Cricket 1900

S e p t . 6, 1900. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 393 T h e follow ing letter from Lord Harris appeared in the Sportsman on T u esd ay:— TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPORTSMAN. S ir , — I venture to suggest that you would be doing a service to cricket if you could, without any great labour to your staff, pub­ lish a table showing, against the chief offenders’ names, the number of no-balls they have increased their opponents’ scores by during this season. These no-balls are, of course, almost all due to going over the bowl­ ing crease, and it appears to me to be a blot upon modem cricket that so many bowlers should be so recklessly indifferent to the infringement of Law X I. During the years that I was playing in first-class cricket, which included the period when such well-known bowlers as Willsher, Jas. Lillywhite, Freeman, Emmett, M . McIntyre, W . McIntyre, Appleby, G. W oot­ ton, J . C. Shaw, A Shaw, Morley, W . G. and G . F . Grace, Hickton, and others, who also bowled for their counties, were the best bowlers of their respective times, an infringe­ ment of Law X I . was certainly most excep­ tional. It seems to me to be nothing but bad cricket to give away runs thus unnecessarily, and I know nothing more disheartening to a side than to see a wicket fall with a no-ball. It requires only a little care to adopt so regu­ lar a run up to the wicket as to ensure the crease not being passed over. Possibly the publication of a black list showing the most careless offenders would produce an improve­ ment.—Yours, etc. H a r r is . Belmont, Faversham, September 1. O n l y three more matches now remain to be played, North v. South at the end of this week at H astings, Sussex and Surrey v. Rest of England at Hastings at the beginning of next week, and North v. South at L ord’s (Philip N eed’s benefit) on the follow ing three days. C anon M c C ohm ick , who has just been appointed to the valuable living of St. James’s, Piccadilly, is one of the few University men who have gained a double Blue. H e was captain o f the Cambridge Eleven in 1856, and also rowed in the Inter-University Boat Race of the same year. H e represented the Gentlemen against the Players in 1857, but gave up cricket on entering the Church. It was only for a time, however, as he appeared occasionally after some years, and with success. A s an all-round athlete, tbe Canon was one of the very best of men of his day. H e assisted to found the Cambridge Athletic Sports, and won the greatest distance in sixteen hops, the standing high jum p , running high jum p, and the weight. H e was also one of the best amateur boxers in England. Is one safe in suggesting that the per­ formance of M r. Jephson and Abel at the Oval on Friday in passing Derbyshire’s total of 325 before Surrey’s first wicket fell was in its way unique ? In point of numbers it has of course been done four ti ues, once by Surrey itself in first-class cricket. B n t I cannot recall any case in which a county has gone in against a total of 325 and passed it as Surrey did b y 39 runs before a wicktt fell. W ith Hayw ard well in, M r. Y . P. S. Crawford just starting, and Baker, Lees, Richardson, and Stedman to follow , it is difficult to say what figure the aggregate m ight have reached had the innings gone to the bitter end. A s it was, Surrey’s score of 523 for five wickets was its highest total of the season. T h a t our good old friend H arry Trott has quite recovered and is turning his attention seriously to athletic sports again is shown by the fact that his name appears in the list of the players to form the Victorian team who were to oppose N ew South W ales at Sydney this month. Frank L iver, of the last Australian com ­ bination, was also down to assist Victoria. In the Outlook of last Saturday M r. C. Pratt Green writes to point out that a remark which had previously appeared in the same paper to the effect that the wicket-keepers of former times were not as a rule batsmen, was not true of Pooley, the famous old Surrey wicket-keeper. H e gives Pooley’s principal Bcores as fo llo w s: — Surrey v. England (1865), 69. Surrey and Sussex v. England (1867), 68. Gentlemen v. Players (1867), 85. Gentlemen v. Players (1869), 52. South v. North (1870), 78. South v. North (1871), 93. Gentlemen of South v. Players of South (186i), ill. Gentlemen of South v. Players of S' uth (1869), 78 and f.0. Gentlemen cf South v. PI y. rs of South (1870), 87 (not out). Gentlemen of South v. Players of Fouth (1871), 126. Gentlemen of Sou h v. Players of South (1874;, 80 (not out). L o k d H a r r is still keeps up his form in batting, and last week he made 119 for Band of Brothers against Tonbridge, putting on nearly three hundred runs in partnership with M r. D . W . Carr (156). M r. Tom Paw ley, in the same match, took three wickets in an over w ith lobs for Tonbridge. T h e subscription which has been raised for the memorial to M r. F . W . M illigan now amounts to £ 5 0 0 . I n a school match a ball was hit into some long grass about twenty yards from the wicket, and could not at once be found. The batsmen, with their hearts in their mouths, ran two or three times across the wicket w ith safety, but eventually one of them (let us call him Sm ith) hesitated and his partner was run ou t. The temporary scorer, who was one of the batting side, was much dis­ gusted at this, and taking the laws into his own hands, wrote in the score-book : Jones, run out by Sm ith, 6. Perhaps if tbia system were applied to first-class matches, there would not be so many of those shocking mistakes which sometimes change the fortunes of a side, for a man would not care to see his name pilloried in this way. B u t we are afraid that the scorers would sometimes have to be pro­ tected by a special body guard when leaving the ground. In a very interesting letter which appeared in yesterday’s Sportsman, M r. J. W . Fletcher, writing from W ilcannia, N ew South Wales, refers to the four hits for six which were made by George Griffiths, at Hastings, off George Bennett. “ The follow ing details,” he says, “ I have from ‘ Farmer ’ Bennett himself. I was travellin > from W indsor to London in 1873 in the same compartment as the ‘ Farm er,’ who at that time was engaged as professional at E ton. W e were alone, and got into conversation about incidents at cricket, and I mentioned this perform­ ance of Griffith.” “ O h ,” said Bennett, “ I ’ll tell you how that happened. There was a bet at lunch-tim e whether Ben could hit four successive balls out of the ground. Ben turned to me and said, ‘ W ill you bite, George ? ’ I said 1Y e s .’ So I tossed them up to him (or words to that effect), and Ben hit them out of the ground.” “ Am ongst Bennett’s stories, I remember he told me of a curious incident which happened in his experience. A ball striking the wicket caused two of the stumps to fall crosswise, and strangely enough, the ball fell between them , and was hung up in the air between the two stum ps.” I n the same letter M r. Fletcher refers to a curious incident which occurred to him in a match in Australia. H e says : “ The wicket was matting over concrete. Unfortunately, though I was able to keep wicket through the innings, I was too badly damaged to go in in my usual place, and decided only to bat if absolutely wanted. After lunch a half-gale of wind had risen, with intermittent duststorms. Finally the ninth wicket fell, and there were still 19 runs to make, so I had to go in. There were yet about seven runs to make to win when a strange thing happened. I was standing prepared to receive the b all; the bowler delivered the ball, but before the ball pitched the wind on the off-side got underneath the matting and bellied it. The hall pitched on the matting when raised from the concrete; I prepared to strike it, but the ball no longer came in its proper course. Its way was half stopped, and it started to creep along the matting in a sort of curve from the off, and eventually passed between my legs and the wicket, whilst I looked on in bewildered fashion and made no offer at it. If it had hit the wicket, should I have been out? I certainly received the ball, but was nonplussed by the sudden change. I think not, and for the reason that the game was being played under artificial conditions, and through the act of weather these conditions were for the time being prevented, the game becoming therefore suspended till the conditions could be restored. As the game was at a critical stage, there would certainly have been a barney. Eventually, we put on 50 more runs.” R a n jit s in h ji is now 177 runs behind his record of last year. That is to bay, he has at present scored 2,982, while last year bis total was 3,159. H is name is on the list of players at Hastings in both matches, but not at L ord’s in N orth v. South. C o m m e n t in g on the n o-ballin g of Tyler by Phillips at Taunton, the Field say s: — A flexure of the wrist and elbow is neces­ sary in order to give a spin to the ball in