Cricket 1900

26 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F* b . 22, 1 00. G r e a t disappointment has been ex­ pressed in Australia at the waj in which spectators have kept outside the cricket grounds this season when intercolonial matches were in progress. It is stated that when New South Wales were batting at Adelaide, and making hundreds of runs at a funereal pace, people just looked in on their way from business and went away again. Yarious reasons are given for 1 he paucity of spectators, among them being (first and foremost) slow and tedi us play, the failure of popular men, and a general decline of popularity in the game. On the second day of the match at Adelaide, against Yictoria, it was a public holiday. Yet, although Darling and Hill had to bat, only 2,141 people paid at the gates, and they, after looking on some remarkably slow play, began to let themselves go, and “ barracked” the players freely. A cc o r d in g to a newspaper correspon­ dent Prince Christian Victor, who is acting as aide de camp to General Hill- yard, was knocked down at Vaalkrantz on February 7 by the concussion of a hundred-pound shell, which burst on a rock on which he was sitting. The Prince was apparently uninjured. A g a in s t New South Wales, says the Sydney Mail, the South Australians were just as one-horse a lot in the bowling as when the fixtures with that colony were originated. Fourteen or fifteen years ago George Giffen was the lock, stock, and barrel of the team ; in the match just concluded he secured eight wickets for 287 in a total of 806, and yet this is the man a big section of the Adelaide people thought, when Stoddart’s last team were here, should retire from cricket. It was laid to his charge that he was suffer­ ing from big head ; he had more reason to think well of his own performances than those who tried to hound him down. It will be interesting to watch the trend of events with regard to Giffen when the next English eleven arrive. C r ic k e t e r s in India have been startled by the collapse of the powerful Calcutta eleven against the bowling of the Young Men’s Christian Association—of all teams in the world. The Y.M .C.A. were all out for 81, and everybody thought that the Club had them on toast. But Bayley for the Y.M.C.A. took five wickets for two runs and West three wickets for 16 runs, and the innings produced 18, in which there were seven duck’s eggs. N o t h in g in Australian cricket this sea­ son is more remarkable that the complete failure of Jones as a bowler. It is stated that he has lost all his pace and is now merely an ordinary fastish bowler. A remark of Major Wardill’s shows that Australians are becoming anxious. He said : “ For Heaven’s sake unearth a fast bowler. If Jones is done, and he cer­ tainly looked like it against Victoria, and we have no one to take his place when the Englshmen come here text season, we will have great difficulty in getting them out.” It may, however, be remem­ bered that in the season before Jones came to England exactly the same things were said of him, so that he may be “ playing possum” for some reason or other. T h e Very Rev. Dr. J. C. R jle resigned the Bishopric of Liverpool at the begin­ ning of the month (February). He was eighty-three years of age, and played for Oxford v. Cambridge, at Lord’s, in 1836 and 1838 (there was no match in 1837). In the first match he made 2 and 7, and obtained four wickets (all bowled) in first innings and six wickets (five bowled) in second. In the second match he made 5 and was absent second innings but didn’t bowl. A. Lowth and G. B. Lee bowling Cambridge out. A t the recent dog show at Islington, L. A. Shuter, the old Surrey county cricketer, won a prize for a retriever. L ie u t e n a n t W. R. P. Stapleton- Cotton, of the 19th Hussars, whose death, on January 29, from disease, has been reported from Ladysmith, was the eldest son of Colonel the H od . Richard South- well George Stapleton-Cotton, of Somer- ford Hall, Brewood, Stafford. He was born on August 30, 1872, was educated at Wellington College, but was not in the eleven although he was a good bat. His name will be found in LUlywhite for 1900 amongst “ The Chief Scorers of 1899.” A c c o r d in g to the Sun, “ Miss Millie Hylton, principal boy in ‘ Goody Two Shoes ’ at the Grand, Leeds, has met with a serious accident. In the court scene, Mr. Thompson and other members of the company pretend to play cricket, and meanwhile Miss Hylton stands near making preparations for the following scene. Mr. Thompson, as the batsman, had in his hand a heavy property mallet, and while in the act of raising it to off- strike the supposed ball, he accidentally struck Miss Hylton od the right side of her head. The blow rendered Miss Hylton unconscious, and she had to be carried from the stage.” Moral: Don’t “ off-strike ” “ supposed balls.” W h e n the South Australian team went to Melbourne to play Victoria it included Lyons. He was, however, compelled to return owing to a bad leg. Travers was sent for to take his place against both Victoria and New South Wales. After the Victoria match he had to return home owing to illness in his family. In the Victoria match George Giffen, the only bowler on the side, ricked his back, and was considerably handicapped in the New South Wales Match. Altogether South Australia was not overburdened with good luck. K e n n y B u r n has made another big score— 213 not out. This was in the second innings of Wellington v. Break o’ Day, C. J. Eady having made 218 for the latter club in his first innings. According to our latest information, the match, after lasting for four days was btill unfinished. Burn also scored 123 not out in the first innings, so that for the second time he has had the honour of making two separate hundreds in an innings, thus equalling Eady’s rec ;rd for Tasmania. A n illustrated article on “ Great Men’s Feet ” appears in Sandow’s Magazine for February. Among the great men whose feet are interviewed are W.G. and Ranjit- sinhji. The former’s feet are described as “ strong athletic feet ” ; the latter’s as “ very long, like all Eastern feet, and very agile.” What next ? A t the annual meeting of the Warwick­ shire County C.C., which is to take place at the beginning of March, the report will shew an income for 1899 of £6,000, an increase of £ 2,000 on the previous year. This is to a great extent counter­ balanced by an increase of about £1,500 in the expenses. Improvements have taken place at the E Igbaaton ground, particularly in the matter of draining. S o u t h A u s t r a l ia ’ s brilliant victory over New South Wales at Sydney at the commencement of last mouth is the Colony’s seventh win in the series of nineteen matuhes. New South Wales has won the other twelve. The most unequal of the nineteen games was that in December last at Adelaide, the New South Wales Eleven with a huge total of 807. At the finish New South Wales was no less than an innings and 393 runs to the good. T h e Bucks County Club has arranged a cricket week at Aylesbury for next August. The matches are August 20th, 21st, Bucks v. Herts; 22nd, 23rd, Bucks v. Berks, and 24th, 25th, Bucks v. Oxfordshire. ------ T h e executive of the Northumberland C.C. are going in for a County Cricket Week at Newcastle-on-Tyne. It will commence on July 30, and the three matches in which the Northumberland eleven will, of course, take part, wi'l be July 30 and 31, v. Northamptonshire, August 1 and 2, v. Staffordshire, August 3 and 4, v. Norfolk. G. L. J esso p , last year’s Cimbridge captain and now captain of the Gl. uoes- tershire Eleven in succession to W. Troup, is one of the latest additions to the already long list of distinguished cricketers in “ The House,” otherwise the Stock Exchange. R. O. Schwarz, better known as the International Rugby foot­ baller, has also gone to swell the number of athletic notabilities there. F. T. H a c k , who won the match against New South Wales for South Australia at Sydney last month, is in his second season as an intercolonial player. His record this season shows 33 and 112 in Adelaide v. Victoria, 54 and 37 in Melbourne v. Victoria, and 44 and 158 not out in Sydney v. New South Wales. This gives an aggregate of 438 for five completed innings, and an average of 87-60.