Cricket 1902

A p r i l 24, 1902. CRICKET r 1 vVEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 89 Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF TEE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, L0 ID 0 I, E.C. THURSDAY, APRIL 24 th , 1902. $a\uium The at stract and brief chronicle of the time.— Hamlet. I t would seem to be quite impossible at the present time to get a good turf wicket at Trinidad, owing to the des­ tructive work of the mole cricket, which makes holes everywhere. All that can be done is to fill up the holes with pitch. A great deal of money has been spent in the endeavour to improve the situation, but apparently the only remedy which can be suggested is to play on matting. J. T. B r o w n , the Yorkshire cricketer, has returned to England after a visit to the West Indies on account of his health. He seems to have derived great benefit from the voyage. T he record of the past season of the Hampstead C.C. has this year been com­ piled by Mr. P. S. Ashley-Cooper. It contains all the scores of the matches of 1901 played by the club, with complete bowling analysis, and is published for members only. M r . C. M a r s h a l l writes:— “ The following incident may amuse your readers. At a cricket match a couple of years ago, at Cheltenham, a lady was sitting directly behind me, keeping seats for her party, who arrived late. On their arrival upon the scene they asked it' they had missed anything very good. The lady said ‘ Oh yes, dears, Mr. Towns­ end has just made a lovely catch in the ‘ splits.’ ” P r in c e R a n j it s in h j i was, at the end of March, on a shooting expedition in Bhownagar with two of his companions, who came out with him from England. He shot about eight buck and a large number of birds in the Dhola Districts. The party afterwards left for Yerawal to shoot panthers in the Gir. S i r M a r t in C o n w a y has already seen the district of Acre in the hands of filibusters, says the St. James's Gazette, and American revolutions are common­ place to him. “ Is it true that there is revolution going forward in your country ? ” he asked a native on his travels in an American Republic, and the native replied: “ That is nothing; it is our substitute for cricket. Our young men must have their games.” Tne “ games ” are tragic enough sometimes, but often they are merely games and nothing more. A c c o r d in g to the Bombay Gazette news has been received that Mr. Britten Holmes, the Honorary Secretary of the Oxford University Authentics Cricket Club, who is making arrangements to get up a team to tour in India next cold weather at the invitation of the Calcutta Cricket Club, has extended invitations to the following well-known players:— L. C. H. Palairet (Somersetshire), R. E. Foster(Worcestershire),H. D. G. Leveson- Gower (Surrey), A. Eccles (Lancashire), J. H. Brain (Glamorganshire), P. C. Baker (Kent), C. D. Fisher (Sussex), F. H. E. Cunliffe (Middlesex), G. Fowler (Somer­ setshire), C. H. B. Marsham (Kent), R. E. More (Middlesex), and F. H. Hollins (last year’s Oxford eleven). The team, as already announced in Cricket, will be captained by K. J. Key. T he team will first visit Bombay, and the local Gymkhana Cricket Committee has proposed that fixtures be arranged with a combined local team (Europeans and Natives), a Presidency team, a Parsee team, and a Hindoo team. Endeavours will be made to arrange for a match against all India at Bombay, but owing to the inferior wickets, especially in the cold weather, it may not be possible to do this. The suggestion made a few weeks ago that a match should be played at Delhi during the coronation festivities against an All-India eleven has been taken up by the Calcutta Cricket Club, and it is hoped that arrangements can be made for this match. W r it in g to the Sydney Referee, J. Worrall says :—“ When wishing good­ bye to some of the Englishmen on Friday, an argument cropped up amongst them as to how many of Maclaren’s combi­ nation would be included in the teams representing the old country next summer. One prominent professional made a wager of a bottle of wine with another equally prominent one, that no more than four members would be chosen, and not a man amongst them reckoned upon more than five under any circum­ stances.” W o r r a l l has some strong opinions about the results of the test matches, and in the same paper he says :—“ Although the Englishmen won only one test match, and were a long way from being a great side—uncertainty and want of solidity were pronounced—it was only by a fluke that they did not win the rubber. The first match was theirs by right of con­ quest ; the third they lost by sheer ill- luck through Barnes’ breakdown, and the last was lost by the weather, pure and simple. Either Australian cricket has declined during the last few years, or the teams now playing in representative cricket could be strengthened.” A n instance of father and son dis­ tinguishing themselves on the same day, on the same ground, was seen at Sydney at the beginning of March. Mr. John Docker, bowling against the Newington College first eleven, took five wickets for 15, and on the same afternoon his son, P. W. Docker, took five for 8 for the High School against Newington Second Eleve n. I n the first-class season in Australia, taking Australian and English averages together, Mr. Maclaren heads the batting with 58 06 for 16 completed innings, and Barnes the bowling analyses with 16'48 per wicket. It must be admitted, however, that the Englishmen as a whole hardly hold their own. A list of the chief of these combined averages appears on another page. S everal people interested in cricket, says the Australasian, were discussing the Australian named Deery, who, in the absence of some of the members of the 1902 Australian team, played in the matches against Ballarat and Bendigo. “ Who is this man Deery, playing with them at Bendigo ? ” one asked. “ Oh,” said a young lady, “ I presume Deery is a substitute for Darling—what could be more appropriate ? ” T he fourth annual dinner of the Artists C.C., of whicii Mr. E. A. Abbey, R.A., is the president, and Mr. G. Hillyard-Swinstead the honorary secre­ tary, will be held on Wednesday, May 7th, at Pagani’s Restaurant, 44, Great Portland Street. It has been arranged to invite the captains of opposing clubs to the dinner. A d is t in c t innovation, which is of considerable interest, as it will probably be followed, has been made by the Artists C.C. with regard to the election of mem­ bers. It was decided at a meeting of the committee on March 27th that, owing to the difficulty of collections, the annual subscription shall be abolished, and life members only admitted to the club at a capitation fee of a guinea. Many are the secretaries who will ponder over the possibilities of this scheme, which, of course, could only work well with a club which has no ground. Mr. C. J. T. P o o l , who had an average of 41'80 for Northamptonshire last year, has been playing in Melbourne, and on March 8th he scored 108, not out, for East Melbourne v. Victorian Railways. A t Adelaide, on March 5th, the North Adelaide Club did a remarkable perform­ ance against Sturt in an electorate match. When play began the North Adelaide score stood at 220 for seven wickets, made on the previous Saturday. This they increased to 633 for nine wickets by the end of the day. The last wicket had produced 289 runs when stumps were drawn, Kechwich scoring 227 not out and Matthews 141 not out. F r o m the Sydney Referee : — There having been no cricketer of note unavailable for the forthcoming tour, if England defeat the team in “ the rubber,” Australia’s best will be conquered. The knowledge of thismust act as a great incentive to English cricketers, who, it is claimed, are often not thoroughly represented in the teams which come out here. The Australian team is au undoubtedly good one, and may be expected to display form superior to that which they have shown on their own grounds