year’s Australian team, had been unable to play for his club, Carlton, until the last match of the season, owing to an injured knee. Accordingly, North Melbourne raised a protest, with the result as given above. Commenting on this, •“ Felix,” in the Australasian, says: — It seems to me absurd that any pennant rule should be so drawn as to debar a regular first-eleven man from playing for his own eleven ■ in the last match of the season. Worrall’s bad knee prevented him from play­ ing in prior matches, and directly he becomes sufficiently well to take part in a contest for his club the rule shuts him out. I have no doubt the rule was specially intended to apply only to outsiders wishing to get in to strengthen a team in the last round, but unfortunately the loose wording makes it cover actual playing members of a first eleven, who, through illness or injury, may have been kept out of cricket until the final match of the season. The sooner the rule is altered in this respect the better. A n extract from a private letter :— “ I played in my first match this season the other day. Took 5 wickets for 16 on a glorious wicket (for a bowler). Should have had a better analysis if one of our fellows hadn’t shied twice at the wicket, and hit the boundary instead of it.” I t is stated in the last issue of the Golden Penny that “ Contrary to general opinion, Dr. W. G. Grace did not make a single first-class century last season.” Now we wonder whether that means the “ general opinion of cricketers.” I n the match between Wellington and Derwent (Hobart, Tasmania), which was concluded on April 7th, 784 runs were scored without a single bye. The wicket­ keepers were G. H. Gatehouse (Welling­ ton) and McAllen (Derwent). C omm enting on the above remarkable performance by the two wicket-keepers, the Tasmanian Mail says :— “ Old Mac has kept wicket for a great many seasons past now—how many I should not like to say, for fear of disabusing the minds of those who B till consider him young —but he has always stuck to his work with the utmost keenness and vigour, despite the many nasty knocks received in the execution of his duty, and now to come out with a record like the present one for wicket-keeping at his time of life aug'urs well for his perennial youth, despite the increasing weight. The unfortunate part of it is, that if in the future he allows a couple of byes to pass him, his reputation will at once be smirched, and people will begin to whisper under their breath that “ he’s going oft in his wicket-keeping ” ; hut if Mac and Gate­ house—of course the latter is only a boy compared to the former—will persist in putting up such records, they must take the consequences.” A s tr ik in g example of modern Aus­ tralian methods of batting has just been given at Melbourne by T. Warne, who carried his bat through an innings of 450, scoring 161 in seven hours and ten minutes, an average of 22 runs per hour. And this was only in a Pennant match. In the course of his seven hours’ stay at the wicket he hit two balls to the boundary—a feat which we should say had never been surpassed. How on earth a batsman on a fast modern ground like that at Melbourne could contrive to stay for over seven hours at the wicket with­ out even accidentally sending a ball to the boundary more than twice is a com­ plete mystery to us. T h e championship in the Electorate matches at Sydney has been won by Central Cumberland for the first time in the club’s history. It only lost one match ont of nine. Last year’s winners, the Paddington C.C., which numbers Trumper, Noble, etc., among its mem­ bers, was only fifth on the list. S ome of the totals in Monday’s matches were unusually large, even for modern wickets, while others were quite small. The complete list is as follows:— Oxford University v. London County ... 639 Somerset v, M.C.C..........................................513 Surrey v. Worcestershire ...........(5 wkts) 495 Middlesex v. Sussex .................. (« wkts) 424 Leicestershire v. Notts.................................. 405 Gloucestershire v. Kent ...........................360 Cambridge University v. M.C.C................. 344 Derbyshire v. Yorkshire ...........................2fc8 Warwickshire v. Essex ...........................287 T h e writer of an article in a recent number of the Saturday Review on “ Cricket Prospects ” evidently under­ stands the game of cricket, but we do not altogether agree with him in his remarks upon the question of bowling six balls an over. He says :— We believe that so far as it goes, this change will be a real advantage to bowlers with heads. Any man worthy of the name of bowler will appreciate the increase of scope that the extra ball will afford him. At first sight it seems a slight help enough, hut we are confident that it will form a very material aid to the trundler who really tries to analyse his opponents’ play, and goes to work on a well thought out scheme. All who have bowled, know the joy of finding themselves opposite to a batsman whose master they are confident of being, and to whose overthrow they can devote a whole over, a player whom they have as it were tied to the stake and can compel to ‘ ‘ fight a hopeless course.” This feeling led to victory when there were only five balls to the over; we think that the increase will cause it to weigh more heavily in the balance than the mere numerical alteration appears to warrant. It will be more easy to fidget a batsman out, and the nice intricacies of plan will be more fully developed. T h is would be admirable enough if cricket were always played on difficult pitches. Unfortunately for the bowler, there are such things as perfect wickets, and it is only on them that it matters much whether there are four or five or six balls an over. We feel sure that the writer of the article must be a bowler. For if he had been a batsman would he not have written the last three sentences as follows ?:— All who have batted, know the joy of find­ ing themselves opposite to a bowler whose master they are confident of being, and to whose overthrow they can devote a whole over, a player whom they have as it were tied to the s'.ake and can compel to “ fight a hopeless course.” This feeling led to victory when there were only five balls to the over ; we think that the increase will cause it to weigh more heavily in the balance than the mere numerical alteration appears to warrant. It will be more easy to wear a bowler out, and the nice intricacies of plan will be more fully developed. On the question of the boundary net, the Saturday Review makes the following sensible remarks :— “ We candidly con­ fess that we do not see the least use in the new boundary rule at present enforced at Lord’s. The object of the change was ostensibly to shorten the batsman’s innings by a process of exhaus­ tion entailed by running-out hits. We do not believe that the present day player, especially the professional, will allow himself to be got out by such means. He will walk slowly across the wicket and get ‘ three,’ substituting this number for the earlier ‘ four,’ and steadily cultivating the modern system of staying at the wickets as long as possible. Meanwhile, the fieldsman will be far harder worked than before, and the general gain will be rather to the in than the outside.” I n spir e d ? by a momentary glimpse of the sun, our Spring poet has sent us the following lines, which were evidently composed with difficulty, if one may judge by the use of the word “ roster.” They apparently refer to the recent hundreds made by Mr. R. E. Foster for Oxford University. Mister R. E. Foster Placed two hundreds on the roster; The team of Mister Webbe, When at their lowest ebb, Intoned a pater-noster. Mister R. E. Foster Placed three hundreds on the roster ; He dusted W. G., Who said ‘ ‘ It seems to me Too far up have I tossed her.” I n a match played at Manor Way, Blackheath,on Saturday last, between the Union Castle C.C. and Lloyd’s Register C.C., Mr. G. C. Gidden, bowling for the former club, knocked a stump out of the ground. After performing a double somersault, it fell point downwards, and stood upright six feet behind the wicket. T he London and Westminster Bank played three matches on the home ground for the first time on Saturday, and found that the games did not in the least inter­ fere with each other. The first eleven beat Forest Hill somewhat easily, in the absence of Bradley and Welchman, while the third lost by 5 runs to the Guildhall C.C., and the fourth to St. Barnabas by a few. Meanwhile, the second eleven was playing and beating Norwood second at Norwood, R. S. Hartree scoring 105. This is the first occasion on which the club played four teams on one Saturday. T h e Kensington C.C. accomplished a remarkable performance on Saturday last in their match with the Holborn C.C.