Cricket 1904

S ept . 15, 1904. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 409 T h e r e is a sad story to tell of a match between the GoIferB and the Cricketers of the Hampshire H ogs C.C. at South­ ampton on September 5th and 6th. The Golfers made 216 and 217, while the Cricketers could only put together 184 and 114. P it y the sorrows of a resident at Clapham, who writes to a contemporary as follows :— I am well satisfied with my pretty home, for which I pay £50 a year, rates and taxes; and, with one exception, well satisfied with the quiet and genteel street in which it is situated. During the summer, gangs of boys (from some “ mean streets” nearly half a mile away) have played cricket almost every evening, with the lamp-post outsidemy house as a wicket. Now that football has set in, they are using our street for their pastime in that direction. Can I get thi police to stop them, without being held up to shame as “ the smug suburbanite who doesn’t care how the poor wretches die in their slums so long aB they don’t bother him,” etc., etc. ? I t is somewhat curious that Sewell, who has hardly ever been put on to bow l for Essex this season until two men have become thoroughly set, is very easily at the head of the Essex Club and Ground bow ling averages. Sewell is also easily top of the batting averages with 6 innings, 1 not out, 451 runs, highest score 232, average 90'2. The records of the three chief bowlers in these matches are as follow s:— O. M. R. W. Ayer. Sewell................. 46'4 6 117 24 6 29 Reeves................ 177 42 604 86 14 4 Buckenham ... 98'2 18 241 18 16'00 F r o m the Field And who shall say how much cricket has benefited from the prowess of one man ? When Dr. W . G. Grace came upon the scene, in which his elder brother was already a figure, the professional held almost absolute sway. What some of the old-time pro­ fessionals were capable of it boots us not to tell, for there is no danger of their practices being re-attempted, if only for the excellent reason that the honester course pays the better. Even had W . G. never been, cricket would have been the common school game, as it was before the great batsman elicited the remark from one of the great bowlers, “ I puts ’em where I likes, and he puts ’em where he likes.” But as a batsman pure and simple Dr. Grace could never have tilled the position he did as the greatest cricketer. The world is more inclined to stare at big scores than at remarkable bowling feats, otherwise the bowling of W . G. in his best days would attract more attention than it does at the hands of the masters of figures. Great men of the arts and sciences have their lives per­ petuated in marble or bronze, or upon canvas ; our game-makers, like our song-makers, live on in our hearts. A c o r r e sp o n d e n t w rites: “ Cricket to-day has tbe wrong— although a pretty — version of how Jessop g ot out at Bournemouth (p. 392). H e received a dead slow rather short one from Cran­ field, stepped back and, as it happened, into his own wioket, with the intention to loft the ball over Wrathall’s head at fine short-leg (there were two short legs, one rquare and one fine), but hit too soon and under the ball, edging it gently into the air almost straight to Wrathall, but with, of course, lots of spin on it. Wratball dropped it easily enough, but Jessop, having trodden the wicket down in making the stroke had to g o .” Except that, ow ing to the eccentric writing of our Bournemouth correspondent, “ st. leg ” was translated as “ slip,” this is practically the same version as given by Cricket. O n Saturday last J. H . Sinclair and J. J. Kotze sailed from Southampton for South Africa. The former went by the “ Brsemar Castle,” and the latter by the “ Kildonan Castle.” O f the rest of the South African team some will sail next Saturday, others on the follow ing Satur­ day, while Halliwell and Mitchell will remain for some time in England. T h e rise of Leicestershire has baen one of the most remarkable features of the past season’s cricket. Last year the county was bracketed last with Hamp­ shire with only a single victory. This year the record up to the beginning of July was ten matches played, five won, two lost, and three drawn. Unfortu­ nately Knight, on whom they so much depended, broke a bone in his left hand in the Gentlemen and Players match at L ord’s on July 5, and was away from the team for a month, during which the county did badly. The result of tbe season was six victories, six defeats, and eight drawn games, Leicestershire being bracketed with Warwickshire for seventh place in the championship table. T h is has hardly been a veterans’ year. Mr. A . P. Luc»s has only played once or twice. Mr. Murdoch has not done as well as last year, when he had an average of 35, and was high up in the list. Nor has W . Gunn approached his last year’s record. Dr. Grace played an innings of over a hundred in his birthday match, but even he is at last beginning to show signs of falling off, although one can never guess what he may do in another season. Mr. Newham has not played much, but is as capable as ever of keep­ ing up an end. Lord Hawke still holds his own, and this season he has played several line innings when his side was in great difficulties. D u r in g the past county season 178 individual innings of a hundred or over were played in county championship matches. Last year, a very wet season, there were 109. In previous years the number was as follows : 108 in 1902, 207 in 1901, 161 in 1900, 107 in 1899, 136 in 1898, 108 in 1897, 116 in 1896, and 78 in 1895. T h e list of bow ling averages which appeared in last Monday’ s newspapers was remarkable for the fact that two Surrey men, J. N. Crawford and W . C. Smith, were at the top. This must have been tidings of com fort and jo y to Surrey men, who have not had very many opportunities this season of rejoicing. The third bowler on the list is Schwarz, the South African cricketer. T h e men who have scored over 2,000 runs this season are Hayward, Ranjit­ sinbji, Fry, Tyldesley, Hirst, and Denton. Iremonger did not get another chance of playing after he had brought his total to 1,854 some weeks ago. R a n j it s in h j i , who has not played since September 7th, has not been de­ posed from his position at the head o f the averages, and he holds the first place for the fourth time in his career. His position year by year in first-class cricket he began to play is as follow s:— Place in averages. Average. 1893 ............... 26 ........ ... 26*62 1894 .............. 8 ........ ... 32-26 1895 ............... 3 ......... ... 4930 1896 .............. 1 ........ ... 67-91 1897 .............. 5 ........ ... 46* 6 1897-8 (Australia) 1 .......... .. 6089 1898 (absent in India) 1899 .............. 3 ........ ... 63-18 1900 .............. 1 ........ ... 87*67 1901 ................. 3 .......... .., 72 20 1902 ............... 2 ......... ..; 46 08 1903 ............... 2 ........ ... 66-68 1904 ........ ... 1 ........ ... 74*17 In the Surrey innings against Derby­ shire on July 1 and 2 Warren bow led 53 overs for 200 runs and 4 wickets. To the Assistant Editor of Cricket (who is not by any means a born statistician) this seemed quite a large number of runs, and accord­ ingly the follow ing comment was made in Gossip on July 7 :— “ I should hardly think it likely that any other bowler— except perhaps George Giffen—has had 200 runs hit off him during an innings in a first-class match.” But Nemesis was awake, and in a few hours after the paragraph appeared letters began to arrive at Cricket office from correspond­ ents who were eager to point out that dozens of bowlers had had more than 200 runs hit off them in an innings in first- class cricket. N ow we might have boldly taken our stand on the firm ground that we said 200 runs, and not more than 200 runs. But disdaining to take shelter under this refuge we printed a long list kindly sent by Mr. Taylor, and thought that the matter had ended. Not a bit of i t ! For letters are now beginning to come in from Australia pointing out that several bowlers there have had 200 runs hit off them in an innings in a first-class match. But as these instances were mentioned by Mr. Taylor in his list, there is no necessity to refer to them again. B ut Mr. L . G. Callaway, writing from Hawthorn (Victoria) points out that for Tasmania against New South Wales, at Sydney, in December, 1898, C. J . Eady bowled 56 overs, 7 maidens, for 232 runs and 3 wickets in a total of 839, while in the same innings C. Windsor bow led 45 overs, 6 maidens, for 202 runs and 2 wickets. I t has always been contended in Cricket that matches between Tasmania and the various Australian States, as well as