Cricket 1904

M ay 12, 1904. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 123 the names of Major Poore, Capt. Greig and Capt. Wynyard are very familiar. Then, of course, there is Heseltine, who staggered humanity at Southampton and sent hack Ahel. Tn the first innings of the Gentlemen of England against Oxford University at Oxford on Monday the last wicket put on 101 runs in fifty minutes. Nine wickets were down for 132 runs when It. H . Fox joined H . D. G. Leveson-Gower, and the total was 233. C. J. E a d y , the Tasmanian cricketer, so it is said, has the strange distinction of being brother-in-law to his father-in- law. H e married the daughter of a Hobartian, who took Bady’s sister for his third wife. N ew s comes from Adelaide that J. Darling is likely to again take up his residence there, leaving his Tasmanian station in charge of a manager. His cricketing goods business has been carried on in Adelaide as usual. If it prove correct South Australian cricket will no doubt once more be strengthened by his presence. E. A . S h e p p a r d , who had his first trial for Surrey at the Oval this week, was a contemporary of V . F. S. Crawford in the Whitgift School Eleven. Craw­ ford has always had a high opinion of him, which he certainly justified on his first appearance in county cricket. He had a little luck, it is true, on Monday, but he has plenty of strokes, is a good upstanding batsman of well over six feet, plays the ball very hard, and is likely, when he gets used to strenuous cricket, to be a very dangerous batsman. More­ over, he is by no means a bad bowler as well as a good field. T h e point of v iew ! This is how Monday’s play at the Oval appealed to different observers:— “ Altogether the play, with the exception of Hayes’ hatting and Lee’s howling, was of hut little interest.” — Sportsman. “ As it happened, the cricket was hy no means without interest .” —Daily Telegraph. One would have thougut that the veriest tyro in cricket would have found some interest in seeing such promising cricket, even making allowance for a little luck, as was shown by R. A. Sheppard and Lord Dalmeny, young players who are both attractive to watch, and, at least, seem likely to train on into useful all-round men. But the ways of the ordinary cricket reporter are certainly peculiar. In fairness to the D. T. I may say that it added : “ The small company saw the home county go through the day with great credit.” F rom the Cricket S tar :— To the seeker after sensation cricket is often an irritating pastime. One of the literary personalities of Stonecutter Street, who, although well on in the thirties, had never seen W. G. hat, went up to Lord’s last Monday in the hope of seeing the Grand Old Man at work. Unfortunately London County were in the field, and he had to con­ sole himself with the hope that perhaps Jessop would provide some fireworks. As it happened, “ the Croucher ” was out first hall, and the disappointed lion-hunter was thinking of packing up when W. W . Odell started a rot amongst the Marylehone hats- men. After all there was a chance of seeing W . G. He waited until the London County innings commenced, and experienced a fierce thrill of anticipation when Grace stood up to Jack Heame. Imagine his disgust, if you can, when the Doctor was caught off his second hall for a blob. A little bird from Hampstead way tells me that F. E. Spofforth’s success with the ball last Saturday against the London Scottish has brought his aggregate of wickets for the Hampstead Club to over nine hundred. What are the odds that he will not reach the thousand before the season is over ? That he will have a good shot for it goes without saying. P . C. C h arlton , who came over here with the Australian team of 1890, should now be very near England, if not already here. P.C. who represented the North Sydney Club on the New South Wales Cricket Association is, or was, also hon. secretary of the I. Zingari O.C. of Sydney. It is said that he intends to spend some years in the Old Country. H ow long is it I wonder since a Surrey eleven went into the field without either Abel, Lockwood, Eichardson, or H ay­ ward ? Life is too short for such abstruse problems and patience is not given to everyone. Still I should be glad if some­ body would “ combine the information.” Though he did not get regularly going till the follow ing year, Abel’s introduction to first-class cricket I know was in 1881, and until last season when his eyesight gave way he was rarely out of the side. C a p t . W y n y a r d , who was representing Hampshire at the Oval this week, was recalling his first recollection of “ The Guv’nor ” the other day. It was in 1883, in the days when Surrey took some getting out, with J. Shuter, W . W . Eead, W. E. Eoller, E. J. Diver, Maurice Eead, Henderson, and A b el—all of them full of runs. The Hampshire and Surrey match that year was Capt. Wynyard’s first appearance at the Oval, and he has still a vivid recollection of it, having to field out while Surrey piled up 650. In the early part of the match, however, he had had the satisfaction of making the highfst score (61) for Hants. Abel’s 83, on the other side on that occasion, it may be added, was the first big innings he played for Surrey. I n connection with the match between the M .C.C. Australian Team and the Eest of England it may be mentioned that both before and after the Australian Team of 1899 visited England it played matches with the Eest of Australia. Before the tour three matches were played against the Eest, at Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. A t Adelaide the team for England won b y seven wickets, and at Sydney by nine wickets, but at Melbourne there was a great fight and the tourists only got home by four wickets. It will be remembered that it was as a result of these matches that Victor Trumper was brought as four­ teenth man to England. In February of the follow ing year the tourists played the Eest on behalf of the War Fund, and were victorious by 151 runs. I n some signed notes in the Daily Mail on the match between Oxford University and Gentlemen of England, W. H . B. Evans, the Oxford captain, says of his own innings of 80 : “ I suppose I must say I played a fairly good innings, in which there were a variety of strokes, but it was marred by two chances towards the close.” I n the Essex team which is to oppose Surrey at Leyton to-morrow, the name of Mead does not appear. On the other hand, Carpenter, who played for the county in only a few matches in 1900, while he was left out entirely last year, once more takes his place in the team. During the last two winters he has acted as coach to the Melbourne C.C. M r . S. M. C ro sfield , the old Lanca­ shire cricketer, who has for the last two or three years been engaged by the Lan­ cashire County C.C. to look after the interests of rising young cricketers in the county, was married at Ealing to Miss Katherine Cocks, eldest daughter of the late Mr. Eobrrt Cocks, of Dunham, in Cheshire. AVE CiESAR. MORITURI TE SALUTANT. [The M.C.C. Australian team scored 300 on an easy wicket on Monday, and, after Tuesday had been wasted on account of the rain, the chances of the Eest of England eleven seemed hopeless, with Rhodes, Arnold, and Hirst opposed to them. As things turned out, the wicket was. less difficult than had been anticipated.] Out of darkness, and rain, and gloom Came the morning, so murky and damp, When the victims went forth to their doom With mackintosh useful, and gamp. In the seats of the mighty sat “ Plum,” W ith a smile of ineffable grace, But the victims were moody and glum, For they knew what they had to face. They had bearded the lion at home, Tlie home where the “ Ashes ” are kept, They had threatened his whiskers to comb, But the lion nor slumbered nor slept. “ Go forth to he slaughtered,” said he, “ By the hands of my Arnold and Hirst, Not to mention my B.J.T.B , Nor my Rhodes, who for blood is athirst.” So they bent themselves low as they said, “ Great captain, we bow to our fate ; W e shall doubtless be knocked on the head— Yet perhaps t’ would he better to wait Till we see what your lictors can do When we fight with our backs to the wall.” Their chances were not worth a sou, But they fought, and they did not fall. W . A. B.