Cricket 1903

412 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Sept. 10, 1903. T H E C O U N T Y C H A M P IO N S H IP . Despite the miserable weather for which the past season was noted—per­ haps even because of it—the interest taken in the county championship was, if possible, more intense than ever. True, the excitement was not kept up until the very last moment, as has occasionally happened, but it lasted until within about a week of the end of the season. That it should be possible for a county to win the championship, after finishing nine matches only, four of them against Gloucestershire and Somerset, is not the fault of the county but of the system, which is admittedly not perfect. It is, for example, open to the objection that a county which won but a single match and drew the rest, however unfavourably, would be the champions if no other county won all its finished matches— it may possibly be remembered that some years ago Notts were in this position for nearly half the season. But unless and until an arrangement can be made by which each county plays each other county on the League system, percen­ tages must of necessity find a place in estimating the position of the various shires. Unfortunately the present method does not give anything like an accurate idea of the value of a county’s perform­ ances, and it is an amusing anomaly that Middlesex should be more than 20 per cent, better than Sussex according to the tables. But as the tables stand, Middlesex have deservedly won the first place. Their team has invariably worked hard to win, while towards the end of the season it was undeniably very powerful, and may be said to have had no tail. Tbe bowling was eminently suited by the weather, and on the slow wickets appeared to be very strong indeed, with plenty of variation. But undoubtedly the strongest point of the team was, that it possessed so many useful batsmen. There were no brilliant stars like Fry and Rinjitsinhji, but on the other hand every man who went in was quite likely to make a res­ pectable score, let the wicket be ever so bad. The batting averages are not at all high, and if Wells, who heads the list, be left out on the ground that four of only eleven innings were incomplete, it will be seen that there is a succession of thirties and twenties, while with the exception of Douglas, who once made over two hun­ dred, and Warner, who was once within a run of a hundred and fifty, no one made a very big score. But most of the men played only about half as many innings as those belonging to Yorkshire, Lancashire and Surrey, who had so many more chances of coming a cropper, such as so often happens in a wet season. With the great satisfaction of knowing that they had twice beaten Yorkshire, and the keen disappointment of not being able to have a go at Middlesex at all (for the one-day match at Lord’s was doomed to make very little progress) Sussex worthily fill the second place in the table. It is, perhaps, natural that Sussex should be described as a two-man team, for Fry and Ranjitsinhji over-shadowed all their companions by their great performances. But the county had many other sound batsmen, and Vine over and over again was a tower of strength to the side by his sturdy defence. Brann and Newham, when called upon to fill the places of f younger men, played such fine cricket once more that they must be regarded as among the most successful and useful batsmen of the year, and Brann’s innings against Yorkshire on a very difficult wicket was a masterpiece of skill. In bowling the county was certainly deficient, and but for this it would with­ out much doubt have easily come in first. There were several useful men, but no great ones. Tate unfortunately fell off very considerably. In the batting Fry’s average is 80, Ranjitsinhji’s 58 and Brann’s 43. Fry has the splendid aggre­ gate of 2413. The season of the Yorkshiremen, who are third on the list, was disappointing in the extreme. Their bowling was as strong as ever on slow wickets, and there was plenty of it, but when the wicket happened to be in favour of the batsmen the team was not itself. Quite early in the season Yorkshire seemed to be placed out of the running for the chatapion- ship, and before tbe middle of June they had been beaten by Somerset (their only conquerors in 1902), Middlesex and Sussex. On July 1st they were again beaten, their victors this time being Sur­ rey,but after that they made a tremendous fight for the championship and it was not until their very last match of the season that they knew defeat once more, going down before Sussex at Brighton. For three years they had enjoyed a period of brilliantand almost uninterjuptedsuccess, but the Fates fought against them this year and they were often deprived by the weather of what seemed a certain victory. Even in the Kent match which they so nearly lost at Canterbury, the weather, which eventually saved them, fought against them all through the match. The absence of Hirst at a critical time was very greatly felt, and in addi­ tion to this the county had to deplore the inability of F. S. Jackson to play in more than a few matches, while T. L . Taylor was not available and Washington was too ill to play at all. It is a pity that Ernest Smith cannot assist his county until August, but after all there are more important things in life than county matches. On the whole the batting was not quite as sound as in the three previous years and the tail did not come as per­ sistently as of old to the rescue of their side when the great batsmen had failed. It was chiefly to this uncertainty in the batting that Yorkshire owed their defeats, but at the same time it is questionable whether their bowling, except on sticky wickets, was as deadly as usual. That the team under the captaincy of Lord Hawke, who very frequently made useful scores when runs were ever so badly wanted, worked well together, goes without say­ ing. To a man they all did their best to win, and in July and August their per­ formances were on the highest level. There was nothing about the Lanca­ shire season which was particularly noticeable. The team lost the same number of matches as Yorkshire, but there is no doubt that the county was not as strong as its neighbour. On his day, Barnes was one of the very finest bowlers in England, and his record for the season is distinctly good. But the other bowlers were variable quantities, and although Brearley raised great hopes that he would be found a worthy successor to Mold, and, indeed, did remarkably well at times, it cinnot be denied that Mold has not yet been replaced. Nor has a successor been found to Briggs. Again in batting, Lancashire did not strike one as beirig very strong. True Maclaren had a most successful season, and proved conclusively enough that no England eleven can be considered complete with­ out him. True also that in R. H. Spooner the county has discovered a gold mine, and that A. H. Hornby has frequently distinguished himself, but there are few great batsmen in the team, while there is a pronounced tail. Until nearly the end of June, Notts made a very strong bid for the Champion­ ship, and did not lose a match. But they then seemed to fall to pieces, and were beaten by Derbyshire and twice by Yorkshire before they again won a match. In Iremonger, A. O. Jones, and the three Gunns they had the nucleus of a very powerful team, but they had a long tail, while the bowling left a good deal to be desired. John Gunn was by far the most effective bowler, but he had many ups and downs, and at times could do nothiDg right. The county badly wants another Attewell. Worcestershire has had a season with which it8 supporters must be more than satisfied. Eight matches were won, a number which was only exceeded by Yorkshire and Lancashire, who both played six more times than Worcester­ shire. If the tail had not been so long the county might have given even a better account of itself. H. K. Foster proved to be a tower of strength to the team, but R. E. Foster played but sel­ dom, and only had an average of fifteen, though his falling off is hardly likely to be more than temporary. The bowling was often distinctly good, and Arnold took over a hundred wickets. For some years the Surrey men have had the reputation of being but poor players on wickets which are not fast and true, but for a very long time they have not had such a bad season as that of 1903. Even ten years ago, when after a long period of success they fell from grace, they lost fewer matches than in the past season. But the wet weather is not the only cause for their want of success; they have been unfortunate in many ways. The absence of Abel from the team for practically the whole year was a misfortune in itself great enough to account for a considerable falling off. In addition to this there was the loss of V. F. S. Crawford and Jephson, an almost entire absence of promising recruits, and a complete want of life in