Cricket 1903

218 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. J une 18, 1903. replied that he was certainly one o f the other fi le, aR he had blacked our w icket­ keeper’ s eye ! ” O n the evening of last Thursday, the placard of one of the evening papers showed a grim sense of humour, unless the juxtaposition of headings was entirely ac&iiental. It read as follows :— SERV IAN M A S S A C R E . IOO KILLED . CLOSE OF P L A Y . On Saturday last the Daily Mail give a list of the ten leading batsmen at the end of the first week ia Jane for the past three seasons. Not a single name out of the thirty appears in all three lists, but E. M. Dowson, Tyldesley, G. L. Jessop, B. J. T. Bosanquet, Abel, and Arnold appear in two of them. A f e w good bowling analyses in the matches at the end of last week:— O. M. R. W. Blythe (Kent v. Worcestershire) ... j g Mead (Essex V. Sussex) ................... 19 3 10 27 7 KiUick (Sussex v. Essex) .................. 20 8 30 6 Brearley (Lancs v. Somerset............ 10 2 1 SO 5 R. C. W. Bum (Oxford v. Gentle- / 22'2 8 40 6 men of Philadelphia ................. t 9 0 24 4 J. B. King (Gentlemen of Phila­ delphia v. Oxford)......................... 19 4 39 8 Lees (8urrey y. Cambridge) .......... J 5 j® J® * T h e weather has naturally been the chief subject of conversation among cricketers during the past week, for it has been something quite out of the common. In the London district it began to rain on Wednesday last week, continued on the Thursday and stopped on the Friday. Then on the Saturday it resumed busi­ ness at about ten o’clock and without any intermission came down steadily and surely until 11.30 p.m. on Monday—about sixty one hours and a half of continuous rain. At eight o’clock on Monday morn­ ing, the loth, the rainfall during June amounted to 4-06 inches, the record for the whole month being 4 07 in 1879. Bain was then still falling steadily, and in a very few minutes the previous record had been comfortably exceeded. F o r the sake of record I give the following table of rainfall and sunshine in the London district ending at six o’clock on Wednesday morning last week: Date Rainfall. Sunshine. (24 hours ending 6 p.m.) Inches. Hours. Wednesday, June 10 .......... 0 72 ................. nil Thursday. June 11.................0-50 .................. nil Friday, June 12 .................0‘08 ................... 0'8 Saturday, June 1 3 .................0*66 ................... nil Sunday, June 14 .................0 72 ............ ... nil Monday, June 15 ................. 1*62 ................... nil A g a in s t Cambridge University on Monday only five of last year’s victorious Yorkshire eleven were able to represent the county. Lord Hawke is unwell, and has also injured his thumb. F. S. Jack­ son has an injured foot, Hirst an injured leg, Washington is slowly recovering from a long illness, J. T. Brown, jun., has a strain, and Tunnicliffe has split his hand. This is truly a disheartening list. A t r a in e r of the variety which has for a long time been known in connection with professional football clubs, has been engaged for the Sussex eleven. K. L. H utchings , who was to have made his second appearance i 'i first-class cricket in the abandoned match between Kent against Sm s"i at Tonbridge, is a a schoolmaster. Last year he played once for Kent, scoring 10 and 1. At Tonbridge school he had a great repu­ tation as a batsman, heading the aver­ ages in 1901 with 47, and also in 1902 with 63. K. M. C a r l is l e , who has received his Blue at Oxford, is an Old Harrovian. Against Eton in 1901 he scored 49, and was second in the batting averages for the season with 40. In the previous year he took five wickets for 16 runs in the second innings of Eton. At Oxford he made 30 and 81 in the Freshmen’ s match last year, but did nothing else of moment. This year he has made 242 runs for Ox­ ford with an average of 24, and a highest score of 65. I n the bowling averages on Monday, Hirst, who heads the list with 21 wickets at 8'71 runs apiece, is the only membar of the Yorkshire eleven in the first forty. Rhodes is forty-first, Wainwright fifty- first, F. S. Jackson fifty-third, and Haigh fifty-seventh. O n Monday, Sussex, Middlesex, Notts and Hampshire still maintained their un­ beaten record for the season with a hundred per cent. Surrey was in the middle of the list with nothing per cent., and Yorkshire came next with minus twenty per cent. A l l cricketers will be grieved to hear of the death, last week, of Robert Thoms, the famous umpire, at the age of seventy- seven, or seventy-eight—he himself did not know in what year he was bom. He was respected and honoured by thousands of players, who dearly loved to listen to his quaint and clever sayings. He was buried on Monday last at Highgate Cemetery. Some remin­ iscences of Thoms will ba found on another page. O n Monday last seven first-class matches were on the list of fixtures. In only two of them—Yorkshire v. Cam­ bridge University, and Surrey v. Derby­ shire, was any play possible. On Tuesday these two matches were continued with­ out interruption, and in Gloucestershire v. Gentlemen of Philadelphia there was no play after lunch. Of the other four matches, Sussex v. Kent was abandoned altogether, and no play could take place in the rest. T h e Repton Eleven proved their excel­ lence as an all-round side last week by their decisive victory over Uppingham, at UppiDgham. As it was the first suc- C’ss they had had over Uppingham for years—fifteen I have heard it stated—the victorious team had a right royal recep­ tion on their return alter the match. They were drawn home in triumph from the station in a brake, and the exuber­ ance of the admiring Reptonians went very near causing a nasty accident. As it was the pressure of those at the rear of the brake was at one time too much for the leaders, and it was fortunate, perhaps, that what injuries there were were only slight, and that no great harm was done. Cricket readers will hear with deep regret of the long and continued illr ew of Mr. S. H. Swire, the hon. sec. of the Lancashire County C.C. Now that Mr. Wostinholm is on the retired list, Mr. Swire is, I fancy, the doyen of Cjunty secretaries. He took office in the very early years of the club, so that he has had the management of Lancashire cricket almost,if notactuallyfromtheBtart. What that means in the way of responsibilities and influence only those who know the in­ fluential part Lancashire has played in the history of County cricket during the last quarter of a century and more can fully estimate. Mr. Swire’s friends, and their name is legion, will wish him a speedy and complete recovery. To put the other side in is at the best a doubtful policy in the majority of cases. The captain of the Mi'cham Wanderers found this so at the Oval on Saturday when he gave the Surrey Colts the first knock. The latter showed their appre­ ciation forcibly by knocking up no less than 174 runs for two wickets ia the little over an hour and a half to which play was restricted. M r . D. R ee se , to whom we were in­ debted for such an interesting account of New Zealand cricket last week, has not had a very long stay in Eogland this time. He left London on Monday for a trip to China and Japan, ia pursuit of his pro­ fession as an engineer. He expects to be back in four or five months, and hopes to resume his connection with Eaglish cricket at the earliest passible date —ia other words, next season. T h e Committee of the Surrey County C.C. have also intimated to the honorary secretaries their readiness to arrange a match for the Oval with a similar guarantee. T h e r e is the pleasant ring of true sport about the action of those who manage the Inter Collegiate matches in America ia deciding to bring off the series a month earlier than the usual period, with a view to allow Haveiford College the full services of C. C. Morris, who was coming to England with the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. That he has been in form ia Philadelphia was shown by the fact of his being the first batsman