Cricket 1903

J an . 29, 1903. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 13 O B ITU A RY . M r . L u c iu s H e n r y G w y n n . Mr. L. H. Gwynn, who died on Decem­ ber 23rd, from consumption, at Davos Platz, where he had gone two months before on account of his health, was a son of the Rev. John Gwynn, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity at Dublin Univer­ sity. He was born in County Donegal on May 25th, 1873, and received his early education at St. Columba’s College, Rath- farnham. In 1890 he entered Trinity College, where he gained a classical scholarship in 1893. In the following year he took his degree, and at the time of his decease was a Fellow of Trinity. He was probably the best cricketer Ireland ever produced. He possessed very fine defence and was a most finished batsman. In 1895 he headed the first-class averages, play­ ing ten innings, two of which were unfinished, and snoring 455 runs, with an average of 56’87. That year he visited England as a member of the Dublin Uni- veruity team, and against Cambridge University scored 63 and 106 (besides obtain­ ing four wickets), whilst against Leicestershire he carried his bat through an innings of 274 for 153. So excellent was the form he displayed that he was asked to assist the Gentlemen against the Players at the Oval, and he proved his value to the side by batting three hours and a quarter for 80, against the bowling of Richardson and the late George Lohma m. Last summer his batting was as perfect as ever, as his score of 81 not out for Lord Cadogan’s Irish team against London County, at the Crys­ tal Palace, plainly showed, and one would never have supposed he could have developed rapid consumption in the ensuing autumn. During the season he ob­ tained four hundreds in con­ secutive innings on the Phoenix Ground, making 166 for Phoenix v. Tayside Ramblers, on June 26th, 126 not out for Rapparees v. Phceaix, on July 5th, 165 for Phoenix v. Dublin University on July 7th, and 117 for Phceaix v. Dublin Garrison on July 11th. As a football player Lucius Gwynn was almost as famous as he was atciicket, and will chiefly be remembered as one of themagnificent three-quarter line in 1894, when Ireland won the International Championship. That season he scored the try against Scotland which gave his side the victory. He played against Scotland in 1893, 1894, 1897 and 1898. against England in 1894 and 1898 and against Wales in 1894. G e o r g e P in d e r . George Pinder, one of the leading players of a past generation, died at Hickleton, Yorkshire, on the 15th inst. As he was born at Ecclesfield, Sheffield, on July 15th, 1841, he was ia his sixty- second year at the time of his decease. He was an excellent wicket-keeper, and a regular member of the Yorkshire X I. from 1868 to 1880, succeeding the late Edwin Stephenson in that position and being followed by the late Joseph Hunter, the latter being elder brother of the present well-known player of that name. Against fast bowling Pinder was especially good, having a long reach, and taking the ball with almost equal facility on either side of the wicket. During the period he assisted Yorkshire he did an enormous amount of hard work, standing up to such men as George Freeman, Tom Emmett, Allan Hill and George Ulyett on grounds which, owing to their rough state, would almost have been marked as unfit for play in these days of billiard- table wickets. He was one of the three great wicket-keeping P .’s—Pooley and Tom Plumb, both of whom are still living, being the other two—and it would be a difficult matter to decide which was the best of the trio. Pooley was certainly the superior against slow deliveries, but Plumb rivalled Pinder in excellence when opposed to fast bowling. To a slightly later period belonged Phillips, of Stissex, and Pilling, of Lancashire, there being in all five great wicket-keepers whose name commenced with the same letter. (Pilling can hardly be stated with accu­ racy to have been a contemporary of the deceased, as has been done so frequently during the past fortnight.) Pinder, like the majority of famous wicket-keepers of a past generation, claimed to be the first man to keep wicket in a great match without the services of a long-stop. So far as we are aware the first player to perform such a feat was Charlie Brown, of Nottingham, when assisting The North (with Mr. Alfred Mynn) against M.C.C. and Ground (with Fuller Pilch), at Lord’s, July 15th and 16:h, 1844—a performance which was noted at the time in Bell's Life. It is not a little curious that the event should have occurred on Finder’s birthday. George Pinder occasion­ ally made a large score, having a good eye and hitting hard—an innings of 78 in a North and South match at Canterbury is his best-known effort—and at times bowled lobs with success. In 1879 he visited America as a member of Richard Daft’s team, and the following year received as a benefit the proceeds (about £300) of the match played at Sheffield between Yorkshire and Lascelles Hall, which, by-the-way, ended in the defeat of the county by 76 runs. For some time the deceased had been coach to the Hickelton Main C.C. He was buried at Thurnscoe, near Wath, on the 19th inst. Mr. J. M. Lee, who died on the 20 th inst., at the age of 77, was born in London in 1825, and was educated at Oundle and Cambridge. He was a good hitter, a brilliant field any­ where, and one of the fastest runners between wickets there has ever been. He played for Cambridge in the University matches of 1846, 1847 and 1848, and in 1847 and 1850 was chosen to assist the Gentlemen, at at Lord’s, against the Players. In inter ’Varsity matches he took twenty wickets in six innings, and in all first-class matches for Cambridge University ob­ tained ninety-three wickets in twenty- seven innings. In 1848, he scored 196 runs in nine innings for the University— no mean feat in those days of rough wickets and hard knocks—his largest score being 110 against the Gentlemen of Kent, at Canterbury. He represented Surrey on a few occasions, in 1849 being second in the batting averages. Owing to his profession—the Church—he aban­ doned the game whilst in his prime, the Gentlemen, in consequence, losing one of their best men in their matches against the Players. The deceased had been