Cricket 1902

10 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J an . 30, 1902. guessed that he would create such a sensation; he wanted an illustration, and as “ test ” matches were very much to the front at the time when the poem appeared, he probably thought that he had done rather a neat thing in dragging them into his verses. But he made a mistake in judgment and has had to pay the price for it. A t the same time we cannot help thinking that if an unsympathetic “ flan­ nelled fool,” knowing that Mr. Kipling possessed an automobile and a bicycle, had held him up to public scorn, Mr. Kipling would not have angrily written to the papers. If, for instance, the “ flannelled fool ” had written:— Then ye went down unto Brighton ; then ye ■went forth to admire The spectacled soft in his motor or the muddy poet’s new tyre, the great poet would surely only have smiled. I n the same poem Mr. Kipling refers to the game of cricket in a picture of what he hopes will be seen in the future in England:— Men, not children, servants or kinsfolk called from afar, But each man born in the island broke to the matter of war. Soberly and by custom taken and trained for the same; Each man bom in the island entered at youth to the game— As it were almost cricket, not to be mastered in haste, But after trial and labour, by temperance, living chaste. As it were almost cricket—as it were even your play— Weighed and pondered and worshipped and practised day on day. B. C . C o o l e y , who was over here last summer with the South African team, was seen to great advantige for Queen’s Park in a match against the Wanderers, finished at Maritzburg on December 20th. He went in first with A. D. Nourse, and when he was out the telegraph showed 12$ : 1 : 68. M. Hathom, another of the South African team, had not had time to get going when the game had to be given up, and was not out 11. S o m e o n e interested in it has been good enough to forward a copy of a booklet with the title of “ The Official Souvenir of MacLaren’s English Cricket Team in Australia, Season 1901-1902,” recently published by the N.S.W. Book­ stall Co., of Sydney. Mr. J. C. Davis— “ Not ou t” of the Sydney Referee —who is responsible for its production, deserves the thanks of the cricket public here as well as in Australia for a very interesting memento of what has proved an exceed­ ingly interesting tour. The official souvenir, which is very neatly got up, in addition to an account of the doings of the various combinations that have visited Australia, contains portraits of all the members of MacLaren’s team, as well as a full view of the Sydney cricket ground among other photographs. F o r Bloemfontein Garrison against Civilians, Captain Sheppard scored 140 out of a total of 157. The second score was only 9, so that this is again an instance of a batsman making 100 when no one else has scored double figures. Six men on the side made a duck’s egg. Two new cricket fields will this season be opened by the London Playing Fields’ Society, of which Mr. G. J. Mordaunt, 45, Gloucester Street, W., is the honorary secretary. About 29 acres of ground has been purchased at Haynes Park by some gentlemen interested in the society, viz., Lord Alverstone, Lord Kinnaird, Sir E. Chandos Leigh, Mr. T. Wall and Mr. Sam Bircham, who will leave the ground to the society and make it over to it when the necessary funds—£8,000—are forthcoming. The other ground is close to Earlsfield Station on the Lc ndon and South-Western main line. Mr. H. D. G. L e v e s o n - G o w e r ’ s team for the West Indies left Southampton on Wednesday, January 8th, on the Boyal Mail Steam Packet Company’s s.s. “ Atrato,” and arrived at Barbados on Monday, January 20th. The members of the team are as follow sM essrs. B. A. Bennett, R. N. R. Blaker, B. J. T. Bosanquet, T. H. K. Dashwood, E. W. Dillon, E. M. Dowson, F. L . Fane, F. M. Hollins, E. C. Lee, A. D. Whatman, E. R. Wilson and Mr. Leveson Gower. I n the first match played by the English team in the West Indies—at Barbados against aneleven of the Island— the home team won by an innings and 71 runs. Mr. Dowson could not play, being ill with influenza. In the return match finished on Tuesday, the English team won by eight wickets. A l t h o u g h at the annual meeting last year of the Warwickshire County C.C. a proposed increase in the subscription fell through, the committee have this year pointed out in a circular to the members that something must be done to raise money if the club is to be continued on a satisfactory footing. They have, there­ fore, decided to recommend the adoption of the following resolutions: (1) That Rule 5 shall read : “ The annual subscrip­ tion shall be not less than 26s., payable on January 1st in each year ; ” (2) “ That on and after January 1st, 1902, anentrance fee of 10s. 6d. shall be charged.” T h e following proposals were made by the Notts Committee to the Board of Control with reference to the forthcoming matches between England and Australia : 1. That counties on whose ground a test match is played shall receive £50 (or such other amount as may be decided upon by the Board of Control) for the use of the ground. 2. That all monies taken at stands and enclosures in the test matches on county grounds shall, with the balance of gate- money, after Australian half of such gate money has been deducted and expenses of match been defrayed, be placed in the hands of the Board for division amongst the fifteen first-class counties, less 25 per cent, for !division amongst the second-class counties. Though the details have been modified the principle was approved by the Board last Monday, as a reference to page 11 will show. ------ A c a b l e g r a m from Melbourne announces that Mr. MacLaren has written to the Hampshire County C.C. declining the post of assistant treasurer with salary. Another cablegram states that he will probably remain in Australia. I t is stated that K. S. Ranjitsinhji has gone on a voyage to India on account of his health, but that he hopes to be in England again in April. F r o m the Diocesan College, Ronde- busch, Mr. E. M. Binckes writes :— The following unparalleled incident in a match between our second eleven v. Leander C.C. on December 7th is worthy of record. After we had made 104, Leander obtained 103 for nine wickets. The batsmen then ran, but the striker, anxious to have the glory of the winning hit, ran short, and was run out at his original end in attempting the second run. The umpire at the bowler’s end had naturally waited till the batsmanhad finished running to call.“ One short,” and was thus forestalled by the other umpire, who had given the last man out. He nevertheless called “ One short.” Of course we claim to have won the match, but our opponents say it is a tie. ------ T h e above incident is not unparalleled, and we should imagine that the same thing has often been done before. In an interview which appeared in Cricket during the summer, Captain McCanlis refers to the case of an umpire who called “ five short ” on a similar occasion. In the case mentioned by our correspond­ ent, the side which made 104 won by one run, as the short run would not count. There was presumably no question of dis­ honesty on the part of the umpire. A c c o r d in g to the Sydney Referee the English total of 464 in the test match at Sydney on December 13th, 14th and 16th produced two bests. The first wicket part­ nership of 154by MacLaren and Hayward is the record for a test match in Aus­ tralia, and Lilley’s and Braund’s 124 for the greatest number for the seventh wicket made for England in test matches. T h e English total of 464 has been beaten by England in these games only five times, the better records being 576 in the last match played in England, 551 in the first match of Stoddart’s last team, 499 by Lord Sheffield’s team at Adelaide in 1892, 485 at Kennington Oval in 1893, and 475 on the Melbourne Ground in 1895. ------ A. C. M a c L a r e n ’ s figures in the last two tours at Sydney are :—142, 100, 100, 50 not out, 61, 140, 65, 0, 145, 73 and 116. In all test matches up to and including that at Sydney in December, in which he has taken part, both in England and Aus­ tralia, he has made an aggregate of 1,049. The English captain now shares with Giffen, Darling, Grace, Bannerman and Gregory the honour of making over 1,000 runs in test matches. MacLaren is the only batsman who has made four hundreds in test matches.