Cricket 1903

10 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J an . 29, 1903. “ Players should have a thorough rest rather than attempt to make up lost ground in regard to Australian tours. An interval of four years elapsed between our last two tours, and the same time should again he per­ mitted. “ Personally, I feel convinced that the committee of the Melbourne Cricket Club will admit that the objections are good ones, and will see that the suggestion to defer the four is reasonable under the circumstances, tor they must know that good bowlers are scarce in this country.” I f by “ good bowlers ” Mr. Maclaren means bowlers of the class of Mr. Spof­ forth or Alfred Shaw, he is no doubt right in saying they are scarce in this country. But if he means men of the class of Trumble, Jones, Noble and Arm­ strong, the M.C.C. will probably conclude that they do not know. A t a meeting of the Yorkshire Com­ mittee, on January 21st, it was decided that in future benefit matohes the club on whose ground the matches are played shall receive 25 per cent of the eate money. It was also decided to publish, at five shillings a copy, the “ History of the Yorkshire C.C., by the Rev. R. S. Holmes. The committee intend to arrange a banquet at Sheffield on April 3rd, when a presentation will be made to Mr. Wostinholm, the late secretary of the county club. E v e r y b o d y knows that the Times re­ prints extracts every day from its issues of a hundred years ago. The following appeared on Thursday, December 30th, from the Times of 1802:—“ The first innings only has been played at Lord’s cricket ground of the famous match, Buckingham against All England. There was some fine play, but the inferiority of the challengers soon appeared, as the principal players were quickly caught out, and a young amateur of the name of Temple frequently knocked down his own wickets. In short, the game was so desperate from the beginning that Bucks did not think, it worth while to score a single notch; but although no counting took place, the odds are now ten to one in favour of all England, and a famous player from Bath is expected to make the match hollow.” ------ P r o b a b l y thinking that everybody would understand that the above extract did not refer to an actual match, but was only a laboured skit on parlia­ mentary proceedings, the sub-editor of the Times did not append any note of explanation. The result was that, to the vast amusement of cricketers, the extract was quoted in several papers as an ex­ ample of the way in which cricket was played a hundred years ago. M r. J. B. P a y n e writes as follow s: “ H. C. John, a schoolfellow of mine at Stonyhurst, has, I see, been bowling well against the Authentics, according to December Cricket. He was one of the most brilliant all-rounds we had— classic, mathematician, cricketer, footballer and actor. Hornby had him up to play for Lancashire v. Middlesex, in 1881, when he made 15 not out, and went on to bowl first with A. G. Steel. He had a curious knack of hoisting his left leg just as he was going to play the ball, which caused the Old Trafford crowd to howl ‘ hoop la ’ each time. I well remember that ia 1880 a team including six or seven Old Blues (among them, C. Marriott, G. S. Marriott, F. H. Mellor, etc.) came to play Stonyhurst, but John’s big fast medium breaks skittled them on a good pitch for 71, and they went home with their tails down, beaten by 47. John must be getting an old bird now.” T h e scores of over 50 in big matches made by the late Mr. L. H. Gwynn, are as follows :— 80, Gentlemen v. Players, at the Oval. 63 and 106, Dublin University v. Cambridge University, at Cambridge. 153, not out, carrying bat through innings for Dublin University v. Leicester­ shire, at Leicester. In the same match he took seven wickets for 124 runs. All the above were scored in 1895. M e . A l f r e d D. T a y l o r writes :—“ Of the 158 wickets captured by Haigh last year, he clean bowled all but 40, viz., 118. Of those 40, 25 were caught (half by the wicket-keeper, two ciught and bowled, twelve leg-before and one stumped. This must surely knock C. T. B. Turner, who had the reputation of hitting the sticks on more occasions than any other cricketer.” T h e Bishop of Manchester, who used to be an ardent cricketer, and still attends many of the best county matches at Old Trafford, related a story about himself at a meeting at Manchester. The Lord Mayor congratulated him, remarking that he believed he would have made an even greater name as a commercial man than as an ecclesiastic. “ That is not the first time I have been told I ought not to have been a parson,” he remarked smilingly. “ I remember when I was young I had a cousin at Harrow, who was in the sixth, and was very conceited about his power of boxing. At last he got me to put the gloves on, after I had exhibited a sufficient amount of reluctance, and when I had finished him off, he said, ‘ It is a pity you are a parson; you would have done for the ring.’ ” W. W. L o w e , the Worcestershire cricketer, came in a good second in the skatiD g contest of the first competition for the Public Schools Winter Sports Challenge Cup, decided at Adelboden on the 8th inst. Malvern was, indeed, very much to the fore, as it furnished the winner, W. Salter, as well. C. Hender­ son Hunt, of Harrow, who was third, made an even better fight in the sk i-in g contest, being only beaten for the first place by one point. I n a match at the River Plate on Dec­ ember 8th, G. Brown carried his bat through the innings, scoring 107 of the total of 188, 171 from the bat. He was playing for Quilmes v. Hurlingham. T h e Australasian gives an account of the novel experience of a cricketer named Gay, of the Essendon Club. He is a member of the local fire brigade, and while he was bowling the fire-bell rang. When duty calls a fireman must obey, so Gay dropped the ball, rushed off in his flannels and was soon on the hose-cart dashing to the scene of the fire. For­ tunately it was only a small affair and Gay was soon back again on the field fresh as paint, except that his flannels were slightly soiled. I n a match played on the Rushcutter Bay Oval (N.S.W.) early in December, the leg- bail was lifted by the ball a few inches in the air and then returned into the groove at the top of the stumps. T h e Adelaide Observer of December 13th, devotes a long paragraph to the recent doings of a young batsman who seems likely to take high rank in South Aus­ tralian cricket presently. His name is C. E. Dolling, and he has already made a big reputation for himself at Way College. His scores this winter up to the middle of December were 129, 101 retired, 19 not out, 67, 100 retired, 107 retired, 66, 7, 103 retired, and 63 not out. Total 712 for eight completed innings. He is only sixteen years of age. To put the other side in is at times a dangerous experiment, and one that often turns out very badly. It could hardly have resulted more disastrously than in the case of a match between West Torrens and East Adelaide on November 29 th on Adelaide Oval. The captain of the West won the toss, but decided to take the field instead of going in. The East showed their appreciation of the courtesy by proceeding to establish a record for Electorate Cricket in Ade­ laide. This took the form of a little matter of 377 for one wicket. A. Gehrs and E. W. Leak, who went ia first, put on 367 before the former was given out l.b.w. Gehrs was not out 171 and the total 371 with only one batsman out. H. L. D a w s o n , who scored so freely for the Streatham Club two or three jears ago, has soon got to work in Aus­ tralian cricket. Playing for East Mel­ bourne v. Melbourne on December 3rd, he contributed 94 to a very respectable aggregate of 401 for five wickets. “ Felix,” the able cricket critic of the Australasian, described his innings as a beautifully crisp and clean exhibition, expressing particular appreciation of his off strokes. T h e inter-s'.ate match between New South Wales and South Australia, in Sydney, in the middle of the month, gave Trumper and Duff an opportunity of establishing what is claimed as a new record by Australian batsmen, presum­ ably in first-class cricket. They put on, according to F. A. Iredale’s cablegram to the Daily Mail, 298 for the first wicket in two hours and a half. Tiumper’s ultimate score was 178, Duff’s 132, and the aggregate 545. New South Wales