Cricket 1900

J une 28, 1900 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME* 2 3 3 ." Commenting on the above, the Sydney Mail says, “ The best thing one of our electorate teams could do would be to get that ‘ grubber’ down and tr / him, and see if a little more chagrin could not be infused into our first-class cricketers. Mr. Sheridan admitted that the Lismore tea-n, before whom his men made so poor a show, was ‘ the best met on the tour,’ but Sydney players ‘ won’t play with them any more.’ ” The following letter has been written by Lord Harris to the Faversham Mercury newspaper, which has opened a subscrip­ tion list on behalf of Martin, the famous old Kent left-hand bowler, for whose benefit the match at Canterbury against Surrey is to be played on August 9th :— I earnestly hope that Martin’s benefit may not suffer from any distractions due to the war or otherwise. A more deserving professional never played. Industry and determination made him the good cricketer he in time became, for when he first came out I hardly expected him to excel, and sobriety and self respect kept him in the place he had won for himself. Wear and tear have affected that delicacy of finger touch which imparts spin to the ball, and so Martin does not meet with his former success, but I expect he is as accurate as ever as regards direction and pitch. Anyhow, he deserves a “ bumper” from the county for which he has for so many years worked his hardest, and towards whose best performance he has contributed a large measure of assistance. I will send you £5 for your collection. Overheard at a recent county match: Ethel: “ Does it matter, Alfred dear, if the ball goes off the edge of the grass ? ” Alfred: "N o , not at all, dear; it has to bounce off, and then it is all right.” During the match between Yorkshire and Surrey last week, at Bramall Lane, the ball was thrown in from the boundary by Denton, so hard, that it knocked off the top of the middle stump. A prominent cricketer relates a some­ what amusing adventure which recently befell him. He was ac a railway terminus, and, desiring his luggage labelled, called a porter. “ Where for, sir?” inquired the man of paste and labels, hurriedly. “ Chantilly,” replied the cricketer. “ Oh, very well, sir,” snapped the porter, “ if you won’t tell me, I can’t put it on.” And before our worthy friend could recover from his surprise to explain matters, the indignant porter had hurried off to see a man round the corner about a dog. P la tin g for Gloucester on the Spa ground, June 23rd, against Cavendish House, Palmer took five wickets with successive balls, all clean bowled. He had the fine analysis of seven overs, three balls, two maidens, thirteen runs, nine wickets. Cavendish were all dismissed for 34 runs, Gloucester replying with 290 for seven wickets. When Hirst was batting for Yorkshire against Derbyshire on Monday he slipped and fell over his wicket in trying to play a ball bowled by Bagshaw. He hit the ball, which was caught at short-slip by Mr. Lawton. A question arose as to whether he ought to be out hit wicket or caught. The umpire, deciding that the ball was caught before the wicket was broken, gave him out as caught. O n Monday Mold was twice no-balled by Phillips at Trent Bridge for throwing. Phillips was standing at square-leg. We believe that Mold has never before been no-balled in any match, and it seems a little late in the day to discover that his action is questionable, as he has now played for Lancashire for more than eleven years; he was taken off after finishing the over. In the match between the London and Westminster Bank and National Provin­ cial Bank on Saturday, the former scored 243 without losing a wicket, which is, I should imagine, a record for Bank cricket. Stumps were not drawn until eight, o’clock, when the light on Saturday was not by any means good. A rrangements are nearly completed for the visit of Mr. S. H . Wood’s cricket and football team to the United States this autumn. They leave England about the middle of August, returning early in October. The Derbyshire captain has organised a team composed entirely of county cricketers, nearly all of whom are also ’Varsity football Blues. Three cricket matches have been arranged at Philadelphia. Football and cricket matches will also be played in New York and Canada. The New York Evening Sun seems to have got a little mixed over the approach­ ing visit of this English team to America. Our contemporary evidently thinks that it is an Australian team which is mooted, although it gives the names of the team —Messrs. Burnup, Bosanquet, W . L., B. E ., and H . K . Foster, etc. We quote the following passage, which appeared on June 11th :— The Associated Cricket Clubs of Philadel­ phia have just decided not to abandon the annual game with the Australian cricket team. This game has taken place regularly every summer for several years, but after the defeat at the hands of the Australians last year it was about decided to discontinue the game. This plan was accepted as a settled tact last winter, and nothing was done to change it until cricket play begun again this spring. Capts. Mason and Brown then became encouraged at the form shown in the early play by their teams, and began to regret the decision to abandon the Australian game. They discussed the matter with the officers of the Associated Cricket Clubs, and thus aroused so much interest in a plan to challenge the Australians that this step was finally decided upon. A little while ago the Associated Cricket Clubs received a letter from N. L. Jackson, of Australia, announc­ ing the personnel of his team, and then it was decided to have the game this fall. A sub-committee, consisting of K. S. Buckley, jun., R. H. Reilly, and R, D. Brown, was appointed to communicate with Mr. Jackson, and extend an invitation to him to bring his team to Philadelphia. If this invitation is accepted, the Australians will play two games with the All-Philadelphia team and a third with a team of eighteen colts and a captain. The two more important games will take place at Manheim and Haverford. The third game will be played under the auspices of the Philadelphia Cricket Club at Wissahickon. The Australian team will include the follow­ ing players :— [Here follows the list which has alread been given in Cricket.'] M r. A. Crawshaw writes: “ In ‘ Pavilion Gossip,’ June 21st, you state that Mr. W . Williams, previous to this year, had only played once for Middlesex. This is incorrect. Mr. W . Williams appeared for Middlesex in nine out of ten matches played by that county in 1885. He also played in one match (v. Notts, at Lord’s) in 1886. He was played for his wicket-keeping in these matches.” A good old cricketer writes: “ In a match in which I was taking part recently at Broughton Hall (Sir Wilfred Lawson’s seat) my memories of Surrey cricket were very pleasantly revived. One of the other players was H . H. Stephenson, son of the famous Surrey cricketer who captained the first English X I. to visit Australia. He was studying at the Aspatria‘Agricultural College, and is a fair bat.” Parsee cricket would appear to be well supported, judging from the fact that the Elphinstone C.C., of Bombay, opened at the end of last month a new building erected at a cost of some forty thousaud rupees, and paid for by members of the club. The Elphinstone Club has played an important part in Parsee cricket. An off-shoot of the Spartan C.C., it commenced its career of usefulness in 1873. At the outset the members num­ bered 13 ; now the muster roll shows 309. J. B. Wood, the Old Oxford lob bowler, who has been scoring heavily in India lately, is coming to England pre­ sently on furlough. He hopes to take part in English cricket next summer. According to the Indian Sporting Times, he will in all probability play for Leicester­ shire, for which he is qualified by birth. The Haverford College team are due at Queenstown in the s.s. “ Pennland ” to- day. Cricket readers, one and all, will wish them a good time of it during their short stay in the old country. The first of their fifteen engagements which, in addition to matches against the chief Public Schools, include fixtures with M.C.C. and te a m B of the two Universities, is against Malvern College on Monday next. The Maharajah of Patiala’s team had an exciting match against a station eleven at Kasauli at the end of last month. The station players, who batted first, lost a batsman without scoring, but eventually made 115, of which forty were added by the tenth wicket. Patiala began in a very different style. Mistri and another putting on 59 before a wicket fell. The total was 115 when the eighth batsman