Cricket 1902

26 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. F eb . 27, 1902. other schools 39, 0,34, 50, and 94. Harry Moses, who was in England a few years ago, takes a lot of interest in English cricket, and indeed in English sport generally. He goes in a good deal for dogs. “ E c l ip s e first, the rest nowhere,” would seem to represent the situation in the Argentine Cricket Championship this season. The Lomas C.C. is an easy first, haying won all the five matches it has played. Then come Belgrano, Hurling- ham, and Lomas “ A,” who tie with one point each, having won three and lost two matches. J. 0 . Anderson has a long lead in the batting averages of the season. His record shows 14 innings, 5 not outs, total runs 743, highest score 106 not out, average 82 55. The best of five hundreds, so far, in championship matches this season is H. A. Cowes’ 221 not out. T hough better known as a footballer, A. T. B. Dunn, who died suddenly last week, was also a keen cricketer. He took an active part in the management of the Eton Ramblers C.C., besides play­ ing for it frequently. That he was a good all-round player can be readily understood by those who knew his ver­ satility on the football field. If I remem­ ber rightly he played for Norfolk more than once. The school he founded at Ludgrove, New Barnet, is one of the most successful of the preparatory schools of the higher class. R. A. D uff , who got 104 in the second innings for Australia against Mr. Maclaren’s team at Melbourne, at the commencement of January, is only the Lfth batsman to make a hundred in an innings in his first test match. The five instances are :— C. Bannerman, Melbourne, March, 1877 (165*). W . G. Grace, Kennington Oval, Sept, 1830 (152), H. Graham, Lord’s, July, 1893 (107}. K . 8. Ranjitsinhji, Manchester, Aug., 1896 (154*) R. A . Duff, Melbourne, Jan., 1902 (104). • Signifies not out. Duffs’s batting in the last-mentioned match has the additional advantage of being a double first. This is the only case as yet in which a batsman has headed the score in each innings on the occasion of his first test match. A ccording to the Adelaide Observer, which recently gave a lot of interesting statistics with reference to the Test matches, the “ hat trick ” has also been accomplished five times in these contests. F. R. Spofforth was the first to do it in 1879 at Melbourne, and H. Trumble the last on the same ground in January of this year. The intermediate records were by :— W . Bates, Melbourne, January, 1883. J. Briggs, Sydney, February, 1892. J. T. Hearne, Leeds, June, 1899. O ne can heartily congratulate J. T. Brown, the Yorkshire cricketer, on a record of the most gratifying, as well as substantial character. At a recent meet­ ing of the Yorkshire Committee it was reported that the nett receipts of his benefit match last season amounted to the considerable sum of £3,108 8s. Id. Of this £2,000 has been, or was to be, invested for him, leaving a balance (after expenses had been paid) of £282 9s. 6d., which was handed to him. The Surrey Committee, by the way, have fallen into line with their good friends of York, in stipulating that the proceeds of benefit matches shall be duly invested at their discretion. ------ “ F e l i x , ” in a recent number of the Australasian newspaper of Melbourne, recalls the closing incidents of the memorable test match at the Oval, in 1882, when Australia won by seven runs. As “ Felix” is no other than T. Horan, who represented Australia in that historic match, his recollections will be interest­ ing reading:— We talk together of exciting matches, writes “ Felix,” and I mention one in England in 1882, in which the strain, even for the spectators, was so severe, that one onlooker dropped down dead, and another with his teeth gnawed pieces out of the top of his umbrella. That was the match in which for the final half-hour you could have heard a pin drop, while the celebrated bats­ men, A. P. Lucas and Alfred Lyttelton, were together, and Spofforth and Boyle bowling at them as they never bowled before. That was the match in which the last English batsman had to screw hi» courage to the sticking place by aid of champagne, when one man’s lips were ashen grey and his throat so parched that he could hardly speak as he strode by me to the crease; when the scorer’s hand shook so that he wrote Peate’s name exactly like “ Geese,” and when, in the wild tumult at the fall of the last wicket, the crowd in one tremendous roar cried, “ Bravo Australia,” with a special cheer for Spofforth, who in that grand final bit of howling took four wickets for 2 runs off 44 balls against the cream of English batsmen. That was a matchworth playing in, and I doubt whether there will ever be such another game for prolonged and terribly trying tension. Lest we forget—Australia won that test match by 7 runs. T he scores made on the famous Sydney ground by Mr. A. C. Maclaren during the last two tours are as follows. The record is altogether remarkable :— 1st inn. 2nd inn* 1897-8, v. New South W a le s ............... 142 ... 100 1897-8. v. Australia (first test game) 109 ... 50* 1897-8, v. New South Wales (return) 61 ... 140 1897-8, v. Australia (fifth test game) 65 ... 0 1901-2, v. New South Wales ......... 145 ... 73 1901-2, v. Australia (first test game) 116 ... — 1901-2, v. New South Wales (return) 167 ... 1901-2, v. Australia (fourth test game) 92 ... 5 •Signifies not out. Total for fourteen innings (once not out), 1265; average, 90’35. A ccording to the Barbados Advocate a curious mistake was made by an umpire in the second match played by the English team against Barbados. Mr. R. A. Bennett had scored four runs, when Layne, who was bowling for Barbados., appealed for l.b.w. The umpire thought Mr. Bennett had been taken behind the wicket and gave him out. The wicket-keep, who had not appealed, having taken the ball off the ground, thought it was a decision for l.b.w. ------ A n awestriking joke was perpetrated by a spectator during the first match between the Barbados and the English team. The Barbados fast bowler, Mr. Horns, had met with great success, and the spectator observed that the “ ’Orners of the day certainly rested with Horne.” We do not know whether the offender was arrested by the local police. M ore than fifty new members have joined the Leicestershire County C.C. this year. Improvements are to be made on the new ground in the way of an additional row of seats and accommoda­ tion for cycles, and better shelter in the case of wet. M r . T. S idney C ooper , the aged Royal Academician, who died recently, was in the habit of attending cricket matches on the St. Lawrence Ground at Canterbury, more particularly during the Week. W ill it be believed that several English newspapers of acknowledged standing have once more trotted out the ancient yarn about sixty or seventy natives playing in the Fiji Islands, and the match lasting for weeks ? This tale must have been told thousands of times in the press, and yet it is solemnly announced as quite a new thing. But we notice that in the new version of the yarn the umpire is sometimes clubbed if he gives a decision not palatable to both sides. But why stop at clubbing ? Why not have him eaten with tomato sauce ? A t a committee meeting of the York­ shire County C.C., on February 12th, it was decided to increase from 25 per cent, to 30 per cent, cf the receipts, the amounts allotted to the clubs on whose grounds county matches are played. It was proposed to incorporate the county club under the Companies’ Act, and a sub-committee was appointed to consider the question. A report has been circulated that Mr. Maclaren will, after all, play for Lan­ cashire again this season. In a letter to the South Australian Register Mr. Mac­ laren said: “ It has been stated in the papers that the Hampshire Club has offered me the post of assistant treasurer, with a salary. As soon as I knew that this was correct, owing to receiving the full report of the meeting, I wrote home declining the post. It is, perhaps, un­ necessary to add that I receive no salary from the club whatever.” In a cablegram to the Daily Mail just after the fourth test match, F. A. Iredale, the Australian cricketer, states that the English captain considers that the Australians are not nearly as strong as in 1899; that the Englishmen lost the game through bad batting, the wicket being good; that both sides batted feebly; that in the absence of Barnes the Englishmen did exceedingly well to get rid of the Australians so cheaply ; and that Mr. F. R. Spofforth, who saw the match, states that the cricket was the worst ever seen in a test match.