Cricket 1903

CRICKET, JULY 30, 1903. Maisfc! e«=»ez=>te) c=3—t m h - e r : . . p--- | | '/?£CO/U 1 J j r J CJA tiT <4 f i © I I k \M —— : )fleficzz3=$e8==€ ..jgaec- .=»— 231 T oge th e r joined in C r ick e t’ s m an ly t o i l .” — Byron. JTo. 0 3 9 . VOL. X X II. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1903. F B IC S 2d. A CHAT ABOUT JO H N T U N N IC L IF F E . The best Yorkshire professionals of later years have been more fortunate than those of most other counties, for they have known that their plaoe in the team was assured unless they had an extraordinary run of bad luck, lasting through match after match. The conse­ quence has been that very few well-known Yorkshire professionals have dropped out of the team because they have lost their nerve, where­ as dozens of other men have suffered in this way. But Tunnicliffe has known what it is to lose his place and to have to play for it again under the most discouraging conditions. For in 1892, his second year in the York­ shire eleven, he met with such a marked want of suc­ cess in the early matches that before August came he was quietly dropped, with little apparent chance of recovering his position. In those days he was a hitter whose rashness was proverbial; he could not resist the temptation to have a wild go at some ball or other which required the most delicate treatment, and so persistently did he com­ mit suicide in this way that he was deemed incorrigible. More by accident than any­ thing else he had another opportunity of redeeming his previous failures, and he was included in the team which played Lancashire at Manchester on the August Bank-Holiday. His turn to bat came on the Tuesday afternoon, when Yorkshire were in the Slough of Despond, for after seeing Lancashire make 471 on a good wicket they were struggling desperately against Briggs, Mold and Alec Watson, after heavy showers in the early morning had come to the assistance o f the bowlers. There was an enormous crowd, all very pleased with themselves, while the bowlers were on their mettle. It was not exactly the time which a man would choose to have to play for his existence as a county cricketer, but Tunnicliffe had learned his lesson. He was unconquered at the end of the innings with 32 not out, and in the follow-on Lord Hawke took him in first, before he had time to lose JOHN TUNNI0LIFFE. (From a photo ly Hawkins & CoBrighton), his grip on the bowling. The result was that Tunnicliffe pliyed a splendid innings of fifty, by far the highest on the side, and that he regained his place in the team, never to lose it again. But one can easily realise that if he had failed in this match there would be no John Tunnicliffe as one of the brightest stars in the Yorkshire team of to*day. Gradually Tunnicliffe, like Mr. George Brann and Darling, the Australian, who were both natural hitters, schooled him­ self to a defensive style of play, with the happiest results to his own reputation and the welfare of his side. It was not until 1896 that he began regularly to go in first with J. T. Brown, and to take up the position of “ stonewaller,” which since it was vacated by Louis Hall had never been adequately filled. Now came some wonderful part­ nerships between the two men, culminating in 1898 in a record of 554 for the first wicket against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, Brown mak­ ing 300 and Tunnicliffe 243. In the previous year the two men had put up 378 for the first wicket against Sussex at Sheffield; this was then a record. Another fine per­ formance of the two men, which attracted a great deal of attention at the time, although if it had occurred at the present day it might not have been considered so very remarkable, was seen in the Yorkshire match against Middlesex, at Lord’s, in the same year. In the first innings they put up 139 for the first wicket, and in the second, without being separated, they scored the 146 runs required to win. In recent years it has some­ times happened that Brown and Tunnicliffe have ex­ changed roles, partly because the former has not always been in his best form, and so has preferred patience to brilliancy, and partly be­ cause he has not always been well enough to play his usual game. Tunnicliffe has then shown that he has lost none of his powers of hitting, although the rashness which was once his bane has been tempered by greater discretion. His great reach enables him to get well over the ball, which he watches very closely, and he has a very strong defence. He perhaps hardly possesses a sufficientvariety of strokes to be