Cricket 1903

428 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 17, 1903. R E V IE W of t h e SEASON , 1903. For the sake of the cricketers of the future, it is to be hoped that the season of 1903 will go down to history as the wettest and most miserable on record, for if any of them have to go through a worse season than that which has just passed, their lot will be indeed wretched. The season of 1902 was b id enough in all conscience, but it was not all bad, and the sun occasionally shone, while there was not an ever present wind. Within the memory of man nothing like the past season has ever been known. It may seem a little strange that under such circumstances the bowlers should not have had better averages, but the fact is that there has been so much wet, and it has been so continual, that in match after match bowlers have had to use a wet ball, and batsmen have not been so greatly handicapped as they might have been if there had been more sun. There has been very little excitement, for although the Gentlemen of Philadelphia gave an excellent account of themselves, they are not strong enough yet to oppose England, so that there were no “ test ” matches over which to argue about the teams. But towards the end of the season there was a good deal of interest taken in the fight for the county champion­ ship, while the discussion about the M.C.C. team for Australia was decidedly animated; especially when it was found that many of the greatest players of the day were not to make the journey. During the winter and early spring the proposal to widen the wicket was much talked about, and the opinion of first - class cricketers and the playing members of clubs seemed to be decidedly against any alteration in the present width. But at the annual meet­ ing of the M.O.C. 215 members voted for the change and 199 against it, so that but for the rule that a law cannot be made or altered unless there is a two-thirds majority in favour of it, the stumps in 1903 would have been nine inches wide instead of eight. On the whole the sea­ son passed quietly enough, without any unpleasant incidents in the shape of no­ balling for throwing. Abel was practi­ cally absent from first-class cricket during the whole season, and at the beginning of August the serious illness of Mr. C. W. Alcock, the Surrey county secretary, threw a gloom over the country and Surrey in particular. It is hardly necessary to say that not a single pro­ posal of any importance whatever to reform the game from the point of view of the bowlers made its appearance during the season. There is no necessity for looking at the tables of averages, or for comparing scores, in order to find out the man of the year. Nor can there be any hesitation as to whether it would be well to bracket two or three men for the first place. For C. B. Fry stands alone as unquestionably the man of 1903. His position has not been gained by means of several large scoresmixed up with heaps of low ones,but by consistent play throughout the season, and never before has he so reminded old cricketers of what Dr. Grace was like when ia his prime. It has, perhaps natur­ ally, been customary to describe Fry as a man whose reputation has been male almost entirely by the perfection of modern wickets, but while he has fre­ quently in previous years done exceed­ ingly well when he has had to play bowlers who had their favourite wickets to work upon, he has never before been so completely master of the situation. In a bowler’s year he has consistently made high scores with hardly any failures; he has shown an adaptability which can only be described as astonish­ ing to circumstances of all kinds ; in fine he has bsen master of the situation. He has taken away the reproach that English­ men hare no batsmen who can stand beside Trumper and live. The pity of it is that Fry cannot give practical proof to the Australians that his comparative failure against them last year need not make them fear that he would not give them sufficient sport this winter. It is no more difficult to point to the man who comes next to Fry. This can be no other than Ranjitsinhji, whose performancas, but for the fact that they have been overshadowed by those of his companion in the Sussex team, would have been regarded as wonderful. In a season which was even worse for batsmen than that of 1902, he completely recovered his form, and with only 38 completed innings made nearly two thousand runs. His doings have been all the more re­ markable because, as a native of India, such a miserable season as the past must have been entirely unsuited to his tem­ perament. It was a wonderful thing that he could adapt himself to the altered conditions as to play the most brilliant cricket on occasions when everything must have been disheartening and dis­ couraging to him, when he must have been disgusted at the prolonged absence of a sun which in his earlier years he only knew as a constant and almost over­ powering visitor. But over and over again he has been seen to immense advantage, and has bewildered the bowl­ ers opposed to him by the fertility of his resources. It has been a great season for him, despite its wet and cold. If only he and Fry could have got going together in Australia this winter ! Thus far it has been the simplest of tasks to decide on the positions of the chief players of the year, for there can be no two opinions about the merits of Fry and Ranjitsinhji. But when it comes to the third place one is hopelessly at a loss. But the chances are that in a general vote of first-class cricketers the name of Maclaren would appear more frequently than that of anyone else. Maclaren has quite got back his old form, and his old reputation as a man who is to be depended on for runs when no one could feel really confident of playing a long innings. He has shown equal skill in defence and in attack, and he has been a tower of strength to the Lancashire team. Never has he shown more conclusively that no England team can be called complete without him. He has been, as always, the very man required for a big occasion, witness his determined stand with Fry in the second innings of Gentlemen v. Players, at Lord’s, when the two men completely changed the fortunes of an apparently hopeless game. The fourth place may perhaps be given jointly to Hirst, Perrin, L, C. JELPalairet, Knight and Ironmonger, who have all been consistent and have all done parti­ cularly well in times of difficulty and danger. Palairet, Knight and Perrin have each been the mainstay of their side; they have not received as much help as the other two men, and on the whole one would be inclined to consider their performances as slightly more meritorious than those of Hirst and Iremonger, who have nevertheless had a fine season. Hayward has played in more innings than anybody else, but he has also scored more runs than anybody except Fry, and as usual he, owes his position to a series of good innings rather than a few very big ones against weak bowling. For a time he seemed to show signs that his powers were failing a little, but he soon reasserted himself, and despite the discouraging form shown by Surrey, he kept well to the front. That he had few chances of pulling his county out of a hole was not his fault but his misfortune. Tyldesley, W. G. Quaife, and P. F. Warner have all had a very satisfactory season, while among other men who have played up to their reputation are A. O. Jones, H. K. Foster, W. Gunn, J. Gunn, Hayes, Denton, Braund, C. McGahey, C. M. Wells, A. J. L. Hill, W. L. Murdoch, C. J. Burnup, Arnold, and Vine. Except for a remark­ able innings of 286, which won the match against Sussex for Gloucestershire, Jessop has hardly been at his best, although he has often played a fine game. But he has very seldom got right into his stride this season, though he does not seem to have lost any of his confidence. Brann and Newham have done wonders for Sussex ; they are both adepts at making runs when they are badly wanted. Without question G. W. Beldam has greatly improved his position, although at the beginning of the season he took some time in settling down. As a defen­ sive player he is one of the most useful of the day. The Australian, L, O. S. Poidevin, has not played very much, but he has quite shown that he is worthy of the reputation which he gained before he came to England. Over and over again Lord Hawke has played a very useful innings for his side, although his highest score is 79; he nearly always manages to keep up his end at a pinch. Another Yorkshireman, Rhodes, has proved him­ self a particularly useful man at a crisis. Among the rising players R. H. Spooner has, perhaps, attracted the greatest attention, although B. J. T. Bosanquet has deservedly risen high iu the estima­ tion of cricketers by his ability to play a strong game when things are going badly with his side. Djvvson has done better than before, but one always feels that he ought to be even better than he