Cricket 1903

J uly 30, 1903. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 313 eight wickets in an hour and three- quarters, leaving Ancaster House School with an hour and a quarter to bat. The runs were knocked off in forty minutes, and when stumps were drawn the total was 224 for five wickets, H. Ingram having scored 111 in fifty minutes. F our first-class matches were to begin on Monday last, but in only one of them, Surrey v. Kent at Maidstone, was any play possible. At Maidstone Kent went into the field soon after noOn, but before a ball could be bowled they had to retire. Later another attempt was made, but after twenty minutes play the rain again fell heavily. An interval of half-an-hour followed, and then play continued until a quarter to two, when a further downpour stopped play for the day. On Tuesday and yesterday there was no play in any of the matches, except at Sheffield. F i v e hundred and eighty-five runs were scared on Saturday in the fifth match of the Beckenham Week. The interest in the result lasted until five minutes before time, when the last Blackheath wicket fell. The scores were: Beckenham 352 for six wickets (declared), Blackheath 233. T he Eastbourne C.C. had a curious experience at the end of last week. In their first innings against Sutton they could only score 30, while their oppo­ nents ran up 229—a lead of 199. This was, however, nothing to the Eastbourne team, who proceeded to make 444 in their second innings, and then to get rid of seven Sutton men for 137. W. Trask, the old Somerset cricketer, made 123 for Eastbourne. I r e d a l e still continues to point out to the M.C.C. exactly what they ought to do about their team. The following tele­ gram from him appeared in the Daily Mail last Friday:— It would be a bitter disappointment if anything were to prevent the team coming out now. Preparations are very much advanced, many details have been arranged, country centres have been communicated with. Every one looked forward hopefully when Marylebone took charge. Surely the defec­ tions—a few who may have personal reasons for not coming—ought not to sway the authorities, but should make them more determined to carry out their original plan, especially as the prestige of Marylebone is at stake, in view of the former abandonment. A m a t c h between cricketers and golfers, or rather between cricketers who play golf, and golfers who play cricket, is to take place at Lord’s on August 31st, in aid of the benevolent funds for pro­ fessional golfers and cricketers. Mr. F. E. Lacey will choose the side of the cricketer-golfers, while the golfer-crick- eters are to be chosen by Mr. G. W. Beldam, who thus, apparently, would call himself a golfer, although as a cricketer he may quite fairly claim to be above “ weak-medium ” form. Among the gol­ fers who have promised to play are H. H. Hilton, Horace Hutchinson, Leslie Bal- four-Melville, J. H. Taylor, Vardon, Alexander Herd and James Braid, which looks as if Mr. Beldam and Mr. Balfour- Melville will have to do most of the bowling and batting themselves. “ Z ummeezet ” writes as follows :— As a keen follower of the doings of the Somersetshire team, I should like to know why the formality of tossing for choice of innings is gone through in matches between the Westerners and Kent. The thing is simply a foregone conclusion! Since Somer­ setshire’s promotion in 1891, the “ Cyder- men ” and “ Hoppers ” have met twenty-five times, and—according to “ Lillywhite” and “ Wisden” —Kent have won the toss on no less than twenty occasions. In the thirteen matches played in Kent, the home team have had first “ knock ” eleven times—and in suc­ cession for the last five years. B arn es was the first bowler to take his hundredth wicket this season. Before the Lancashire match against Essex he stood at 97, and on Friday he brought \ mr . p. smith (Captain of Sherborne School X I.) his total to 101. On the following day both Hargreave and Rhodes brought their total to exactly a hundred. At the end of the week J. T. Hearne and Rich­ ardson stood at 92 and Braund at 94. No one else except Cranfield (84) had taken eighty wickets. T he thousand runs list is still short' It now consists of the following names: C. B. Fry, Ranjitsinhji, Penin, Tyldesley, H. K. Foster, Jessop, A. O. Jones, J. Gunn, Dowson, Hayes, Hirst, Knight, Mac­ laren, Bowley, Hayward and Denton. But W. G. Quaife with 966, Killick 923, Iremonger 901, King 933 and J. T. Brown 964 are all creeping up. F or Merchiston College against Edin­ burgh Academy in the Scottish Schools Championship, A. K. Tennant on Satur­ day took all ten wickets in the second innings for 29 runs. U ntil Friday the highest score of the year, and the highest total ever made by a Notts batsman, was the 294 by J. Gunn against Leicestershire. On Friday A. O. Jones beat this by two runs, his 296 being made against Gloucestershire. His previous record was 250, also against Gloucestershire, in 1900. He made his 296 runs in 350 minutes. I t will be seen from the following list that in first-class cricket, several batsmen have exceeded the big score made last week by A. O. Jones: A. C. Macteren (Lancashire v. Somerset, 1895)... 424 C. Hill (8outh Austra ia v. New South Wales, 1900)................................................................... 36o* Abel (Surrey v. S.merset, 1899) ........................ 3V7* W. G. Grace (M.C.C. v. Kent, 1876) ................. 3<4 W . W . Bead (Surrey v. Oxford, 1688)... .........338 W . L. Murdoch (New South Wales v. Victoria, 1882)................................................................... 321 W . G. Grace (Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire, 1876) 318* Hayward (Surrey v. Lancashire, 1898)..................315* Brown, J. T. (Yorkshire v. Sussex, 1897) .......... 311 Mejor Foore (Hants v. Somerset, 1899) ... ... 304 W. G. Grace (Gloucestershire v. Sussex, 1896) .. 301 Brown, J. T. (Yorkshire v. Derbyshire, 1898) ... 300 Y. Trumper (Australians v. Sussex, 1899)..........fO) A. O. Jones (Notts v. Gloucestershire, 1903) ... 296 • Signifies not out. D iv e r , the old Surrey and Warwick­ shire professional, scored 72 not out for Newport v. Briton Ferry on Thursday last week. For the same club A. J. Gould, the famous old Rugby footballer, made 107. E fforts are still being made to secure the well-known Bat and Ball Ground at Gravesend for the purposes of cricket and lawn tennis, and although at present the builders hold the trump card, it is hoped that in the end the cause of sport will triumph. O n Saturday Dr. W» G. Grace, for London County v. Wiltshire, scored 60 out of the 80 runs made while he was at the wickets, a wonderful feat for a man of his age. He made his runs in an hour and ten minutes, and among bis bits was a big drive out of the ground at Chippen­ ham. R. B. Heygate, who was in with him, had only made 4 when W. G. stood at fifty. S c e n e : F irst-class railw ay cirria g e in the suburbs. Two gentlem en reading the d aily paper. Saturday last. First Gentleman (suddenly looking up): “ Who’s this Fielder ? ” Second Gentleman: “ This Fielder? What Fielder ? ” First Gentleman : “ Why, this Fielder that’s been asked to go with the M.C.C. team to Australia ? ’’ Second Gentleman: “ Yes, I noticed that. I suppose it’s a ncm de plume. Yery likely Jessop has found that he can go after all.” T h e Marylebone Club have bean asked whether their team could leave on Sep­ tember 11th, but have cabled a reply to the effect that it will not be possible to start before Friday, September 25th, on which day the team will sail in the Orient Pacific ss. “ Orontes.”