Cricket 1904

Nov. 24, 1904. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 459 Gymkhana and the Friends’ Union C.O. The former made 172 for seven wickets and declared, leaving an hour and a quarter for play. The Frienda hit so hard that when lime was up they had tiedthe scoreof tbeGymkhana, with four wickets still in hand. I n amatch against the SeaforthHigh­ landers, Govind Singh made 26 runs in an over for Mayo College, Ajmere, by means of a six and five fours. The College made 331 for three wickets. A c h a n g e in the manner of selecting teams hasbeen decided upon by the New South Wales Cricket Association. The selection of the representative eleven of the State will be made by a committee consisting of M. A. Noble, F. A. Iredale and G. P. Barbour. The second and all other elevens are to be chosen by a separate committee, viz., A. Diamond, J. C. Davis and E. Hume. In the trial and other matches last season the teams chosen, with the exception of the first eleven, did not give entire satisfaction. The selectioncommittee of the firsteleven is the same as that of last year, except that G. P. Barbour takes the. place of S. E. Gregory. A n old and valued correspondent of Cricket passed away at the beginning of the month in the person of Mr. George Lacy. He was in Lis 61st year at the time of his death. His serial article entitled “ Present-day Cricket,” which appeared in Cricket earlyin1897,attracted a great deal of attention at the time. An article on Mr. Lacy, from the pen of the Rev. Haro’.d Aubrey Tate, will be found cn another page. H. B. R ic h a r d s o n , at one time a valuable member of the Surrey XI., has had a most success ul season in America. Playing for the San Frarcisco County C.C., in the California Cricket Associa­ tion Cuampionsbip, he had an aggregate of 730 for eleven innings which, with six tot cuts, gave him the fine average of 147. It will interest all who played with him in this country, as well as many others, to know that in mid- October he enteredupon the state matri­ monial. Ciicke ers will wish the happy couple a long andhappy partnership. P l a t in g forPhiladelphia-Germantown v. Belmont-Merion, P. N. Le Roy, who has been seen to advantage on English grounds, went in first, and carried his bat through tbe innings of 342 for 168. Amongst the bowlers against him were J. B. King and J. A. Lester. He gave a very difficult chance to C. C. Morris when 140, but, apart from that, made no mistake. J. B. King made 126, and then retired, for Pilgrims v. Haverford Tourists, at Haverford, on October 1st. D u r i n g 1904 as many as 56 individual centuries were hit in the United States and Canada, wLich constitutes a record. During the season J. B. King, W. W. Faulkrod, jun., J. Paceyand R. Brooking succeeded inmaking over 1,000 runs and taking more than 100 wickets, the first- named accomplishing the feat for the fourth time in his career. T h e Championship of New York has been won by the Livingstone Field Club, of Staten Island. C. P. Hurditch scored 555 runs in tbe competition and F. F. Kelly, well knownin Englishclub cricket a couple of decades ago, obtained 61 wickets, both of which are records. During the season the last-named took 104 wickets in 1581 balls for 619 runs, which is smart work for a veteran. Th e accounts issued by the Melbourne Club for the season of 1903-4 contain an item of £1777 13s. 10d., referred to as “ theEnglishElevenaccount ” amongthe receipts. Against this were deducted the following:— £ p . d . E xpenses ......................................................................183 16 7 L oss v . V ictoria N o. 2 ........................................ 49 7 9 ,, J u n io rs .......................................... 13 17 3 D on ation to V ictoria C rick et A ssociation ... 400 0 0 L eagu e o f V ictorian C ricketers ...................... 100 0 0 making an aggregate of £747 Is. 7d., which leaves a balance of £1030 12s. 3d. on the.credit side of the ledger. T h e ' annual report of the Melbourne C.C., to which tbe accounts referred to are attached, contains the followingrefer­ ence to the visit of tbe Marylebone team ctptained by Mr. P. F. Warner;— The leading feature of the past season’s cricket was the visit of an English Eleven under the captaincy of Mr. 1’. F. Warner. For the first time in the history of Inter­ national cricket the Marylebone C.C., at the cordial invitationof all the loadingcricketing organisations in Australia, undertook the selection and management of the visiting team. Although the constitution of the elevenwas severely criticised hy the English Press prior to its departure from the Old Country, Mr. Warner and his colleagues succeeded, after akeen struggle inwrestling victory from the Australian representatives and thus regained the supremacy which England lost in 1898, and have since striven manfully, hut until now, unsuccessfully to recover. T h e Merit Board of the Melbourne Club for this last season will be remark­ able for “ a double first.” W. W. Arm­ strong, oneofthegiantsofthelastAustra­ lian team, attained the rare distinction of heading both the batting and bowling averages of the Melbourne Club in first- class matches. His great score of 438 for M.C.C. v. the Melbourne University it is hardly necessary to recall provided another record for Australia. In bowling he obtained seventeen wickets at a cost of eight runs apiece. Mr. R. H. C a m p b e l l writes from Melbourne :—“ In your issue of Septem­ ber 15th, 1904 (page 409), you give the position of K. S. Ranjitsinbji year by year in first-class cricket since he began to play, and therein give him first place in the averages during his season in Australia 1897-8, and in so doing you maketwo errors. In thefirstplace C . Hill was top of the averages with 66-44, and Ranjitsinhji’s average was 62J44 and not 60'89 as stated by you in the first-class matches.” O n the firBt day of the Electorate matches at Sydney this season Victor Trumper scored 189 not out for Padding­ ton against Waverley, while Kelly made 98 for the same side. Trumper’s hits included fifteen o’s and twenty-two 4’s; his last ten hits were 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 4, 1. On the following Saturday he was out for a duck's egg. C o m m e n tin g on the above innings by Trumper the Sydney Referee says:— Victor Trumper openedtheseasonwithone of thosebewilderingbrilliant displays, which make himstandaloneamong batsmen of the world. Of the three thousand people who went to Waverley on Saturday to seePad­ dingtonandthe local club meeting, probably 80 percent, wereattractedsolelybyTrumper. He did not disappoint; he thrilled them. His display for 189 not out wasmagnificent instyle, finish, power, variety of strokes, and commandof theball. He hit fifteen5’sand twenty-two 4’s, so that he had to speed betweenwickets for only 26 of his own runs. It is not a large ground at Waverley, but how many batsmen, gifted with greater strength and height, let themselves go es Trumper does? It ranks as one of themost glorious displays even Victor Trumper him­ self has evergiven. W h il e Trumper and Kelly were together during the above iunings they made 51 off three successive overs by Howard, a slow off-break bowler. The details of Howard’s analysis read as follows :— 4 1 . 6 4 I 1 4 6 5 5 1 | 1 5 6 . 6 . I n thesamematch S.E. Gregory lefthis crease to play a slow leg-break fromthe colt M'Cloy, but changed his mind, ran back, and put his bat down within his crease without playing at the ball. Kelly took the ball smartly, and put the wicket down, with the result that Gregory was given out. ------ At themeetingof theVictorianCricket Association on October 11th a letter was received from the secretary of the Mel­ bourne Cricket Club (Major Wardill), asking if the association hud seen an ex­ tract fromthe Westminster Gazette of July 30th last, in which Mr. Warner is said to have stated that the New South Wales Cricket Association and the Victorian Cricket Associationeachchargedaspecial fee for non-members for admission to the reserves during the visit of the last English Eleven, insinuating that the promoters of the team did not receive their proper share of the gate money, as agreed upon. Major Wardill continued as follows:— “ Of course your association hadnothing to do with this business, and I think you shouldwrite toMr. F. fa. Lacey, secretary to theMarylebone C.C., andalso to the West­ minster Gazette , saying that the statement is incorrect as far as your association is con­ cerned. I have letters fromthe SouthAus­ tralianCricket Association and tbe trustees of the Sydney ground denying the charge, andI have askedthosebodies towrite by the