Cricket 1902

54 cRlcKfrt: a W eekly ItEcoRD OF the game . AtKiii 10, 1902. THE COMING SEASON. A CONVERSATION WITH ME. CHUCKERUP, AN OFFICIAL WHO PRESIDES OVER THE DESTINIES (IN THE f ie l d ) OF A “ WEAK MEDIUM ” CRICKET CLUB. “ Good morning Mr. Chuckerup. What do you think of the prospects of the coming season ? ” “ Well, the Australians is coming in the first place. That means a lot of beastly slow play, of which I don’t approve. Not but what I admit they can play an up-hill game as well as any­ body, but there ain't m variety about it. They all comes in one after the other with a lazy sort of look, as much as to say, 1I’ve a got to do this sort of thing every day all through the season, and so, blow me, how can I get up any excitement about it? Anyhow, here I stands until a accident happens.’ ” “ But don’t you think then that a visit of the Australians is for the good of the game ? ” “ That’s as may be. No doubt they ; makes ourcricketers sit upinstead of going to sleep as they generally does when they have only theirselves to play with. Look at the difference it makes to the county captains, for instance.” “ In what way P” “ Well. You watch almost any county captain a couple of years after an Australian team has been over here, and what does he do ? He looks at the scoring board and sees 40 go up. ‘ Hello,’ he says, ‘ I must change my bowling, blow me if I mustn’t.’ And he changes it. Then he waits till he sees about 75 go up, and he says again, ‘ Here, Bill, you have a try.’ And he works through all his bowlers until he comes to the end of ’em, and then begins in the same old way. He don’t worry about shifting his field, except about once in half-an-hour, when he happens to think of it, and some of ’em never shifts their field at all. But when Darling comes over things is different. He can’ t never let his field alone. He don’t look to see whether 40 have gone up or not. He would just as soon change his bowling after the first over as not, if he thought the wicket looked as if somebody eke would do better on it. And then when after all his dodges he can’t make no impression on the batsmen, he says to one of his bowlers, ‘ Ere, so and so, you have a try. There’s a B p ot there what ought just to suit you.’ There ain’t no spot, but the bowler thinks there is, and bucks up accordin’, and out goes the batsman. So after a time our county captains begin to see what they can do, and one or two of ’em comes out very well.” “ They say that Darling won’t have much bowling at his command this summer p ” “ Don’t you believe it, Mister. Them Australians can all bowl, and you’ll find that Saunders and Co. will be j ust as good as the old ones. And it strikes me that them as thinks Jones has lost all his pace will find theirselves very much mistook. You mark me, he’ll bowl shorter than before, and he was pretty short when he was over here last, and if the wickets is not to be made good this year, according to what the M.C.C. says, Jones will have a ’igh old time on some of ’em.” “ Do you think that Mr. Jessop, Mr. Jones and Mr. Garnett, who did so badly in Australia, are likely to fail against the Australians in England ? ” “ You never can’ ttell. But I shouldn’t wonder if these gents were to make the Australians wish as they’d never been born before the season is over. The Australians will find that they’ve got a particular hot lot to deal with this year, and in the test matches they will start from the first to make a draw, you’ll see. And, by George, there never was nobody like the Australians to know bow to play for a draw when they set their minds on it.” “ Do you suppose that Albert Trott will fail against them this year as he did in 1899?” “ That’s a thing which has interested me a great deal. Albert, he was to my mind a bit too eager to get ’em all out in one over when they was over here last time, and didn’t keep cool enough. But it strikes me that this year he will have learnt by experience, and that before the season is over they’ll have found that he is a real first-class A1 bowler. All he’s got to do is to keep his head.” “ What do you think of the suggestion of the M.C.C., that wickets in future shall be made in a purely natural way ? ” “ I don’t think nothing of it. A groundman has got to do his best for his club. If he don’ t get good wickets his club says to him, ‘ There’s room for you somewheres else my friend.’ Some men has brains and some hasn’t. Him as has brains looks at a pitch and says, ‘ If I rolls and waters this till doomsday I shan’t never get a good wicket.’ And he sets to work to think how he can make the best of things. He fakes a bit here and a bit there, and in the end he makes a good wicket out of bad turf. Him as ain’t wise rolls and waters and does nothing else, and half the players is killed in the next match. It seems to me that if you says that a ground man mustn’tmake his wicket as good as he possibly can, you might as well say to the bat manu­ facturers, ‘ Here, just you take particular care not to use the best willow you can get. And none of your fakes with rubber handles, and dodges to make bats drive, and so on.’ ” “ You have noticed that in Lancashire v. M.C.C. and in some of the minor county matches the suggested lbw rule is to have a trial this year ? ” “ Oh yes. And much good may it do ’em. I dessay that in such matches as these it won’t make so much difference, if the umpire understands that the batsman has to be right in front of his wicket before he can be out, that is to say if the umpire understands the rule. But how many umpires, or cricketers either, does understand it ? As to club matches, ’specially little club matches, why you simply delivers a side into the hands of the Other side’s umpire. As things are at present an umpire can’t in common decency give a man out if the ball does | not pitch within six inches of the wicket (unless of course things is in a very tight place indeed for his sideB), but if the other rule comes into use he won’t have to be half so particular. He’ll say, ‘ I never seed a man more in front in my life,’ andit won’t matter tuppence whether the ball would have hit the wicket or not, because not even an angel could swear that it would have hit or missed if it pitches half-a-yard away.” “ What would you consider the best English Eleven on latest public form ? ” “ You can’t choose an Eleven until just before a match. But if I had to ct oose the Eleven I should say Fry and Ranjitsinhji, and Rhodes and Hirst to start with. Braund I should certainly put in, and Maclaren. If Halliwell was in England I should have him as wicket­ keeper ; if not I suppose Lilley, although it’s pretty much of a toss up nowadays between him and several others. Then I should have Barnes if his leg is all right. But, you mark my words, a fast bowler never is as good after a strain as he wasbefore it happened. If not Barnes, then Wilson, of Worcestershire. Hay­ ward I should play and Willie Quaife— Willie will hold out for hours on an English wicket. And I should have the best bowler of the moment—on last year’s form Tate would be my man. This team would take some beating. But Lord, with F. S. Jackson, Mason, Palairet, Tyldesley, Mead, and so on, to play with, you couldn’t go very far wrong.” W. A. B etteswoeth . MINOR COUNTIES CRICKET ASSOCIATION. The following circular has been issued : S ir ,— At the last annual general meet­ ing of this Association a resolution was passed expressing the willingness of the members to try any proposed alteration in the Laws of Cricket recommended by the M.C.C. Committee, having for its object that of reducing the number of drawn matches. The M.C.C. Committee would like the following proposed altera­ tion tried in the Second Division Compe­ tition matches of 1902, which is one they also propose to try in the M.C.C. matches against counties (both first and second class) at Lord’s next season : The striker is ou t: Law 24. If with any part of his person (except the hand) which is between wicket and wicket, he inter­ cept a ball which would hit his wicket—“ leg before wicket.” The Committee of the Minor Counties Association have considered this proposal, and are unanimously of opinion that a trial should be given to the proposed alteration in Law 24 over the series of Second Division matches during 1902; but as it was decided at the general meeting that any proposal of this kind should be submitted to the counties, they instructed me to take the opinion of the counties and to invite them to signify their assent or otherwise by letter, so as to avoid, if possible, giving them the inconvenience and expense of sending representatives to a special general meeting.