Cricket 1903

S ept . 3, 1903. CRICKET : A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 393 the same thing, but no other county has ever produced three men who have taken a hundred wickets in the same season. T h e policy of putting in the opposing side when you win the toss has received another check by the severe defeat of Leicestershire at the hands of Essex. On Thursday morning last week Y. F. S. Crawford calculated that the wicket would be very difficult at first, but would improve later, and accordingly he sent Essex in. For an hour or so it was very hard to make runs, but later in the day Essex did so well that they were not disposed of until just before the time for drawing stumps, and their total was 308. It rained in the night, and Leicester­ shire suffered accordingly. On the other hand, Lord Hawke successfully adopted the same experiment at Scjrborough against the M.C.C. The moral seems to be that, if you have a side which is ex­ ceptionally strong in bowling, and are opposed to a team which you are morally certain to beat if you have time, you may occasionally venture to put it in first. T h e r e has been an interesting corres­ pondence in the Sportsman on the subject of consecutive tie matches. On Friday the following letter appeared :— The 2nd XI. of the Alexandra Park C.O. journeyed to Tillingham on August Bank Holiday to play the local team, and each side scored 30 runs. On the following Saturday, against Friern Barnet (2nd), the scores were 59 each, and in the next match, againstChrist Church (2nd), each team again totalled 30 runs. On the first two occasions our oppo­ nents went first to the wickets, but in the last match the Parks batted first. To this on the next day, Mr. F. S. Ashley-Cooper replied as follows :— In September, 1891, theMotherwell Trinity C.C. played three consecutive tie-matches as follows :—September 5th, v. Wesleyans, each side scoring 36 ; September 12th, v. New­ mans, each side scoring 36 ; September 14th, v. Ross Ramblers, each side scoring 66. In the last-mentioned match the Ross Ramblers had equalled the Motherwell Trinity score with six wickets down, but the four remain­ ing batsmen failed to augment the score, and three of them fell in four balls. There is thus a precedent for the recent remarkable experiences undergone by the 2nd XI. of the Alexandra Park C.C., of which particulars are given in your issue of to-day. Yours, etc., l'\ S. A shley -C ooper . O n Saturday a third correspondent stated that during a week’s cricket in July he assisted in four tie-matches out of six played. The first three were ties, the fourth drawn with scores of 208 and and 202 for nine wickets, while the fifth was a tie, and the sixth a victory for Mr. Giles’s side. As was stated in “ Gossip ” last week, it was originally intended that a match should be played at Lord’ s on Septem­ ber 17th and following days between the M.C.C. Australian team and the Rest of England. But as several amateurs would I be unable to play, it has been decided that the match Bhall not take place. A t the end of last week there was quite a novelty in the way of weather, and in none of the five first-class matches had play to be abandoned for a whole day on account of rain. But on the Thursday, at Worcester (Gloucestershire v. Worcestershire), it was only possible to play for half-an-hour, and at Scar­ borough (Yorkshire v. M.C.C. & Ground) for an hour and a-quarter. Fkom the St. James’s Gazette : — Whilst the writer was rambling about the estate at Hatfield on the day Lord Salisbury died he was astonished to find several boyish cricket matches in full swing in front of the house! These lads were aware that Lord Salisbury was very ill, but they had been given expressly to understand that the master liked to think his illness did not prevent them at their games. They had their lives before them—his was behind. As the champion county of 1903-4, Middlesex will have the honour of oppos­ ing the Best of England in the match at the Oval on September 14th and following days. The proceeds of the match will be shared between the London Playing Fields Society and the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society. S ince 1890 the following counties have been the champions : — 1890 Surrey 1891 Surrey 1892 Surrey 1893 Yorkshire 1894 Surrey 1895 8urrey 1896 Yorkshire 1897 Lancashire 1898 Yorkshire lb99 Surrey 1900 Yorkshire 1901 Yorkshire 1902 Yorkshire 19J3 Middlesex On Saturday, Gloucestershire, Essex and Worcestershire concluded their sea­ son, while Hampshire, Leicestershire, Kent and Somerset have j ust done so. The only counties which still have a match to play are Surrey and Sussex, who will finish their season at the end of this week. The usual review of the county season and the complete averages will appear in next week’s Cricket . T h e Old Boys of the City of London School have a quarterly magazine, which is issued to all old boys and members of the Old Citizens’ Athletic Union. The number for August, which is the fourth of the series, chiefly consists of chatty reports of cricket matches played by the “ Old Citizens’ C.C.,” as well as the scores, which have appeared from week to week in Cricket. The editor is Mr. A. Philpott, and Mr. K. C. Cole is the honorary secretary of the Old Citizens’ C.C. As was only to be expected, the above interesting quarterly magazine has some­ thing to say about the weather. Thus : It certainly was difficult to enthuse about cricket whilst wearing a wet mackintosh day after day, and sitting round a fire in the evening. None of the team would have been surprised to receive the Hon. Secretary’s intimation that the Pallingswick match was scratched. They were probably also quite prepared to hear that the South Hampstead ground was under water on the Saturday following. Under the circumstances it was, perhaps, not to be wondered at that an overcoated, umbrella-bearing group of only eight Old Citizens assembled on the Private Banks’ ground for what should have been our third match. P o s s ib ly some remarks made to his readers by the editor of the Old Citizens' Magazine may explain how it is that there are sometimes mistakes in the scores in Cricket and other newspapers. He says : Cricket and mathematics evidently do not agree. We have spent a long time trying to reconcile some of the totals given in the reports of matches with the individual scores of which they are supposed to be composed, but have failed dismally. It is not the fault of the printer this time. A c o r r e s p o n d e n t of th q Daily Express points out that, if the present system of scoring in the County Championship is continued, precisely the same results might be arrived at by a simple method of proportion, instead of the cumbrous method now in use. He gives the fol­ lowing tables of last year’s results, and it will be noticed that in his proposed system the objectionable and impossible minus percentages are done away with and that the position of the counties is not altered :— I rrational M ethod . R ational M ethod . W. L. 13 . . 7 . Yorks Sussex Notts ... 6 Surrey ... 8 Lancs. ... 7 Warwick.. 6 Kent ... 8 Somerset.. 7 ... 7 Worcester 5 ... 6 Derby ... 4 Leicester.. 2 Middlesex 3 Essex ... 2 .Gloucester 3 Hants ... 2 ...10 . Pts. 12 4 3 . 3 . 2 . 1 . 0 . 0 . —1 . —1 . —2 . —4 . —3 . —6 . —8 . Percent. 8571 40-00 .3333 .2307 16-66 . 9-09 . 0*00 . 0 00 . — 9-09. . —11-11 . -33-33 . —40-CO . —4‘«-85 . —50-00. Wins by completed games. ... 13-14 ... 7-10 ... 6-9 ... 8-13 ... 7-12 ... 6-11 ... 8-16 ... 7-14 ... 5-11 ... 4-9 ... 2-6 ... 3-10 ... 2-7 ... 3-12 ... 2-12 ... Per­ cent­ age. 92*83 70-00 66-66 61-53 58-33 5454 50 00 5000 4545 44-44 33*33 30 00 2857 25 00 16-66 W it h regard to Mr. C. A . Fredericks* query in “ Gossip” last week about the bowling analysis in a match in Yorkshire in 1885, “ Yorkshireman ” writes: —“ I think that if he wrote to the editor of the North Eastern Daily Gazette, Middlesbro’ , he might be almost sure of obtaining what he requires. I saw the match in question, and have a vivid recollection of Peel’s 213. But perhaps he has tried the above. F rom Nova Scotia Mr. Desmond Killi- kelly writes: I witnessed a cricket match last Saturday, the 15th inst., which resulted so curiously that I have thought it worthy of record in the columns of your valuable paper. The game resulted in a tie, the total score of each innings being identical. The first innings produced 29 each and the second innings 65 each. Another curious feature of the game was that in the second innings of each side the top scores were both 29, the total of the first innings of each side. Perhaps Mr. Killykelly will be kind enough to send me the scores of this match, as they would be of general and unusual interest.