Cricket 1900

A p r il 1 2 , 1 9 0 0 . CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 61 eleven and specially selected players on the county ground for three weeks, commencing on April 21st. W. Mead will be accorded a well-earned benefit during the season, and the Com­ mittee have allotted to him the return match against Middlesex, to be played at Leyton on August 23rd and following days, and it is to be hoped that the invaluable services which this sterling cricketer has rendered to the county in the past ten years will meet with deserved and substantial recognition. It will no doubt be noted with pleasure that the matches with Middlesex have been resumed. During the past season, the experiment of playing second eleven matches has been a de­ cided success, as it has afforded the committee an opportunity of testing the abilities of several of the younger and rising cricketers in the county. They were engaged in home- and-home matches with Middlesex 2nd, Hampshire 2nd, and the first eleven of Hert­ fordshire, without losing any of the matches, the result being that they played six won three, lost none, and drew three. For the coming season home-and-home matches have been arranged with Surrey 2nd, Middlesex 2nd, and Hampshire 2nd. The roll of members on December 31st last stood at 2,274 gentlemen and 169 ladies, a,nd your committee are pleased to state that 262 new numbers were enrolled during 1899. Your committee are glad to again announce that the Great Eastern Railway Company will run a special express train to Leyton on all county match days, leaving Liverpool Street at 2 o’clock and arriving at Leyton at 2.12, in addition to which, the 3.35 train will stop at Leyton at 3.48. These trains will not run on second eleven match days. With reference to the accounts, your com­ mittee are again pleased to state that the revenue has exceeded the expenditure. The annual general meeting will be held in the Dining Room at Leyton, on Thursday evening, April 26th, at 5.30. After the meet­ ing a presentation will be made to Mr. P. Perrin in recognition of his brilliant perfor­ mances during the past season. In conse­ quence of the war, there will be no dinner this year. The following bowlers have been engaged for the season, viz. : Inns, Reeves, Tremlin, Buckenham, E. Russell, Sewell, and J. Brewer. Signed by order of the committee, O. R. BORRADA1LE, Secretary. Essex County Ground, Leyton. A PROVINCIAL PLAYER ON PHILADELPHIA CRICKET. Several changes have been made at Philadelphia in the “ cup schedule,” the competition for the Halifax Cup answer­ ing to some extent to our county championship. These changes have not met with universal approval, as the following pertinent letter will show. It is published in the American Cricketer :— “ While, as an outsider, I do not feel competent to express an intelligent opinion on the advantages or dis­ advantages of all the details of the new plan of competition that has been adopted for this season, I feel that I may say a few words as to how the proposed changes strike us in the provinces. If I may say it without offence, Philadelphia cricket has struck us here for many years as intensely self-absorbed, and to our own cricket life and progress the Halifax Cup has been a serious obstacle, not to say unmitigated nuisance. Time was when we, who are absolutely dependent upon the courtesy and interest of Philadelphia cricketers for our matches, could arrange for a game with some one of the Philadel­ phia clubs for pretty much each Saturday in the season, and I remember when I invariably came home from the meeting of the secretaries with the season’s schedule practically arranged. In recent years, however, I have been met by the discouraging rebuff, ‘ Sorry, but I can’t sty what date we can give you until we g*-t the cup schedule arranged,’ and have come home with a game or two and a fervent wish that the cup were back in Halifax where it came from. Cricket cannot live without matches, and it has been a surprise to me, how our men have persevered at it with the few opportunities they get to test the results of mere set practice. To us, therefore, looking at it purely from our point of view, anything that will tend to spread the season out a little thinner, and give us a chance for more matches, appeals to us us a mov« in the light direction. My opinion, therefore, us to the advantage of such an arrange­ ment to Philadelphia cricket can hardly s'em an unbiased one. I must say, however, it seems to me, that the more nearly you follow out the English custom as to the championship, which keeps up the interest and uncertainty to the very end of the season, the more likely you are to keep the game in the public eye, and to keep its exponents on the alert. Some of the most delightful cricket weather of the year is in September, and it seems all wrong that international matches should be necessary to keep up the interest of the players and the public through that pleasant part of the season. “ Interest is bound to flag in August- Our climatic conditions drive most men out of town for some few weeks of the summer, and August seems the time when this compulsion comes upon the great majority. I should advise leaving August free for ‘ summer eleven ’ games. I cannot recommend that month even for Baltimore matches, as suggested by one of your correspondents. We require all the men who know how, to play, and in August we can’t get them. In any attempt at increasing the number of out- of-town matches we are prepared, as I wrote you earlier in the season, to meet you more than half way. We are ready for club teams or associated teams of properly graduated strength, any and every Saturday of the season except those in August, and on any or all of the public holidays. We already have a date with Haverford, at the college, and expect to make our usutl week’ s trip to Philadelphia in July. “ I thought I had nothing to say when I started this letter, but I hope you will allow me just one word as to the professionals. I have a very strong feeling on this subject. The professional, as we have in Baltimore, has my un­ bounded respect and gratitude. He is the keenest cricketer in the club. The success of his eleven, the progress of the juniors he has trained, the scores they make later on when they have forgotten that he is chiefly responsible for their ability to make them, the perfection of all the means that tend to make good matches, are to him as the breath of his nostrils, and day in and day out, he pegs away, making things as pleasant as possible for the amateur. He is not primarily a groundsman nor only a coach. He is a cricketer and the keenest sort of one, and to deprive him of any opportunity to enjoy the one thing that makes a cricketer’s life worth living seems to me to be defrauding him of a large part of his just wages. If you or I were tied down to the net, and denied the hope of ever taking part in any matches, what sort of use do you think our bowl­ ing would be to those who practised against it ? (This doesn’t imply for an instant that it is any good, any how.) Wouldn’t it make all our cricket dull and mechanical ? The pro. is entitled to have some fun, and, if you give him a chance to play in the matches (outside of the Halifax Cup, if you please), his interest is going to be stimulated, and sure as Ranji’s eye, the result will be an increased interest on his part in his work, and a resulting increase in his efficiency as a trainer of the future cricketer.” HAVERFORDIANS IN ENGLAND. By C. H enry C a r t e r , in the American Cricketer. Renewed interest is shewn for the willow and the leather at Ilaverford since it was made known that a trip to Eng­ land was to form the climax to the spring’s work. The outlook for a strong team is fairly encouraging—more en­ couraging, indeed, than for some years past. The individual practice in the “ shed ” shows up well, and there is such a general feeling of cricket enthusiasm astir that it is the hope of Haverfordians that their college may give the English “ hands across the sea” a creditable showing of American pluck. The wisdom of the trip is pronounced sound by those who should know ; Haverford’s name and her cricket, and incidentally Phila­ delphia cricket should be benefited by it, and the present relations established with the English public schools by her team that went abroad in 1896 should be renewed. No definite schedule of games has yet been arranged with these English schools, but it is certain that Harrow, Rugby, Clifton, Cheltenham, Marlborough, Rep- ton, and Malvern will be included. It is hoped that Eton and Winchester may be added to this list, since no more representative schools are to be found. The Haverford team sails on the 16th of June, on the “ Pennland ” from Phila­ delphia, and those who return at the first opportunity after the closing games will arrive home in the middle of August. The team of 1896 was fairly successful, having found themselves generally, at least, on a par with their English cousins, and their example rouses emulation. However, the team of 1900 will consider