Cricket 1901

282 CRtCKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J u l y 18, 901 West Indies in the winter of next year, if not this. Another cricket enthusiast from over the sea is now here in the person of Captain J. P. Green, who has been one of the leaders of Philadelphian cricket for many years. He hopes that a party of English amateurs will lie seen in the States this autumn, possibly under the command of B. J. T. Bosanquet. T h e Gentlemen of Holland, who are coming over here on the first of next month under tbe captaincy of C. Post- huma, of the Haarlem C.C., and the management of H. S. Isbrucher, of the Hague, will consist of the following cricketers:— C. Posthuma and A. A. Kool, of the Haarlem C.C., Bood en Wit. C. Feith, J. W. G. Coops, A. Bourlier, A. liroese van Grcenon, H. van Booven, and K. Beukema, of the Hague C.C. F. Schroder and F. Bincker, of Amsterdam C.C. A. Bisgen and J. Dubois, of the Amsterdam C.C., Yolharding. B. van der Pot, of Botterdam C.C., Victoria. They are due in London on the night of Thursday, August 1st, and their head­ quarters will be at the Inns of Court Hotel, where the last Australian team were housed when in town. Through the courtesy of the committee of the Marylebone Club, the Dutch cricketers will have the privilege of practising at Lord’s on August 2nd and 3rd. Their programme, which was given last week, will commence at Lord’s on Bank Holiday, August 5th, with the first of the two matches they have to play against the Gentlemen of the M.C.C. V . G ill e t t , who made a creditable debut in Surrey cricket this week at the Oval for the Second Eleven against Northamptonshire, is a son of the Rev. H. H. Gillett, who represented Oxford in the Inter-University matches of 1857 and 1868. A good all-round cricketer, his bowling had a good deal to do with the defeat of Cambridge in the former year, as he took five wickets at the finish for only 46 runs. V . G. was in the Win­ chester College eleven of 1897. J. E. R a p h a e l, the captain of the Merchant Taylors School eleven, who has been scoring so heavily this summer made a promising first appearance in county cricket for Surrey’s second eleven at the Oval on Monday. He goes up to Oxford in October, and as he has already made his mark for Surrey in Bugby football, he should be of use to the Oxford fifteen this winter. N e x t week Messrs. Puttick and Simp­ son are offering for sale some records of the siege of Mafeking, including two famous letters, of which part of the second appeared in Cricket long ago. As the letters are now historical we append them here. The first is from Commandant Eloff to ^Colonel Baden-Powell, and is as follows T o Colonel Baden P ow ell, M afekin g. D ear Sir— I see in the Bulawayo Chronicle th a t yo u r m en in M a fekin g p lay cricket on Sundays and give concerts an a halls on S u n ­ d ay evenings. In case yo u w ill allow m y men to jo in in, it w ould he very agreeable to m e, as here outside M afekin g there are seldom an y of the fair sex, and there can he no m erri­ m ent w ith ou t th eir bein g present. In case yo u w ould allow this, w e could spend Bome of Sundays w hich w e still have to get through round M afekin g, and of w h ich there w ill probably be several, in friendship and un ity. D u rin g the com ing course of the w eek you can le t us know if you accept m y proposition, and I shall th en w ith m y m en be on the crick et field and at the ball-room at the tim e to he appointed b y y o u .— W ish in g you and all of you rs a pleasant day, I rem ain you r obedient frien d,— (Signed) S. E loff, Comm dt. Jobsdal Commando. In the second letter Colonel Baden- Powell writes the following reply:— M afekin g, A p ril 30, 1900. S ir— I beg to th an k you for your letter of yesterday, in w h ich you propose th at your m en should com e and p la y cricket w ith us. I should like n oth in g better— after the m atch in w h ich w e are at present engaged is over. B u t ju st now w e are h avin g our innings, and have so far scored 200 days not out against the b ow lin g of C ronje, Snym an, Botha, and E lo ff; and w e are h avin g a v e ry enjoyable gam e. I rem ain, yours tru ly, (Signed) Baden P ow ell. T o Comm andant C . Eloff. C ricx e te b s cannot complain that the present season has been lacking in ex­ citement. What with such things as the innings of 13 runs by Notts against Yorkshire; the “ Mold-Phillips ” incident, the acrimonious discussions about l.b.w. and throwing, the big innings by various players, the record by Abel in his forty- second year, the season’s record by W. Gunn in his forty-third year, the extra­ ordinary success of the Yorkshire team, and dozens of other things of note, the season has certainly been remarkable. T h is week has been even more sensa­ tional than other weeks, which is saying a great deal. Possibly the greatest sensation was the wonderful stand made against the famous Yorkshire bowlers by Somerset in their second innings, after a most complete failure in the first innings. To go in a second time on the second day of a match against a balance of 238 runs, to knock off 222 of these runs before losing a wicket, and to end the day’s play with a lead of 311 with five wickets still in hand, is one of the most astonish­ ing feats on record. Sin ce the last issue of Cricket appeared, the fashion of the moment has been very nearly to make a hundred, or two hundred as the case may be. Thus L. C. H. Palairet scored 173, Hayward 91 and 83, E. I. M. Barrett 97, Shrewsbury 99 and 85, Knight 96 and 99, M. Hathorn 90, Dr. Grace 188 not out (London County v. Wiltshire), Tyldesley 193, Mr. L. G. Wright 193, and Haigh 96. B y his innings of 273 for Notts v. Derbyshire, during which he never once lifted the ball, W. Gunn has beaten the previous record of the season, viz., 249, by Captain Greig and Mr. A. O. Jones, the former playing a not out innings. Gunn has also beaten his own record, which was 236 not out for Notts v. Surrey at the Oval in 1898, and has beaten the record made for his county. C ontbasts :— First innings. Second innings. L . C. H. Palairet, b H irst.. 0 c and b Brown ...173 Braund, b Rhodes ........... 0 b Haigh ...........107 M. Hathorn, b Simpson- Hayward ...........................90 lbw, b Pearse ... 0 A . Shrewsbury, b Sinclair... o b Sinclair ...........86 O yebheakd in the smoking-room of a private house. Time 11.30 p.m. First cricketer : “ Wonderful innings that of Fry’s ! ” Second ditto (yawning); “ Suppose you mean his 127 against the Players ?” First cricketer : “ No. I don’t. I mean his duck against Essex ! ” Second d itto: “ Don’t see anything wonderful in that! ” First cricketer: “ Don’t you? Well you would if you’d ever bowled against him.—Bong swor.” T h e score of 303 by Surrey in the first innings against Middlesex is the same as was made by the county last year in the same match. W h ile Somerset were batting against Yorkshire in their famous second innings on Tuesday, the scoring board at one time showed the following position of affairs :— No. 1. Total. No. 2. 96 197 93 At another time it read as follows :— No. 1. Total. No. 2. 101 206 101 T he wickets on Tuesday afternoon when Somerset were batting against Yorkshire fell thus :— 1 2 3 4 5 222 244 341 466 (22 T h e scoring in theYorkshireand Somer­ setshire match must be without parallel in the history of the game. For a Bide to make 87 in the first innings, and 630 in the second is wonderful enough, but to play such a second innings against a balance of 238, and then to score enough to win by 279 runs is startling. U n t il they were beaten in such a decisive manner by Somerset, the York- shiremen had not lost a match for two seasons. It is a little remarkable that the first match this season between the two counties only resulted in a victory for Yorkshire by a single wicket. T h e temptatation to reply to Phillip’s manifesto was too great for Mold to resist, and in yesterday’s papers there appeared a statement by him of about the same length as the umpire’s, and with just about as much point in it. He declares that he does not throw, while Phillips declares that he does. One remark of his will, doubtless, be much discussed. He says:— I happen to have been told what bowlers Phillips has on his list as doubtful. . . . If Phillips will go on “ no-balling” every man on that list, the greatest bowler, in my opinion, of this age, will be no-balled. Be that as it may, we imagine that there will be some interesting developments if Phillips carries out his determination to “ apply law 48 with a severity that may occasionally do injustice to a bowler.”