Cricket 1903

346 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. A ug . 13, 1903. made 99 for Yorks II. v. Norfolk, at Scarborough, running himself out in his eagerness to reach his hundred. He is so modest of his own powers, that for Harro­ gate he rarely places himself higher than “ No. 6.” He is well built, and has a polished style of play. Likewise he is a really fine field with a very quick return. He has played in the Eugby X Y . for Yorkshire. T h e captain of the Bloom Bank C.C. (a private Yorkshire club consisting of about a dczen members) says that his club considers it a slight that none of its members have been asked to go to Aus­ tralia. If one or two fmall preliminaries can be settled, they will one and all be willing to go. The “ preliminaries” are as follows :— 1. The captain shall he appointed hy themselves. 2. Each man to receive his expenses, the amount thereof to be estimated by himself and paid without question by the M.C.C. 3. Drinks, tobacco andwages, also off-days at sea-side, to he paid for by M.C.C. 4. Bloom Bank C.C. undertake to provide umpire and scorer of unimpeachableintegrity, guaranteed never to lose amatch for their side. 5. Dropped catches not to he reported. C. B. F ry has again just managed to miss his hundred, this time by two runs (for Sussex against Lancashire at Brighton on Monday). It will be remem­ bered that he made 99 against Leicester­ shire a short time ago, a number which he has twice previously scored, viz. for Oxford University v. Kent in 1895, and for Sussex v. Leicestershire in 1898. T h is year’s tour of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia has decidedly been success­ ful—much more successful than any previous tour made by the Americans. They have won seven matches, lost six, and drawn four. The details are as follows:— V ictories . June 15—Cheltenham, v. Gloucestershire. Won by an innings and 26 runs. ,, 38—Nottingham, v. Notts. Won by 185 runs. „ 25—Beckenham, v. Kent. Won by 63 runs. July 6—Manchester, v. Lancashire. Won by nine ■wickets. „ 30—Cardiff, v. Glamorgan. Wonby ten wickets. August 3 - Leicester, v. Leicestershire. Won by 101 runs. „ 6—Oval, v. Surrey. Won by 110 runs. D efeats . June 8—Cambridge, v. Cambridge University. Lost by six wickets. „ 22—Lora’s, v. M.C.C. and Ground. Lost by five ■wickets. ,, 29—Taunton, v. Somerset. Lost byten wickets. July 9—Coventry, v. Warwickshire. Lost by seven wickets. „ 13—Worcester, v. Worcestershire. Lost by 215 runs. „ 23—Oval, v. Mr. P. F. Wamer’s XX. Lost by 196 runs. D bawh G ames . June 11—Oxford, v. Oxford University. July 16—Southampton, v. Hampshire. „ 27—Brighton, v. Sussex. Aug. 10—Edinburgh v. Scotland. T h e Gentlemen of Philadelphia con­ cluded their tour on Tuesday, when the second day of their match against Scotland took place. No one will wish that they had been less successful, for their victories will do a very great deal to keep up the interest of the game in Philadelphia, and will probably give an impetus to cricket throughout the United States. In last Monday’s Sun K . S. Eanjit- sinbji makes the following remarks, which hardly seem justified by facts :— Whether we assign it to the prolonged heat of the sun in which they play day after day, the state of tension at which they are necessarily maintained, the fact that they play winter after winter abroad, after the strain of the summer season here (as so many of them do), or any other reason, the fact remains that professional cricketers do not as a rule “ make old bones,” andthat with many of them a state of physical or mental decay is liable to set in at a comparatively early age. Possibly in some cases, too, their habits of life do not tend to aprolonged preservation of their powers. It is the most troublous element in the progress of the noblest of games. A good many of Eanjitsinhji’s readers must have wondered why the fact that Hirst has scored a thousand runs and taken a hundred wickets should make the Yorkshire and Middlesex match of especial interest. He says :— At full strength the meeting with York­ shire to-day at Leeds is full of interest. More especially as George Hirst has com­ pleted his 1,000 runs and 100 wickets. T he team to represent Lancashire and Yorkshire against the Rest of England at Hastings has been chosen as follows :— Lord Hawke, E. Smith, Hirst, Ehodes, Denton and Haigh (Yorkshire), A. C. Maclaren, E. H. Spooner, A. Eccles, W. Findlay and Tyldesley (Lancashire). M r. P. F. W a rn er was not quite accurate on Monday in describing Middle­ sex as “ the champions of the year up-to- date." Yorkshire is the champion county at present, and will remain so until the championship is taken away from it. This cannot be done until it is quite certain that some other county—say Middlesex— has made enough points to make it certain that Yorkshire cannot retain the title. This may or may not happen this year; it has not happened yet. L ast week John Gunn met with astonishing success with the ball against Surrey and Essex. The details of his record for the week are as follows:— Against S u rrey . O . M . R . W . First innings .......... 31*2 ... 12 ... 63 ... 8 Second innings .......... 24*3 ... 1 ... 69 ... 6 Totals................. 55*5 ... 13 ... 132 ... 14 Against E ssex . O . M . R . W . First innings .......... 26 ... 7 ... 53 ... 6 Second inniogs .......... 47*4 ... 6 .. 121 ... 8 Totals................. 734 ... 13 ... 174 ... 14 A rnold also had a wonderfully good week with the ball. His record is :— Against W arw ickshire . O. M . R . W - First innings .......... 26 4 ... 12 ... 48 ... 7 Second innings .......... 23*3 ... 12 ... 31 ... 6 Against K ent . O. M . R . W . First innings .......... 36 ... 13 ... 68 ... 7 Second innings .......... 31 ... 6 ... 71 ... 2 T h e ninth yearly issue of the “ Bar­ bados Cricket Annual ” has made its appearance. As usual, it contains a complete record of the matches played in the previous year in the island, with very useful and often interesting notes. It also contains articles on “ Cricket in 1902-3,” and “ Football v. Cricket,” as well as many statistics. I take the following note from the Annual:— No less than five accidents occurred while some of the members of the Berbice Cricket Club (Demerara) were engaged in: a match on that cricket ground last season. Mr. E. Ferrell got cut on his lower lip, Mr. Lansdell sustained a cut under the chin, Mr. E. Soares was struck a blow which stunned him, Mr. Yaughan got an injured finger, and Mr. Santos got three of his fingers injured. The ball, we understand, was responsible for all the accidents. A c o r r e s p o n d e n t writes :—I over­ heard the following remarks last week while watching a match in the country between two good teams:— Lady to a friend : “ Do they go on running till the ball comes back, or for a certain time ? ” And a little later, when a boundary hit had been made:—“ Why, aren’t they running ? Have they used up all their runs ? ” L a s t week, Sir Alfred Jones, one of the directors of the firm of Messrs. Elder Dempster and Co., Liverpool, wrote to the Gentlemen of Philadelphia team, asking them to accept passages on one of the steamers of the Imperial direct route from Bristol to Jamaica, in order to play a match with a team of “ All Jamaica” on their way back to America. The Americans would greatly have liked to be able to accept this invitation, but as several of them could not alter arrange­ ments previously made, they have been obliged to decline it. Most of the members of the team will sail on Saturday next on their return home. T o u jo u r s C. B. Fry ! On Monday last when he had made fifty runs he had brought his total for the season for Sussex to two thousand. It is hardly necessary to say that no one else has approached this feat during the present season. W h e n K . S. Eanjitsinhji went in to bat at Brighton on Monday against Lanca­ shire he was exceedingly careful, so careful that the crowd began to make sarcastic remarks. This did not improve Eanjitsinhji’s rate of scoring, which, up to that time, had been nothing per hour, and for thirty-five minutes he remained at the wickets without making a run. Possibly with the idea of giving him a little en­ couragement, or of relieving the tension, Maclaren put himself on to bowl, and Eanjitsinhji’s rate of scoring rose sud­ denly, for he made a two off a ball which ought to have been stopped by a fields­ man. Prom this time he was himself and played with even more than his usual brilliancy.