Cricket 1904

A ug . 18, 1904. CRIOKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 347 gone there neither to parade their fineries, nor to indulge in side gossip, but to watch and to enjoy, with all the knowledge and zest of their cricketing brothers, the spectacle of a well contested game. . . . To-day at our local cricket matches we see none of this : it is all changed ; and it is only when we play a sister colony or a team of Englishmen that our pavilions are honoured by the attendance of a goodly crowd of spectators, many of whom, we fear, have come not purely from love of the noble game. Into the question whether it would be advisable to allow professionals to take part in the intercolonial matches, Mr. Goodman, while admitting the advan­ tages of such a course, says Yet the introduction of such a system in the West Indies would ring the death knell of cricket in these quarters—and that through no fault of the system; but owing, firstly, to the class from which we would have to draw our pros, and, secondly, to the antagonistic stand taken against it by that class which gives pecuniary support to the game. It would without doubt be a mistake for us even to try to put our cricket in line with English cricket, for the conditions which govern the game here and at home are totally different, both with regards to the status of the pros, the means and leisure of the amateurs, and the views of the cricket- going public who, unlike their English contreres, have not yet reached such a pitch of education in cricket matters as to clamour for and to accept nothing but the creme, de la creme of cricket. The majority of those who attend our matches are there through no innate love of the game, but in order to see their friends or relatives play; and if these latter were once eliminated so, too, would those who support the gamepecuniarily. It is admitted by those who are in a position to judge that English county cricket of the present day partakes more of the nature of a business than of a pastime; but we in the West Indies who have to toil from mom till night, look forward to one day in the week for real relaxation and pleasure. Let us therefore be content with what we have and keep our game unsullied by the sharp practices and anxieties of business. F or Cambridgeshire against Suffolk the Rev. H . Gray, the old Cambridge Blue, did the hat-trick in each innings. Bis analysis for the match was as follows: O. M. r . w . First innings ... 18 ... 6 ... 44 ... 4 Second innings ... 7‘1 ... 0 ... 38 ... 5 D r . W . G. G race made fourteen boundary hits in an innings of 75 for London County against Cyphers, on Tuesday, at Beckenham. He also took four wickets for 67 runs. T he Surrey Committee are just now paying the natural penalty of the county’s temporary failure in having all their errors of omisaon and commission for a long term of years brought vividly before them by all sorts of critics. The pity of it is that the “ methods ” of some of the journals which have been the loudest in their denunciations have not been characterised by a little better taste, if not with some regard for accuracy. Personally, I cannot conceive that any executive, much less that of Surrey—who ought by this time to be pretty well used to comments of every sort — could be so foolish as to take exception to criticism, however outspoken. But insinuations which cannot bear the test of a moment’s reflection, statements which the writers have not even taken the trouble to verify, and personal abuse, are not criticism and are neither fair nor honest, as they are certainly not in the public interest. Surrey’s ill-success this season, their bitterest critic must, I should say, readily admit, cannot possibly be more severely felt than by the executive themselves. T h e Surrey Eleven will be captained by Mr. J. E. Raphael for the remainder of the season. M r . P . J. d e P a r a v i c i n i , the old Middlesex cricketer and Cambridge Blue, who has of late played for Bucks, had a narrow escape from drowniiig in the Thames, at Datchet, last week. One of his sons was in difficulties, and the father (with bis clothes on) jumped into the water to his rescue. He reached the boy, but would not have been able to save him, and would have been drowned himself, but for timely help from some men in a punt. Both father and son were rescued, and it is hoped that neither of them will be any the worse for the accident. The following quaint comments on the match between Gloucestershire and Kent are from the Bristol Evening News. They are said to be written by a boy of seven, who seems to have studied well-known models to some purpose :— “ Brownlee has been batting well and Hug­ gins I hope will make a lot of runs he has just made 4. and they have been making a lot of runs and I think we shall win the match and when brown was in he made a good score and brownlee has 21 and Hugins has 6 and the score is very good and there is only Dennett to go in and then Kent is going in again and brownlee has just made a boundry and one bowler is bowling leg brakes to try and make the batsman give chances, and we shall have 400 soon and on bank Holaday their was over ten 000 people, and we are winning and I think we shall get 500 I think Brownlee Has 90 and I think he has done very well and he will get 100 I think and Huggins has 24 and that is a good score and to-days play is very good and I hope we shall beat Woster if we do not beat Kent and bank holady they were colecting forHuggins.’’ I t is noticeable that in the bowling averages which appeared in Monday’s papers, the first two places are taken by members of the South African team, viz., Schwarz and Kotze. One has to look a long way down the list before coming across the names of the two famous Yorkshiremen, Rhodes and Hirst, but Lancashire men are well to the front, Hallows fourth, Cuttell fifth and Brear­ ley tenth. I n batting, Hayward, who has not been playing this week, is getting near to his third thousand, his total up to Mondav being 2,673. Iremonger with 1,908, Hirst with 1,836, Ranjitsinhji with 1,724 and A. O. Jones with 1,738 were nearest to joining Hayward, Fry and Tyldesley as scorers of 2,000 runs. But the two Notts men had no match at the beginning of this week. F rom the Bristol Evening News : — Quito recently C. B. Fry, in one of his articles in a London morning paper, casually inquired if there was still a Gloucestershire team. Probably the query was suggested by the long interval between the matches; at any rate, the remark was not forgotten by one of Gloucestershire’s supporters, who, when C. B. Fry came back to the pavilion after being bowled by Huggins, threw out a hint that the doubt had been conclusively settled. The great “ C. B.” did not take at all kindly to the reminder, and his reply was prompt and piquunt, and suggested a locality where soft wickets are unknown. F or Holsworthy (North Devon) v. Briton Ferry (12 a side), a bowler named Hawksworth took all the eleven Britcn Ferry wickets for 51 runs. This feat, as was shown in “ Gossip” on August 4, is not a record, but it is of course some­ thing quite out of the common. The score of the Briton Ferry innings is given below. Holsworthy made 201, of which Hawksworth accounted for 37. B riton F bbry . P. Marlin, b Hawksworth............... « T. Thomas, b Hawksworth.............. .. 37 A. Hughes, lbw, b Hawksworth .. 15 J. Dunns, b Hawksworth................. 2 Johns, b Hawksworth..................... .. 3 E. Williams, b Hawksworth ... 26 T. Johns, lbw, b Hawksworth ... . .. o G. Davies, b Hawksworth............... .. 26 Paris, not o u t.................................... .. 18 A. Davey, b Hawksworth.............. 0 % Aubrey, b Hawksworth .............. .. 0 Davies, b Hawksworth .............. .. 0 Extras ... ............... .. 6 T otal...................... .. 188 M r . P. W . H u bbard , the hon. sec. of theLondon and County Bank C.C., writes: “ In Cricket of August 4th, 1904, on page 308, at the end of the first column, you give score of match between London and County Bank and London and Westmin­ ster Bank, from which it appears that the result was a draw. On the score record which I sent up, W . B. Thomas, Esq., of London and Westminster Bank, was marked as ‘ absent.’ This was the case, my club team even waiting some time for his appearance on the ground, but as he did not appear, there can be no other result to the match than a win to the London and County Bank team. I am sure the London and Westminster Bank would be only too glad to give the London and County Bank the credit of the win.’* The mistake was due to a rinter’s error, and the correot score will e found on another page.