Cricket 1903

M ay 14, 1903. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 137 Lord Hawke’s English XI. On Friday, at one minute to four, the ninth N.S.W. wicket fell, and on Saturday, at three minutes to the hour, the ninth English ditto ditto. In each case the incoming last man was a duffer, and ordinarily could not last more than an over or two. Yet on each day the players solemnly adjourned for twenty minutes ; sallied forth again for a couple of strikes, and the innings being over, play immediately ceased for fifteen minutes more. Of course, last wickets have been known to make a very substantial stand, but only rarely. If your modem “ big cricketer” is too tired to do without his afternoon tea (he wouldn’t dream of adjourn­ ing on an ordinary Saturday afternoon) a rule should pass that if the last man is in at four o’clock the tea knock-off should wait, say, to 4.15. If the last man shows signs of sticking to his wicket, and the field is physically collapsing at the idea of going on until he is out, let them adjourn. The crowd would have the added excitement of watching the last men beating the clock, anyway. R. A. D uff has played eight innings of over a hundred in first-class cricket, four of them in oonsecutive matches. He only just missed getting a hundred in each one of five consecutive matches— that is, in every first-class match in Australia during the past season—for he made 94 in the first Inter-State match at Adelaide. He has played the following innings in first-class cricket this past season: 94, 18, 102, 66, 132, 132, 39, 9, and 194, totalling 786, and averaging 87-33. In addition to this he scored 66 and 40 against the New South Wales X III., which can surely be counted as thoroughly first-class. An edition dc luxe of the book which is being compiled by Mr. Alfred D. Taylor on “ The Annals of Lord’s and History of the M.C.O.” will be issued to subscribers at 21s., the price of the “ popular” edition being 3s. 6d. The book is to be published by Mr. J. W. Arrowsmith, and will be illustrated. Me. A r t h u r H a y g a r t h , whose death was announced in last week’s Cricket, knew some little time ago that his end was near. The last letter but one that he wrote to Cricket contained four lines of poetry, and he requested that they might appear before the next Eton and Harrow match, adding that he was well aware that he would never be able to ■write anything more for publication. His last letter of all contained but three words of farewell; it did not arrive until the day after his death. It seems better to publish the verse now, rather than wait until the time for the school match is nearly due. It will be noticed that Mr. Haygarth’s last thoughts were of Harrow. The verse is as follows:— TO THE HARROW BLBVEN OP 1903. Harrow, “ Wake up.” On scenes of former glory, Once more your science and your pluck display. Repeat, renew, the well-known, oft-told atory. I hat with consummate ease, you’ve won the day. “ A n O lo H arrovian ” o r 1812. A c o r r e spo n d e n t who frequently sends notes to Cricket encloses the match card of a small club which he runs—the club is select, and only numbers a dozen members. His last date is August 1st, v. Yorkshire (scratched), but he does not say whether the county backed out of what promised to be a desperate conflict. I t will be remembered that a little book entitled “ An Index to First-class Matches in Scores and Biographies,” compiled by Mr. J. B. Payne, was recently noticed in Cricket, and that the compiler was his own publisher. The book was issued on April 30th, and on Friday last, May 8th, the copies bound in boards were all sold, while only forty copies in paper covers remained. Some of these will be re-bound, as they seem to be the more popular. T h e following anecdote is related by the Earl of Iddesley in an article on “ Cricket in the W est” in Saturday’s cricket Star :— The manwho was in withmehadhit the ball and had started to run, but the call lay with me, and I told him to go back. Having done so, I turned round to walk back to my ground, out of which I had advanced a few stops, as was our custom, in order to “ back up,” as we call it, nor did it occur to me that my fellow-batsman might elect to make for my wicket rather than his own. Such, however, proved to be the case, and in another instant I became sensible of his feet thundering behind mo. Then I also, to speak figuratively, girded up my loins and ran, and a frantic struggle occurred between us as to which should reach the haven of refuge. I supposo that we must have made a dead heat of it, at all events the umpire declined to name the winner, and there we were! The opposing fieldsmen gathered round, some declaring that my competitor had won, others giving the verdict to me. Appeal after appeal was made to tho umpire, but he was aman of unimpeachable prudence, and he would not speak. The wrangle grew warm, the deadlock seemed complete, and cricketers will blush, though inferior men may smile, when they learn that this Gordian knot was ultimately severed by the spinning of a coin. The event went in my favour. A c o r r e sp o n d e n t writes: “ I don’t quite see the point of Lord Harris’s suggestion that catches are dropped nowadays because of the number of black-coated spectators. There always were numbers of black-coated spectators, and catches always were dropped. I have myself in an innings of fifty odd given five chances to the Yorkshire eleven years ago, and at least as many were missed off my partners. The Kent, Sus­ sex and Hampshire elevens of twenty- five years ago dropped catches wholesale, and so did other county teams. The fielding nowadays is just as good or just as bad, whatever you like, as it used to be. Even W. G. dropped catches when he was in his prime.” F rom the Sydney Referee :— The Victoria Cricket Association is in a quandary as to what to do with the Sheffield Shield. It certainly seems a farco that this beautiful and now historic trophy lies buried in a vault in far-away St. Kilda—quite apart from the fact that the N.S.W. Association has won the right to hold it. Surely it should now be adorning the walls of the Sydney pavilion. What has prevented a more public display of the shield in the past no doubt has been the dread of the temptation thrown out to thieves, owing to its great value, but it ought not be hard for the three competiting States to come to an arrangement for insur­ ance. To instance how little the trophy has been exhibited, a member of the Association stated that, althoughhe hadplayed in Victoran elevens which had won it three times, yet he had never seen the prize he hftd helped to win. However, Mr. Heather, the secretary of the V.C.A., who is visiting Sydney, has been instructed to come to some arrangement for the disposal of the shield. W it h the concurrence of Lord Hawke and Mr. A. C. Maclaren, Mr. W. Carless, the manager of the Hastings and St. Leonards Week, has arranged for a c>m- bined team of Yorkshire and Lancashire to play the Rest of England for the open­ ing match which begins on September 7th. The second, which follows three days later, will be Gentlemen and Flayers. T h e Tasmanian Mail gives particulars of some small scoring in a match between the St. George’s and Waratah Clubs at the end of March. Waratah, who made 37 in their first knock, had to bat two short when they went in again. The result will be seen in the following Bcore of the second innings:— A. Lewis, b Nuttall ... ......................... 0 C. Kingsley, not out ............................... 1 T. Mc\ illy, c Boyes, b Nuttall ................. 0 G. Scollick, b Nuttall ................................ 0 C. Spottswood run ou t............................... 0 F. Harvey, b Baldwin ............................... 0 T. Daly, b N uttall....................................... 0 M. Daly, b Nuttall....................................... 0 F. Ward, b Nuttall....................................... 0 Total ................................ 1 The one run was got off W. Nuttall’s bowling. St. George’s, who made 149 in their own turn at the wickets, won by an innings and 111 runs. A J u n io r Championship Match in Natal, in the middle of last month, between the Glenwood and Royal Clubs, was brought to a sensational finish by a fine bowling performance. The Royals, who only wanted 60 to win, looked all over winners with 40 up, and but four batsmen gone. With only two added, C. Sewell put himself on to bowl again, with the result that he got the last five wickets with consecutive balls. The Durban team (Glenwood) won by 17 runs to the delight of the crowd, who carried Sewell shoulder high into the pavilion. His analysis for the innings was fifty-nine balls for 13 runs and seven wickets. A c c o r d in g to “ Felix,” the critic of the Australasian, Victoria has a veteran not unfit to compare with the G.O.M. of Metropolitan cricket, Mr. Charles Abso- lon. In a match between the Councillors of Poowong and Phillip Island at the end of March, Councillor West, who is 74 years of age, earned high praise from “ Felix,” who declared that “ he batted like a real old book for five.”