Cricket 1904

2 CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. J a n . 28, 1904. “ It has undoubtedly improved of late years —far more than the bow ling. I m ight also make the same remark about club cricket. As regards boy batsmen I am told that last year in the Rugby X I. the last man was almost as good as the first— and all the team were very good. I believe that several of them will beavail- able for Kent, and if what I have heard about them is right— and I heard it from first-rate ju dges— some of them are likely to be very useful to the county. Of course it is not always possible to judge from the Btyle which a boy shows ■whether he will turn out to be a fine cricketer in after years, for there are so many things which may happen in the course of time. But sometimes one feels certain. For instance, once when we were playing against W ellington College, there was a batsman named Livesay—the R. O ’H . Livesay who nowplays for Kent— playing for the school. He showed such form that we all felt convinced he would be heard of later. Another boy in the same match made ever a hundred, but although he batted well he did not impress any of us much, and I have never heard of him again.” “ When did you begin to play for Essex ? ” “ I think about 1890 or 1891. I was then engaged at Broxbourne, but I learned all my cricket at Clapton, where at that time there were several gentlemen who took a great interest in cricket, especially Essex cricket. Am ong them were Mr. Tebbut, Mr. Douglas, father of the Mr. Douglas who played for Essex, Mr. Boyton, Mr. Hart and Mr. Head. Then, through Mr. Tebbut, Mr. C. E. Green began to take an interest in me. He gave me opportunities for com ing into notice, and finally through him I became a regular member of the county team. Mr. Green was always exceedingly kind to me and to the other Essex profes­ sionals, and I have never forgotten his kindness. I played for Essex without missing a match for ten years, and then my knee gave way for a time.” “ D id anyone teach you how to b o w l? ” “ No, I always bow led in about the same way that I do now, and at pretty much the same pace. I always had a break both ways, even as a small boy, but of course as time went on, I learned how to make more use of it. I am often told that I can make the ball break on any kind of wicket, but truth to tell, if I do so on some of the fast wickets of these days, I don’t know it myself.” “ D o you remember the end of the Yorkshire match in which you got the last man l.b.w . with a slow full pitch when only a single run was required to tie ? ” “ Y ery well indeed. The match took place at Huddersfield in 1897, and although I have played in a great many exciting games, this beat all of them I think. Lord Hawke and Bairstow, a wicket­ keeper who is playing instead o f Hunter, were in together for the last wicket, when Yorkshire wanted two runs to win. I had beaten Bairstow altogether, and only j ust missed bow ling him b y the merest little bit. Then I thought I would give him a break from the leg, for I thought he seemed, naturally enough, a little nervous, and it seemed to me that he m ight not quite like that kind of ball. I was not conscious of being at all nervous m yself; indeed, I felt as confident as possible of getting him out. But some­ how or other the ball was a full pitch, nd Bairstow got right in front of his wicket, which was fortunate for us. Last year at Sheffield we had a pretty exciting match with Y orkshire; for although we only had to bat for an hour we Jost eight wickets. Nearly all of them fell in about a quarter of an hour. I managed to keep in for twelve or thirteen minutes, though I don’ t know how I did it, and Young held on for a time and the match was saved. I t was a terrible wicket, and in such circumstances Rhodes is the most difficult bowler in the world.” When asked whom he considered the best bowlers he had seen, Mead said, “ I am almost inclined to think that I should place Lockwood first as a fast bowler, chiefly because of the way in which, even at his fastest, he sometimes managed to make the ball come back upon you. Of the medium paced bowlers, Lohmann would be very hard to beat. He bowled so much with his head, and it was always a lesson to watch him. I never played against Alfred Shaw in a match, but from what I have seen of him at practice, and from what men say who knew him at his best, I think he must have been the greatest of slow bowlers.” “ What batsmen have given you the most trouble ? ” “ I think I should place Abel first, when he was in his prime. He always seemed to me to be more difficult to get out than anyone else. But, of course, there are heaps of men whose wicket one can never be confident of getting. For example, I may mention Mr. F. S. Jackson, Mr. Fry, Ranjitsinbji, Mr. Maclaren, Tyldes- ley and Hayward; these are only a few names which occur to me at the mom ent; they all take a great deal of getting out. I think that perhaps Ranjitsinhji and Tyldesley have hit me more than others, and I well remember a particular innings o f two hundred which Ranjitsinhji played at Brighton against us. But they all have their days when everything goes right, and their days when everything goes wrong, just as we bowlers have.” W . A. B e tt e sw o e t h . T H E IN D IS P E N S A B L E A N N U A L .* This year “ Wisden’s Cricketers’ A lm anack” appears without the “ k ” at Ihe back of the cover, although the “ k ” is retained on the first page of the cover. But the Almanac or Almanack, whichever it is, is as good, as thorough, and as indispensable as usual. H ow it has grown during the past ten years may be judged from a comparison of cricket 1Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanac for 1904. Edited by Sydney H. Pardon. London: John Wisden & Co. Is. records, as given in 1894 and 1904. Ten years ago these records required from the page quaintly numbered lxx. 5 to that numbered lx x iii.; this year a space from cxxi. to cxxxviii. is required. As usual, the book contains the complete scores and analyses of all the first-class matches played during the season, a wonderfully complete list of births and deaths of well-known cricketers, an article on the public school cricket of the past year by W. J. Ford, an invaluable list of records, etc, In addition to this there is a care­ fully-thought-out article on “ School­ boys’ Bow ling ” b y F. B. Spofforth, in which the famous old Australian bowler elaborates the comments on the same subject which he made in an interview which appeared in Cricket a few months ago. Mr. D . L . A. Jephson also writes an article on the theory of playing back. The “ Five Cricketers of the Y e a r” are Mr. P. F. Warner, A. E. Knight, John Gunn, Walter Mead and C. Blythe. In his editorial notes, Mr. Pardon naturally refers again to the question of throwing, and he is perfectly justified in enjoying a quiet crow over those who have affirmed that of late years there have not been any throwers at all. For he is able to show that Thoms, the famous old umpire, was entirely of his opinion. Thus he says, “ A few weeks before his death I had a long talk with Bob Thoms, and in the course of the talk the veteran umpire said, without the least reserve, that all the prominent bowlers whose action has been called in question during the last twenty years were in his opinion throwers. I wish that Thoms, while still standing regularly in county matches had no­ balled some o f the offenders, but for some reason, he could never see his way to do so. Still, I was glad to find the last time I saw him that he did not think, in all the controversy about throwing, injustice had been done to any fair bowler.” C R IC K E T IN N E W S O U T H W A L E S . M. A. NOBLE’S X I. v. T. R. HOGUE’S NORTHERN DISTRICT X I. Played at Newcastle, N.S.W., on Oct. 21. M. A. Noble’s X I. won by one wicket and 189 runs. Trumper and E. G. Noble put on 100 runs in twenty-four minutes. M b . T. R. H ogue ’ s X I. T.R.Hogue,cTrumper, b Hopkins ..........37 N.Ripon, lbw, b Noble 6 E. Clements, not out 61 F. Donald, b Hopkins 0 Rev. P. 8. Waddy, c Duff, b M. Noble ... 81 O. Scott, b Hopkins ... 14 T. Dent, b Hopkins ... 4 H. Lott, c Noble, b Hopkins ................. 0 W. T. Dent, c McKay, b Sweetnam .......... 1 P. Fraser, not out ... 14 Extras ................. 7 Total (8 wkts)* 175 •Innings declared closed Mr. M. A. N oble ’ s X I. V. Trumper, c F. Donald, b Hogue ..65 R. A. Duff, b Maguire 0 E. G. Noble, bT. Dent 91 R. N. Hickson, not out 19 M. A. Noble, c Waddy, b Clements .......... 100 A.J.Hopkins, c Fraser, b W. T. Dent............ 17 J. R. McKay, b W. T. D en t........................ 0 D. Gee, b Maguire ... 3 J .J . Kelly, cF.Douald, b Clements .......... 33 A. M. Bweetnam, not out ........................27 G. King, not out ...22 Total (9 wkts) 364