Cricket 1900

S e p t. 20, 1900. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 421 not at all unlikely that something sen­ sational w ill be recorded. M r. F . S. Jackson only played one inniDgs, but it was of superlative merit. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the season, M r. MacLaren took a long time to play him ­ self into fo rm ; he often played splendid cricket, and if it had been necessary to choose an England X I. he would probably have been included in it. Several other men have come very prominently to the front this year, notably M r. E . W . Dillon, M r. T . L . Taylor, M r. C. J . B . W ood, Lees W hitehead, M r. B . J . T . Bosanquet, and M r. Collins. Some of the veterans played remarkable cricket, among them being W . Gunn, M r. A . P . Lucas, and Arthur Shrewsbury. I t is a great question whether the bowlers have to any great extent profited b y the lessons which they ought to have learned b y the visit of the Australians last year. They still as a body are content to keep pegging steadily away, relying on the batsman to make mistakes, and very few indeed of them can be said to try experiments after the manner of a Lohmann or a N oble. One of these fine days there will suddenly appear on the scene a bow ler— he will probably come from Australia or America— who has practised the art of bow ling a ball so that for over after over it would drop full pitch close to the top of the stumps — a few inches over or a few inches under. Perhaps also a wicket keeper will be found who can take him, and then there w ill be some very curious cricket. H e w ill have to be a slowish bowler, for a fast one would be speedily ruled out of court as dangerous to life and limb, and he will have to vary his pace with some subtlety. Every bowler already knows the value of an occasional full pitch, and knows that there is nothing so uncertain as the direction in which the batsman w ill hit it. U ntil this bowler arrives we shall doubtless see the old style of machine-like bowler flourishing. A lth ough Rhodes does not stand out am ong the bowlers quite as prominently as Ranjitsinhji am ong the batsmen, he is unquestionably the bowler of the year. H e, at least, has profited by experience, and it is admitted on all sides that he has vastly improved, not only in accuracy of pitch, but in downright skill. H e has had a splendid fielding side to help him, but for a bowler to do wonderful things it is absolutely necessary that he should be finely backed up. Rhodes is only fourth on the averages, but his claim to rank as the first bowler of the year is indisputable. N ext to him, although he is a long way down on the list, A lbert Trott w ill be placed by most cricketers. H e is one of the few bowlers who try every conceivable dodge to get a man out, and although he has been variable, and sometimes quite un­ successful, he is a bowler of the type which is loved b y everybody. Possibly, if he had had a H aigh to bow l at the other end throughout the season, and if he had been able to rely on his field, like the Yorkshire bowlers, he m ight have had an even more excellent record than 211 wickets for 2 3 -33 runs each. U nfor­ tunately for him and for M iddlesex, J . T . Hearne was not quite as good as usual, and his place on the list is really higher than his bow ling merited ; nevertheless, he is still a fine bowler, and it is quite on the cards that he w ill come on again. M r. W ells bowled so well during August that he fu lly deserves his position in the averages; it is a great pity that he can­ not play throughout the season. H e also is one of the tryers. The excellent bow ling of Briggs has been one of the great surprises of the y e a r; he seems to have got back again some of the clever­ ness for which he was so noticeable in his younger days. B lythe, M old, and W ass have all done remarkably well. Other bowlers who have been extremely useful to their sides are W ebb, Lockwood, Cut- tell, M r. Jessop, Tate, J . Gunn, Geeson, Field, and W ilson. The reappearance of W alter Humphreys was quite a feature of the season; he only took part in one match, but distinguished himself con­ siderably in it. It was hoped by enthusiasts that Richardson would once more come out as a tremen­ dously fast bowler w ith a lot of devil, but although he was very useful to Surrey, he was not the Richardson of old. I still believe that he m ight have a fine future before him as a slow medium pace bowler, something after the Trumble type. A t any rate, it would be worth his while to try the experiment when it becomes obvious that his days as a fast bowler have quite passed away. A s to the fielding of the year it has been pretty bad on the whole, and often very bad indeed. M en get so weary of fielding out on the hard ground day after day that they seem to lose all interest in fielding, and instead of regarding it as a pleasure, they act as if the whole thing were a bore. Thera are, fortunately, many men who can compare w ith any of their predecessors, but it must reluctantly be adm itted that they are in a decided m inority. It is too much to expect the veterans to display as much agility in the field as they did some twenty years ago, but it is sad to see that a great number of the debutants soon begin to wear a dejected air when their side is not getting wickets very rapidly. It used to be an axiom that it was far better to make a desperate attempt to catch a ball and miss it altogether than to take it prettily on the first bound, but, if one m ay judge by the applause which is nowadays bestowed on a man who stands still and cleanly picks up a ball which pitches a few feet in front o f him , it is an axiom no longer. W . A . B e t t e s w o r t h . NORTH v. SOUTH . THE LAST FIRST-CLASS MATCH OP THE SEASON. P . NEED’ S BENEFIT. Played at Lord’s on September 13, 14 and 15. Drawn. Quite the feature of this match was the batting of Dr. Grace, who ended the season in a blaze of triumph. He was batting for a few minutes less than three hours and was quite master of the situation all the time ; he gave no chances and hit fifteen fours. Mr. Stoddart was also in great form and helped \Y. G-. to put on 85 for the first wicket, scoring the greater number of the runs him­ self. Mr. Jessop delighted the crowd by putting on 30 during the first fifteen minutes of his innings. While he was in with W . G . the score was increased by 85 in about half-an-hour; he also in the second innings, when wickets were falling fast, made 32 in nine minutes. Some of the best batting during the match was seen when Captain Wynyard and Albert Trott were together ; they put on 148 runs in an hour and-a-quarter. Indeed the hitting was fierce at intervals through the whole match, which was almost as remarkable for the great success met with by Mr. Jephson with the ball as for anything else. S outh . First innings. Second innings. cLawton.b Smith 13 c La-wton,b Smith 11 not out ...........62 e Hirst, b Brown 2 not out................ 2 b Smith ...........32 b Briggs ........... 1 c and b Brown ... 17 L b l, w 2 ... 3 W . G. Grace, b Briggs ...126 A. E. Stoddart, c Gunn, b Frown ... ...................51 P. F. Warner, e and b Smith 21 I{. Abel, c Rrown, b Smith 6 T. Hayward, lbw, b Briggs 8 G.L.Jessop.c Hirst, b Briggs 77 I). L A. Jephson, b Briggs 0 Cip* E.G. WynV'ird.b Smith 85 A.E.Trott, c Gunn,b Briggs 75 W . P. Robertson, not out .. 1 Bland, b Briggs ................... 6 B 14, lb 1 ...................15 Total ......... 474 Total (6 wkts)*143 * Innings declared closed. N oh th . First innings. Second innings. Lord Hawke, c Robertson, b B 'a n d .................................. 2 J.T.Brown, c Trott. b Bland 55 c Trott, b Bland 48 H. 1 hompson, c Bland, b Jephson ........................... 9 c H a y w a r d , b Jephson........... 5 G. H. Hirst, c Jessop, b Jephson ......................... 89 c Stoldart, b Jeph son ........... 3 E. Smith, b Jesson ......... 70 cS^oddart.bBland 7 J. Briggs, c and b J 'phwn 38 b Jeph son...........18 A. E. Lawton, b Jephson... 24 c Stoddart, b Jephson ... ... 12 Gunn (J.), st Robertson, b Jephson ... 59 n otou t...................17 Millward (A .), lbw, b Jeph-: son . ................................ 0 not out ...........19 Carlin (J ), b Jephson ... 17 Rhodes (W .), not out...........30 c Stoddart, b B 9. nb 3 ... .. 12 Jeph son........... 0 No-ball Total ...................405 Total (7 wkts) 130 S on 'ii. First inniogs. Second innings. O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Briggs... .......... 33 5 8 135 * ... , ... 12 5 25 1 Gunn ... ........... 13 3 46 0 .. . ... 4 0 16 0 Brown . ........... 18 3 59 1 ... , .. 5 1 13 2 Smith ... ........... 26 1 66 3 .. . ... 16 2 76 3 Thompson .......... 6 1 21 0 ... ... 4 1 10 0 Hirst ... .......... 14 2 74 0 Rhodes ........... 4 2 3 0 Millward ... 5 0 32 0 Smith delivered two wides. N o r t h . First inniogs. Second innings. O. M. R. W . O. M. R. W . Jephson ........... 39 3 7 132 7 ... ... 18 1 66 5 Bland ... ........... 23 1 78 2 ..., ... 14 2 46 2 Trott ... .......... 24 4 91 0 ..., ... 4 0 17 0 Jessop .. ........... 19 3 67 1 Warner ........... 3 1 10 0 Hayward ............ 6 3 15 0 Bland delivered four no-balls. P O RTRAIT MEDALLIONS OF POPULAR CRICKETERS.— W. G. Grace, K . S. Ranjit- sinhji, C. B. Fry, C. J. Kortright, A. C. MacLaren, A. IS. Stoddart, J. R. Mason, G. L. Jessop, Abel, Richardson, Hayward, Lockwood, Heame (Alec.).— Price 2d. each, post free 3d., or the set of 13, post free, 2s. 2-1.— M b b r itt a n d H a tc h e r , L to ., 168, Upper Thames Street, London.