Cricket 1901

A u g 1 5 , 1 9 0 1 . CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 3 4 5 for no wickets and about 110 for three. Then an easy chance of stumping was missed and the turn of the tide came. Again M r. Lucas, who put on 147 in partnership with Mr. Turner, was missed when he had scored 23 by a fieldsman who is the safest of the safe. Notts had a lead of 45 on the first innings, and lost four wickets in the second inniDgs fcr 77. Again there was a sudden change and the score reached 219. Then Essex, with 265 to make in two hours and fifty minutes, got within 27 of this score for the loss of only one wicket. I n the match between Sussex and Somerset 1262 runs were made for the loss of 19 wickets, an average of 66 runs per wicket. In London County v. M.C.C. and Ground 1134 runs were made for the loss of 20 wickets, «n average of 56 runs per wicket. E a n j it s in iij i ’ s total of 285 not out for Sussex v. Somerset is the highest innings of the season, and the highest of his career; he made 275 for Sussex against Leicestershire last year. Until Saturday, W . Gunn, with 273 for Notts v. Derbyshire, held the record for the season. In M onday’s Daily Express Mr. Fry makes the follow ing amusing references to Ranjitsinhji’s big innings of the previous Saturday:— On Friday evening last, after Somerset, with a score of 560 and a lead of 324 over Sussex, had declared its innings at an end for eight wickets, and Ranjitsinhji and Vine had played out the odd half-hour for 40 runs, it was definitely arranged hy a committee meeting of his side that Ranjitsinhji was to stay in all Saturday and make 300 not out. Ranji’s feelings on the subject were ignored, hut the state of the wicket and the character of the howling were given due consideration. It was not thought advisable to lose more than two wickets, and Ranji was to do the scoring. As events turned out, two little showers curtailed play hy about forty minutes, so Ranji only made 285. On the whole he justified the confidence his com­ mittee reposed in him. One of the things, among others, he promised overnight was on no account to let the hall hit his legs. As far as I saw he failed once; at about five o’clock he allowed a leg-break that pitched some six inches outside the wicket to hit his toe in attempting an elongated sweep past square-leg. Otherwise we had no fault to find with him. C. R . S. w rites:— “ A curious incident took place in a small match at Rentham, Kent, the other day in which I was keep­ ing wicket. The batsman just tipped a very fast ball which removed his off-bail and went into my hands— was the bats­ man bow led or caught at the wicket P” [The bail was removed first ; therefore the batsman was bow led.] A cc o r d in g to the latest adfvices from Australia Mr. Maclaren has cabled that his team will leave London in the ss. “ Omrah ” on September 27th. This would mean that Adelaide would be reached on about November 4th or 5th, and the first match would probably take place at Adelaide a few days later against South Australia. W it h reference to a remark by “ Short- slip ” in the Sydney Mail that he had seen “ players at practice who could not turn the ball an inch by fair delivery, but when th6y * shied ’ were well high unplayable,” we asked some time ago whether he meant to infer from this that he had seen bowlers make the ball turn a great deal when they shied, although they could not make it turn an inch when they bowled. In the issue of July 6th of the Sydney Mail “ Short-slip” answers this query as follows :— Although I did not carry my remarks far enough to say that the howlers who could impart a big break to a shy were slow, I do so now. And let me here say that there are many authorities who held the opinion that M ‘K ibbin threw his slow deliveries ; if so, one does not need to look much farther for a big break. But I was speaking at the time more of bowling at the nets than in matches, and it is there that I have seen men get a lot of work on the ball when they shied who admitted that they could not turn the ball at all when howling. T h e honorary secretary of a rising little suburban club writes to complain that in a recent match one of his team was given out b y the umpire brought by the opposing side “ finger before wicket.” He adds that the dismissal of the bats­ man is thus described on the score sheet— hardly at the suggestion of tbe umpire, we should imagine. Our correspondent hints that the umpire was “ getting a bit irritable ” because the batsman was making runs, but no object whatever is gained by this, and it is the part of a wise cricketer to take an umpire’s decisions as honestly given. A t the last performance of the “ Old Stagers ” in the Canterbury Week there were, as usual, many references to current topics. One of the personages repre­ sented on the stage was “ A Cricketer Johnny from the Moon ” ; who, when asked if he played cricket, replied :— “ Alas ! cricket is practically extinct in the moon. We lunatics play nothing hut bridge and ping-pong nowadays. It is in this way : In cricket we have now so many rules that it has become impossible to make any runs. We have a very severe l.b.w. rule, and now we have a nose-before rule. Physically the latter rule is most painful. With regard to bowling, our rule against throwing is so strictly enforced that we have to howl with our arms in splints. Ping-pong, from being a purely suburban game (the players origin­ ally bounded as high as the halls), is now omnipotent.” J. H . S c h r o d e r , who has batted so consistently well during the brief tour of the Gentlemen of Holland in England, is an international footballer as well. I remember him myself doing excellent service for All Holland against the English Wandereis on the occasion of their visit to Holland, in the Easter holidays of 1899. In the four matches completed up to yesterday he has made 243 in seven completed innings, with 115 against the Gentlemen of Surrey last Saturday as his best score. I HEAR on the best authority that P. F. Warner has passed into the new Egyptian Civil Service organised by Lord Cromer. He goes out to Egypt, I under­ stand, early in the winter to take up his appointment. T h e Gentlemen of Holland, who com­ plete their fortnight’s visit to England with the finish of their match against the Gentlemen of Worcester, at Worcester, to-day, have been highly pleased with the hearty reception they have met with everywhere at the hands of English cricketers. Mr. H . S. Isbriicker, the president of the Dutch Cricket Associa­ tion, who has acted as manager for the team, leaves London to-morrow morning homeward bound by Queenborough and Flushing. The majority of the Dutch cricketers, however, are deferring their departure from London till to-morrow night, in order to have an opportunity of seeing to-m orrow ’ s cricket at the Oval, in the match between Surrey and Lancashire. O n e gratifying result of the visit of the Gentlemen of Holland from the stand­ point of Dutch cricket is the probability that the Marylebone Club will send a team to Holland next summer. From what I can hear it is pretty certain that the M .C.C. will be officially represented on Dutch cricket grounds next year. Cricket in Holland cannot fail to benefit by the experiences of the present tour. In the interests of the game out there the sooner it is repeated the better. I t was certainly a graceful act of the Yorkshire committee to agree to Surrey’s suggestion for a third fixture between Surrey and Yorkshire at the Oval on September 16, 17, and 18, to make up for the three blank days Lockwood had at the end of last month on the occasion of his benefit. What with the Yardley match at Lord’s, on September 12, and L cckw ood’s benefit on the 16th, the metropolitan public will have a treat they are unused to in the middle of September, in the shape of a week of first-class cricket. T h e arrangements for the visit of a team of English amateurs to the West Indies during the com ing winter are going on satisfactory as far as one can learn. The work of getting up the side has practically devolved, so it is said, on H . D . G. Leveson-Gower, who, b y the way, w ill captain one of the elevens in each of the three matches constituting the Scarborough Festival. F o r a really sporting finish to a drawn match commend me to that in which the Western, a Lancashire club, scored 306 for four wickets in a one day match last week and then declared, to find their opponents, Huyton, in such form that they had scored 305 for three wickets when time was up.