Cricket 1903

282 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OP THE GAME. J uly 16, 1903. operate with Marylebone and send the best possible team. As previously stated, Powson would not be unwelcome as one of the team. I redalb . T h e match between Somerset and Yorkshire at Bradford did not attract anything like the usual interest this year, for the reason that Somerset had so many of their best players away, that it was nearly hopeless to expect anything remarkable from such a weak side as they put in the field. S. M. J. Woods has not yet recovered from the accident which he received while playing hockey last winter. L. C. H. Palairet was kept away by business, while H. Martyn, who has several times this season played a brilliant and invaluable innings at a much needed time, A . E. Newton, and F. A . Phillips were also away. T h e Gentlemen of Philadelphia also had to take the field against Worcester­ shire with a greatly weakened eleven. It was a very great misfortune to them when everything was looking so well for the success of the tour that King, who on all sides is admitted to be now a really great bowler, should have strained him­ self, and that Lester should have met with an accident to his hand. To add to the misfortunes of the team Scattergood, who was keeping wicket when the Worcestershire match begin, injured his hand so badly almost immediately, and had to retire from the game, his place, at the suggestion of the Worcestershire captain, being taken by T. C. Jordan. Yet another accident caused the retirement of P. H. Bates, who split his hand badly when fielding; his place was then taken by N. Z. Graves. W oodcock , the well-known Leicester­ shire bowler, has his benefit match this week at Leicester, the opposing team being Essex. In the course of the fifteen seasons during which he has played for Leicestershire, Woodcock has taken 679 wickets for 13,354 runs, an average of 19'81 runs per wicket. A lth o u g h Yorkshire second beat Surrey second at the Oval on Tuesday by 9 wickets (one man retiring hurt before the runs were hit off), thoughtful York- shiremen must be shaking their heads a little. For of the six Yorkshire bowlers who were tried by the captain, Mr. E. W. Frank, the only one who met with any pronounced success was the captain him­ self, who in the first innings took three wickets for 37, and in the second six for 73. R eig ate P b io b y against London Hos­ pital on Saturday made 448 for 3 wickets in three hours and a quarter and declared. The scores were as follows :— B k ig a t b P b io b y . T. H. Hughes, uot out 165 J. W . Neale, o Horne, b Smith ................. 88 E. A. English, c and b Smith .................. 106 R. W . Harris, c Day, b G ibson....................44 • Innings declared closed. The Hospital made 85, F. J. Nightingale, not out ........................ 26 Extras................. 20 Total (3 wkto)*448 F oe the team which he took to Edin­ burgh to play against a Scottish eleven at the beginning of this week, G. L. Jessop had obtained the services of some well-known players. Among them were Brockwell, the old Surrey player, who made 24 in each innings; C. L. Towns­ end, the Gloucestershire ciicketer, who is now living in the North; C. A. Beldam, the well-known London club cricketer, who made 80 not out (carrying his bat through the innings) and 71; T. H. Fowler, the Somerset batsman; and G. J. Y. Weigall, the old Kent cricketer. Jessop himself made 61 in half-an-hour in his first innings. L a s t Saturday G. J. Williams and T. Somerville put on 295 runs for the first wicket of Framlingham College against Campsea Ashe Park, Williams making 186 of them. Earlier in the week the same two batsman made 159 for the first wicket of the school against Woodbridge School. F or Mote Park, Maidstone, on Thurs­ day, Hardinge scored 202 not out and Rev. P. C. Joy 134 not out in a total of 367 for one wicket, against the Stoics. O n Monday, Mr. F. E. Lacey, the M.C.C. secretary, stated to a representa­ tive of the Sportsman that P. F. Warner alone had definitely accepted the invita­ tion of the M.C.C. to form one of the team to visit Australia during the English winter. Amateurs and professionals to the number of the ten or a dozen had had invitations extended to them, but he did not think it politic, either for the under­ taking or the players themselves, that names should be published till they had given a definite reply. This had not been done even in the case of Strudwick, though there was little doubt that he would be able to form one of the combi­ nation. He had, by the direction of his committee, cabled to Major War- dill suggesting that the team Bhould leave England on Friday, September 25th. This was dependent on the ideas of the Australian authorities, and their reply could hardly be received for a day or two. N a t u b a l l y there are many rumours as to the composition of the team which the M.C.C. has promised to take out to Australia this year. It is now pretty well known that invitations have been sent to the following players to accom­ pany the team: P. F. Warner (capt.) (Middlesex), A. C. Maclaren (Lancashire), E. M. Dowson (Surrey and Cambridge University), Tyldesley (Lancashire), Hirst (Yorkshire), Rhodes (Yorkshire), Braund (Somerset), and Strudwick (Surrey). M ea n w h ile it i* being pointed out that M r. Warner’s highest score against Australian teams in England is 58, and in Australia (last winter for L ord Hawke’s team) 47, but on the other hand scores and averages have never counted much with most selectors of representative teams. Indeed, it has been wickedly said that the higher a man is in either the batting or bowling averages, the fewer chances he has of playing for England. A t Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday, A. C. Maclaren stated he had been asked by the M.C.C. if he would go to Australia under Mr. Warner’s captaincy, and that he had not yet come to any decision in the matter. T h e death is announced of Mr. J. N. Tonge, the old Kent amateur. He had been in ill-health for some time, and went to New Zealand at the same time as Lord Hawke’s team, with the hope of regaining strength. He was 37 years of age. T w en ty years ago eleven Le Mays played eleven Lamberts at Horsmonden, Kent. The family still play matches, and last week their eleven encountered an eleven of Pembury. The score of the match appears on another page. F kom the New York Morning Telegraph: The Philadelphia cricket eleven has beaten the Englishmen on their own heath and at their own game. Philadelphia has long been successful at cricket. It is a slow game. If by some mischance a cricket fielder were to catch a ball, they would pension him for life. I n the course of a long and sensible article on the question of whether the M.C.C. were justified in playing their Club and Ground, instead of only their amateurs, against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia, the New York Times states that several of the London papers criti­ cised the M.C.C. for including Hearne and Mead in their team. I did not see any such criticisms, but in any case the New York Times considers such objec- tims frivolous and ridiculous. As a matter of fact it was as a compliment to the greatly improved form of the Ameri­ cans that the M.C.C. treated them as they would treat the Australians; that is to say, they played their strongest eleven available. T b c e to Republican principles the New York Times has some amusing remarks upon the subject of “ Social differenc3s in England” ; and discusses the position of “ Gentlemen ” and “ Players ” as follows :— Once a year the amateurs play a match with the professionals, the best eleven repre­ sentatives on each side being chosen. The name given to this match is Gentlemen against Players. No player—i.e., profes­ sional—is supposed to be a gentleman ; he is merely “ the ground ” or part of it, a clod. Does this language appear to be too strong ? Then note two other small indications of this same tendency. In the first place the reports of the cricket matches in the London papers are made as is the announcement of players given above; that is to say, the amateur is Mr. P. l'\ Warner, the professional is Mead. If Mead has a given name, his family may