Cricket 1902

378 CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A ug . 28, 1902. season, with six matches won, three lost and eleven drawn; and when they had finished their last match they were second in the championship table. Shrewsbury easily heads the batting averages with 52 40. F or the match against the Australians at Scarborough on September 4, 5 and 6, Mr. C. I. Thornton has got together the following team :—A. C. MacLaren, Hon. F. S. Jackson, A. O. Jones, T. L, Taylor, E. E. Foster, Haigh, Braund, Tyldesley, Hunter, Rhodes and Hirst. A lthough the county season is not yet over, Yorkshire cannot be ousted from their position as champions. They have now been at the head of the table five times in the last seven years. S ince their defeat by Kent at Ton­ bridge in 1899, Yorkshire have lost only two championship matches, and have the following record:— Played. "Won. Lost. Drawn. 80 ... 49 .. 2 ...29 As a comparison with the Yorkshire record for three seasons, that of the Australian team in the last three visits to England may be given. Up to yesterday the record of the three last Australian teams (1896, 1899 and 1902) against the counties is as follows:— Played. W on. Lost. Drawn. 55 .. 31 .. 4 ..19 B y his 69 in the second innings against Kent on Friday, Victor Trumper brought his total for the season to 1,976, and therefore only wanted 24 runs to com­ plete the two thousand when he went in against Middlesex on Monday. In this match he made 69 and 23, and his total is therefore 2,068. His runs have been obtained as follows:— 9, 64, 47, 101; 9, 20, 14, 121, 105, 86, 18, 14, 38, 7, 70, 128, 31, 7, 10, 3, 9, 113, 1, 62, 45, 92, 5, 5, 85, 104, 4, 109, 119, 21, 18, 42, 2, 29, 125, 16, 69, 69, 23—total 2,068. It will be noticed that he has not yet made a duck’s egg, and that he has not once been not out. The previous record for an Australian tour is 1,941 by Darling in 1899. Dk. G race has six times made over 2,000 runs in a season, but never in succession. Abel has up to the pre­ sent seven times accomplished the feat, and in successive years. As he only requires 134 runs to make his eighth two thousand he is very likely to beat his own record this year. Nobody this year besides Abel and Trumper seems to have even an outside chance of making two thousand, whereas last year no fewer than nine men gained the distinction. I n the Australian match against Kent, four men were leg-before-wicket (two of them twice) six run out and two stumped. In the match against Middlesex seven men were leg-before (one of them twice). The thing is getting rather absurd. Trumble took seven of his twelve wickets against Middlesex by l.b.w. A few curiosities from the past week’s cricket:— First innings. Second innings. S. E. Gregory, lbw. b Blythe 0 Ibw, b Mason ... 16 S. H. Day, lbw, b Trumble 20 Ibw, b Noble ...14 A . J. L. Hill, run o u t.........14 runout ... ... 14 P.F.W arner,lbw,bTrum ble 68 lbw, b Trumble 25 The first part of the Australian score in both inniogs at Canterbury is quite worth reproducing in “ Gossip /’ Here are six of the finest batsmen in the world with two inniDgs each, and between them they manage to get three l.b.w .’s aod four run outs. First innings. Second innings. V. Trumper, lbw, b Mason 15 run out .........6 9 R. A . Duff, run out ...........36 b Blythe ......... 6 C. Hill, b H earne................. 8 run out ......... 7 J. Darling, c Burnup, b Hearne .......................... 6 cBurnup,bMason 10 M. A . Noble, run ou t...........43 b Blythe ..........28 8. E. Gregory, lbw,b Blythe 0 lbw, b Mason ...1 6 T h e programme of the Australian cricketers has been completed by the addition of a couple of matches, which will defer the close of the tour till Wednesday, September 17th. As was announced in “ Gossip ” last week, they are to leave Southampton in the “ Dun- vegan Castle ” for the Cape on the following Saturday. They will, there­ fore, only have two days to finish their leave-taking, and to do the hundred and one things necessary to be done in preparation for their voyage, as well as the second part of their tour. T h e two additional matches arranged are :— Sept. 11,12 and 13, at Bournemouth, v. Hants. „ 15,16 and 17, at the Oval, v. the Players of England. The arrangement of the latter fixture will give general satisfaction, as there has been a strong desire to see the Australians opposed to a really repre­ sentative eleven of the Players. In this the public will be gratified, as the Surrey committee have met with the heartiest co-operation on all sides in their efforts to get the full strength of the Players. As a matter of fact the eleven will be as strong as it could possibly be with the seven who took part in the last Test match, assisted by Abel, Haigh, Iremon­ ger and Quaife. E. W i l t s h ir e , whose brilliant innings of 127 not out enabled Surrey to declare at luncheon time with 208 up for one wicket, and indeed did very much to make a victory for Surrey’s Second Eleven over Wiltshire possible at the Oval on Tuesday, is a left-handed bats­ man new to Surrey County cricket this season. He was one of the Dulwich College Eleven of 1895, if he was not Captain that year. His club cricket has been mostly with the Addiscombe Club, for which he has scored heavily during the last two or three years. W e r e it not for the fact that there a is class of reader always ready to believe everything that appears in a newspaper, no matter its character, the reports that there were ructions between the com­ mittee of the Surrey County C.C. and the captain of the county eleven might per­ haps have been treated with the contempt they deserved. But after all the joint disclaimer of the two parties concerned is likely to do good. As a matter of fact Mr. Jephson’s absence from the Surrey team has been entirely his own wish and due to his business engagements. There has been no division of opinion between the committee and the captain, nor has there been any interference by the com­ mittee with his management in any way. I n view of the possibility of a good race for the second place in the first class County Championship, it may be of interest to know the county matches which have still to be played. They are . Aug. 28. Oval, Surrey v. Middlesex. „ Worcester, Worcestershire v. Gloucester­ shire. „ Leyton, Essex v. Leicestershire. „ Brighton, Sussex v. Kent. Sept. 1. Oval, Surrey v. Leicestershire. ,, 4. Oval, Surrey v. Warwickshire. Notts closed its season at Mancbeste last week, and Lancashire on the same ground yesterday. Sussex and Kent finish on Saturday, but it. will be a week later before Surrey and Warwickshire settle matters at the Oval. C aptain G reig is again decidedly on the war path in Indian cricket. On August 4th and 5th he made 167 for Poona Gymkhana v. the Baronet C.C., and also took 5 wickets for 85 in the first innings. On the other side, Dr. M. E. Pavri, the well-known Parti cricketer, who was in England a year or two ago, went in first and scored 0 and 33. T he season of the London County C.C was finished on Saturday with a record of five matches won, three lost and six drawn. This is a very good record, especially as the Australian match offered reasonable prospects of victory if there had been any play on the third day. C. J. B. Wood has a fine average for the club of 64 55, with only one not out innings. There can be no question that the club has done a great deal of good to the game, especially in giving oppor­ tunities to so many promising cricketers to win their spurs in county cricket. Dr. Grace is to be congratulated. A C uriosity : The manner of dismissal of the first four Middlesex batsmen against the Australians at Lord’s :— First innings. Second innings. P. F. Warner, lbw, b T ru m H e.......................... 58 lbw, b Trumble 25 J. Douglas, lbw, b Trumble 2 b Trum ble........... 6 G. W . Beldam, lbw, b T ru m b le.......................... 32 b Howell ...........76 R. N . Douglas, b Trumble 3 lbw, b Trumble 8 T here has been quite an epidemic of l.b.w.’s this week, for in addition to the above the following players have fallen victims to i t : H. D. G. Leveson-Gower, V. F. S. Crawford, Holland (Lancashire), Board, Radcliffe, Devey, Lilley, Huish, Killick, G. MacGregor, Kelly, K. N. Douglas, B. J. T. Bosanquet, I’Anson and W. Newham. I t was very interesting on Tuesday morning to read the comments in some of the daily papers on the bowling of Trumble, Bhodes, Mead and Cox on the