Cricket 1901

M a y 23, 1901. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORE OF THE GAME. 147 BUSSEY’S a ! « o e* fe D to (J W £ co S J H I <D -Q w 09 s ' W) « « 0 w 01 S’ o -*-> a £ Ct"< S3 £cti s AT THE SIGN OF THE WICKET. B r F. S . A s h l e y -C o o p k e . Probably none w ill deny that the best thing yet 6een in first-class cricket in this present year of grace was the finish of the match at Taunton between Y ork ­ shire and Somersetshire. It was very hard lines for the home side to lose by only one wicket less than three minutes before time, but had their fielding been at all up to the mark they would probably have won easily. There can be but few more exciting finishes on record in the whole history of the game, and it was certainly a match in which the losers gained as much praise as the winners. It may be of interest to point out that Somersetshire, after their splendid fight, will obtain j ust as much credit in th e county championship table as though they had been beaten by an innings and 500 runs !. But championship tables, like gentlemen who thrust books of opinions before the public, have many failings. So far as one can at present judge, a successful season appears to be in view for the Yorkshire team. W ith all the players again available that made the eleven invincible last year, everything promises well. Rhodes will again be regarded as the chief tower of strenglh to the side, and be has already shown that he may be relied upon to fulfil all expectations. Great interest, too, will be centred in the doings of Hirst, whose recent perform ­ ances in all departments of the game have led one to expect him to prove a greater all-round cricketer than ever before. Like Llewellyn and Braund, he will occupy a prominent place in the public eye and bis doings w ill be followed with more than ordinary interest. “ H istory,” Emerson has told us, “ doth ever repeat itself,” and this remark applies to cricket with as much truth as to the more serious paths of life. Storer’s partiality for Yorkshire bow ling is so proverbial that his century at L ord’s came as no surprise. D id he not play three three-figure innings against the county in 1896 within the space of eight days ? Mr. W . H . Wilkes, of Worces­ tershire, evidently has a similar taste, for in the three matches in which he has played against Yorkshire he has made 55, 90 and 16, 109 and 5, the first of which was his first innings in important cricket. Even more remarkable, however, is the harsh manner in which the Surrey men are in the habit of treating the Leicester­ shire attack. In consecutive matches against that county Surrey have now played innings of 409, 506, 167, 500, 522 (for eight wickets, innings declared closed), and 517. The score of 167, be it noted, enabled Surrey to win b y an innings and 53 runs. Innings of 512, 341, 408, 377, 399, 375, 384, 453 (for nine wickets, innings declared closed), 523 for five wickets and 419 have also been made b y the same county in consecutive matches played against Derbyshire. These facts should prove sufficient to convince most people that there is a great deal of truth in Emerson’s dictum. It is with much pleasure one is able to anticipate a successful season for Notting­ hamshire, for probably no county—not even Surrey or Kent— can boast so long a period of uninterrupted greatness. During the past seventy years Notts has always held a foremost place among the first-class sides. For the past few years the county has been hardly so successful perhaps, as could have been wished, but the outlook this season is most hopeful. Mr. A. O. Jones is a man who inspires confidence in his team, and under his able leadership Notts will probably re­ gain the position they held ten or twelve years ago. Although “ Shrewsbury and Gunn=200 runs ” is an axiom now out of date, each of those players retains a great amount of his skill, as was plainly shown in the match against Lancashire. With J. Gunn, Mr. Goodacre, Mr. Dixon and Dench, besides the great players already named, to make runs, and Wass, J. Gunn, Mr. D ixon and Hallam en­ trusted with the bowling, the county may look forward to the first season of tbe new century with confidence. Two recent wicket-keeping perfor­ mances deserve a line to themselves. Mr. W . Findlay, who represented Eton against Harrow in 1898 and 1899, kept wicket last week for Oxford University v. Mr. A. J. W ebbe’s X I ., at Oxford, and did not allow a single bye, whilst the latter scored 251 and 309 for nine wickets. A precisely similar feat was performed on the same days b y Charles Smith, of Lancashire, in the match against War­ wickshire at Manchester, the totals of the latter being 189 and 109. The nearest approach to Mr. Findlay’s per­ formance was in the Sussex v. Cambridge University match at Brighton, in 1890, when Butt allowed one bye only whilst the ’VaiBity made 703 for nine wickets. W ill correspondents, in addressing queries to me, kindly always enclose their address, so that if their communica­ tions are not considered of sufficient general interest to be dealt with in this column, I may have the pleasure of replying by post ? A gentleman, hailing from Aberdeen, wishes “ for particulars of the tallest, shortest, heaviest, youngest and oldest cricketers who have ever taken part in first-class cricket.” G. J. Bon- nor, the Australian hitter, is generally credited with being the tallest man who ever took part in great matches, his height being six feet, six inches. Mr. H . Kingscote, a very prominent msmber of the Marylebone Club in the early years of the last century, was six feet five inches. Mr. Barclay Delacombe, of Derbyshire, also stands six feet five inches, which height he attained when only fifteen years of age. Probably the shortest cricketers seen in first-class matches were “ Tiny ” Wells, who played for Sussex from 1854 to 1869, and was five feet tw o and a half inches in height, and T. W . Gunn, whose name is found in the Surrey elevens of 1863 and 1869. The height of the latter has been variously given as live feet one and a half inches, five feet two inches, and five feet two and a half inches, whilst in an old song he is referred to as “ Little B illy Gunn, five foot one,” 0 3 G S BUSSEY’S