Cricket 1902

J ok e 5, 1902. CRICKET ; A. WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 185 at 81, Armstrong for Noble at 88, Jones for Trumper at 95, Trumper for Jones at 99, Noble for Armstrong at 99, Jones for Trum­ per at 106, Armstrong for Jones at 119, Howell for Noble at 158, Jones for Armstrong at 177, Hopkins for Howell at 182, Trumper for Jones at 211, Noble for Hopkins at 216, Armstrong for Trumper at 235, Jones for Noble at 259, Trumper for Armstrong at 288, Howell for Jones at 295, Noble for Trumper at 306, Hopkins for Noble at 320, Armstrong for Howell at 347, and Jones for Hopkins at 351. A n o t ic e has been posted up at Lord’s requesting the ingoing batsman to meet the outgoer at the gate, in order that Law 45 may not be broken, as it so constantly is nowadays. From the Sydney Referee :— A rather remarkable coincidence occurred at the Sydney Cricket Ground on April 19, during the progress of the Sydney-Leichardt- Balmain contest and Sydney II.-University. Sydney had scored 36 on the previous Satur­ day. When Sydney’s total was 136 the second team had 100 on the board, exactly 100 each; then at 153 the scores were the same, also at 182, after which the second team gained gradually, and were 25 ahead at the drawing of stumps. T he final positions of the Clubs in the Electorate Competition at Adelaide are as follows :— Pld. W on. Lost. Dr. Pts. North Adelaide ... 10 ... 6 ... 1 ... 3 ... 5 East Adelaide ... 9 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 Sturt........................ 10 ... 4 ... 8 ... 3 ... 1 East Torrens........ 9 ... 3 ... 4 ... 2 ... —1 Fort Adelaide ... 9 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... —1 W est Torrens........ 10 ... 3 ... 5 ... 2 . . . —2 W est Adelaide ... 9 ... 1 ... 4 ... 4 . . . —3 Since his advent into senior cricket nine years ago, J. Travers, says the Adelaide Observer , has obtained an excellent record, which is shown in the following table :— O. M. R. W . 1893-4........... 1962 ,... 62 ... 492 ... 38 1894-6 .......... 1136 ,... 31 ... 257 ... 12 1896-6........... 186*2 ,... 36 ... 481 ... 29 1896-7........... 246 66 ... 689 ... 39 1897-8........... 19R-1 ... 69 ... 460 ... 30 1898-9........... 189 ... 47 ... 467 ... 38 1899-0........... 259-1 ... 72 ... 614 ... 31 1900-1........... 267-3 ... 69 ... 626 ... 44 1901-2........... 186 ... 45 ... 475 ... 35 Totals 1828*2 456 4560 296 Average per wicket, 16-40. T he Premiership of the Electorate Competition at Sydney has been won by the Sydney C.C., with nine matches, of which six were won, two lost, and one drawn. C. J. E a d y ’ s batting and bowling averages for his club, the Break ’o Day, are as follows :— B atting .— 5 com pleted in n in gs; 756 ru n s; highest score 66* ; average 151-2. B ow ling .— 1,128 balls, 52 m aidens, 441 rim s, 27 w ickets; average per w icket 16’3. O n Monday (the day of the “ Peace” rejoicings) the immense crowd which appeared at Headingley, Leeds, to see Yorkshire play the Australians, became unmanageable, and broke in on the field of play, besides running over the pitch, and doing other reprehensible things. For allowing this the Yorkshire Com­ mittee have been much blamed. It is pointed out to the-n that they ought to provide accommodation for a much larger number of spectators. But, in the name of common sense, how can a committee provide against a possible “ Peace Rejoicing ” day, which may only occur once in a hundred years ? If the Leeds Committee were to arrange that their ground should hold three times the present number, it is quite conceivable that a day might come when it would be all too insufficient. It is impossible to provide for all remote contingencies. T h e Australians are continually giving examples of what may be done by a resolute tail, and on Monday, at Leeds, after seven Australian wickets had fallen for 76, the last three men played with such vigour that the total reached 131, which made all the difference in the world on a slow wicket. As explanations are fashionable just now the following naive account of the way in which Maclaren was run out at Edgbaston may be of interest to our readers. It is authorised by Ranjitsinhji himself, and appears in the Birmingham Daily Post '.— In backinguphis stroke, Maclaren thought, presumably, that Ranji had backed him up too far, and knowing that the fielder had virtually hold of the ball, he ran back a little to recover his own place, but in his anxiety to save his partner, he stopped a great deal further from the crease than he thought he was, and shouted for Ranji to get hack. Ranji, having a better view of the ball, and in turn being anxious about his partner and captain, shouted to him to get back. Mac­ laren evidently misapprehended for a second Ranji’s shout to him, andhesitated, for in the nature of things, as Ranji had hacked up several yards further up the crease than the striker, the ball should have been smartly returned to the side where the man was furthest from the wicket. To Maclaren’s horror, the hall was sent up to his end, and before he could recover himself the bails were off. T h e most important point in the above “ explanation ” seems to us to be the disgust felt by the batsman that the ball was not ‘ ‘ smartly returned to the side where the man was furthest from the wicket.” As if Hill could not see that Maclaren would have more difficulty to get back than his partner, and as if there were unwritten laws limiting a fields­ man’s powers of action! T h e proceeds of the match between Yorkshire and Derbyshire, which begins to-day (Thursday), at Chesterfield, are to be set apart for the benefit of W . Storer, the Derbyshire wicket-keeper, whose services have been so valuable to his county for many years. M r . J e s s o p , who for some time has done very little in the way of bowling, owing to the advice of his doctor, distin­ guished himself considerably on Monday, at Lord’s, by taking eight Middlesex wickets for 29 runs. Last year he tried to bowl slow medium, but met with very little success, and once or twice he let himself go for a few minutes, his fast bowling, at Brighton, upsetting C. B. Fry, K. O. Goldie and Ranjitsinhji on the Whit Monday, in the course of two or three overs. On Monday at Lord’s he bowled very fast indeed. I n a letter referring to a remark which appeared in last week’s “ At the Sign of the Wicket,” about the use of enamelled whit-i cricket stumps at Silwood Park, Messrs. Duke and Sons point out that they are the makers of these stumps, and that they introduced them. They have registered the white wicket. R eferring to a statement in ‘ 1Gossip ” recently, to the effect that the tour of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia to England next summer, may now be regarded as an accomplished fact, I may state that the Philadelphians are almost certain to be invited to play at least one match in Scotland. The Grange at the end of last year decided to invite the Phila­ delphians, but before the invitation was sent, word was received that the tour had been postponed. The hope may be expressed that the Gentlemen of Phila­ delphia will see their way to play matches at the three great Scottish cricket centres, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth. J. O. A n d e r s o n , whose batting out at the River Plate this season has been so consistently good, secured a double first for the Buenos Aires Cricket Club. He was the only batsman to make a hundred, and his average (68 60) for ten completed innings was far and away the best on the side. J. Gifford, who played for M.C.C. a few years ago while over here on leave, made 247 runs in eleven completed innings, which gave him an average of 22-45 T h e match on Thursday last at Bristol, between teams chosen by Dr. Grace and C. L. Townsend, produced a most exciting finish, Mr. Townsend’s side winning by a run made off the last ball of the day. It may be remembered that it had been arranged for each side to bat for two hours and a half, the side which made the greater number of runs to be the winner, irrespective of the number of wickets which fell. As it happened W. G.’s team made 250 for 7 wickets (the Doctor himself being in fine form for 68 not out), while their opponents made 251 for 5 wickets. I t has been suggested that Dr. Grace’s idea would be a great improvement in Saturday afternoon cricket, and I believe that the Doctor himself is a firm believer in its excellence. Presumably, if a side got out before the time it would go in again, and there is no objection to that. The idea is that if the time available for play were equally divided it would be the object of each man who went in to score quickly, and that, therefore, more wickets would fall. But this remains to be proved, and it is not unlikely that even fewer men on a side would get an innings. In the present system the side -which