Cricket 1903

458 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. Nov. 26, 1903. report presented at tbe annual general meeting of the Melbourne Club recently. “ A flying visit to Australia was paid by Lord Hawke’s Team, under the captaincy of Mr. P. F. Warner, en route from New Zealand. The visitors played one match against Victoria on the Melbourne Ground. Although they had proved much too good for New Zealand, where they won all their matches, they were beaten in Melbourne, but they showed that they were worthy foemen, and played the game with all-round skill, and in a very fine spipit, and had many players whom it was a pleasure to watch in all departments of the game. The visit was much enjoyed, and during their short stay the visitors made themselves very popular.” T HE draw in the first round in the competition for the Currie Cup, Sir Donald Currie’s gift which has done so much to stimulate cricket in South Africa, is as follows:— ■Western Province v. Griqualand West, at Kimberley. Eastern Province v. Border, at Border. Transvaal v. Natal, at Johannesburg. O.E.C., a bye. The matches to be completed by December 1. I n view of the Test Matches it will interest English cricket readers to know that Clem Hill, the famous South Aus­ tralian left-hander, is in bis best form just now. His 166 not out for East Toorens v. East Adelaide on October 17th was the first century of the South Australian season in senior cricket, and his runs were got without a mistake. Since then he has made another century, this time a score of 147 for South Australia v. Victoria. C r ic k e t in America does not receive snch an amount of support that it can lose the “ bold advertisement ” which accrues to the game and its chief exponent from a periodical record of the years’ doings. It is therefore satisfactory to learn that The American Cricketers’ Annual which Mr. Jerome Flannery first published in 1889, and was continued regularly with the one exception of this year, is to reappear at an early date. Arrangements have been made by Mr. Flannery with the American Sports Publishing C o . who are preparing the edition of 1904 to consist of some two hundred and fifty pages with numerous illustrations. A good piece of wicket-keeping was credited to Carter (J. J. Kelly’s under­ study in the Australian Team of last year). The occasion was a match in which he played against North Sydney at Sydney, on October 10th. In the North Sydney score of 384 for seven wickets, there was only one extra—and that was a leg-bye. Of the North’s total of 384, A. J. Hopkins, of the last Aus­ tralian team, contributed 148. T h e following is from the Sydney Mail: The method of practising fielding, sug­ gested by the University C.C. committee is one that i» observed by several of the local elubi. At the Sydney Cricket Ground, too, during summer afternoons it is quite usual to see fielding practice of that character indulged in, always after the players taking part have had their net practice. You will often see M. A. Noble, Victor Trumper, J. R. Mackay, W. E. Pite, A. Diamond, A. C. K. Mackenzie, and K. H. Quist practising thus, also A. J. Hopkins, R. A. Duff, R. N . Hickson and others less frequently. To the fact that Australian cricketers of the first class keep up their fielding practice as they do their batting and bowling is to be attributed the marked superiority of an Australian side generally in the finer points of the art of saving runs. T h e veteran George Giffen, Clem Hill, and N. H. Claxton have been appointed selectors of the South Australian teams for the current season. T h o u g h not such a fine all-round player as his brothers who did such good service in their time for Kent, Mr. John Penn, M .P. for Lewisham, who died on Saturday, was himself a useful cricketer and played a good deal for many years. He was too an excellent as well as an enthusiastic golfer. A s w a r m of bees, probably hearing that “ B ill” Howell, known to many as the Bee Farmer, had been in the vicinity, swarmed on one of the seats at the Waverley Oval in Sydney on October 10th, when the North Sydney-Waverley match was in progress. Howell was there on the previous Saturday, and but for the eight-hour holiday he would have been there on the following Saturday. The busy bee can scarcely be expected to know all about labour movements, hard­ working though it be. The space in the vicinity of the swarm was vacant. One unsuspecting individual sat right against it, but like a good bowler be quickly varied his pace when bis opponents had scored, remarking as he did so “ it’s warm.” T h e following is an extract from the Sydney Mail on the subject of the bowler trying to run out an incautious bats­ man :— A correspondent in Noumea asks if it fre­ quently occurs that the bowler when in the act of delivery tries to run out the batsman at his end, said batsman being over zealous in backing np for the run. This occurs very seldom indeed. I remember in a match New South Wales v. Victoria, Laver trying to run out Donnan, and he would have succeeded had he hit the wicket. The ball, however, went for two runs. There have been a few cases where the bowler has suddenly brought his hand, with ball, down to the wicket. There are probably very few readers who have seen the bowler shy deliberately at the opposite wicket. It happened once on the Albert Ground in 1873, the batsman was none other than the great W. G. Grace, and the bowler was David Gregory, the captain of the first team that defeated Englishmen on equal terms, and also of the first Australian team. “ W.G.,” in the course of his innings repeatedly walked out of his crease towards the bowler, and “ Dave ” had a shy at the wicket. As to whether a batsman could be put out under such circumstances there is no unanimity of opinion. If the non-striker may be put out by the bowler for leaving his crease then it should be possible for the bowler to similarly put out the striker who is trying to take advantage of the bowler. T h e programme of matches, other than those for the local premiership, arranged by the New South Wales Cricket Associa­ tion, is now fixed. Including the two Test matches, there will be seven first- class matches in Sydney, while the team will also play one each at Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane :— November 7 and 9, New South Wales v. Next Thirteen, at Sydney. November 20, New South Wales v. England, at Sydney. December 11, Australia v. England (first Test match(, at Sydney. December 19, New S3uth Wales v. South Australia, at Adelaide. December 22, New South Wales v. Victoria, at Melbourne. December 26, New South Wales v. Queensland, at Sydney. January 23, New South Wales v. Victoria, at Sydney. February 12, New South Wales v. England, at Sydoey. February 19, New South Wales v. South Australia, at Sydney. February 26, Australia v. England (fourth Test match), at Sydney. Easter, New South Wales v. Queensland, at Brisbane. A t a meeting of the New South Wales Cricket Association, held on October 19th, it was agreed that the Association should fall in with the proposal of the Victorian and South Australian Associations to pay the members of visiting teams to each state for test matches £25 each, while deprecating the action of these associa­ tions in deciding to do so without refer­ ence to the New South Wales body. T h e old Australian skipper, Harry Trott, began the Victorian season very auspiciously with a good score of 102 for the United Service v. Bendigo United. Whether even now he would be able to stand the severe physical strain of big cricket which is less laborious than in England seems to be very open to doubt. It is hardly necessary for me to recall that the old time representative of Australia scored 20 and 10 for Victoria against the Marylebone team at Melbourne a fort­ night ago. L or d H a r r is , who is Chairman of the Consolidated Goldfields, is about to pay a visit to South Africa. T h r o u g h o u t t e M.C.C. tour, as far as it has gone, P. F. Warner has changed his bowling in a way which would astonish the old school, who were in the habit of allowing a certain number of runs to go up before making a change. Warner has invariably made very frequent changes, and so far his methods have worked out uncommonly well. I l is proposed to erect a building on the Warwickshire County Ground at Edgbaston, for the purpose of providing two practice wickets for use during the winter.