Cricket 1900

420 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 20, 1900. man and w icket-keeper, recently informed m e he thought it w ould be a case of a fourth stump if the age of gigantic scores did not soon come to an end. There is one great objection to which all these suggestions are open, viz., what would happen in a season when the weather favoured the bowler as much as it has done the batsmen of late ? W ou ld umpires have to decide in which matches narrow bats or wide stumps were to be used, or when it would be advisable to have four stumps instead of three ? The best w ay out of the matter would seem to be for the M .C .C . to make the altera­ tion in the leg-before-w icket rule suggested by the H o n . E . Y . B ligh in Baily of September, 1898, and reproduced, w ith opinions of various leading cricketers on the subject, in Wisden for the follow ing year. A t the same time matters m ight be improved to some extent if players, instead o f giving all their attention to batting, devoted part of their tim e to bow ling and fielding. The follow ing letter, which appeared in a Barbados paper, explains itse lf: — To the Editor of T h e R e p o r te r . S i r , — In Cricket of the 12th ultimo, my name is mentioned by Mr. F . S. Ashley- Cooper as the person “ on whose recommenda­ tion it was that Mr. P. I. Cox was included in the team which is now visiting us,” a statement which, unqualified and unexplained, would make it appear that 1 had been claiming to be an important factor in the selection of the W est Indian team. I have no doubt that Mr. Ashley-Cooper’s remarks are due to the fact that in a letter to him, after Percy Cox’s selection, I said that I was pleased at Cox’s ultimate inclusion as, whenever I had written on the subject of the selection of the team, I had pressed his claims for inclusion as strongly as I could. I also told him that Percy Cox’s claims were put forward on every possible occasion by the entire Press in Bar­ bados. A copy of this letter will be forwarded by the next outgoing mail to M r. Ashley- Cooper, who has, unintentionally, I feel sure, misinterpreted what I wrote. Youis faithfully, H . L a u r ie . Barbados, 7 th August, 1900. Upon referring to M r. Laurie’s earlier correspondence I find that I did m isin­ terpret his remarks on the subject, for which I beg to express m y regret. LONDON COUNTY v. MR. E. A. W EA IRE’ S X I.—Played at the Crystal Palace on September 15. M b . E. A. W k a ib b ’ s X I. W .A.M itchell,b Smith James Seymour, c Brooks, b Lulham L . B. Tappenden, b Smith ...................21 A.Stembridge,b Smith 0 A. W . Holt, not out... 28 Jack Seymour, b Lul- L a m ........................... 0 W . J. Goodall, run out 9 16 C. Cox, st Brooks, b Lulham ................... 7 J. Withers, b Smith .. 1 E. A. Weaire, b Lul­ ham ........................... 4 E.H.Canham, b Smith 1 Extra 1 Total ... 87 L ondon C ounty . E. H. Lulham, lbw, b H o lt ...............................77 R.B.Brooks,b Withers 0 L.Walker,c andb H olt 69 Rev. K. Clark, st Goodall, b H olt ... 0 W . F. L. Frith, b Stembridge ............126 E. H. S. Berridge, c Mitchell, b Withers 40 C. B. Grace, b Holt ... 17 W .T. Graburn, ht wkt, b Caoham ...........81 L. S. Wells, c sub., b Withers ...................48 J. M. Campbell,c Holt, b Canham ...........12 Smith, not out ........... 1 B 16, lb 6 ...........21 Total ...492 R E V I E W O F T H E S E A S O N . N o one w ill be found to dispute that K . S. IUnjitsinhji is the man of the year. H e has made runs, and a lot of them, under all sorts of untoward circumstances as well as when everything has been in his favour. H e has shown a consistency which can hardly ever have been equalled, and probably has never been surpassed. The more unprom ising the position of the gam e, when he has gone to the wickets, the more likely has he been to make the score which was needed b y his side. H e has, moreover, made his runs so quickly that there has seldom been time for the bowlers to get rid of all the other men on the side and leave him standing alone for want of support. A s to the player who was the great Englishm an of the year, opinions will prob­ ably vary greatly. Is he M r. F ry, with his Ranjitsinhji-like powers of playing a great game in emergencies ? Or is he Abel, with his twelve hundreds and his splendid steadiness and imperturbability ? Or again, is he M r. Jessop, with his fire­ works, which have so often turned the fortunes of a g am e ? An excellent case m ight be made for each of these famous cricketers, although the popular vote m ight favour M r. Jessop. But, perhaps, it w ill be better to class them as the three great Englishm en of the year. They have all done very great things in their several ways, and we are all proud of them . H ayw ard stands fourth in the averages and would still be one of the very first men to be chosen for an E ngland Team ; he fell off a little in August, and his name was not in everybody’s mouth as it had been up to that time. A vistly improved player is M r. Mason, who has been consistent all through the season. M r. R . E . Foster was brilliant in the extreme up to about the end of July, and his fine innings against Cambridge, and his two separate hundreds for the Gentle­ men against the Players at L ord’s, will not soon be forgotten. H e is one of the most likely of the younger generation to uphold the honour of England in the future against the H ills and Trumpers of Australia. One has not to look very far down the list of averages to find the name of D r. W . G . Grace. It is amazing to see him still scoring his hundreds and still holding his own am ong the first ten or twelve batsmen of the day. I f he could only stoop a little quicker he would still be worth playing in any team in the world, provided that he were not captain, and in a scratch team like that of London C ounty there is no reason why he should not go on playing in first-class cricket as long as his sight does not fail him , for while he can see the ball clearly— and at present he sees it as clearly as any man— he is bound to make runs, and at point w ill still continue to pick up anything which comes in his way at a reasonable height, and to freeze on to a catch. Tw o Warwickshire men, Kinneir and W . G . Quaife, appear side by side in the averages in the position 01 eighth and ninth. They are neither of them among the most brilliant of players, but they both take so much m oving that they are the despair of bow lers and captains; indeed, they sometimes take almost too much m oving for the good of their side. Kinneir has come on in the most marked manner, and is one of the most promising of all the promising players. M r. Warner and M r. Jephson are close together. They both play very pretty cricket, they both seem indifferent as to the state of the pitch, and it would be very difficult to say which is the more useful to a side. They are the sort of men who are most dangerous when their side is in difficul­ ties, and as such are naturally popular among all classes of cricketers. M r. Jephson has had a most difficult task in succeeding M r. K ey as captain of the Surrey eleven, and although much has been written in condemnation of his methods, more especially since Surrey began to go down hill, most cricketers are agreed that for a first season he has done adm irably. Anyone can see that he has learned to profit b y each lesson, and it is pretty safe to say that, bar accidents, he w ill develop into a really great captain. A welcome reappearance in first-class cricket was made by M r. A . E . Stodd*rt, who, playing in the style which made him famous, showed that if he still liked to take part in county cricket regularly he would be one of the best men on the M iddlesex side. A u other M iddlesex man, M r. M acGregor, has done retuirkably well with the b it, though, probably from want of practice, he is not quite the great wicket-keeper that he was. Another welcome return was that of M r. L . O. H . Palairet, who has lost none of his grace­ fulness of style and none of his skill. Captain W ynyard onlyplayed at intervals, but played so well that his almost con­ tinual absence from the Hampshire team can only be regarded as a calam ity. The consistent b ittin g of Carpenter has been one of the surprises of the y e a r; he had for so long been a capable cricketer who only wanted luck to bring him to the front, that his friends had begun to despair of his success. H e was unques­ tionably the most useful batsman in the Essex team this year, although when they got going M r. Perrin and M r. M cGahey did some splendid things. A t last M r. V . F . S. Crawford has justified the confidence which was expressed in his abilities by so many cricketers. H e is not remarkably high up iu the averages, it is true, but he has very often played a most useful innings, and now and ttten a splendid one. W ith increased confidence he most certainly ought to become one of the greatest players of the d ay— and very soon, too. M r. H . K . Foster has been the mainstay of the Worcestershire eleven, nearly always making a good score, what­ ever m ight be the condition of the wicket, or however excellent, the bow ling m ight be. H is brother, M r. W . L . Foster, by the brilliant cricket which he showed at the end of the season after his return from South Africa, made his absence from the county team seem all the more regrettable. W hen the three brothers are all p la jin g together next year it is