Cricket 1901

J an . 31, 1901. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD O t THE GAME. 9 A c c o r d in g to the Queensland Sports­ man Ernest Jones lias been re-engaged by the South Australian Cricket Associa­ tion as ground bowler on Adelaide Oval for a year, at a reduced salary. Also the S.A.C .A . has power to cancel the engnge- ment whenever he gets so much out of form as to be discarded from the South Australian X L T h e number 13, generally considered unlucky, says River Plate Sport and Pastime, was much to the fore at Palermo, Buenos Aires, on November 24 in the match between Belgrano and Buenos Aires. The top score as we have said, for Belgrano, was 13. When the total was at 13 three of their wickets fell. Their flrtt wicket in the second innings fell with the total at 13, and the highest score on the Buenos Aires side, arid of the day was 113. I n a third-grade match in Sydney, H . Downey went in last with the score at 116 for nine wickets. He made 95 out of 130 put on for the wicket, thus equalling the score for the tenth wicket made by Howell for New South Wales v. Mr. Stoddart’s team. A m o n g the famous Australian cricketers who have dropped out of inter-colonial cricket this season are J. J. Lyons (injured), J. Darling (who is living in Tasmania), and F. Jarvis. Darling was to have played far North v. South of Tasmania at Christmas and for Tasmania v. Victoria in J inm ry 26. B e f o r e the match at Adelaide between Victoria and South Australia on Novem­ ber 12 and follow ing days (the first inter­ national match of the season) it was decided that the rule passed last year by the Marylebone C.C., giving the umpire at square leg power to call “ no ball,” should not be adopted. Apparently no notice is taken in Australian club cricket of the new rule. I t seems a pity that cricket cannot be played all over the world under precisely the same laws, but if the laws are continually altered this is bound to happen. A l r e a d y the new Melbourne C.C. laws for the government of pennant matches known throughout Australia as the “ baseball cricket rules,” have given rise to disputes. Rule 16 reads as follow s:— “ The follow -on rule shall not apply, but the opposing sides shall bat alternately.” North Melbourne had batted first against Richmond and lost nine wickets for 158 ; Richmond then finished their innings just upon th<i stroke of the hour for adjourning for the day. On the follow ­ ing Saturday the last man on the North Melbourne side did not turn up in time to go in, and the question arose as to which side should start the second innings —did the word “ alternately” apply to the first and second innings taken separately, or did it cover the both innings ? The umpires decided that Richmond should bat again—or in other words follow their innings, but in other matches the side which went in first in the first innings did so in the second. O f ihe twenty-two men w> o played in the first match between Victoria v. South Australia in 1880, George Giffen alone takes part in first-class cricket at the present time. C l e m H i l l ’ s partiality for New South Wales has been unmistakeable, as the latter have good reason to know. He represented South Australia against New South Wales first in 1894, and his record up to date shows the follow ing scores :— 9, 30, 15 not out, 5, 2, 206 not out, 14, 49, 51, 42, 5, 20, 2, 0, 170, 73, 109, 12, 159, 16, 53, 67, 22, 365 not out. This makes an aggregate of 1,496 runs for 41 completed innings, giving an average of over 71. “ A m e r r y Christmas and prosperous New Y e a r” above the signature of George Lohmann came as a pleasant reminder that the brilliant Surrey cricketer of a decade or so ago is not unmindful of his friends in the old country. The familiar handwriting gives his address as Matjestfontein, Cape Colony. From this it is evident that he has been in the centre of the disturbed districts, during a part at least of the area affected by the recent raids of the Boers into Cape Colony. Cricket readers will be glad to hear news of him and his whereabouts. • A NOTABLE performance in the way of gentle tapping was recorded to a South Australian cricketer, one B. T. R. Bailey, on December 8. The match was between the Sturt and North Adelaide clubs. The former, who had to go in against a biggish total of 302, made light of the task, scoring 303 for the loss of only half their wickets. For this success they were mainly indebted to some fast run- getting b y Bailey. His first 50 only took him twenty-five minutes and his 199, which were made in two hours and a half, 148 were made in 5’s and 4’s, 4 of the former and 32 of the latter. I t will not surprise anyone to hear that some of the Australians still want a share in the control of the arrangements when English teams visit the Colonies. A t a meeting of the New South Wales Association, held at Sydney on Dec. 17th, it was agreed to arrange a conference with representatives of the Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Asso­ ciations for the purpose of considering the advisability of controlling and financ­ ing the next English team to visit the colonies. M r. T. H . C h a p m a n writes from Halifax, Nova Scotia: — “ In looking back over the last twenty-five years of cricket played in England and Australia and seeing that the century has closed, I am tempted to ask you how the follow ing team would strike you as a ‘ Best the world has produced ’ in that time, v iz .: W. G. Grace, A. G. Steel, Ii .njitsinbji, Stoddart, W. W . Read, Shrewsbury, Spofforth, Turner, Lohmann, Briggs and Blackham. of course judging them all at tbeir best.” A n incident which occurred in a pen­ nant m itch between South Melbourne and Fx zroy has given rise to much dis­ cussion in Australia. R. M ’Leod, a South Melbourne man, had been absent all through the match, and on the second Saturday a player named Bushell fielded for him. When nine S.M. wickets had fallen Harry Trott, the captain, sent Bushell iij to bat. The Filzroy captain protested, but not wishing that there should be any unpleasant feeling, allowed Bushell to bat. Trott affirmed that there was nothing in the rules to prevent him from sending in the substitute to bat —there was no question of winning the match in this case. In a letter to the editor of Cricket from Pretoria, M r. L. F. Hinds w rites:— “ Has the follow ing story reached you ? I believe it to be true, though I cannot actually vouch for it. During the siege of Mafekiog, Lieutenant Eloff, com ­ manding one of the Boer commandos, wrote to Baden Powell saying that he would like to meet a Mafeking team in a friendly game of cricket. ‘ B .P .’ replied that pressure of work prevented him from accepting the challenge, but as he had already scored 202 (days) against the bow ling of Cronje, Snyman and others, and was still not out, he hoped within a few days to declare his innings closed and walk ou t.” W i t h reference to a paragraph in our last issue which stated that a batsman’s leg had been broken in Australia as the result of a fast ball—a most unusual occurrence—Mr. C. W . Wyatt, J.P., writes :— “ William Wilberforce, the liber­ ator o f slaves, writing to his friend, Lord Muncaster, under date, June 18th, 1810, says:— ‘ In playing at cricket with Mr. Babington, a ball struck my foot with great violence, and by the positive injunctions of my surgeon I have been ever since sentenced to a sofa. M y son William was the main personage in the dramatis personal of the cricket players, and I have not played with him at cricket before, for I know not how long. Mr. Pearson, the able London surgeon, declares that if the ball had struck me an inch or two higher, and it is very un­ common for a ball to come along shaving the ground as that did, it would almost certainly have broken my leg.’ ” A t the present moment when every­ body is discussing the question of throwing it may be interesting to append the definition of “ bow l,” as given in the New English Dictionary. B o w l .— To play at howls, to trundle or roll a ball, &c., along the ground. To launch or “ deliver ” the ball at cricket. Originally the ball was actually bowled, or “ trundled ” along the ground, by the suc­ cessive stages of underhand howling above