Cricket 1905

M ay 4, 1905. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 107 laws which were discussed at the M.C.C. meeting yesterday. Mr. Chuckerup now writes to say that it does him proud to find that the points which he made have been almost unanimously adopted during the last few days by writers in the press when commenting on the objections to the alterations. O u r spring poet, who has evidently been reading the outpourings of some of the descriptive writers in the daily papers, wires from Kamscbatka (this is probably short for “ By the fireside in London ” ) as follows:— Mayday dawned in all its primogenial splendour. The wind sobbed and moaned among the branches of the trees which have already begun to burst forth in all their mysterious voluptuousness; it moaned and sobbed with such unwearying persistency as nearly to drag the lilac and the laburnum from their roots and hurl them into infinite space. On cricket grounds the very grass was almost blown out of the ground by the rejoicing breezes, which gambolled and frisked and frolicked here and there with the vivacity and sprightliness of a herd of un­ tamed elephants let loose in the golden desert. In the pavilions doors rioted in sheer excess of joy that spring had come, and the noise of their banging must have been carried to the utmost confines of Ultima Thule. In the midst of all this exuberance of joy man alone was sad and silent; he sat sneezing and disconsolate. T h e Australians have accepted the invitation of the Surrey County C.C. to dine at the Oval after the Surrey match,on Friday, May 12th. Lord Alverstone, the president of the Surrey Club, will be in the chair. An arrangement was made when the dates of Australian matches were being fixed, that the Australians should oppose the Gentlemen of England at Lord’s on May 18th, provided that a representative side could be gathered together. Failing this the match was to be against the M.C.C. It is now stated tbat there is very little doubt that the M.C.C. will be able to put a strong team of Gentlemen in the field, and among those who have promised to'play are C. B. Fry, G. L. Jest op, W. Brearley, H. Martjri, P. F. Warner, and K. S. Ranjitsinhji, if he returns to England from India in time to play. At present the team has but one bowler. -—— From the Irish Times :— In the scenic Vale of Ovoca cricket is not in a happy state. A deficit of 46s. 9d. on the previous season’s working has caused the cricket “ plant” to be forfeited until the amount be paid to the hon. sec. In the interest of local cricket we trust the detention will be brief. I n a match at Sydney between Peter­ sham second and Redfern third, four hits for five were made off consecutive balls, W. F. Eames and T. Barr each hitting two balls out of the ground. I n te r v ie w e d in New Zealand, M. A. Noble is reported to have said :— We rarely howl at a man’s stumps ; we try to “ drag” him out. We don’t think any­ thing of giving him three halls on the off to crack to the boundary so as to induce him to hit another which appears to he going to pitch in the same spot, hut which is deceptive and drops a bit short. Then if he hits at it it probably goes up. Another poiut is to leave your outfield bare, to induce a man to hit there, and then change the disposition of the field. D r. G ra ce has now completed his Gentlemen of England team which is to play the Australians at the Crystal Palace to-day (Thursday), and the eleven (which will be strong in batting and very weak in bowling) will be chosen from the following twelve:— W. G. Grace (London County), A. 0. Maclaren (Lancashire). C. B. Fry (Sussex), P. F. Warner (Middlesex), G. L. Jessop (Gloucestershire), G. W. Beldam (Middlesex), L. 0. 8. Poidevin (Lancashire), C. Robson (Hampshire), W. W. Odell (Leicestershire), W. Brearley (Lancashire), A. E. Lawton (Derbyshire), and E. II. D. Sewell (Essex). O u r brothers in Canada are nearly as great in the way of headlines as the Americans, and the Mail and Empire heralds the passing of the Australian team through Toronto as follows :— AUSTRALIAN TEAM GO THROUGH CITY. Arrive From West and Spend Hour Here. PLEASED WITH CANADA. M a y P la y G am es H ere on R e tu rn J ou rn e y — M em b ers o f T eam D escrib ed . A x . o k g article appears below these headlines, but the news which it contains is all to be found in the first paragraph, which is as follows :— The Australian cricket team, which is on its way to England, spent an hour in Toronto yesterday afternoon, arriving from the West at 3 o’clock, and leaving at 4 for Niagara Falla. A number of local cricketers met the party at the station, but the visitors’ stay was too brief to admit of more than a formal exchange of courtesies. Manager Darling said the trip through Canada had been a delightful one, and the team looked forward with pleasure to their return jour­ ney, on which games might be arranged with Canadian teams. A t the present moment the members of the Australian team must be wishing tbat they were in Melbourne to be able to eDjoy a day such as that which is described as follows by “ Felix ” in the Australasian :— The other day in the train I heard an old man say “ The doosare levy thesemornings.” But there wasn’t much of a “ doo ” about on Saturday. I reckon it one of the most oppressive days we have had this season. Nothing of autumn about it. It was stifling in the press-box, all the occupants of which were glad when the four o’ clock adjournment came. M r. H e n ry A tk in son , the Assistant Secretary of the Melbourne C.C., left Australia for England on March 29th, for a six months’ holiday. He has been in the service of the Melbourne Club for twenty-five years. R e f e r r in g to the victory of the Buenos Aires C.C. in the championship matches of the River Plate, the Review o f the River Plate says :— The championship was won by the Buenos Aires C.C.in what may truthfully he described a sensational manner. On two occasions the teamextricatedthemselvesfromwhat appeared to be utterly hopeless positions. The first time was in their first match against Hurling- ham, when they required 86 runs to win when the last man went in, H. J. Fraser and A. Williamson making the runs without a chance, a truly great performance. The second occasion was in the return match with Flores, when the last wicket put on 46 runs, after the rest of the side had been dismissed for 59, C. Wilson and J. S. Purry being the batsmen. In the last match of the season Buenos Aires again brought off a most sen­ sational victory. After making some 120 runs for the loss of five wickets, the innings was closed, leaving barely an hour to dismiss the homo team. Nine wickets were down when “ last over” was called. H. Doming was the bowler and as each ball went down tLe excitement increased. In this manner five halls went down, without the desired result, but with his sixth, a very fast yorker, he scattered the stumps. In looking back over the Buenos Aires season, says our contemporary, we have to admit that we have not noticed any startling improvement in the general form shown. The fielding, indeed, has, if possible, been worse than ever, and scarcely a match has been played in which missed catches have not had to be reported. This question of slovenly fielding is a very serious one, and one that should be taken up by the various captains. The only remedy is to drop those players out of the team who will not take the trouble to practise catching. What on earth is the use of playing a man for his batting if he is continually giving away more runs than he makes ? T h e weather seems to have been no better in the north than in the south. Hence the following paragraph in Monday’s Liverpool Daily Post :— Cricketers have experienced an early dis­ appointment. The watery visitation of Saturday—some people described it as April showers—was pretty general over the coun­ try, and consequently fixtures were abandoned wholesale. In Liverpool the disappointment was great, as several especially interesting games had been anticipated by enthusiasts for what was considered the opening of the cricket season. With so much first-class talent scattered over our district, we can ill afford to have so splendid a programme as that arranged for the various Liverpool clubs upset and disorganised, even by one “ off” Saturday. It is therefore to be hoped that the start has brought all the ill-luck, as regards weather, to begin with ; at any rate