Cricket 1903

J uly 2, 1903. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 249 refers, acted as umpire in Australian matches last year, and did not no-ball either Noble or Saunders:— S ydney, June 24 (3 a.m .) At a meeting of the Victorian Cricket As­ sociation held last night, a letter was read from Phillips, the English umpire, criticising the deliveries of Noble and Saunders during the last tour, and also stating that he could not overlook the latter’s bowling should he visit England again. The letter excited comment, the view being taken that the matter is outside Phillips’s jurisdiction. A motion was carried that the letter be not received, and a further motion was passed that the M.C.C. be communicated with, drawing attention to “ Phillips’s interference in matters outside his province.” — I h e d a l e . O n Monday the Oxford University captain gave an additional trial to five men in order to be able to fill up the four vacant places in his team. With the usual perversity of fortune, all the candidates failed entirely to distinguish T he fourth annnal cricket match between teams representing London j Actors and Provincial Actors will take place on Tuesday, July 7, at Kennington Oval, by permission of the Surrey County Cricket Club. The proceeds will be divided between the Actors’ Benevolent Fund and the Actors’ Orphanage. W h a t e v e r may be the result of the University match which begins to-day (Thursday) it seems to be pretty gener­ ally admitted that the two teams this year are much below the standard. Not so very long ago it was usual to see at least two or three of the men who had 1 played in the ’Varsity match taking their places in the following week in the match between Gentlemen and Players at Lord’s, but it is now quite a rarity to 1 find the Universities well represented in this match. This year Dowson alone can be said to be a great personality in either of the teams. One of the saddest features of modern University cricket is G o od judges in Australia speak well of a young player named Henry Alexander Mitchell, of Ballarat, Victoria, who came prominently before the public in January last owing to an incomplete! innings of 322. He was bom on March 16th, 1880, at 21, Albert Street, Ballarat, is five feet 10j inches in height, and weighs eleven stone. He hits well all round the wickets, excelling in the on-drive and cut. His chief scores are as follows :— 107, Ballarat B. v. East Ballarat, January 14 .. 1899 118*, Ballarat B. v. Ballarat A., March 25 ... 1899 128*, Ballarat B. v. Buffaloes, April 7.................1900 104*, Ballarat v. Albert Park, December 26 ... 1901 i 163, New Ballarat v. Ballarat, March 1 ..........1902 I 103, New Ballarat v. Ballarat City, April 5 ...1902 322*, New Ballarat v. Ballarat City, January 24 1903 "Signifies not out. He bowls medium-pace right-hand, breaking both ways, and generally fields in the slips. T H E U N I V E R S I T Y C A P T A IN S . W . FINDLAY (Oxford). (Photo by Hill <tc Baunders , Oxford). themselves in the first innings, Samson making a duck, Bennett 7, Raphael 2, Brownlee 10, and Pawson 7. So that by the end of the first day, as none of them bowled, none of them had helped their captain to make up his mind. On the second day most of them again failed. T a r r a n t , the new M.C.C. importa­ tion from Australia, is left-handed, medium pace to slow, and, like all his countrymen, seems to bowl with his head; in fact at present, at any rate, he is any­ thing but mechanical, while he imparts a good deal of life in the ball. T he Notts men have completely lost their reputation for being the champion players of a slow game, and nowadays they set an example of fast scoring, which must be envied by many other counties. Several times this year they have made big scores in such quick time that they have been able to gain a victory when slow play would have availed them nothing. the tendency for batsmen to play a sleepy kind of cricket, which is not at all in keeping with traditional University play. Let us hope that it is only a phase which will quickly pass away. I n the first innings of Yorkshire at Leeds on Tuesday, Lockwood had the great satisfaction of taking three wickets with successive balls for Surrey. His victims were Tunnicliffe, Wainwright and Ringrose. A n o t h e r first-class bowling feat has been performed by Buckenham, who has been so useful to Essex this season. At Eastbourne, in the Sussex first innings, he had been put on twice without meeting with the least success, but when he went on again, with the total at 225 for three wickets, he bowled nine overs for 24 runs and five wickets, all these wickets being taken in his last five overs for 11 runs. T he nineties have again been prolific during the past week. Hirst heads the list with 99, and then follow P. Perrin and Tunnicliffe with 97 each, W. H. B. Evans with 96, Killick with 94, A. H. Hornby with 91, and Holland and Rev. W. V. Jephson with 90. I n the County Championship table Middlesex now stand alone at the head of the list with no defeats and a hundred per cent., but Notts by their defeat by Yorkshire, and Sussex losing to Essex have gone down. Gloucestershire and Leicestershire have not yet won a match. L o n g before the end of the first day’s play in the match between Northampton­ shire and Surrey Second in the second- class counties competition it was evident that there would be no time to finish it. In a first-class match all further interest would have evaporated, but as, by the system of scoring in the second-class competition, the side winning on the first innings scores a point, there was a most b . m. d o w so n (Cambridge). (Photo by Hawkins A C oB righ ton ),