Cricket 1903

A ug . 13, 1903. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 347 O n Monday, Knight, the Leicestershire professional, scored 200 not out, and increased this by 29 on the next morning, still being unconquered. His best score before this was 190 for Leicestershire against London County iu 1902. F o r Hertfordshire v. Oxfordshire on Saturday, Capt. G. O. Bigge and Golding put on 100 runs for the second wicket in thirty-five minutes. A r t h u r M o l d , th e fam ou s old Lan­ cashire fast bowler, took nine wickets for five runs in twenty-two balls last week for Adderbury, Oxfordshire, against Steeple Aston. A g a in s t the M.C.C. and Ground the Egerton Park (Melton Mowbray) team did some remarkably quick scoring in the second innirgs on Saturday. They had to make 150 to win in an hour and forty minutes, but so bold was the hitting of W. B. Goodacre, the Notts cricketer, and H. Bailey that the runs were made in two minutes under the hour for the loss of a wicket. L a n g d o n , who before the match on Monday against Warwickshire had only once represented Hampshire, is a right- hand bowler, medium to bIow. He has done very well in local cricket, but no one looked for a performance such as that which he accomplished on Monday after­ noon when he took five Warwickshire wickets for 13 runs out of seven which fell for 24. As he also batted well he had reason to congratulate himself on his day’s work. T h e only news in connection with the M.C.C. team is that Lilley, after an­ nouncing his decision not to go to Australia, has sent the following telegram to Mr. F . E. Lacey, the secretary of the M .C.C.:— “ Have made arrangements at request of the Warwickshire committee to go to Australia, and will now accept your kind invitation.” T h tjs the M.C.C. team is at present constituted as follows :— P. F. Warner (Middlesex) captain, E. E. Foster (Worcestershire), B. J. T. Bosanquet (Middlesex), Hirst (Yorkshire), Rhodes (Yorkshire), Hayward (Surrey), Tyldesley (Lancashire), Braund (Somerset), iStrudwick (Surrey), Arnold (Worcestershire), llelf (Sussex), Fielder (Kent), Lilley (Warwickshire). T h e rain, it raineth every day, and apparently almost everywhere. Even in India the match between Poona Gym­ khana and Bombay Garrison at Poona had to be given up altogether owing to rain, after a postponement had been made from the Monday to the Wednesday in order to give the wicket a chance. I t is stated that there is a possibility of a Kent county team visiting the United States next month to play a short series of matches. L ast week J. B. Challen, the well- known old Somerset batsman, scored 208 for the Nondescripts against Exeter : his bits included two 6’s, and thirty-two 4’s ; A. E. Clark made 239 not out, in­ cluding two 6’s and thirty-nine 4’s, for Birchington House v. Hampstead, in two hours and a-half; and S. Toyne made 200 not out for Bournemouth v. St. Edward’s Old Boys (Oxford). T he results of all the tours made inEng- land by the Gentlemen of Philadelphia are given below. It need hardly be stated that the present tour has been by far the most successful, as the matches were against much stronger teams :— W. D. L. Aband. Total. 1884 ... 8 ... 5 ... 5 ... 0 .. 18 1889 ... 4 ... 5 ... 3 .. 0 ... 12 1897 ... 2 ... 4 ... 9 ... 0 ... 16 1903 ... 7 ... 3 ... 6 ... 1 ... 17 L obd H awke had to decide a nice question on Tuesday afternoon just before lunch. Yorkshire had made 263 and Middlesex followed with 79, thus being 174 runs behind. The question was whether Middlesex should be made to follow on. Lord Hawke may have reasoned that his bowlers had expended a vast amount of energy, and that they would certainly feel the effects of this if they had to continue to bowl without a rest. Again, as Middlesex had such a strong batting team that they were not at all likely to break down a second time, it might easily happen that Yorkshire had to make a fairly big score in the fourth innings of the match on a difficult wicket. On the other hand the weather seemed so fickle that rain might come and prevent any play on the Wednesday. The upshot was that Lord Hawke decided to go in again, and on Tuesday night York­ shire led by 407 runs with four wickets still in hand. They won the match yesterday with ease. F or his work in the Somaliland expedition, Captain W. L. Foster, a brother of H. K. and R. E. Foster, and a first-class cricketer, has received the Distinguished Service Order. S ince C. M. Wells and J. Douglas took their places in the Middlesex eleven after the school holidays began, they have made the following scores for the county : v. E ssex................. v. Somerset ......... v. Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire.......... * Signifies not out. Wells has the following bowling analysis: v. E ssex................ V. Somerset ........ . v. Gloucestershire v. Yorkshire . . ., Wells. Douglas. 59 ... . ........ 8 3 ... .......... 18 65* ... ......... 45 69* ... .,........ 17 68 ... .,........ 3 8 2*................ 204 13 ... ., .. .. 0 8 ... .,........ 9 O. M. R. W . 8 2 14 5 143 3 31 1 15 2 53 2 24-1 2 70 3 22 8 33 4 24 5 57 3 8 0 35 1 C a r p e n t e r , the Essex professional, who has been left out of the county team this year, has again accepted an engage­ ment as coach to the Melbourne C.C. He will sail for Australia on September 11th. It will be remembered that he gave great satisfaction last year to the Melbourne C.C. by his excellent coaching. This year he has hardly played in any first-class cricket. I t cm very seldom have happened during a tour that the aggregate of runs made by the tourists and their opponents is so nearly equal as in the case of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia tour. The Americans scored in all matches 5,441 runs for 263 wickets, average 20 68 per w icket; their opponents, 5 2'24 runs for 260 wickets, average 20 09 per wicket. I f any cricket historian of the future happens by chance to come across the contents bill of one of yesterday’s evening papers, he will probably be a good deal mystified. This contents bill, which appeared as soon as the result of the match between Middlesex and Yorkshire was known, was as follows: M I D D L E S E X 7 5 ‘0 0 . YO R K S H I R E 52-98. T o - d a y , Yorkshire and Middlesex stand thus in the championship table : Per- Pld. Won. Lst.Drn.Pts. c’nt’ge. Middlesex.................... 12 .. 7 ... 1 ... 4 ... 6 .. 76’00 Yorkshire................... 22 ...15 .. 4 ... 5 ... 9 ... 6294 If Middlesex lose their next match and Yorkshire win theirs, the two counties will be equal with 55'55 points. M r . F. S. A s h le y - C o o p e r is un­ fortunately ill, and for this reason his copy arrived last night too late to be printed. This will explain why there is no “ At the Sign of the Wicket ” in this week’s Cricket. “ S u s s e x C r i c k e t B a t t l e s ” is th9 title of a email book compiled by Mr. Alfred D. Taylor, and reprinted from the Hove Gazette. The author takes each team played by Sussex as a separate sub­ ject, refers in a few words to any im­ portant or specially interesting matches, gives the results of the matches, and generally adds a few notes. From one of these notes I learn that for Sussex against Kent at Sevenoaks in 1827 T. Pierpoint was seven hours and a half in making 31 runs. Willie Quaife must be a Jessop as compared with this gentle­ man. A n o t h e r little book, reprinted from the same paper, and compiled by Mr. Taylor, is entitled “ Cricket Extraordi­ nary.” It is divided into chapters headed “ Feats in Batting,” “ Bowling Extraordinary,” “ Achievementsin Field­ ing,” “ Performances at the Wicket,” “ Umpires and Umpiring,” and “ On Scoring.” From this it will be seen that Mr. Taylor covers a wide field. From