Cricket 1902

370 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Aug. 28, 1902. bit of class which will place him far above the other man. You cannot explain this to people who have never played the game, but all old cricketers will under­ stand it.” Mr. Murdoch has, of course, had better opportunities of studying the play of Dr. Grace than any other man- in recent years, because he has so often gone in firet with him and kept in with him for hours. “ I can assure you,” he said, that only those who are actually in with him, and have also seen him in the days when he was nearly at his best, can quite appreciate what wonderful form he really shows. He is still one of the very great­ est batsmen of the day and as keen as he was when I first knew him. It was only a short time ago that 0. J. B. Wood, Who had just been in with him, said to me, ‘ Well, it’ s my firm opinion that the old man bats better every time he goes in.’ ” “ Would you consider that the standard of modem English cricket is higher than it was, or lower ? ” “ Since I came to England the standard has been getting higher and higher. I am quite convinced of this, particularly as far as batting is concerned. The striking feature of the game in my early days Was the position held by W. G .; he stood on a pinnacle by himself, and nobody came near him. But in the last six or seven years we have had a lot of splendid batsmen all on a par with one another. For a short period one of them may force himself a little above the others, but in the long run nobody singles himself out as the successor of the old man, who can still himself be classed among the others. I don’t quite know what to think about the bowlers, but to a very great extent the same thing is true of them as of the batsmen ; that is to say theie are many more great bowlers than there were, but the particular indi­ vidual dots not come to take the place of Alfred Shaw, Fred Morley, or Lohmann or Emmett—nor do I think that there is an Attewell at the present time. There was something about the greatest of the old bowlers which could never be explained, something almost uncanny in 1he things which a ball occasionally did. As an example I remember an instance when I was batting against Tom Emmett for New South Wales on a per­ fect wicket at Sydney. He began to get worked up because I did not get out, and buzzed about, snapping bis fingers in his well-knov. > j way, bowled me three wides in succession, and then rammed in a ball which pitched on my leg side and knocked the off stump over and over. Now I mean to say that there is some­ thing out of the common in a ball like this.” “ What do you think of the modern leg-break bowling ? ” “ It seems to me that it has almost taken the place of the extreme cff theory, and that its introduction is a good thing for cricket. A really good leg-break bowler is ten times as valuable to a side as a good off-break bowler. It is always possible to get more work from the leg than from the c ff, and the ball is far jnore difficult to hit safely when nearly all the fieldsmen are placed on the on- side. I don’t know why it should be that very few men play leg-breaks with any confidence; but no doubt it is partly because it is so difficult to judge the flight of the ball—far more difficult I think than with an off-ball. I hardly know half-a-dozen men who are com­ fortable with a good length leg-break. The worst of leg-break bowlers is that they so seldom last for long, which is perhaps because the turn of the hand in getting the break is not a natural action. Be this as it may it happens over and over again that sconer or later a leg- break bowler loses his confidence, and never seems to get back his form again. “ Have you found cricket in England as enjoyable as you found it in Aus­ tralia.” “ I think that on the whole I have enjoyed it more in England than in Australia for the simple reason that there are so many more matches. There is much moie first-class cricket played in Australia now than there was in my days, but even now there are very few intercolonial matches. In my time they were so few that we looked upon them in the same way that ’Varsity men in England look on the match at Lord’s. They were most enjoyable matches in themselves, but when we played away from home we either had to go by sea, which none of us liked at all, or to take a journey of 200 miles by coach before we came to a railway. We were absent from Sydney fcr about three weeks when the Victoria match came, and we were always treated so well by our hosts that we had a delightful time. But then this was only once a year, whereas in Eng­ land matches are almost too numerous. As for club cricket, there is nothing in Australia to compare with the tours such as are common in England with the Wanderers, Uppingham Rovers, etc., and no country house cricket, which is perhaps the most enjoyable of all. All that can be done in this way in Australia is to go up-country at Easter for a few matches. But there is not the leisured class in Australia that there is in England. County cricket is, perhaps, not as enjoyable as it used to be, because it is getting so exceedingly serious. The recent close finishes in the matches between England and Australia were bound to recall to Mr. Murdoch’s memory seme of the incidents which occurred in the famous finish at the Oval in 1882, when Australia won by seven runs. It is well known that as a captain and a player he never has despaired of winning a match until the last ball has been bowled. “ So many extraordinary things happen almost every day in cricket that it is absurd to give up,” he said, “ although you may be anything but confident of winning. You can’t help feeling sometimes that your chances are practically hopeless, but if you keep pegging away as if you might puil through if you worked your hardest, you may almost accomplish the impossible occasionally. In the 1882 match England had to make 85 to win on a wicket which was going to help the bowlers. W. G. made 32 and as long as he was in our chances were desperate. I think that two wickets were down for 40. At any rate the game seemed up, but Spofforth and Boyle were bowling wonderfully well, and I went to them and said, ‘ You are bowling as well as ever you did in your life. Keep on doing it and something will happen and you’ll have a run.’ When the Englishmen began to let them bowl maiden over after maiden over, I felt that they were playing into our hands, and presently the run of luck came that I had prophesied. I remember that when one of the professionals came in—usually a vtry cool hand-—he said to Horan, as he was passing him, ‘ You’ll win.’ We should have lost a good many matches during our tours if we had ever given up in despair. My advice to all young cricketers would be to play up to the very last moment as if victory were within their grasp.” Mr. Murdoch tells a tale about a pro­ fessional who used to play some years ago. “ I had gone to the railway station,” he said, “ and there we saw a placard announcing that someone bad won £150 from a newspaper for guessing the result of a race or something cf the kind. The professor said, ‘ Lord, I wish I had won i t ! ’ to which I replied, ‘ Why, what would you do with it if you had done so P’ ‘ Well,’ said he, after a moment’s hisitation, ‘ I think I should do a little bit of poaching.’ I may say that he was a great lover of all kiuds of sports, shooting, etc., and perhaps he thought the money would be useful in paying fines.” W. A. B e t t e s w o r t h . GRANVILLE v. N ORW OOD.-Played at Lee on August 23. G r a n v ill e . N. Cockell, c "With, b Last ... . ... ... 7 R. 8. Le May,b Biown 24 J.P . Clarkson, not out 64 F. G. Bull, c W ood, b Brown ................... 2 W . Austin, c Holland, b Batchelor ........... 0 H. T. Richarcson, c Brown, b Le May ... 47 T. H bummers,c Bat­ chelor, b Last........... 0 F. S. Windett, not out 10 Extras...................16 Total (6 wkts) *170 W . Edwards, T. L. Fas8moie and A . B. Layman did not tat. * Innings declared c'osed. K or WOOD. H. B. R. Phillips, b Richardson ........... B. Bachelor, b Bull ... P. Kay, b Bull ........... C. W . Le May, b Bull 8. Hollands, b Bull ... W . Brown, c Austin, b Richardson .. .. P. A. G. Wood, not out 11 H. U. Le May, b Bull 6 8. R. M. Castle, b Bull 0 P. W ith, b Bull........... 0 Last, lbw, b Bull ... 1 Extras...................18 Total £2 ASHBURTON (2) v. GOLDSMITHb’ INSTITUTE “ A .” —Played at New Cross on August 23. Ashburton (2). W . F. Dray, b Watson 0 H. Sales, c Vining, b Watson Totall8wkts) *170 0 E. J. Lander, b Slade 5 W . Mears, bTho^paton 57 B. R. Scully, notout.. 62 R. L. Whitestone, b Thornton................... 5 S. H. Best and F. Medway did not bat. * Innings declared closed. Goldsmiths’ In stitu te “ A*” E. B. Tolley,b Wat son 7 J. A. T. Good.bBailey 24 E. M.Medway,bBailey 0 B 8, lb 1, w 1 ...1 0 BT. Hankin. not out ... 44 F. Thornton, b Good .. 26 A . Duncan, b Good ... 0 8. Tyler, lbw, b Good 0 W . E. W atson, b Good 11 G. H. Slade, c Best, b Mears.......................... 18 W . ViniDg, H. Page and H. Joanes did not bat. H. Rose, b Good ... 6 W . J. Bailey, not out 16 B 1, lb 2, w 1 ... 4 Total (6 wkts) 125