Cricket 1903

426 CEICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S ept . 17, 1903. purposes in the middle of a cold autumn, and it is not to be wondered at that spectators did not roll up in their tens of thousands, although they were fairly numerous. N in e of the members of the M.C.C. Australian team took part in the match at the Oval this week between the Champion County and the Rest of England. Seven of them played for the Rest of England. Tbe two chief bowlers of the team, Rhodes and Hirst, took one wicket between them for 89 runs in the first innings of Middlesex, while Arnold took another for 48. Bosaiiquet took no wickets for 15 in the first iuniugs of the Rest. On the other hand Braund took four wickets for 32. T wo wickets between four men for 152. . U n d e r the will of the late Mr. Quin­ ton Hogg, twenty acres of ground have been purchased at Grove Park, Chiswick, as a cricket and athletic grou-.d for the Regent Street Polytechnic. Up to the time of going to press the fifteenth place in the M.C.C. team, offered to and declined by R. H. Spooner, has not been filled up. A very large number of cricketers would like to see the fif­ teenth place given to G. W. Beldam, for with the exception of Knight, there is no one in the team who plays an entirely defensive game. Most of the team will sail for Australia on the “ Orontes ” on the 25 th inst., but some of them will make the first part of the journey over­ land. Meanwhile as the team will have sailed before the next issue of Cricket appears, I give below the names of the fourteen men who constitute the teq,m :— P. P. Warner (Middlesex) captain, R. E. Foster (Worcestershire), B. J. T. Bosanquet (Middlesex), Hirst (Yorkshire), Bhodes (Yorkshire), Hayward (Surrey), Tyldesley (Lancashire), Braund (Somerset), Strudwick (Surrey), Arnold (Worcestershire), Belf (Sussex), Fielder (Kent), Lilley (Warwickshire), Knight (Leicestershire). Two letters have reached me of quite extraordinary interest. It will be re­ membered that on August 27th Mr. Ashley-Cooper gave a list in “ At the Sign of the Wicket ” of the various in­ nings of ever 300 which have been made in any kind of cricket. It is hardly necessary to say that this list would have been regarded as absolutely accurate by every statistician under the sun, for it seemed almost impossible that any score of over 300 could have escaped notice. But the two letters to which I refer, and which I give below, show an entirely new light on the situation. It will be seen that one of the letters is written from Stockton-on-Tees, and the other from Manchester, and that both gentlemen sign their names and refer to the same scores. T h e first of these two letters is written from Denville House, Openshaw, Man­ chester, by Mr. A. C. Glendenning on September 12th. He says :— “ Referring to the article by Mr. F. S. Ashley-Cooper ‘ At the Sign of the Wicket’ in the number dated August 27th, 1903, he gives all individual scores of 300 or over in one innings. I thought it would perhaps interest you if I told you of two more of these scores which Mr. Ashley-Cooper did not mention. In the season of 1899 I wit­ nessed a ‘ class ’ cricket match between Mr. L. Lincoln-Townsend’s eleven and Mr. L. W . T. Oliver’s eleven. For Mr. Lincoln- Townsend’s eleven one batsman, Mr. Percival Cooke, went in third wicket down and carried his hat through the innings, scoring 415 not out. The innings realised 651 runs. A week or two afterwards Mr. Lincoln-Townsend scored 385 against Mr. W. M. T. Warren’s eleven at Castleton. Mr. Cooke’s score was also made at Castleton. I can vouch for the authenticity of these two scores, for, although not personally acquainted with any of the clubs concerned, I was a spectator at both matches. I can send you the scores of both matches if you mention it in Cricket. Please do not write me, as I am now going away for three months.’ ’ A n d from 13, Derwent Street, Stockton, Durham, Mr. Percival Cooke writes on September 14th I have just seen a copy of Cricket, dated August 27th, 1903. I see that there is in this number a list of all individual scores of 300 and over. I am writing to tell you that there were two scores of over 300 made in one week at Castleton. In the first match— between Mr. L. Lincoln Townsend’s eleven and Mr. L. R. Oliver’s eleven—I had the pleasure of scoring 415 out of a total of 651. I went in third wicket down, and at night was not out 282. The next morning I very rapidly ran on to 415, when I was caught at point, being the last man out. I am only telling you this because I thought you would he pleased to hear of any big scores like this. I do not claim any merit for the score as the bowling was of a poor quality and I was missed three times. At the end of the week Mr. Lincoln Townsend scored 385 against Mr. T. Warren’s eleven. Both matches were of a purely friendly nature, in fact I think I may call them picnic matches. If you desire I could send you full particulars of both matches. Your paper Cricket is, I think, a very good one. I have only recently seen it and I shall take it always. N a t u r a l l y both these above letters are of very great interest, and naturally I I shall be delighted to receive the scores of both matches. But I am sure that Mr. Percival Cooke and Mr. A. C. Glen­ denning will both agree with me that anything which they can produce in the way of actual proof, such as for instance the score book or a local newspaper (although it is quite likely that the scores were never published), would greatly add to tbe value of their information. I do not for one moment doubt their good faith, but there are unbelievers in every society, and in a matter of such high importance it would be advisable to throw as much light as possible on these records. It does not matter in the very least whether the scores were made in “ picnic matches,” as Mr. Cooke describes them. Scores are scores. Mr. C. W. P ip e r writes from P ly ­ mouth, Montserrat, Leeward Islands. “ A ball in play is returned to the wicket keeper, who takes the same with one hand and breaks tbe wicket with the other, whilst the batsman is out of his ground. Is the batsman o u t? ” The answer is “ not out.” The wicket must be put down “ with the ball, or with hand or arm with ball in hand.” Not with ball in the other band. T h e professionals and umpires who took part iu the Middlesex v. Rest of England match at the Oval (which was played on behalf of the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society and the London Play­ ing Fields Society) promised Mr. H. Luff, the honorary secretary of the former society, to subscribe the following amounts to its funds:— £ s. d £ s. d. V. A. Titchmarsh 2 2 0 W. Rhodes . 2 2 0 W. A. J. West... 2 2 0 H. Strudwick . . 2 2 0 J. T. Tyldesley.. 2 2 0 J. T. Kawlin . . 2 2 0 J. T. Hearne ... 2 2 0 J. Gunn ... . . 1 0 0 G. H. Hirst 2 2 0 E. Arnold ... . . 1 0 0 L. C. Braund ... 2 2 0 A. E. Trott . 1 0 0 T. Hayward 2 2 0 E. G. Hayes . 1 0 0 Total £25. I t is stated that G. L. Jessop has signed a League form for the Reading Association Football Club, and that he will play full back. O n Tuesday, Mr. J. A. Bourne, the Staffordshire cricketer, died at Fenton at the age of twenty-three, after a long illness. T he death is announced in bis ninetieth year of John Joel, who for a long lime had charge of the cricket materials at Eton College. T h e death of Mr. Walter Haigh, of Huddersfield, recalls the story published in tbe Yorkshire Evening Post some time ago of the difficulties experienced by the Lascelles Hall Cricket Club in its early days. “ They used,” said Mr. Haigh, “ to practise in an old quarry at the bottom of our fields in the first place. When my father took the Hall they wanted a more open space, and my father permitted them to make a little wicket in a paddock, locally known as ‘ t’croft.’ This paddock was by the side of a wall, and we had as grand a wicket there as you could wish to bat on. Having the wall on the one side, the players used to practise strokes to the off more than any other, and that is one great reason why several of the Lascelles Hall batsmen proved such accomplished hitters on the off-side.” Of the present ground at Lascelles Hall, Mr. Haigh said :— “ The members of the club drew lots as to who had to work, and they used to pay 3s. 6d. a dayor work themselves in laying the ground. There were about ninety odd members, and between them they laid the ground and made what remains up to this day a wicket than which there isno finer to be found in England. The ground was well drained, and was sown with lawn seed and white clover. It has always been well looked after, which is one of