Cricket 1904

34 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. M a r . 31, 1904. out of his reach, and it w ill be remem­ bered that during his first visit to Aus­ tralia he brought off so many remarkable catches that a brilliant catch in the slips came to be known to the crowd as “ a regular Braunder.” I do not suppose (hat anybody has ever seen him listless and indifferent when fiflding, no matter how uninteresting may be the position of the game. Such a man ought to go far, and as he is still quite young, Braund may very likely be a better all-round man in three or four years’ time than he is even now. W . A. B e t t e sw o b t h . The follow ing notes on Braund’s career are from the pen of J. B. Payne :— Braund was b om at Clewer, near Windsor, a village midway between Maidenhead and Egham, on October 18th, 1875, so that neither Surrey nor Somerset, the two counties which in turn have claimed his allegiance own him by right of birth. To Surrey, however, belongs the credit of his early training, and one cannot help feeling that it would have been more in the eternal fitness of things if his lot had been permanently thrown in with the county that brought him out. Indeed, the circumstances of his transfer to Somerset were peculiar. It was originally understood that his qualification for that county would be completed in June, 1900, which means that the qualifying process must have commenced in June, 1898. Now , as he played for Surrey with success in the last five matches of 1898, it is strange that he should have been included in the team if the fact that he was already qualifying for another county was not a secret. It is, perhaps, also a question whether his secession would have occurred had the present rules governing transfers been in operation at the time. As it was he had played for Somerset against Middlesex in the Whit week of 1900, when his qualification being disallowed by the M.C.C. he was declared ineligible for Somerset till 1901. As his qualifica­ tion in the Middlesex match was invalid, it is an interesting question whether he would have been permitted to play for Surrey for the remainder of 1900 under the rule which entitles a man to assist his old county during the tw o years during which he is qualifying for a new one. It does not seem by any means clear that the law prohibiting a man from playing for two counties in the same season would have applied to such a case. Braund first played for Surrey in 1896, when he was tried in nine county matches with indifferent results, his highest score being only 19, and his aggregate 66 for ten innings. Against Oxford University, however, he ran up 34 and 51 against the good bow ling of Hartley and Cunliffe. In 1897 he was only played in four county matches, his best effort being 32 against Lancashire in a very crucial match at the Oval. Doubtless the few opportunities he received led him to cast about for a new field for his abilities, but his success in the six county matches in which he participated in 1898 would, in all likeli­ hood have secured him a permanent place had he remained at the Ova). The first great indication of his powers with the bat was given in the Lancashire match on the Surrey ground when, going in seventh down, he put together 85. This was the memorable match in which Hayward obtained 315 not out. In 1899 his connection with Surrey had ceased, and being as yet not qualified for Somerset, there seemed small opportu­ nity for a man who had yet to make a name. The Australians, however, were with us, and Braund was lucky enough to play five innings against them with most brilliant results. For an Englar.d eleven at Truro he made 0 and 63 on a bad pitch, “ his defence and hitting being alike adm irable” in the words of “ Wisden.” A fortnight later he formed one of W . G. Grace’s eleven against the colonists at the Crystal Palace, and ran up the heavy total of 125, putting on no less than 242 with Alec H eam e for the third wicket. B y favour of the Australians he was allowed to repre­ sent Somerset against them at Taunton, and again came off wonderfully, making 82 and 0. It will thus be seen that in five innings against the Australians he totalled no fewer than 270 runs. After the Somerset v. Middlesex match in 1900, in which he made 38 and 1, Braund again found himself ousted from county cricket, but put in some good work with London County, for which club he scored 69 v. Surrey, 66 v. Derbyshire and 107 v. Cam­ bridge University. At about this time he began to develop that skill as a leg- break bowler which, if latent before, had not pronounced itself. In 1901 Braund was fully qualified for Somerset, and quickly took those high honours in the cricket field which from that year till now have placed him among the very best of our representative players. The writer well remembers undergoing the somewhat unromantic process of being measured for a pair of trousers in Leeds on a summer’s morning in 1901, when an intruder burst in with the exclamation, “ Somerset all out for 87 ! ” The scene of the citastrophe was Headingly, and never did a first day’s play close on a more one-sided state of affairs. — Somerset 87, Yorkshire 325, all out On the follow ing morning, Braund and Lionel Palairet— each of whom had been bowled without scoring in the first innings—proceeded to make history by running up 222 for the first wicket, Braund contributing 107, Palairet 173, and F. A. Phillips 122. The whole score was 630. Yorkshire’s characteristic of playing up at a pinch here deserted them, and they succumbed to Braund’s leg breaks and Cranfield’s slows for 113. This was the only county match in which Yorkshire suffered defeat in 1901. Braund’s figures for the year were remarkably good. In all first-class matches he made 1,587 runs in forty-four completed innings, wi h an average fractionally exceeding 36. He also received the distinction of being included in the Players’ team at Lord’s, where, though he failed with the bat, his useful bow ling materially helped the Players to win. His bow ling figures for the year showed the capture of 120 wickets at 30 runs apiece. His hundreds during the year were 115 not out for London County v. Surrey, and for Somerset 111, v. Hants, 107 v. Yorkshire, and 106 not out v. Gloucestershire. During this season he also won the reputation of being regarded as perhaps the finest field at slip in England. In 1902 he again made over a thousand runs, though his average fell nine points, but he made a remarkable 141 for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s, and established something of a funk among them by taking five wickets for 29 in their first innings. Braund’s bowling this year was wonderfully successful, 172 wickets falling to him at a fraction under 20 runs each. A t Sheffield, Yorkshire again sustained their only defeat in the county champion­ ship at the hands of Somerset, Braund’ s bow ling figures being truly sensational. Besides pla jin g two fine innings of 31 and 34, where out of four totals only one reached 10 0 ; he took six wickets for 30 and nine for 41. To quote Wisden— “ Braund bowled in superb form, getting on a lot of leg-break, keeping an excellent length, and now and then sending down a fine fast ball.” When Yorkshire were defeated by the M.C.C. at Scarborough, Braund was again in at the death, and his bowling accounted for twelve wickets at a cost of 111 runs. As is well-known he represented England in the Test Matches, and though he failed with the ball his 63 at Manchester resulted in his partnership with Jackson increasing England’s score b y 141 runs at a time when things were going all wrong. Last summer Braund made 1,425 runs with an average of 32, and took 134 wickets at 21 runs each. Singularly enough he again proved a thorn in the side of Yorkshire at Taun­ ton, whom Somerset dtfeated for the third year in succession. H is perfor­ mances in Australia are fresh in memory, and it will be remembered that he was a successful all-round member of the previous somewhat ill-starred combina­ tion that visited Australia under the captaincy of Mr. A. C. Maclaren. In our chat about Relf an injustice was unintention­ ally done to that deserving cricketer in saying that he had not taken part in any one of the four test matches played up to that time by the M.C.C. team in Aus­ tralia. As a matter of fact he w a s much in evidence in the first match played at Sydney, helping R. E. Foster to put on 115 runs for the ninth wicket. M ARQUEE 3 AND TENTS of every description on SALE or HlttE. Marquees in good condition • l*2io. by 8ft., £3; 16ffc. by 8ft., £4; 18ft. bv 10ft* £4 10s.; 20ft. by 12ft., £5 ; 23ft. by 14ft., £ j ■ 3oft. by 16ft., £8. New square tents ; 6ft., £2 2s. • 8ft * £4 103., without centre pole. Lists free.—Bbown Three Colt Street, Limehouae, E. The “ AMERICAN CRICKETER.” P.O. 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