Cricket 1900

50 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A p r il 12, 1900. No one would have been surprised if Mr. Key had resigned the captaincy a year or two ago, for he was getting stout and began to find that fielding was not a luxury; he had done more than enough for glory, and he might have retired with honours thick upon him. But it was more than ever necessary that the captain of the team should have the confidence of the players, and at great personal sacrifice Mr. Key continued to guide the destinies of his county, and friends and foes alike were pleased that in his last season he helped by his sound judgment in the field to place Surrey in the position of champion county once more, in a year when, despite the strength of the batting, the bowling was weak enough to dis­ courage any ordinary mctn. As a batsman Mr. Key has always been highly popular. Not only did he play a lively game, but he was a man who was in the habit of knocking the bowling about when runs were sorely needed. One often heard belated spectators, on arriving at the ground to find several Surrey wickets down for a few runs, ask in anxious tones, “ Has Key been in yet ? ” and on finding that he was still waiting his turn, settle them­ selves down in the confident belief that things would work out all right. They were rarely disappointed. For the first few minutes of his innings Mr. Key did not strike one as a man who was likely to make many runs, for he never seemed quite at home. But it was only his way of playing himself in, and when he had made a four or two the captain of the opposing side began to feel very anxious. For, once the Surrey captain was allowed to settle down, he was not only likely to run up a fine score, but was certain to inspire confidence in the tail, who were mo it aggressive when in partnership with him. A study of the scores made by Surrey in the last ten years would show that over and over again the tail, with Mr. Key at its head, had completely altered the aspect of the game. Although he was a fast rungetter, Mr. Key was not a really big hitter. At times he sent the ball into the pavilion, and once or twice nearly hit over it, but his forte lay in making use of and sending to the boundary balls which by most men would have been played with the utmost care. In the course of his career he played very many long innings, including 281 for Oxford University against Middlesex in 1881. W . A . B e t t e s w o r t ii . ON SOME INDIAN CRICKET GROUNDS. By “ The Tice ” in the Madras Times. Continued from page 45. Bombay was the next potato patch in the Christmas holidays of 1894, when Poore got 100, and we got beans from the Parsees and the worst of the Bombay Presidency draw after, in the first innings, on a batting wicket, getting their seven best men out for 51—or was it 56 p I was on board this team as its fast bowler, so someone told m e! I know I scored five runs in four innings, and have not a very high opinion of the Bombay maidan as a run-getting ground. Then comes the wicket of wickets ! On a plain, four months at least of every year a foot deep in water, on the borders of a salt factory, a sort of clayey soil, with tussocks here and there, and the whole place well trampled by buffaloes. Here it was we measured out a pitch, stuck in some stumps, and took on the Royal Artillery encamped hard by for their annual target practice near Yellachi, where they had sent a shell out of all bearings, which ultimately blew three villagers to bits, and thus gave the Pioneer a chance to worry Madras! Under these circumstances we played the battery and generally won. I fancy I did what no skipper has ever done before. Declared, leaving our opponents 40 odd to get to win in over an hour, and we won ! Coimbatore is next on the list. A fine large ground, with broad matting on a superb wicket underneath, prepared by the daily care of Mr. C. Y. Narasiah, who, if he is as good at law as he is at preparing wickets—and shandygaff— must inevitably become a Q.C. My first 50 on this ground occupied under fifteen minutes, and in five knocks there I have snatched 119, 13, 44, 102 and 75—30 “ The Tice ” rather likes Coimbatore, its ground, and hospitable bowlers. After a few matches at Madras, I once more took on the B.A. at tho head of a salt team. We played one match, our totals being 78 and 56,* my own 74 not out, and 57 not out, and we won again. The first innings we had boundaries marked, and as I happened to strike a sixer or two, our opponents asked us to do without boundaries next innings. We did so, and I was fortunate enough to get one or two ruu-out sixers, besides receiving the compliment which has turned my head. After 1 had received several half­ volleys in the second innings and disposed of them, a bombadier remarked to me, “ Y ’ know, you’d be all right on a decent wicket.” Happy Valley, Mussoorie, where the straight drive boundary is some 35 yards from the bat, came next. To square leg and to the off past point, however, there is lots of room, though on one side the permanent net-posts on the tennis courts are apt to “ bring-up ” a running fieldsman somewhat unex­ pectedly. This is about one of the worst grounds in the world, I should think, and a living proof of the maxim that cricket is played wherever there’s one English­ man to bow to another. Back again among my own pals, among Madras cricketers, I had the pleasure of scoring 100 and sending 110 upon the board with one and the same stroke at Coimbatore, July 31, 1897. And from that century “ The Tice’s” “ era of luck” in the cricket field began. The next seventeen innings at Ooty yielded 1.269 runs, six innings not out, and included the then Ooty ground record of 19a not out. Two or three months later an um• There is obviously some mistake in these totals.— Ed. Cricket .] pire’s decision gave me 225 not out on the Ooty ground. I was given in when caught at the wicket at 20! After fifteen innings I had the good fortune to sample the Yercaud matting, and what is lost up there by way of a small ground on a slope is amply made up by the overflowing planters’ hospitality, which I should not like to put down as the reason for the majority of small scores which rule at this popular Slievaroys health resort. Here I snatched another ground record of 180, and fled under cover of darkness to snatch 246 and 120 at Bellary in two successive innings, but different matches, constituting the Bellary ground record, and also a record for India, viz., three centuries in three successive innings. Then came the Bombay Camp ground of the Kolar Gold Fields, C.C., and I am sure, the exposed position which this ground has mitigates against tall scores. A tremendous wind blows in the early part of the season, which invariably han­ dicaps visiting teams. Tdis is one reason the Kolar Gold Fields’ team usually does much better at home than away. The twenty-second ground is the en­ closure of the local Coromandel C.C. on the Gold Fields—matting of course—with very inferior outfielding. I find I have omitted the ground at Calicut, where we played the Malabar District on matting, newly laid, on a different ground to the usual cricket ground, which was thigh or knee deep —I forget which—in water. This is nothing out of the way for Mala­ bar, where we were lucky in being able to drive home and not have to swim. CRICKET IN AUSTRAL [A. THE SHEFFIELD CHALLENGE SHIELD. “ Recorder,’’ in the Adelaide Observer , gives some very interesting particulars relative to the most successful batsmen and bowlers in the intercolonial matches for the shield given by the Earl of Sheffield in 1892. In the eight seasons of the competition fourteen batsmen have made over 1,000 runs, and nine bowlers over fifty wickets, four of them over a hundred wickets. So far, George Giffen alone has scored upwards of 1,000 runs, and takenmore than a hundred wickets. Trumble in all likelihood will be the next to attain that distinction. 1,000 RUNS OR MORE. No. Times Most of not Total in an inns. out. runs. inns. Aver. M. A. Noble ... ... 29 . 3 .. 1,447 . . 200 . 55-65 C. Hill .......... ... 43 .. 3 ... 1,946 . . 205*.. 48-62 F. A . Iredale ... ... 55 .. 3 ... 2,120 . . 187 .. 40-00 G. G iffen.......... ... 54 .. 3 ... 1,952 . . 205 .. 38-27 H. Donnan ... ... 53 .. 4 ... 1,749 . . 160*.. 35*68 G. H. S. Trott ... 48 .. 2 ... 1,541 . . 152 .. 33-60 J. J. Lyons ... ... 57 .. 2 ... 1,826 ... 135 .. 33 20 J. Darling ... 49 .. 2 .. 1,660 . . 121 .. 3319 8. E. Gregory... ... 48 .. 2 .. 1,483 . . 175 .. 32 23 H. Graham ... ... 54 .. 3 ... 1,594 . . 124 . 31*25 F. L a v e r........... ... 48 .. 4 ... 1,335 . . 137*.. 30-34 J. Worrall ... 49 .. 1 .. 1,388 . . 109 .. 28-91 J. C. Reedman ... 62 .. 3 .. 1,485 . . 113 .. 25 16 W . Bruce.......... ... 45 .. 1 .. 1,000 . . 128 .. 22-72 OYER FIF TY WICKETS. Overs. Mdns. Runs. Wkts. Aver. C.T. B. Turner.. 653 .. 199 . . 1,393 .. 73 . . 1908 EL Trumble 1,32 )*1 .. 416 .. 2 645 . 131 2019 T. R. McKibbin 931*1 200 . . 2,836 .. 137 . . 20 84 W. P. Howell .. 905 .. 287 .. 2,054 .. 90 . . 22 82 C. E. McLeod .. 831 .. 271 .. 1,691 . 70 . . 24 15 E. Jones ......... 1,673.1 .. 419 4,492 .. 183 . . 24 64 M. A. Noble 615 .. 170 .. 1,654 .. 63. . *6 25 G. Giffen ......... 1,676 3 .. 370 .. 4,661 ... 171 . 27-26 G. H. S. Trott .. 5695 ... 91 .. 1,695 ... 61 . . 27*80