Cricket 1900

1 8 6 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME J u n e 7, 1 9 0 0 . to move. They therefore mounted again and rode off, the enemy harassing them all the way. A postscript to the letter has a touch of pathos in it. Says the writer: ‘ ‘ Milligan had his fixture-card filled up for the coming Yorkshire County cricket season.” He could not guess that he had played his last match. In his memorable innings for Somerset against Middlesex, at Lord’s on Monday, Mr. V. T. Hill made three 4’s and a single off an over by Hearne, and in the next over two 4’s and a two off Trott. Despite the glaborate arrangements which were made in the long field for catching him, he hit a ball on to the top of Ihe pavilion and another among the pavilion seats. Again, towards the end of his innings, he hit Rawlin for four 4’s in an over. He was at the wicket for thirty-five minules only, but in that time he scored 72 runs out of a total of 7 5 made during his partnership with Braund. I n some notes on the past season of the Paddiogton C.C. (Sydney), the Sydney Mail says :— Compared with last season there was a great falling off in the performances of the two principal men on the side. Noble then had the extraordinary average of 273 for six visits to the wickets, and Trumper’s was 112 for the same number of innings, while in the bowling the former secured 49 wickets at a cost of 8'44 apiece, against 44 66 and 13-79, and Trumper 59 with the bat and 20*07 with the ball. It was only in the two last matches that these men failed with the bat, but the want of success of Noble, more particularly, with the ball had a lot to do with three of the four drawn games. His efforts in the big matches of the summer just closed are all against the theory of staleness, I admit, but it may ho that having accomplished such per­ formances as went to his credit, he, perhaps, unconsciously relaxed his efforts in club matches. He is a cricketer that will use all hispowers under all circumstances, butthough he tried all he knew the exertion may have been too great to enable him to render so good an account of himself as he did last year. Noble’s best innings was his 135 against Waverley; last season it was 267 not out against East Sydney. O f Trumper the same paper remarks : He opened with successive innings of 119 and lib, but from that onwards he was cre­ dited with only one good exhibition, and it was an excellent one, being for 51 on a wicket all in favour of the bowlers, as the total, 104, goes to show. Speaking of his style after his return from England, I mentioned his change from a batsman without risk to one of the pulverising character, that while being moie to the public taste it was opposed to consistent heavy scoring, and results show how true my words were. A man who lays himself out to lift the ball will be held sooner or later. If he succeed for an hour or so in finding the holes in the field, well and good, he has a sub­ stantial figure on the board. His cricket, provided luck be with him, as I said before, pleases the spectator, but it does not always win for his side. His last four innings were 36, 14, 16, and 51. In 1898-9 his last three figures were 113, 103, and 260 not out. A SHALL d a y -b oy , havin g distinguished him self in a school m atch, returned hom e to find his elders so m uch taken up with a game of lawn tennis that they could not find time to speak to him for an hour or so. Impatiently he waited. At last, when the game was over, some­ one turned to him with the casual remark, “ Well, how did you get o n ? ” “ Oh, pretty well.” “ How many did you make ? ” “ Oh, forty-six, not out.” Tableau "V is it o r s to Lord’s on Tuesday were, indeed, fortunate. For they had the opportunity of seeing Mr. Stoddart in quite tbe form of the Stoddart a few years ago. Whether his success will lead him to take up first-class cricket once more remains to be seen, but cricket can ill spare a batsman of his ability. The visits to Australia spoiled him, for they made him change his style from the attractive to the commonplace, but there was nothing of the commonplace about his batting on Tuesday, when he was making his 221 . T he remarkable success of Mr. Stod­ dart on his reappearance in first-class cricket had a parallel in Tasmania a few weeks ago. Two batsmen, named Ward and R. Hawson, had been asked to play for the South against the North, but declined on the ground that owing to their inability to obtain practice they did not think it fair to replace men who had been practising hard for the match. Eventually Hawson was persuaded to play, but Ward stilll held to his previous decision. On the morning of the match one of the players telegraphed to say that he had met with au accident, and under these circumstances Ward consented to take his place. He scored 118, and Hawson 98. I n the above match a batsuian named Pickett was hit on the head by a fast bumping ball. So far from being incom­ moded by tbe blow he merely remarked, “ It’s all righ t; it’s only my head,” and continued his innings. C. J. E a d y , siys the Tasmanian Mail, holds two records for matches between North and South of Tasmania, viz., the highest number of wickets obtained by a bowler (16 for 108 runs in the last match) and the highest score (187 in 1893). T he record for bowling iu a single innings in these matches is held by E. H. Butler, who, in 1882, took six wickets for no runs in nineteen balls for the South. C ommenting on the difficulties of umpiring “ Short S lip” in the Sydney Mail says:— “ There is the case of an umpire in an Australian Eleven v. York­ shire match, carried away by some very sensational hitting, who called “ over” when three balls had been bowled (there were then four to the over), and the fieldsmen had changed places when the scorers came rushing from their seats crying, “ another ball.” The umpire said, “ By George, so there is,” and he caused the bowler to finish the over, though it of course necessitated every man in the field resuming his former position.” A n o t h e r umpire whose reputation is world-wide, says the same writer, was officiating in an intercolonial match at Melbourne. The ball cannoned from Charlie M'Leod’s body into the top of the pad. There was a cry of “ Catch it,” as Kelly rushed round, but before he could secure the ball, Charlie, evidently not knowing what he was doing, for there was no necessity for him to do so, lifted the ball from the top of the pad and threw it to the ground. There was an appeal for “ handled ball,” and the umpire’s reply was, “ I didn’t see it.” T h e system of playing matches for tbe benefit of deserving and popular pro­ fessionals may possibly be defended, but one cannot help thinking that there is something wrong about a system which depends so much for its success on the weather. If, when J. T. Hearne first looked out of his window on Monday morning, rain had been falling, he would have instantly realised that it would make a difference of some hundreds of pounds to him. F o r the Upper Tooting C.C., Mr. D. H. Butcher has lately done some remark­ able performances. His last three innings have resulted as follows:— May 26. Upper Too*ing v. Kensington Pk., 106 not out June 2. Upper TootiDg v. Hornsey, 139 not out. June 4. Upper Tooting v. Streatham, 155. That is to say 100 runs for once out. Mr. Butcher is a Surrey man, bom and bred, and has learned all his cricket with the Upper TootingaCricket Club. .ij” T h e following satisfactory excuse for postponing a match was given by the honorary secretary of a cricket club in Australia to the secretary of the opposing club:— D e a r "S i r , — I am sorry to have to inform you that it is impossible for us to meet your club on Saturday. Our cricket ground is situated on agold-field reserve, and a rushtook place on it last week. Our- ground was pegged out, and is being sunk upon., so that it is totally unfit to play upon. Apologising, etc. F. G. M a c L a r e n , who played a capital innings of 77 for Lancashire’s Second Eleven v. Surrey Second at the Oval on Monday, is a cousin, not a brother of the Lancashire captain. The defeat of Surrey’s Second Eleven on Tuesday was their first at the hands of Lancashire’s Second. T h e West Indian cricket team arrived at Southampton yesterday (Wednesday) morning in the s.s. “ Trent.” The team consists of the following :—W. Bowring (Barbados), Burton (Demerara), L. Con­ stantine (Trinidad), P. J. Cox (Barbados), L. Slade (Trinidad), P. A. Goodman (Barbados), F. Hinds (Barbados), M. MV Kerr (Jamaica), G. C. Learmond (Deme­ rara), G. V . Livingstone (Jamaica), W. H. Mignbn (Grenada), C. A. Ollivierre (St. Vincent), S. W. Sprotson (Demerara),