Cricket 1900

J u k e 21, 1900. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 217 and I could never make them understand it was not the game for half-a-dozen people to be bowling at the wicket at the same time. 1 do not pretend to know much about cricket (she added), but I know that; and besides, it damaged the batsman. S ome curiosities of the latter end of last w eek:— W . G. Grace, lbw, b Hulme 2 lbw, b Bestwick 0 C. M’ Gahey,cWainwright, b Brown, jun.................. 0 cDenton,bRhodes 0 P. Perrin, b Brown, jun. 0 cSm ith,b Rhodes 0 G.L. Jessop made 1C9 out of 120 for Gloucestershire y . Middlesex in sixty-seven minutes. T he success of Mr. A. H. C. Fargus, a fast right-hand bowler, for Gloucester­ shire v. Middlesex was something quite out of the common. He had never pre­ viously played for the county, and was put on in the first innings as second change, meeting with no encouragement at first. But when he went on again with the score at 242 for four wickets he brought the innings to an abrupt conclu­ sion, taking five wickets in seven overs for 24 runs. In the second innings he again met with no success at first, but with the total at 160 for three wickets he was given another trial and in nine overs and two balls took six wickets for 21 runs; thus a second time finishing off the innings in a startling manner. Mr. Fargus was in the Haileybury College team in 1898, but was absolutely last on the list of bowlers, taking eleven wickets at an average of 25'7‘J runs apiece. Db. G race has fallen on hard times. In the match between London County and Derbyshire at the end of last week he was l.b.w. in both innings, in the first for 2 and in the second for 0 . B ut for the inability of Cuttell and Mold to play for Lancashire in the Surrey match, Webb would almost certainly have been left out of the Lancashire team, and the result of the match might have been very different. As it was he took six wickets in the first innings for 31 and five in the second for 38. F rom Albany Place, Sea Point C.C., near Cape Town, Mr. W. S. Blacker writes on May 29th :— “ Allow me to draw your attention to the fact that the gentleman described in the list of cricketers at the front in your estimable paper as ‘ A. E. Halliwell ’ signs his name under descriptive articles in the Cape Times as ‘ Alf. Hellawell.’ He, therefore, cannot be the Johannesburg stumper.” D r. G race has taken up the mantle of Mr. C. B. Fry as the champion at the game of just missing the hundred. Since 1898 he has never succeeded in a first- class match in adding to his voluminous records of three-figure innings, but, ex­ cept when he is out l.b.w. at the com­ mencement of his innings, he makes 80 or 90 runs almost as a matter of course. O n the first day of the match at the Crystal Palace between Loudon County and Cambridge University, Mr. E. M. Dowson received his blue—not for any brilliant performance during the day, for he did not take a wicket, and had no opportunity of batting—but as an all­ round man who could not be left out of the Varsity team. At present, as a first-class cricketer, he has not quite come up to the expectations which had been formed of him, and can hardly be placed on the same Cambridge pedestal as Mr. A. G. Steel, the Lytteltons, Mr. G .H . Longman, etc., but he has plenty of time before him. I n the Yorkshire v. Surrey match at Bramall Lane the light suddenly became very bad during Mr. Jephson’s innings. Mr. Jephson naturally called the atten­ tion of the umpires to this, but the crowd seemed a little hurt that he should object to their extra special blend of smoke blotting out the light. The Yorkshire- men sitting on the cinder banks round the ground freely offered to supply him with wax lights. Mr. Jephson seems to have been well able to dispense with their offer, for he played a beautiful innings, his first hundred in first-class cricket so far this season. The crowd seemed much amused when they saw the umpires coming out from the pavilion to the wickets to inspect the light in the same way that they would inspect a wet wicket, and one old burly Yorkshireman suggested that the light was only bad in certain places on the ground. F rom the Yorkshire Teleqraph and Star :— “ Unhappily, after the resumption, there came a nasty and very unhappy accident. Crawford had.only j ust had time to duck out of the way of a ball from Brown which pitched short, and whizzed past his head like a cannon shot, and in the Darfielder’s next over he hit Lockwood heavily on the point of the jaw, a hit which sent the batsman reeling across his wicket, and causing him excessive pain. He was ultimately compelled to retire, giving way to Hayward, and gaining a very sympathetic cheer as he walked— almost staggered—back to the pavilion.” W ith the list ball before stumps were drawn on Monday at Bramall Lane, Brockwell bowled Brown, jun. Con­ tinuing his over on Tuesday morning he got rid of Tunnicliffe and the other Brown with the next two balls, thus doing the hat trick at a most encouraging time for Surrey. R eggie C rawford , V. F. S.’s younger brother, broke all the records for the Surrey Colts at the Oval on Friday last. Goatley (the young Surrey professional) and he gave the Stanley bowlers a lot of leather hunting at the outset, putting on 249 before a wicket fell. How fast runs came will be understood when I add that they were together only an hour and fifty-five minutes. R. C. stayed till his score was 243, the largest number of runs made by a Surrey colt. The day’s cricket produced an aggregate of 602 runs, as the outcome of six hours and five minutes of actual play. M r . F. H. E. C unliffjs , who is re­ sponsible for the literary part of the record of the Transvaal war, in course of publication by Methuen and Co., is the Eton and Oxford cricketer. He cap­ tained the Dark Blues on the occasion of their victory over Cambridge two years ago. T h e Yorkshire Gentlemen, true to their old traditions, are touring iu the southern counties this summer. rl hey play Sir Henry Tichborne’s X I. at Tich- borne Park next Monday and Tuesday. A n o t h e r important addition to the list of cricketing headmasters has been made in the person of Mr. H. M. Burge, who has just been elected to succeed Oanon Furneaux as headmaster of Repton School. Mr. Burge has for the last few years, iu fact since Mr. T. Case retired, acted as treasurer of the Oxford Univer­ sity Cricket Club. He has, too, been something more than a treasurer in name, as I am able of my own knowledge to testify. A b o u t the dead nothing but what is good. After life’s fitful fever of some six or seven weeks, the net at Lord’s sleeps w ell; at least, one might hope so. In any case, as a means for the increase of the scoring it is no more. The net itself will remain, but only as the out­ ward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace for a batsman, in other words, as a boundary representing a certain number of runs to the hitter, “ only that and nothing more.” So much has been written on the innovation, or perhaps one should say the experi­ ment, tried by the committee of the Marylebone Club that it would hardly be decorous now that it has gone to its well-deserved rest to suggest anything to its discredit. None the less, in the best interests of the game one may be par­ doned a respectful suggestion that Lord’s is hardly the place to try experiments, even in the minor details of a match, without some well-conceived idea of the possibilities of the scheme. T h e first and second elevens of Surrey did some nearly identical scoring in their respective matches on Monday last. While the first with several interruptions from defective light were in all day at Sheffield against Yorkshire for a total of 241, the second spent a good part of the day at the Oval making a total of 236 against the bowling of Northamptonshire. There the analogy ended, at least so far as the first hands were concerned. At least, Surrey’s first were able to lead Yorkshire by 46, while the second fell short of Noithamptonshire’s aggregate by 22 . T h e Haverford Cjllege team, who are to play the chief of our public schools next month, are now on their way to England. They left Philadelphia in the s.s. “ Pennland” last Saturday, and by this day week should be safely housed iu the Adelphi Hotel at Liverpool. Their first match is against Malvern College on July 2nd and 3rd.