Cricket 1901

J uly 18, 1901. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 281 during the past year, but it is devoutly to be hoped that every umpire who gives a man out, or no-balls him, will not consider it necessary to send a circular to all the papers stating his reasons for so doing. T h e r e are two passages in Phillips’ statement which call for comment, as they are somewhat astonishing : — (a) I n the first innings o f Som erset it m ust not be supposed th a t m an y deliveries th at passed unchallenged w ere, in m y opinion, fair. T h e hall th at upset M r. Ju p p ’s w icket w as not, in m y opinion, a fa ir one, but I was too late in deciding again st the d elivery to call in stan tly. T h e same rem ark applies to several subsequent deliveries in th at innings. (b) T a k in g into consideration th e w rong w h ich is inflicted upon opposing batsm en, such as I have indicated, I am for the future H. A. CABPENTER. (Whose benefit match takes place at Leyton this -week.) (From a Photo by Thomas and CoC heapside.) determ ined to ap p ly L a w 48 w ith a severity th at m ay occasionally do in ju stice to a bow ler. With regard to (a) we should think that if an umpire could not decide at once whether a man has bowled a no-ball or not, he might be in the same predicament when he was required to give a decision upon a catch at the wicket or an appeal for l.b.w. As to (6) let us suppose that an umpire were to say the same thing about the l.b.w. law. “ I am for the future deter­ mined to apply Law 24 with a severity that may occasionally do injustice to a batsman.” Would it occur to anyone that this threat was just to batsmen P A c o r r e s p o n d e n t writes from Shrop­ shire:— “ I should be greatly obliged if Th e new Brigadier-General of the York and Lancaster Yorkshire Light Infantry and Yorks and East Yorks Volun­ teer Battalions, Colonel E. A. Bruce, will be well remembered by those who followed cricket in the late sixties and early seventies as E. A. Brice, as he was then known. He was in the Cheltenham College cricket elevens of 1866, 1867 and 1868 and was also in the school football team. As a fast bowler he did good service for Gloucestershire for a short time, and represented the Gentlemen against the Players at least once in 1872. He changed his name, if I remem­ ber rightly, in the later seven­ ties to Bruce. To a good many of the habitues of Lord’s and the Oval the announcement that the King, on the recom­ mendation of the Home Secretary, has been pleased to appoint Mr. R. A. Gillespie stipendiary magistrate at West Ham, in succession to Mr. Ernest Baggallay, who has become a Metropolitan police magistrate, will be of interest as well as gratifying. Mr. Gillespie, who was called to the Bar in 1871, and has practised on the eastern circuit and the Surrey Sessions, has been a loyal and keen supporter of Surrey cricket as well as a familiar figure in the pavilion at Lord’s for many years. He adds another to the already long list of cricketers dispensing justice in the Metro­ polis and Greater London. T h e Hon. Aucher Warner, the captain of the West Indian team which played over here last summer, arrived in England last week in time to see his brother, P. F. playing for the Gentlemen at the Oval on Thursday. He is hopeful that an English amateur team will be able to visit the V a r i o u s rumours are flying about with regard to the composition of Mr. MacLaren’ s team, and the following are said to have promised to go to Australia: J. R. Mason Lilley it. L. Jessop Hayward Tyldesley W . G. Quaife J. Gunn It was announced last week in some of the papers that Mr. C. B. Fry had promised to go, but he has denied the truth of the statement. We believe that Rhodes has been asked to go. I t is matter for regret to hear, says the Bombay Gazette, that the love of net practice is beginning to absorb the interest of Parsee players, amongst whom, of recent years, a really good class bowler has not been discovered. Another regret- able feature is a waning of interest in fielding. In this depart mentof thegame Parsees should remember they have a great reputation to uphold, and in order to encourage smartness in the field and accuracy of throwing, the com­ mittee of the Gymkhana have reserved Wednesdays for sides games. T h e July number of the Empire Review contains an article entitled “ The Reorgan­ isation of Cricket,” by Mr. R. A. H. Mitchell, the famous old Oxford cricketer. Mr. Mitchell devotes a lot of space to the l.b.w. question, and states that he was never out l.b.w. in a first-class match. He would abolish boundaries and run everything out—we should immensely like to see the experiment tried at Lord’s during an Oxford and Cam­ bridge match, for it would be quite a new sensation to see three or four fieldsmen rushing through the crowd and hunting for the ball underneath car­ riages, etc. H ir s t is at present the first and only man this season to score a thousand runs and take a hundred wickets. He accomplished the same feat in 1896 and 1897. No one else seems likely to add his name to Hirst’s just yet. I f a prophet had risen up ten years ago to foretell that in the year 1901 a manifesto issued by an umpire would have a space of half a column in brevier type devoted to it in the best place on the centre page of the Daily Telegraph, he would have been heartily laughed at for his pains. And yet not only in the Daily Telegraph, but in nearly every other daily paper, the “ statement ” issued by James Phillips in explanation of his action in no-balling Mold in the match between Lancashire and Somerset has found an honoured place. This was of course the logical outcome of the various manifestos issued by prominent cricketers you would reply to the following query in your next issue: A is batting and insists on running out of his crease to every ball. B is bowling. B to frustrate A, instead of bowling the ball, shies it at the wicket. Is A out if the ball hits the wicket, A being out of his crease at the time ? I enclose card, thanking you in anticipation.” The reply to this is that the bowler may not throw at the striker’s wicket. The ball must be bowled, not thrown or jerked. In this case either umpire would call no-ball; if neither noticed what had happened the batsman would be out, bowled—and then there would probably be a row. L a s t week Llewellyn, the Hampshire- Sjuth-African professional, scored 262 against Alton (Hampshire). On the same side Mr. MacLaren played, making a duck’s egg, and Llewellyn himself might have been caught with his score at about eight.