Cricket 1903

J uly 23, 1903. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 297 at 100, a ball rebounded off tbe wicket- keeper’s pads when he was out of his ground,’ and in the Surrey score I read, ‘ Hayward, stumped McGregor, bowled Beldam.’ Is not it run out, as Rule 23 distinctly says With Ball in Hand ? An answer in next week’s Gossip would greatly obl'ga me, as I was bowling last week and was given credit for a wicket in exactly the same way, which I think was wrong. There is a good bit of con­ troversy on the subject here, and opinions seem equally divided.” In the “ Deci-ions and Interpretations i authoiised by the M.C C.,” the first of ; the three notes on Law 23 reads as follows:— “ If the ball rebounds off the pads or person of the wicket-keeper without having first touched the bat or the hand of the striker, j and the striker is out of his ground, the decision should he “ stumped,” and not “ run out.” F rom the Daily Telegraph: — The brilliant hatting this season of A. J. Hill, who in eight innings for Hampshire has made three hundreds, causes one to reflect, not for the first time, on the exceptional strength of the Cambridge eleven of 1892— certainly one of the best sides that ever lost the University match. That eleven con­ sisted of J’. S. Jackson, James Douglas, R. N. Douglas, A. J. L. Hill, C. M. Wells, P. H. Latham, G. J. V. Weigall, E. C. Streatfeild, L. H. Gay, H. R. Bromley-Davenport, and D. L. A. Jephson. As showing the uncer­ tainty of cricket, this fine eleven, with the ground in perfect order, got out in their first innings against Oxford for 160. Three wickets were thrown away by sheer bad judgment in running, and some of the bats­ men were quite at fault in their efforts to play J. B. Wood’s lobs. Even a total of 388 when Cambridge fo'lowed on could not make up for this disastrous first innings, and Oxford won the match by five wickets. Every man on the Cambridge side was at some time or other a county cricketer, Jackson, Jephson, James Douglas, Wells and Hill, as everyone knows, earning the greatest distinction. A som ew h at alarming but possibly erroneous statement appeared in a mom- ing paper on Monday to the effect that Arnold, in the second innings of Worces­ tershire against Yorkshire “ was appar­ ently l.b.w. before he had scored, but the bowler’s umpire could not see, and the tquare-leg umpire gave the batsman not out.” The idea of being able to give a l.b.w. decision from square leg must strike many an umpire of a weak-medium club as perfectly splendid. B y request of the committee of the well-known cricket club, the Hampshire Hogs, the Rev. F. M. Harvey, the honorary secretary, has informed Dr. J. A. Lester that he has been unanimously elected an honorary member of the club. Mr. Harvey has forwarded Dr. Lester the club colours, at the same time expressing the hope that when he wears them he will be reminded of the esteem in which he is held by all lovers of the national game in Hampshire, the birthplace of cricket. Dr. Lester has expressed him­ self as being very pleased at this mark of appreciation, and he hopes to be able to |play for the Hampshire Hogs some time in August. These little courtesies do no harm to the game of cricket, and one is glad to hear of them. O n Saturday last, Dr. W. G. Grace celebrated his 55th birthday, not by scoring a hundred but by making a short speech at luncheon during the Derbyshire |match at the Crystal Palace. This was in reply to some congratulatory remarks by the Derbyshire captain, Mr. A.E. Lav-ton. The Doctor, apprecia'ing the compli­ ments paid to him, replied that he would try to arrange the Derbyshire match next year on the same dates. Mr. Lawton re­ minded him that his birthday would fall on a Sunday next year, whereupon the Doctor suggested that the match might be prolonged to the fourth day. But the unco’ guid need not be afraid of a possible desecration of the Sabbath, for the Doc­ tor was not serious. N ow ad ays everybody refers to Dr. Gracs as “ the Old Man,” and it is inter­ esting to note that even as long ago as 1884 he was still called “ old.” Here is a paragraph about him taken from Cricket of August 14, 1884, nineteen years a g o :— The Grand Old Man—I allude to W. G. G., of course, not to'W. E. G.—is never tired of making fresh records. His score of 116 not out, against the Australians, at Clifton, last week, was, I am told by one who has watched closely every fixture in which the four Australian teams have been engaged, quite the best he has ever played, and everyone will be delighted to see him adding to his laurels. This, I may add, is the third hun­ dred he has made this season against the Colonists, and he is entitled to the distinction of being the only batsman who has thrice got into three figures against any one of the Australian elevens. Considering that he played his first match at Lord’s on July 21, 1864, this is, indeed, an extraordinary per­ formance. Age certainly does not wither, nor custom stale his infinite variety. A t the head of the bowling averages on Monday were two Yorkshiremen, Ring- rose and Hirst, an American, J. B. King, and a Midlander, Hargreave. So that, with the exception of our visitor from the States, we are getting back to the nor­ mal state of affairs at this time of the season. ------ T h e northeners are also to the front in the batting averages, for although Fry still easily keeps to the front, with War­ ner, the much-abused captain of the next team for Australia, a good second, the next four men are Hirst, W. G. Quaife, Tyldesley and J. Gunn. A ft e r the match between the Gentle­ men of Philadelphia and Hampshire at Southampton had been abandoned on account of the rain, the weather cleared up, spectators began to put in an appear­ ance, and it was decided to play a scratch match under the same title. In this game J. B. King, who has been resting for some time owing to his sprain, took hi* place in the American team, and scored 83 ; he was allowed a man to run for him. Perhaps the most noticeable point about the game was the excellent bowling of E. M. C. Ede, a son of the Hampshire amateur scorer. A lthough the visit of a Sussex eleven, including C. B. Fry, to Glasgow was successful in attracting the biggest crowd ever seen on a cricket field in the neighbourhood of the Scottish city, the play of the Scotsmen was hardly good enough to encourage their countrymen to hope great things for the future. True, the vsicket when they batted was greatly in favour of the bowlers, but the all-round play of the team was not as good as could be wished by those who would like to see Scottish cricket come to the front. F or Eastbourne against Bie\ley Park at the end of last week Mr. E. Matheson scored 227 not out in the second innings, but as Eastbcurne were no fewer than 317 runs behind on the first innings bij big effort did not result in a victory for them. The match was continued after the time agreed upon for drawing stumps, but after all it is said that it ended in a draw, as, according to the score book, Bickley Park still required two runs to win when play ended. T h e list of the names of scorers of a thousand runs is not by any means as long as usual. On Monday it consisted of Fry, Tyldesley, J. Gunn, H. K. Foster, Knight, Maclaren, Hayes, Denton, and Hayward. Fry stood at 1813 with no match to play on the first three days of this week. E. M. Dowson was at 998, Ranjitsinhji at 934, Killick at 903, Bowley at 994. Since then Dowson, Ranjitsinhji and Bowley have brought their totals to over a thousand. I t is stated that the Hon. F. S. Jack­ son will make his reappearance iu the Yorkshire team to-day (Thursday) egainst Warwickshire. He has not played for the county since the Sussex match at Bradford on June 8. S tatem en ts have frequently been made of late in the daily papers that the M.C.O. intend to pay out-of-pocket