Cricket 1902

J u l y 17,-1902. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 281 F e w things have been more noticeable in recent first-class matches than the falling off in bowling shown by Hirst. A few weeks ago he was regarded as perhaps the very best bowler in England, but his want of success in his last few matches has been very decided. His record for his last three matches previous to this week is as follows :— Overs. Mdns. Runs. Wkts. v. Australia v. Gentlemen v. Sussex 15 10 10 8 28 59 40 21 20 111 Now is the day of the batsman, and the voice of the reformer will very soon be heard again in the land. In the match at the Crystal Palace on Saturday 786 runs were scored for the loss of seven wickets, and K. E. M. Barker, I. M. Campbell, and L. Walker each made hundreds, while E. A. Beldam was within a very little of doing the same thing. On the previous Wednesday Streatham encountered London County, with the result that after scoring 189 they were still hard at work endeavouring to separate W. G. and W. L. Murdoch when rain stopped play. The two famous veterans had then put up 212, the former scoring 88 and the latter 106. O n Saturday J. Millington, for Notts Harrington v. Bulwell, took seven wickets for no runs, the details of his analysis being as follows:— A s o m e w h a t novel cricket match took place recently on the estuary of the Mersey. Two parties of friends, after cruising about for some time, pitched stumps on the Burbo bank (one of the large sand banks off Crosby and a con­ stant danger to navigation) and had a very interesting match as far as time and tide permitted. Four innings were played, 11 and 92, 30 and 10, before the teams were reminded by the incoming tide that it was time to sail for home. D u r in g a match between two Liver­ pool and District Clubs, Sefton and Ormskirk, a policeman stationed near one of the bowling screens to keep the crowd back, spent a good deal of his time walking backwards and forwards behind the bowler’s arm discharging his noble duty. Kitchener (no relation to the Viscount) and Barnes both did the hat trick in the above match, and in addition to this Kitchener hit Barnes twice out of the ground. I t must be a very long time since Derbyshire had such a fine record to point to as has fallen to their lot this year. Up to Saturday last they had only been beaten twice, while they had won two matches and drawn four, not without credit to themselves. They were exactly in the middle of the championship table with nothing per cent. I t may be considered as quite a cricket curiosity that in the match between Sussex and Yorkshire at Brighton two men on each side should have made between 170 and 180 runs in partnership when the great batsmen on the side had been disposed of. The Yorkshire pair were young men, Rhodes and Haigh; the Sussex pair were veterans, Newham and Brann. The bulk of the runs made during each partnership were put together in the time between the resumption of the game and lunch. Each partnership lasted for about two hours and a half. L a s t week at the Saffrons, Eastbourne, the Belsize C.C. scored 265 for seven wickets in a day match against East­ bourne, the latter having an hour and fifty-five minutes in which to make the runs. By the most determined batting the runs were scored with ten minutes to spare, Nixon putting up 172 not out in an hour and three-quarters. How history is made. First spectator (who is watching G. W. Beldam at the wickets): “ He’s a good player, they tell me, but I ’ve never seen him bat before. By the way, who is Beldam ? ” Second spectator: “ Oh, he’s only just left school. The Old Man got hold of him— went down to play the school or some­ thing, and discovered him—and put him into the Palace team. Then the Middlesex lot heard that his people lived in Middle­ sex, and so they got him, for of course the Old Man couldn’t very well help giving him up.” M r . E. H. S. T ruhll writes: “ I notice an error in your remarks on past ’Varsity matches. You say Yardley’s 130 was the highest score recorded in the match, till G. O. Smith headed it in 1896. You will remember that Key made 143 in 1886, and Jardine 140 in 1892.” M o n d ay and Tuesday this week were the two hottest days of the year. On Monday it was 87 in the shade in London at mid-day, and on Tuesday 89. On almost every ground where a first-class match was being played batsmen made the fullest use of their opportunities, and so astonishing was the scoring that Englishmen must have an uneasy feeling that our bowling on good wickets is just at present exceedingly weak. The men with big reputations did precious little, and it was often left to outsiders to take the wickets. For example, in the Sussex first innings not one of the wickets was taken by the regular bowlers of the Surrey team. T h e biggest thing of the two days was Ranjitsinhji’s innings of 234 not out, and no other man on earth could have approached the brilliancy of his per­ formance, or have shown the same astonishing variety of strokes. For all that there were many other splendid innings in the two days, and hundreds were so plentiful that a list of them may be interesting. It is as follows :— K. S. Ranjitsinhji, 234not out; Iremonger, 146; W. Gunn, 120; C. J. Burnup, 102; E. W. Dillon, 137; C. J. B. Wood, 176; L. O. S. Poidevin, 161; W. G. Grace, 131; Clement Hill, 123; M. A. Noble, 100 ; P. L. Pane, 106 ; Denton, 127 ; Hirst, 134 ; Hay­ ward, 144; C. B. Pry, 159; Abel, 107 not out; and A. J. Hopkins, 105 not out. O n e would appreciate all this fine scoring all the more if some of it bad been accomplished against the Australians, who so far have had very little to do in the way of long outings in the field. And yet there seems to be a pretty general opinion among the men who have played against them that there is nothing particularly remarkable about their bowl­ ing, and that it is not as good as was possessed by the team of 1899. Let us hope that a few of our celebrities will be found bold enough to put their theories into practice before long, and make some big scores against our visitors. We badly want a little encouragement just now, and if this encouragement is not forth­ coming pretty soon, we shall have some of our batsmen going in with whiter faces than ever. A h o u s e h o l d e r at Heaton Moor has successfully appealed to the Vice-Chan­ cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to interdict a schoolmaster from using a field adjoining his house as a playground. As proof of the way in which his premises were invaded by cricket balls he produced a number of them which he had captured. This seems rather hard lines for the boys, though it must be still harder lines to be constantly in fear of having a ball drop on your head. Let us hope that some modus vivendi will be arranged. I t is very interesting to watch the behaviour of a crowd a little while before and after an innings by G. L. Jessop. As the time draws near when he will go in the crowd becomes exceedingly good humoured, and the efforts of the most monotonous of batsmen are regarded with equanimity. While the innings is in progress there is intense excitement, and when it is over a sigh, which can be heard quite distinctly if you are on the look out for it, goes up to heaven. A l t h o u g h it is delightful to watch a brilliant innings by Ranjitsinhji, it is a question whether a man does not get more real pleasure in watching an innings such as the 177 by Hayward at the Oval last week. In this innings the runs were made quickly enough to satisfy anybody, and almost every stroke was so beautiful that it brought a sense of exquisite pleasure to an onlooker. But when Ranjitsinhji is in the middle of one of his marvellous performances, there is something so weird and so thrilling about his absolute mastery over the bowling that one feels as if one were assisting at a startling entertainment given by Mr. Maskelyne at the Egyptian Hall. The performance is so mysterious that one cannot understand how it is done.