Cricket 1904

A p r il 28, 1904. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 89 F OR BALE.— Cricket, Vole. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,16. unbound: “ Lillvwbite’sCompanion,” 1882, ’88, ’84, *85 ; “ Lillywhite’s Annual.” ’86. ’*-7, ’88, ’89. ’91; “ ’Wieden’s Almanac,” ’95. What offers.— 8 . S t o p r , B^pcbild, Bittir gtourne. T h e E ditor regrets that the pressure of scores during the summer only allows him to guarantee insertion of scores of clubs arranging for publication of all their matches. A charge o f Is. a match, w ith a minimum of 21s., is made for the insertion of scores. Odd scores are inserted at 2s. each if space permits. Scores must reach “ Cricket ” Offices, 168, Upper Thames Street, E .C ., b y first post on Tuesday follow ing the match. Cricket: A WEEKLY RECORD OF TEE GAME. 168, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C. TH U R SD AY , A PR IL 28 th , 1904. ^a\)tlton Gossip* The abstract and brief chronicle f the time.— Hamlet. T h e first-class season begins to-day (Thursday) with a match at the Crystal Palace between Surrey and London County. Dr. Grace has got together a powerful team for London County, con­ sisting of himself, W . L. Murdoch, C. B. Pry, L . O. S. Poidevin, C. J. B . Wood, Heeketh-Prichard, C. McGahey, Braund, Sewell, Yine, and Board. I n reply to an interviewer the Hon. P. S. Jackson said that he had a strong; feeling that it would be necessary for Yorkshire to have a county ground of its own, upon which young players m ight be taught and watched. The present system seemed to him hopelessly wrong. P ro­ mising players should be kept and watched and not sent out recklessly to a place where they lose any advantage they may have gained at the county practices, and where they scarcely ever bow l to a really good batsman, or get a chance of batting against a really good bowler. W it h regard to Mr. Jackson’s remark about promising young players trying their strength against really good men, there can be no doubt that many great mistakes are made in this way. A pro­ mising young bowler, for example, who if he had a really fair chance of doing himself justice m ight in the future win match after match for his county and put thousands of pounds in its coffers, is allowed to wear himself away at the nets for hours a day against men who have the most rudimentary idea of batting. The result is that he finds it is quite impossible to make experiments, and that skill is thrown away, and eventually he drifts into the mechanical club bowler, who is useless in first-class cricket. Surely it is advisable, when a really pro­ mising player is discovered, to let him economise his strength and to see that he is only allowed to bowl or bat when he is opposed to men who can extend him. A. E. J e sso p , a young professional cricketer who had only just been en­ gaged by the Granville Cricket Club, Lee, was struck over the eye by the ball when standing near the nets looking on during practice, and subsequently died from concussion on the brain. Jessop, who was only twenty-four, bad come up from the county a few days ago. I t has been found impossible to fall in with the proposal to alter the date of the cricket match at L ord’s between the M .C.C. Australian team and the Rest of England until later in the season, and it has now been decided to play the match on May 9th, 10th and 11th, always pro­ vided that a representative team can be got together for the Rest of England. I t is certainly unfortunate that this very important match cannot be played later in the season when men have had plenty of time to get into their true form. It will perhaps hardly be a great disaster if it is found impossible to arrange the match at all, for there seems a strong tendency to make it a sort of “ te s t” match, which is to prove either that the M .C.C. Australian team is stronger than the Rest of England or that it is weaker—as if cricket were a game in which luck had nothing what­ ever to do with the result. In the Daily Mail, Mr. Percy Cross Standing writes as follows :— “ Ranjit- sinhji, the famous cricketer, has shot bis first lion, a fine beast, which he after­ wards photographed. The feat was not achieved without thrilling moments.” Mr. Standing states th a t: A goat was tied to a tree in the usual way, and by a happy thought, Ranjitsinhji had a piece of string attached to one of its ears, which he jerked every time the poor animal ceased bleating. About eleven o’clock a terrific roaring was heard from the direction of the river. This -went on for about two hours. Then a large lion and lioness approached with great suddenness. 'lhe lioness promptly seized the goat ere a shot could be fired, and in five seconds had got clear away with it. The lion did not fare so well. Ranjitsinhji and the Raj-Saheb both managed to “ plug ” him, and he was seen to fall more than once as he endeavoured to rush away. Next morning we went out en masse in search of his wounded majesty. The shikaris preceded us, and several shots soon told us that they were in touch. The king was dead ! A noble beast, he was found to measure 10 feet from tip to tail. A l r e a d y one hears of matches which have been abandoned ow ing to rain, and on Saturday London County could not play Clapham at the Crystal Palace for this reason. I n the Currie Cup final between the Transvaal and Western Province, L J. Tancred, a brother of the well-known A. B. Tancred, was within a little of making tw o separate hundreds for the Transvaal, his scores being 82 and 102. Mr. P. M itchell also played for the Transvaal, and made 26 and 37. T h e Transvaal, who were the holders of the Cup, were again victorious. In the previous rounds they beat Orange River and Natal, while Western Province beat Border and Griqualand West. D u r in g the Currie Cup final the repre­ sentative at Johannesburg of the Sports­ man had a conversation with Mr. J. H . Sinclair, who said that he thinks the South African team of 1904 will stand the strain of the tour, and will be a very interesting side. Mr. Hathorn said that he considered the team to be 25 per cent, stronger than the last one. I n the final round of the Amateur Championship of Rackets H . K . Foster, the Worcestershire captain, defeated Eus­ tace Miles by 15-8, 15-5, and 15-11. On Monday Foster played E . M. Baerlein, the holder, in the championship round, and won. M r . F o st e r ’ s chief victories at rackets are as follow s:— 1892—Public Schools’ Doubles Championship with his brother, W . L. Foster. 1893-6—Inter-University Singles, for Oxford. 1893-6—Inter-University Doubles, for Oxford, with F. G. Ridgway (three times) and J. L. Johnson (once). 1894 \ 1900 >Amateur Championship. 1904) 1894—Amateur Doubles Championship with F. G. Ridgway. 1896—Amateur Doubles Championship with P. Ash­ worth. 1897—Amateur Doubles Championship with P. Ash­ worth. 1898—Amateur Doubles Championshp with W . L. Foster. 1699—Amateur Doubles Championship with P. Ash­ worth. 1903—Amateur Doubles Championship with P. Ash­ worth. 1903—Amateur Doubles Championship with B. S. Foster. T h e May number of “ C. B. P ry’8 Magazine ” contains much which is o f interest to cricketers, for while no article is devoted entirely to the game, cricket is touched upon in several ways. The editor writes about the prospects of the first-class counties, incidently saying that “ Sussex bow ling is not w eak ; that ancient Lb dies too, too hard. The field­ ing will be very good indeed. Why not r ” Incidentally, too, it is stated of the Bishop of London that he wishes to see more cricket grounds in the midst of East London’s brick and stone. G. W . Beldam, the Middlesex cricketer, discusses the prospects of prominent players in the forthcom ing amateur golf championship. Am ong the illustrations is a cartoon of P. P. Warner in the act of fielding at p o in t; there is also a snapshot of Mornington Cannon, the well-known jockey, playing cricket. Lord Hawke will be the subject of the coloured cartoon for the June number.