Cricket 1904

J uly 7, 1904. CRICKET • A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 249 which did not seem to belong to him, and when brought before the magistrate at the police court, his defence was distinctly original. He stated that he was shown into the carriage by a porter at Norman - ton, no other passengers being in at the time, and as no one came to claim the coats and other articles at Leeds he thought he would take them and hand them over to the first policeman he met in the street. T he death is announced of Henry Munnion, a Sussex professional, who, if county committees in bygone days had been as energetic as they are now, would have been a great bowler. As it was, he was given his chance at a moment when W . G. had made about a hundred on a perfect Brighton wicket, and not un­ naturally made no impression on the Doctor. Munnion only bowled four overB, but the trial was apparently con­ sidered a conclusive proof that he was “ no class,” and he was not given another opportunity of distinguishing himself until he had been allowed to drift into an ordinary practice bowler. Neverthe­ less, in his only other trial he bowled seventeen overs and ten maidens for 15 runs and two wickets against the Austra­ lian team of 1880. H e wag left-hand medium, with great command over the ball, which had a curious bias on it. He could have bowled all day, and when he was hit about much his favourite remark was, “ Well, what does it matter ? It will be all the same in seventy years time.” For some years he waB ground bowler at Ardingly College, and he also umpired for the school. I n the Brighton Argus Mr. A . J. Gaston says of Munnion : — In local matches in Mid-Sussex he has done some marvellous “ bits of work ” -with the ball. He once had a hand in dismissing Balcombe at Wakehurst for only two runs from the bat, and in a match in the ’eighties, against the Lindfield Club, Munnion and Reynolds tumbled “ All Lindfield” out for three runs only. C a m b r id g e have now won the Univer­ sity match 33 times and O xford30 times out of a total of 70. The other seven matches have been drawn. B y scoring 172 not out for Cambridge in the second innings against Oxford J. F. Marsh has made a record for the University matches, beating R . E. Foster’s score in 1900 b y a single run. The previous record by a Cambridge man for this match was 130 by W. Yardley as long ago as 1872, but several Oxford men besides Foster have beaten this, viz. K . J. Key, 143 in 1886, M. R. Jardine,’ 140 in 1892, and G. O. Smith, 132 in 1896, while J . E. Raphael equalled it last year. T h e tactics adopted b y A. O. Jones on Saturday in the match at Trent Bridge between Notts and Lancashire have attracted much attention. When the game was resumed, Lancashire, with seven wickets in hand in their first innings, were only 48 runs behind. Notts had thus no chance of winning, whereas they might have been defeated if Lancashire had scored as quickly as on tbe previous day. Jones went on to bow l his usual leg- breaks with the object of allowing Hallam to change ends, and finding that the batsmen would not hit him, he con­ tinued to bow l until lunch, keeping all his men on the leg side. Owing to the determination of the batsmen not to hit the ball when it was well off the wicket on the leg-side, only 70 runs were made in an hour and a-balf (fifty minutes hav­ ing been lost owing to showers). By this time Notts had little chance of being defeated, and when after lunch the game was resumed the ordinary bowlers were put on. T h e action of the Notts captain has been severely criticised, but it was clearly the policy of Notts to prevent runs from being scored quickly, and if batsmen cannot or will not hit leg balls as they used to be hit by Dr. Grace and George Parr and other famous players, it is hardly the bow ler’s fault. It is pretty certain that if in any other match during the season runs have to be made against time when NottB are fielding, Jones, like a wise cap­ tain, will try the experiment again, and it will be interesting to see the result. The chances are that the experiment would not be tried for long if the opponents were Yorkshire or Sussex. It will be noticed that Jones did not bow l a single wide in the Lancashire innings. M a c l a r e n is, perhaps naturally, in­ dignant at the methods adopted by Jones, and in the Daily Chronicle he says :— “ The spectators of the match at Trent Bridge on Saturday morning had a very poor show for their money, for the methods em­ ployed for the purpose of keeping the runs down did not meet with the onlookers’ approval. Jones commenced bowling wide on the leg side, and after Tyldesley and myself had driven him to deep mid-off, that isolated fieldsman was moved to the on-side, leaving not a single man on the off. The bowling naturally was then wider still outside the legs, the fieldsmen waiting for catches with their mouths wide open—like birds in a nest. Tyldesley was eventually easily caught at short mid-on, in trying to hit one of these leg balls square. . . . After his dismissal the wide balls on the leg side were served up with wonderful consistency. Both batsmen refused to hit to leg, the bat being shouldered over after over. This method of keeping the runs down made it impossible for us to force the game.” L a s t week Sewell scored 232 for Essex Club and Ground against Forest School, and also took nine wickets for 41 runs. In his innings were twenty-nine 4’s and a six. D u r in g the innings of the Oxford University Authentics against Hampstead on the Hampstead ground last week four balls were used. Two of them were hit into the pond and temporarily lost, the third came unstitched, and the fourth survived without mishap. M . W . P a y n e , who was chosen to keep wicket for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s in the absence of H. Martyn, ow ing to an injury, was in this year’s Cambridge eleven as a Freshman. He is an Old Wellingtonian, and has not played in first-class cricket until the present season. The only other instance that I remember of a Freshman at either of the Universities being chosen as wicket­ keeper for the Gentlemen at Lord’s is that o f the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton (now the Colonial Secretary), who played in 1876. F o r Surrey against Derbyshire, at Derby last week, Hayes scored 273 not out, and thus at present holds the record for the highest score of the year, the previous record being 272 by Iremonger for Notts against Kent at Trent Bridge on June 16th and 17th. D r . E . M. G race still continues to play cricket, although he is in his sixty- third year. Last week he took a team to Cardiff to play against the town club. His eleven included nine of the Glouces­ tershire professionals, but he made the highest score of the side, 23, and also took more wickets than anybody else— five for 106 runs. O n Monday C. B. Fry, with 85'73 and Ranjitsinbji with 83-30, still remained at the head of the batting averages, with Iremonger and Tyldesley not many runs per innings behind them. Six men had then scored a thousand runs this season, viz., Fry 1,629, Iremonger 1,260, Tyldes­ ley 1,256, Knight 1,069, Hayward 1,301, and Hayes 1,135. R . H. Spooner stood at 912 and Hirst at 937. Yesterday Hirst brought his total to more than a thousand. S u c h splendid form has been shown by A. C. Maclaren of late for Lancashire that it was unfortunate that no place could be found for him in the Gentlemen’s team at Lord’s. The absence of L . C. H. Palairet is noticeable. Hirst, Tyldesley, Brearley and H. Martyn were all injured and unable to play, although Hirst appeared in the Yorkshire team against Derbyshire. I r e m o n g e r in his last seven innings has made the follow ing scores :— At Lord’s, Notts v Middlesex ..........*189 At Nottingham, Notts v. Kent .......... 272 At Chesterfield, Notts v. Derby .......... 142 ditto, second innings .......... 49 At Nottingham, Notts v. Lancashire ... 197 At Lord’s, Players v. Gentlemen .......... 10 ditto, second innings .......... 24 Total ...................................... * Signifies not out. T h e death is announced of the Rev. G. P. Bainbridge, who was on the com­ mittee of the Scarborough Festival. He was also a vice-president of the Scar­ borough C.C. M r . J . G. K n a p m a n , J un ., writes Middlesex is generally supposed to be the favourite county of C. B . Fry, but he has a