Cricket 1900

10 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. J an . 25, IS00. May with the South African team, he may count on a hearty welcome from English cricketers. In his last nine innings in premiership matches, up to December 9th, M. A. Noble compiled, according to the Mel­ bourne Referee, 901 rnns for four times out, giving an average of 225-25 per inn­ ings. The scores were : 138, 146, 35 not out, 55 not out, 72, 267 not out, 62, 55 not out, and 71 not out. Since the be­ ginning of the season of 1897-8, Noble had made, up to the above date, 1,146 runs at an average of 143-25. Great as the foresroing record is, it is beaten by Victor Trumper, whose scores in the same period are: 82, 123, 125, 85, 120 not out, 191 not out, 133, 162 not out, 34, 37, 15, 113,103, 260 not out, and 115. Ho has thus reached the century in ten out of fifteen innings. His average is 154 runs per innings, the total for eleven completed innings being 1,698. He has also twice compiled four consecutive centuries. A SLIGHT revision in the cards of matches arranged for the South African and West Indian teams has been necessi­ tated since the County Secretaries met at Lord’s on December 5th. The change has fortunately only affected Surrey and Gloucestershire. The dates as revised are :— June 28, Bristol, Gloucestershire v. W est Indians. July 16, Oval, Surrey v. South Africans. July 30, Oval, Suirey v. W est Indians. July 30, Bristol, Gloucestershire v. South Africans. K e n t will not be able to play the West Indians on July 5th, owing to the fact of the Inter-University match on the same days. But this does not mean a reduction of the visitors’ programme. In fact, another fixture, one with Wiltshire on July 13th and 14th has already been arranged. The revised lists will be found in another part of the paper. A w e l l - k n o w n New South Walescritic has discovered that Trumper bats in a different style now from that of the previous year in Australia. 1 ‘ During the season prior to his Australian Eleven tour,” he says, “ though he scored fast, he took no chance at all. Last year he went from hundred to hundred with the same skill that Billy Murdoch, Arthur Shrewsbury, or Abel would do—though he had more strokes than any one of the three—now he is a punisher out and out, taking risks, and therefore there is less chance of his getting such long scores as formerly. Of course this is not saying that he will not do so if he revert to his former game. How anyone can say that his style is the same as it was before he went to England is beyond my under­ standing.” O f Noble the same critic writes : “ But if Trumper has become more aggressive his comrade, Noble, has developed a slowness that will not be appreciated. It can hardly be that he is not yet in form, for you will remember that throughout the English tour he played on and on and on until he got the ball that he had been waiting for.” G e o r g e G if f e n has now scored over two thousand runs and taken more than two hundred wickets for South Australia v. Victoria, a record which has not even been approached by any other Australian cricketer. The full list of his perform­ ances with bat and ball will be of interest. The list is taken from the Adelaide Observer :— BATTING. BOWLING. 1 st 2 nd 1 st inns. 2 nd inns. Date. inns. inns. O. M. R /W . O. M. R.W . N ov., 1880 3 ... 63 .. . 35 6 47 2 .. 5 1 14 0 April, 1881 10 ... 10 .. . 11 2 29 1 .... 34 12 69 5 Mar., 1883 1 ... 19 .. 43 17 61 5 . — — — — Jan , 1883 0 ... 75 .. 50 16 87 5 .. . 31 10 49 5 Mar., 1885 20 ... 82 .. . 69 9 91 9 .. 47 12 110 8 Feb., 1887 4 ... 0 ,.. . 42 14 83 8 .. . S9 9 104 4 Feb., 1888 166 ... — .. 33 13 65 8 .. . 24 5 60 6 Dec., 1888 135 ... 19 .. 28 9 82 6 ..,. 53 25 77 7 Dec , 1889 85 ... 9 .. . 47 19 108 1 .. . 45 15 104 7 Jan., 1891 237 ... — .. . 51 21 89 5 .. . 25 5 103 7 Nov., 1891 2-1 . — .. 51 12 9 "» 9 .. . 25 4 70 7 Jan., 1893 32 .. 92 ... 23 3 80 5 .. . 50 11 130 3 Mar., lf-93 43 ..181 .. . 64 25 148 9 .. . 25 7 89 2 Jan., 1894 24 .. 103 .. . 17 3 f '6 4 .. 37 8 101 3 Mar., 1894 i9 . 89* . 27 5 76 4 .. . 35 8 101 2 Nov., 1894 91*. .. — .. . 34 9 87 9 .. . 25 7 60 6 Feb., 1895 15 ... 9 .. . 46 6 147 5 .. . 2 0 5 0 Nov., 1895 36 ... 6 37 5 108 3 ..,. 41 8 141 5 Feb., 1896 43 ... — .. . 17 0 94 4 ..,. — — — — Jan., 1897 40 . 17 .. 22 5 71 2 .. . 31 3 1(8 3 Feb., 1897 47 ... — ... 31 7 71 4 .. . 2 — 8 — Nov., 1897 0 ... — ... :-3 17 69 5 .. . 10 3 17 0 +Feb., 1898 — ... — .. — — --------.. — — — — Nov., 1898 2 ... 0 .. . 44 6 128 1 .,.. 15 2 49 1 Dec., 1898 18 ... 0 .. . 44 7 145 3 .. — — — Nov., 1899 39 ... — .. . 51 16 101 4 .. . 57 14 145 5 * Signifies not out. + Signifies did not play. PLAYED IN 21 MATCHES. Patting—42 innings. 2 not out, 272 highest score, 2,166 runs, 54'1S average. Bowling—1,619 overs, 421 maidens, 3,926 runs, 201 wickets, 19'24 average. F o r six days (November 24, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 30) the match between Victoria and South Australia ran its course, thus equalising in the matter of time the famous match in February, 1898, between New South Walts and Mr. Stoddart’s team. But whereas in 1898 the total of runs scored was 1,739, an average of about 270 a day, in 1899 the total was 1,288, an average of only 214 a day—it must have- been a desperately exciting match to watch. I t is very evident from the subjoined extract taken from the Brooklyn Eagle that “ the famous Sir Brooklyn,” as the Eagle was called by a French paper a short time ago, was not pleased at haviug missed the opportunity of interviewing Major P oore:—- “ The other day I stumhled across a rumour that Major Robert M. Poore, who headed the first-class English hatting averages for the season of 1899, was at present in America, and had, in fact, passed through New York en route for New Orleans, where he was commissioned by the British Government to purchase mules for use in the South African campaign. A diligent search of the shipping records brought to light a passenger list for a recent trip of theWhite ."tarliner “ Oceanic,” which included among the names of the first cabin passengers that of plain Major Poore. There can be no question, therefore, but that there was sufficient ground for the rumour referred to, and that the brilliant cricketer and sportsman, of whoma sketchwasprinted in the Eagle's Election Day issue, is now with us. That he should have come thuB unheralded and departed as noiselessly neednot be looked upon as very strange, when it is considered that had his mission here been advertised, the price of mules, destined to succeed the quadiupeds that decamped at Ladysmith would straightway have gone upward in a canter.” T h r e e players with the prefix “ Mac ” to their names represented Victoria against South Australia at Adelaide, viz., M’Alister, M’Michael, and R. M’Leod. They were very much in evidence duiing the first innings of South Australia, and from the following scores it will be seen that if one of them had disposed of Hill there would have been a complete se­ quence of Macs who had a hand in taking the first eight wickets. SOUTH AU STRALIA.—First Innings. J. Lyons, c M ’Michael, b Collins ........... 20 J. Darling, c M’Leod, b Collins ........... 9 C. Hill, lbw, b C ollin s.................................. 1 F. Hack, c M’Alister, b Trumble ........... 33 J. Reedman. b M ’Leod ................... 44 G. Giifen, c M ’Alioter, b Collins ........... 39 F. Jarvis, c M Alister, b T ru m ble........... 29 E. Leak, c M’Leod, b Trumble................... 6 A m o n g th e s o ld ie r s a w a y off in th e Philippines fighting for their country, says Cricket Club Life (Philadelphia), are Lieutenants Frank W. Ralston, the one­ time great wicket-keeper of the ‘ ‘ Daisies ’ ’ eleven, and George M. Newhall, a scion of Germantown’s renowned cricketing family. Another cricketer who is “ sol­ diering ” is “ Tot ” Brown, the ex­ wicket-keeper of the Belmont first eleven, now a regular army surgeon stationed at San Francisco. W i t h reference to cricket in Queens­ land, a Sydney newspaper says :— The game does not progress in Queensland quite as well as it ought to. From year to year, instead of doing better against New South Wales, they are going from bad to worse. Each of the last three matches had been won by an innings and ’a great many runs. A disappointing feature of this year’s matches is the prominence in the Queensland team of men who are not in any sense Queensland cricketers. We would be far better pleased to see young Queenslanders playing in place of some at least of those named. The Brisbane team in Sydney, however, fielded so ably, and the youngest members played up so pluckily, that there is, perhaps, more hopefulness for Queensland cricket in the near future than their per­ formances would indicate. May it he so. A f t e r Queensland had twice been severely beaten by New South Wales this season, the newspapers of the former colony began to ask why several im­ portant cricketers were ignored by the selection committee. The Queensland Sportsman savs:— “ During the present season John Whalley and E. Greaves, playing for the Monkland C.C. at Gympie, have displayed some fine form. Whalley has batted seven times, making the following scores: 67, 29, 111 not out, 104, 96, 43, 35—a grand total of 485 runs for six complete innings, or an average of 80-8 per innings. Greaves has also batted seven times, making 53, 74, 20, 4, 37 not out, 15, 17—in all 220 for six complete innings, or an average of 36‘6 per innings.”