Cricket 1902

F eb . 27, 1902. CRICKET • 1 WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. 25 “ F elix ,” of the Australasian news­ paper, gives an inleresting account of the anxieties *xpressed in taking care of the money received at the first intercolonial match :— Bowley was on the M.C.C. ground when the first intercolonial was played there, and, as showing the peculiar and primitive state of things obtaining at that time, the takings were handed over to Bowley to be kept by him from Saturday night till Monday morn­ ing. Nuggets of gold were often put in instead of actual cash, and the people could easily have got in without paying anything. It was wonderful how well and readily they paid up. Well, Eowley did not know where to put the money so as to have it thoroughly safe. At last he hit upon his camp oven, and planted in it notes, gold, silver, nuggets, and put the cover on. But on the Sunday, the girl, not knowing the precious contents, put a fire under the oven, and it was becom­ ing nicely heated when Eowley appeared on the scene. Fortunately, neither gold nor silver was melted, and the bank-notes were only just beginning to brown, but Eowley reckoned that he was only just in the nick of time, and decided never again to put cash into a camp oven. Indeed, he got such a shock, that he determined to avoid for the future being made the custodian of large sums of money even for a day. O ne of the numerous fair readers of Cricket has sent me the following direc­ tions for making a cricket pie : “ To one piece of green sward add a little sunshine, take two people, press in two stroDg hands a little bat, sift lightly two ounces of attraction, one of anticipation, add a large measure of spectators, stir in a hoarse whisper, and one or two claps, dissolve half-a-dozen maidens in a well of silence, dust in a small quantity of hesitation, one ounce of resistance, two of hitting. Place the pie on an evening paper, flavour with a bread smile, and set aside to cool.” A n anonymous post-card has come to hand, containing the following questions : “ "Who is it gives so many Phillips to the game ? ” “ Is his favourite song ‘ W ill you love me when I’M Old ’ 1” The post-mark is somewhat indistinct, but it looks like Colney Hatch. D etails of a very unusual bowling feat by a New Zealander have just been brought to my notice by a kind friend resident in Dunedin. The bowler who distinguished himself was named Eckhoff, and his feat consisted in performing the hat-trick twice in one innings for Opoho v. Waitahuna, at Waitabuna, on Christmas Day. This, I may add for the benefit of the statistically inclined, is not a record of its kind, as G. Neale, for Menangle v. Picton, at Menangle (N.S.W.), May 6th, 1893, performed the trick three times in three overs in one innings. In the third over, in fact, he took four wickets with consecutive balls, and obtained all ten wickets in the innings, all cleaned bowled, for five runs ! A il H a s s a n , who is by general con­ sent regarded as the best Mohammedan player in India, has been in fine form of late. Visiting Madras with the Aligarh College Team, he obtained fifteen wickets for 122 runs against M.C.C. and Banga­ lore Gymkhana, each of which numbered several good batsmen in its eleven. When, about three years ago, Mr. Framjee Patel thought of taking a native team to England, Ali Hassan was one of his first choices as an all-round player. It was Aligarh College, by the way, which turned out Ahsan-ul-Hak, of Hampstead. C h a r l e s G r i g o r y , S. E.’s younger brother, will have anything but pleasant recollections of his first match in Mel­ bourne at the end of last year. It was a long way to go from Sydney to Mel­ bourne only to get a “ balloon ” each time. A Sydney paper finds some con­ solation in recalling some of the most notable Australian instances of the “ double duck ” :— S. P. Jones, it says, got spectacles five times, J. Worrall and J. M. Blackham four times each, and W. L. Murdoch three times as an Australian. In March, 1872, Charles Gregory, sen. (uncle of the two New South Wales representatives of to-day) got a pair against Victoria. Prior to the latest match, the last New South Welshman to get them was L. W. Pye, in Sydney two years ago, against Victoria, when he was run out in the first, and caught in the slips in the second innings. T h e Bombay Gazette makes mention of the big total of 627 by Lahore and Mian Mir in a match against the Punjab Relief Force at Lahore, referred to last month. The total is verified by a Lahore paper, but as the score it gives only shows ten batsmen, and the figures it contains do not form the total required, it would be well perhaps, to wait for official authentication before the full score is published. Lahore’s total, it may be stated in parenthesis, is only six short of the Incian record. This belongs to the Patiala C.C. with its 633 against Umballa, at Umballa, in November, 1898. T he first innings of 137 made by W. W. Armstrong for Victoria v. New South Wales, at Melbourne, in Chiistmas week, is, according to the Sydney Referee, the highest score made by a Victorian bats­ man against New South Wales. It just beats the previous best—J. Mcllwraith’s 133 in 1885. Armstrong was born in May, 1879, and is eighteen months younger than Trumper. He is, so one learns, a tall, big-boned typical Austra­ lian, and bats right hand with plenty of freedom. T he committee of the Surrey C.C. have signified a wish to erect a memorial over the grave of George Lohmann, the brilliant all- round cricketer who did such splendid service for the county till his health gave way. The Hon. J. D. Logan, the squire at Matjesfontein, in whom Lohmann found a true and steadfast friend ever since he landed in South Africa, has kindly undertaken to see that the wishes of the Surrey executive are carried out. Lohmann lies in the cemetery at Matjesfontein, which had been his home for some time before his death. I f for nothing el«ethan the illustration it furnishes of the beneficial influence, the development of the game has exer­ cised, the account of cricket in Antigua, to be found “ in another place,” should be interesting reading. The recently elected captain of the Antigua C.C., the Hon. J. S. Udal, who has been appointed to act as Chief Justice of the Colony, was a stalwart in English ciicket some fifteen yeais ago. An active Incog, he was also, if I remember rightly, on the committee of the Marylebone Club for some years. That he has not lost his batting or bowl­ ing is shown by his batting average of nearly twenty tor twenty-two completed innings, and his thirty-eight wickets for an average of under ten runs for Antigua last year. For the General Legislative Council against the Antigua C.C., on March 19th, he retired after scoring 103. I n an interview just after the second test match, which it will be rememtered Hugh Trumble finished tff in sensational style with the “ hat trick,” J. Darling, the Australian captain, speaks very highly of Duff’s batting :— “ His first innings on the sticky wicket,” Darling said, “ was equal in merit to his second of 104 under the conditions. He went in at a critical time, and his two per­ formances have markt d him without a doubt as one of the most promising batsmen we have in Australia. If he goes with the Australian Eleven I am confident that he will be very successful on English wickets, because he watches the ball right on to the bat. Hill and myself tipped him two years ago as an Australian Eleven cricketer.” “ How would you compare Harry Tiott and Braund as leg-break bowlers?” Darling was asked. “ Well, Trott bowled at the wicket with the ball breaking away, while Braund’s is a different theory. He bowls outside the legs, and has nearly the whole of the team on that side of the wicket. It is difficult to compare them; they belong to different schools. Barnes’ performance during the tour has quite justified Maclaren’s judgment. Were Australia playing England in England at the present time he would be the first bowler chosen.” I t is pretty certain that the programme for the Australian cricketers will not end with the completion of the second fixture of the Hastings Festival on September 10th. There is, indeed, quite a possi­ bility that they will play Mr. Maclaren’s team now in the Colonies, at Bourne­ mouth, just after this last match. The English captain has readily fallen in with the idea, so that there is no difficulty to be apprehended from the players ia the way of the ratification of the match. It will interest Cricket readers, even those who only know him by reputation, to hear that the fame of Harry Moses, the great New South Wales batsman of a few years back, on the cricket field is not unlikely to be worthily perpetuated in the rising generation of cricketers. His second son, Leslie W. Moses, according to A .A.A. a Sydney periodical, this season has made a brilliant start in his first year at school, scoring against the