Cricket 1900

M a r c h 29, J900. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 45 ON SOME IN D IA N CR ICKET GROUNDS. By “ The Tice ” in the Madras Times. “ The T ice” having taken guard and tumbled on twenty-two different ‘ ‘ potato patches” in India, may be able to jot down a few particulars of interest concerning them. The best, to begin nicely, is the Hobart Park, Oota- camund—when it doesn’t rain. The fastest Bangalore, the easiest Bellary, the smallest Mussoorie N .-W . P. and the worst—well no, honorary secretaries are ill-used enough as it is. All of ’em can be beasts, and “ The Tice has met some very ill-mannered ones on what is known as “ Deighton’s F o lly ” at O ;ty. Real rib-roosters and knuckle-dusters, but it is a fact that few wickets are as bad as a bad matting wicket. To commence at the beginning, “ The Tice ” fielded substitute at Hingoli, Deccan, on the parade ground, at the age of ten. The first real match though was on the parade ground, Ellichpur, B?rars, where, cstat eleven, I got my “ inter­ national” and scored eleven for Europeans v. Natives and brought off a brace of catches. My next innings in India was on the Nundydroog ground, Kolar Gold Fields, on August 8 th, 1892, a portion of this earth’s crust now given over to a tank-bed waste ground, &c., &c. Ban- galore next, and then a double Saturday match in Madras against the Madras Native United, where I made the acquaintance of Subrayulu, partly by means of a hit for seven. Arkonam was the next wicket—and it was a wicket and a half ! Mud rolled to a false flatness by means of a purloined Government roller. A wicket that took all the shine out of the ball in the first over and one on which any decent ball bumped over the stumps. H. C. King, R. E. Pigott, H. Reynolds, Surg.-Capt. Skerrett and many another famed Madras cricketer were in that match, while the tiffin was looked after by the best man who could, and that was J . Lushington Taylor. In fact the game was more tiffin than match. Another visit to Bangalore and then down to Trichy, where T. K. Wright and “ The Tice ” had some fun for the Visitors v. Residents, among whom H. P. Ainslie, the Presidency cricketer, was, of course, the leading spirit. Then the Ceylon trip with a terror of a Madras C.C. X I., H. C. King, H. G. Wedderburn, F. H. Stephenson, C. W. Prest, H. P. Ainslie, Brooke-Leggatt, Conductor Somebody or other, J. G. Smith, were the chief members. At Kandy we lost, at Colombo We drew—such a draw !—a wicket to fall and an innings and two or three hundred behind ! Then back to Chepauk fur the first century “ The Tice ” scored in India, by the grace of short slip, who missed me first ball off “ Peter” Grey’s bowling. The Colombo and Kandy wickets were very feather bed, and the majority of wickets in that isle must, I imagine, favour the bowlers. Therefore, until Raffel and Kelaart, the two well-known colt bowlers then and for j ears since, get a show on a few other wickets more in the batsman’s favour it is not possible to correctly gauge their merits. From Chepauk, on January 19th, 1893, to the Albert Park, Allahabad, for the All India team v. Lord Hawke’s X I. All India being wholly unrepresentative and scarcely up to Presidency X I. form. The Allahabad wicket was very dusty, though there was lots of grass. All outfields who were not bowlers wore sweaters throughout the day. A. J. L. Hill scored 132 after being let off before scoring, and F. S. Jackson and Gibson both got over 50 with two or three chances each. G. F. Yernon scored what runs he made in very quick time, and N. C. Bapasola got 63 in our second knock. W. Troup batted well in each innings, but we lost, a good deal through our attack being badly handled. Wellington came next, and then it was no great shakes, and the Ooty ground was not to be compared with what it is now, since polo is not played over it for one thing, and then it never came in for half the care it does now. Boundaries were always pretty long there, and I have often played without boundaries at all on two or three sides [by far the fairest kind of cricket], Bombay came up with a team, including Major R. M. Poore, J. G. Grieg, E. B. Raikes, Capt. Newriham, the late H. R. Troup and E. Sprott, and made rings round a feeble and non-repre- sentative Madras Presidency X I,, winning as they wished by an innings and some runs. This was Sprott’s match, f jr he scored 96 not out and “ took ” six or seven wickets behind the sticks. For six months I saw a good deal of Ooty, Wellington, Bangalore, and Madras, among other things getting 165 on Welliugton ground, which constitutes the record for the ground, and adding 103 for the last wicket of M.C.C. v. Cheshire Regiment at Chepauk in January, 1894, with David, the groundman, who scored 11 not out as partner. That witket was, I remember, a particularly true one, and our total 259, of which the bowlers gave me 174 not out. (To be continued.) THE H A Y E R F O R D COLLEGE E L E V E N FOR EN G LAND . The visit of the Haverford College Eleven to England in 1896 was quite a new departure in International cricket. Philadelphia had previously been repre­ sented iu this country twice —in 1884 and 1889 to wit. The Gentlemen of Philadel­ phia, too, had made their mark fairly well as cricketers on English soil. But the tour of the Haverfordians was, in its way, a bigger thing. It was a plucky task the Haverford team had set them­ selves to come across the seas to try their strength against the best of our public schools on their own grounds. The enterprise of these young Americans, as was only fitting, had its reward. If the cricket all round wasmoderate, Haverford, at least, showed one bright particular star in their captain, J A. Lester. In fourteen completed innings this young cricketer made 1,185 runs, besides taking forty wickets at a cost of just over 23 runs apiece. He proved himself, indeed, to be a batsman of quite the first class, and his selection on his return home to represent America against the Australian team was only a fitting recognition of his merit. This year Haverford probably has not a cricketer of Lester’s exceptional promise on its side ; on the other hand, there is every reason to believe that the cricket will be more level. In any case, it is pretty certain that the tail will not reach its length of 1896. As far as at present arranged the team will reach Eagland about the end of June, on the 28th or 29th, and leave in the first or second week of August. In 1895 fifteen matches were played in all, and the programme is likely to occupy very much the same leDgth this year with, perhaps, one or two fixtures less. The Haverfordians in 1896 played Shrewsbury, Cheltenham, Winchester, Rugby, Haileybury, Marl­ borough, Uppingham, Harrow, Charter­ house, Eton, Clifton, Malvern, besides the Gentlemen of M.C.C. and the Cam­ bridge L mg Vacation C.C. The pro­ gramme for 1900, as yet, is iu the embryo state ; still, it will be on the same lines as in 1896. The Haverford authorities have received the most cordial invitations from the headmasters of the different public schools they visited three years ago. In due course we hope to be able to give a complete list of their fixtures. At present matches have been arranged with Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Charterhouse, Marl­ borough, Cneltenham, Clifton, Malvern, and Haileybury, of the Public Schools. On Wednesday, July 12, the day before Eton and Harrow, the Haverford team will meet the Gentlemen of the Maryle- bone Club. As on the occasion of the last visit, they hope to play the University Long Vacation Club at Cambridge, as well as, if possible, a Long Vac ttion team at Oxford. The visit of these young American cricketers cannot fail to afford plenty of interest to all who wish to see cricket firmly established in the United States, where just now perhaps a little fillip is required. Under any circum­ stances, the tour is bound to be productive of good in America, if only to the extent of improving the style of the young cricketers there. K EN T COUNTY CLUB. The annual meeting of the Kent County Club was held on Monday after­ noon, the 19th, at the Golden Cross Hotel, C h a r iE g Cross. The report of the committee on the season of 1899 and the balance-sheet were unanimously .passed. On the joint gu a ran teof two members of the club it was agreed at the committee meeting to borrow £2,500 at 3.Vper cent, to defray the cost of the new pavilion now in course of erection on the St. Law­ rence Ground at Canterbury. In regard to the resolution passed at a meeting of county representatives at Lord’s in December, “ that counties should reserve direct control over the investment and disposal of all benefit monies,” the com-